American College of Epidemiology

American
College of
Epidemiology

2000 Election
Biographical Sketches and Candidate Statements

ACE President-Elect
Vote for One (1)

RICHARD A. KASLOW, MD, MPH, is Professor of Epidemiology and International Health, Medicine and Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

BACKGROUND: Kaslow conducts research on genetic determinants in HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Appointed in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine and as Co-Director of the Clinical Research Training Program, he teaches the principles and practice of population research. He received his M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University and is board certified in internal medicine, infectious diseases and preventive medicine. He spent 8 years with the Centers for Disease Control and nearly 16 with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, primarily as Epidemiology and Biometry Branch Chief. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America as well as ACE, and a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the American Epidemiological Society along with numerous other professional organizations. As an ACE Board member and subsequently, Kaslow has served in various committee and liaison assignments. He was Chair of the Epidemiology Section in the American Public Health Association. He has participated in various advisory and review committees for NIH, CDC, FDA and specialty certifying boards. Other past and current research interests include nosocomial infections, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS and other infections.

STATEMENT: By promoting the interests of active professionals in our discipline, ACE complements other organizations with an epidemiologic focus. The most distinctive goal of the College is advocacy for rational, evidencebased public health decision-making in a salutary professional environment. Epidemiologists cannot contently ignore the powerful forces altering our path toward that goal: the promising explosion in molecular genetics, the proliferating forms of electronic communication, enlightened court appointment of impartial science “masters” to guide interpretation of complex population studies, legislative constraints on access to records of a populace sensitized to privacy threats, and politically motivated intrusion into technical aspects of census-taking. These developments challenge us to continue perfecting the tools and articulating the value of epidemiology; they challenge us to interact more effectively with the public, the press, and leaders in many fields beyond our discipline. ACE must generate the will and the wherewithal for our profession to convert these challenges into advantages. As president, I would eagerly join the College leadership in guiding intensified advocacy efforts as we further enrich the annual meeting program, enhance the impact of the Annals, expand our continuing education activities, and refine our standards of practice.

DIXIE E. SNIDER, JR., M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Director for Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is an adjunct faculty member at the Emory University School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Snider received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1965 from Western Kentucky University and graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1969 with highest honors. He is board certified in internal medicine, immunology, and preventive medicine. His interest in epidemiology began when he joined the CDC in 1973. He has spent much of his career conducting and publishing epidemiological studies on tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases. From 1976 until 1985, he was Chief, Research and Development Branch in the Division of Tuberculosis Control, and, from 1985 until 1992, he was the Director of the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. In 1992, he was appointed Associate Director for Science in the National Center for Prevention Services. He has been the Associate Director for Science at CDC since 1995. In his current position, Snider reviews and approves, on behalf of the agency, all major scientific publications, such as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, advisory committee recommendations, and reports prepared for the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Surgeon General. He supervises the National Vaccine Program Office, the Technology Transfer Office, and the Office of Human Subjects Protections. In his current role, he deals with a broad range of content, methodologic and policy issues of concern to epidemiology. For example, during the past year, he has been involved in 1) assessing methods for evaluating diagnostic tests, 2) assessing the potential health effects of mercury in vaccines, 3) assessing the association between rotavirus vaccine and intussusception, 4) developing privacy regulations for health care providers, and 5) the ethics of international research.

STATEMENT: Serving on the Board of Directors for the College during the past five years, I have come to see how special and important the College is, and will continue to be, for serving epidemiology and epidemiologists in the future. The College should continue to support the field and its practitioners by not only addressing interesting content areas and methodologic issues, but policy issues and ethical issues as well. Epidemiology and epidemiologists need an organization which will serve as an advocate for their needs and interests. The College is in a unique position to be that organization and should market itself as serving in that role. This may help the College to grow a bit larger which it needs to do to better serve its members and the field. In addition, the College should explore what new opportunities and challenges have resulted from the major changes in the organization and delivery of health care and the increasing role of industry in sponsoring research. The College should continue to partner with other professional societies to further the goals and values of the profession. I believe that my experiences on the Board and my experiences on the job have prepared me to serve as President of the College.

Board of Directors
Vote for Three (4)

AARON BLAIR, PH.D., M.P.H., is Chief of the Occupational Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute.

BACKGROUND: Blair has a Ph.D. in genetics from North Carolina State University and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. He has been at the National Cancer Institute since 1976 and Chief of the occupational unit since 1980. His research as focused on the cancer risks among farmers and other groups exposed to pesticides, among workers exposed to organic solvents and other important industrial chemicals include formaldehyde and acrylonitrile, and methodologic issues in occupational epidemiology included procedures for developing quantitative exposure estimates and the impact of misclassification on risk estimates. Recently he has worked to encourage investigations of occupational exposures among women and among disadvantaged groups such as migrant farm workers. Blair has received the NIH Director’s Award, the PHS Special Recognition Award, and the H.A. Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award from the UNC School of Public Health. He is a fellow in ACE and a member of the American Epidemiological Society.

STATEMENT: Epidemiology is critical to understanding the disease process and to improving the health of our citizens. The wide reporting of epidemiologic results in the press is do. This often, however, brings intense public scrutiny and many difficult philosophical issues. Our discipline needs an advocate and the College continues to expand its role in this area. For continued success, the College needs renewed efforts by current members, as well as an expansion of our membership base to bring fresh ideas from a broader constituency of our discipline. As a member of the Board of Directors I will work energetically toward achieving these goals.

 

RUSSELL V. LUEPKER, MD, MS, is Professor and Head of the Division of Epidemiology of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Luepker earned a B.A. in history from Grinnell College, an MD from the University of Rochester and an MS in epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health. He is also trained in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. Since finishing his training, Dr. Luepker served on the faculty of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. He became Head of the Division of Epidemiology in 1991. Dr. Luepker became a member of the College at its founding. His principal scientific interests are in the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. With consistent NIH funding for over 20 years he has focused on health behaviors in youth, community-wide prevention programs and disease surveillance. Dr. Luepker has served as a consultant and has active research programs in many countries around the world. He is former Chair of the Study Section EDC-I and has served in numerous other NIH positions. He is active in the American Heart Associations Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, where he is former Chair. He is also active in the European Society of Cardiology and is an Officer in the World Heart Federation. Dr. Luepker is widely published with over 300 articles, book chapters and books in the literature. He serves on the editorial boards of five journals.

STATEMENT: I believe I would bring broad experience in epidemiology and public health to the board including a vision for the field, experience in public health policy and leadership roles in other national and international professional organizations. I believe that the College serves the professional community in several important ways. Those include setting professional standards, advocating for the field of epidemiology and advocating for public health. To be effective in those areas, the College must both be well managed and continue to grow. This requires a sound financial base and commitment of the membership to these goals. I believe I can contribute in all of these areas based on my interests, background and experience.

 

SHARON P. COOPER, Ph.D, is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Cooper obtained her Masters degree in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health in 1976, and her doctorate in Epidemiology from The University of Texas School of Public Health in 1982. She is an occupational epidemiologist whose major research focus has been on surveillance of occupational illnesses and injuries, and assessment of occupational exposures and their relation to cancer and injuries. She is also interested in research in minority working populations, particularly migrant farmworkers, and in child and adolescent workers. During 1992, she was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston Health Law and Policy Institute to direct a study, funded by the Texas Legislature, to determine the magnitude and economic costs of occupational injury and illness in Texas. She has been active with the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association (Secretary, 1995-1997), and the American College of Epidemiology (Awards Committee, 1995-1998).

STATEMENT: The American College of Epidemiology is impressive in its promotion of the theory and practice of epidemiology, the development and endorsement of policies related to our field, and endorsing minority participation and advancement. Much of this work is only a beginning and needs continued nurturing and development. As an ACE Board member, I would continue to develop and enhance the College’s efforts to attract and retain new members, to increase minority recruitment into epidemiology, and to articulate and address ethical issues related to epidemiologic research, particularly when studying minority populations. I would also encourage a dialogue among members of the College on curriculum development in epidemiology, particularly at the doctoral level, and work to develop better ways to communicate epidemiologic findings to the lay public, press, and other scientific groups. Finally, as a member of the American College of Epidemiology Board of Directors, I would like to work with the other major epidemiologic professional societies to focus and enhance the unique contributions of the College while collaborating on crosscutting issues, that will be highlighted and advanced through the joint meeting of these groups to be held in Toronto, Canada in 2001.

 

MARLENE B. GOLDMAN, Sc.D. is Principal Research Scientist and Director, Institute for Research on Women’s Health, New England Research Institutes

BACKGROUND: Goldman earned master’s and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to joining NERI, she was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard where she taught epidemiologic principles and methods and developed a program in reproductive epidemiology. Trained as a chronic disease epidemiologist, she has twenty-eight years of experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of epidemiologic studies. Her research interests include the influence of environmental, occupational, and lifestyle factors on reproduction and the health consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation. Goldman designed and co-edited Women and Health, a 100-chapter epidemiology textbook on women’s health published by Academic Press. The book won the 1999 Award of Excellence in Medical Science from the Association of American Publishers. As an active member of ACE, she has been on the Program Planning Committee for the last two years and is a member of the Continuing Education Committee. From 1996 to 1999 she was an Epidemiology Section Councilor and is currently a Governing Councilor for APHA. Goldman is an associate editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and a member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Epidemiologic Research.

STATEMENT: During the past few years, as I have participated in the development of the program for the annual meetings, I have been impressed by the depth and breadth of epidemiology as a discipline and by the diverse interests of my fellow epidemiologists. Such diversity is crucial to maintaining the strength and vibrancy of epidemiology as a profession. The College plays a significant role in furthering this diversity in a way that brings innovation and energy to policy issues in which epidemiology can play an important role. As a Board member I would work to ensure that epidemiologists with a wide range of backgrounds and interests are actively engaged in College activities and continue my commitment to advancing scientific research through encouraging new investigators, facing the challenges of developing meaningful health policies, particularly with regard to women’s health, and addressing diversity in our profession.

 

CAMARA PHYLLIS JONES, MD, MPH, PHD, is Assistant Professor of Health and Social Behavior and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Jones is a methodologist and social epidemiologist whose work focuses on the impacts of racism on health. She received her B.A. in Molecular Biology from Wellesley College, her MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine, and her MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She has completed residencies in both Family Practice and General Preventive Medicine. Jones' detailed analysis of systolic blood pressure by "race" suggests that the cardiovascular aging of black Americans is accelerated compared to that of white Americans by roughly ten years.

She is developing explicit measures of racism to further explore the basis of this accelerated aging. Jones has also developed new statistical methods for simultaneously comparing the shapes, spreads, and locations of two distributions.These methods enable a population approach to data analysis in which the whole distribution, not simply the average value or the proportion of values beyond some threshold, becomes the object of study. From January through September, 1999, Jones was based at the Ministry of Health in Wellington, New Zealand as an Ian Axford Fellow in Public Policy. There, she researched the question, "Maori-Pakeha Health Disparities: Can Treaty Settlements Reverse the Impacts of Racism?" Jones first served the American College of Epidemiology as a liaison from the Society for Epidemiologic Research to the College's Minority Affairs Committee. At the 1999 annual meeting of the College, Jones was one of the two plenary debaters speaking in favor of the motion, "Epidemiologists should engage in public health policy." Jones currently serves on the Board of Directors of both the Cambridge Public Health Commission and the National Black Women's Health Project.

STATEMENT: Given the current Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health by the Year 2010, it is essential that epidemiologists vigorously investigate the basis of the disparities that we document so routinely. This will require asking new questions and involving new investigators. I look forward to contributing my energy, creativity, and broad perspective to the College as we seek to broaden our membership and extend our sphere of professional influence.

 

YOULIAN LIAO, MD, is Associate Professor of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology of the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Liao is a cardiologist from China. He attended medical school and then practiced medicine prior to coming to the United States in 1983. From 1983 through 1986, he received postgraduate training in epidemiology, biostatistics and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, where he developed a particular interest in cardiovascular epidemiology. He developed his interest in epidemology both through fieldwork and through analysis of data. He has field experience in large epidemiologic studies both in the US and abroad; and is widely published in cardiovascular and other epidemiological areas. Liao has served as Principal Investigator for several NIH-funded studies and served as reviewer for many medical and epidemiological journals. His most recent research interests include vital statistics, ethnicity and aging.

STATEMENT: We need to continually work to increase the recognition of ACE by government, industry, and academia. ACE should stress its role in the maintenance and encouragement of professional standards through continuing education and through the development of policies, guidelines, and statements of principle. For example, ACE can and should assume a greater role in promoting the adherence by epidemiologists of the highest scientific standards in researching and reporting results. The publication of both positive and negative research findings is important. All research findings and other information important to public health should be communicated in a timely, understandable, and responsible manner so that the widest possible community stands to benefit. I hope to bring my broad experience both in clinical and epidemiological research to ACE.

 

CARLOS A. CAMARGO, MD, DrPH, is a Research Epidemiologist at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Emergency Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital; and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

BACKGROUND: Dr Camargo’s interest in epidemiology began in college when he led several alcohol studies at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention. He later received an MPH in epidemiology from UC Berkeley, an MD from UC San Francisco, and did his residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He then did a research fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and earned a DrPH in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Currently, Dr Camargo works clinically in an urban emergency department, and has focused his research on asthma/COPD. He serves as PI of the Multicenter Airway Research Collaboration (MARC), a network of >100 North American emergency departments (http://healthcare.partners.org/marc). MARC has provided unique data on asthma among minority populations, and led to the creation of a new network focusing on patient advocacy issues and how to increase timely access to primary care. Dr Camargo also is PI of several large cohort studies looking at risk factors for asthma/COPD in approximately 350,000 men and women. Dr Camargo’s work is funded by grants from the NIH, industry, and private foundations (e.g., EMF Center of Excellence Award). He is an active contributor to the scientific literature, editorial board member, and performs peer review for more than a dozen journals. He is a member of the Cochrane Collaboration, and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) Coordinating Committee.

STATEMENT: If elected to the Board, I would focus my efforts on two objectives from the 1996 Strategic Plan: 1) to advocate policies and actions that enhance the science and practice of epidemiology, and 2) to develop and maintain a vital membership base representative of all aspects of epidemiology. I believe that my epidemiologic research and clinical work place me in an excellent position to promote our specialty to outside groups. In recent months, I have testified on epidemiologic topics to the US Senate and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; local efforts include leadership roles in a community-based asthma coalition, in several multidisciplinary “quality improvement” initiatives, as well as in more traditional academic activities. I would welcome the opportunity to dedicate myself to the much broader legislative/policy issues that affect the profession (e.g., the medical records and patient privacy regulation proposals). I am interested in creating a mechanism for providing expert epidemiologic opinion on public health issues through ad hoc scientific review panels. With regard to the second objective, I believe that my organizational and fund-raising skills would be of service to the College. I would pursue links with other organizations to increase membership and to more effectively disseminate policies of importance to epidemiologists. If elected, I would work to create more attractive opportunities for members to work with the Board in promoting our specialty.

 

VICKIE M. MAYS, PH.D., is a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her areas of expertise include the conduct of epidemiologic studies of behavioral risk factors for HIV infection in women and ethnic minorities, investigation of risk and protective factors in the health status, health behaviors and access to health care of poor and low income women and ethnic minorities. Dr. Mays is nominated for her first term as member of the Board.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Mays received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She's been on the faculty of UCLA since 1979 and currently services as the Immediate Past Chair of the Faculty Senate. She was a National Center for Health Services Fellow at RAND Health Policy Program and UCLA's School of Public Health. Dr. Mays served as the second President of the Society for the Analysis of African American Public Health Issues, a three year term on the Minority Affairs Committee of ACE and is currently the Chair, She served a two year term as a member of the Governing Council of the Epidemiology Section of APHA. In additional she has served as a guest editor for several journals, conference chair for 3 interdisciplinary meetings on women's health, and served a term as a member of the NIH Study Section on Epidemiology and Special Populations. Dr. Mays is a member of many other professional societies, including APHA, Drug Information Association, American Psychological Association, Sigma Xi, International AIDS Society and other professional societies related to public health.

STATEMENT: ACE occupies an unique and important position among epidemiologic societies with its foci on providing a voice for its members on policy issues of importance to epidemiologists and the field of epidemiology and its' coalition building among the various epidemiology organizations. There are a number of ethical issues that continue to arise in the field of public health and epidemiology that are critical in particular to the participation of ethnic minorities in epidemiological studies. President Clinton has directed DHHS to increase the skills of public health researchers in identifying and addressing the ethical issues of their human subject research. ACE with its leadership in coordinating activities with the other epidemiologic societies and its focus on ethics and diversity can assume a leadership and advocacy role in educating Congress and lawmakers about the best practice policies for the collection of race/ethnicity/socioeconomic status/sexual orientation/social status and the use of epidemiologic data that will provide a solid scientific basis for the dentification and development of effective health interventions within medicine and public health. In order to effectively accomplish this goal our science should be based in sound methodological, statistical and theoretical rigor that can provide insights to many of the current debates such as the relationships among race, genetics, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, social class, sexual orientation, and health status.