CAROL J. ROWLAND HOGUE, Ph.D, MPH, is the Terry Professor of Maternal and Child Health and Professor of Epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

BACKGROUND: Hogue conducts research on disparities in women's and infants' health. She received her MPH and PhD in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and subsequently was Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at UNC (1974-77). She was a member of the Biometry faculty at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Assistant then Associate Professor, 1977-82) and consultant to the National Center for Toxicologic Research. In 1982, she went to the Centers for Disease Control, where she was Chief of the Pregnancy and Infant Health Branch (1982-88) and Director of the Division of Reproductive Health (1988-92) in the National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, prior to returning to academia in 1992 in her present position at Emory University. During her tenure at CDC, she helped establish both national birth/death record linkage analysis and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), as well as to maintain abortion surveillance. Hogue served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Unintended Pregnancy, several National Institutes of Health committees and sits on several editorial boards, including the Journal of the National Medical Women’s Association. She has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Latin American Perinatal Center. Hogue is a founding fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, has served on its membership and education committees, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors. She has been president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, Chair of the MCH Council for the Association of Schools of Public Health, is a fellow of the American Epidemiological Society, and a member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service alumni association.

STATEMENT: From its founding, ACE has viewed its mission as forwarding the epidemiology profession. This unique role has gained in importance each year, particularly since the emergence of technological advances and parallel patient confidentiality and consent concerns threaten epidemiologists' ability to carry out our work. In 1996, ACE articulated four strategic goals: "1) Advocating for policies and actions that enhance the science and practice of epidemiology; 2) Promoting the professional development of epidemiologists through educational initiatives; 3) Promoting recognition of excellence in epidemiology; 4) Developing and maintaining a vital membership base of both Fellows and Members representing all aspects of epidemiology." I believe that ACE has done much towards achieving these goals. With respect to the first goal, our Policy Committee examines issues, such as the impact of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and provides position papers that are used to effect policy. Our Communications Committee maintains a well-used web site to inform not only our membership but also the broader community of these concerns. In pursuing the second goal, we have developed a popular series of professional workshops that are offered in conjunction with our annual meeting and the annual meeting of the SER. These are major tasks, assumed mainly by busy volunteers. However, we could be doing more to pursue these goals. To advocate better, within the context of a rapidly expanding universe of issues, we need to gain the ability to be proactive as well as reactive. To promote professional development throughout our profession, we need to establish active collaboration with relevant bodies, such as the Epidemiology Council of the Association of Schools of Public Health and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. Our Committee on Minority Affairs has realized that if epidemiology is to attain the goal of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity at all levels, we need to inform and inspire students at the primary and secondary levels of education as well as college and graduate school. We know how to accomplish these goals. What we lack is an adequate financial base. The Board of Directors has begun to discuss ways to increase our discretionary funds through developing targeted, extramural support. I would like to further this discussion, and, as a first step, move in the direction of obtaining funds for a major initiative to reduce racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in knowledge about and interest in epidemiology.

ROGER H. BERNIER, Ph.D, MPH, is Associate Director for Science, National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (full time) and Editor, The Epidemiology Monitor (part time).

BACKGROUND: Bernier received a BA degree in 1966 from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, an MPH from Yale University in 1974, and a PhD in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1978. He began working for CDC immediately after undergraduate school with assignments to the Venereal Disease Program in New York City and to the Smallpox Eradication and Measles Control program in Niger, West Africa. Following these public health field assignments and his subsequent academic training in epidemiology, Bernier rejoined CDC as part of CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. He started in the National Immunization Program where he has remained as a staff epidemiologist, then as Chief of the Epidemiologic Research Section, and most recently as Associate Director for Science. Bernier’s career has focused on epidemiologic studies of the safety and efficacy of new and existing vaccines, factors linked to vaccine coverage and improving vaccination coverage levels, and assessments of controversial hypotheses about vaccine safety. In his present position, Bernier is responsible for assuring the quality of the scientific work carried out by scientists in the National Immunization Program. As the senior scientific advisor to the Director of the program, he addresses a broad range of scientific, methodologic, and science-related policy issues. Most recently, he helped lead the Public Health Service’s initial assessment and wrote the HHS policy statement on the controversy surrounding the relationship between thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines, and neurodevelopmental health effects. He has also envisioned and helped create a new type of committee within the Institute of Medicine that will be providing ongoing reviews of vaccine safety issues of widespread public concern. Bernier has received honors and awards for his work over the years and he is currently a member of several epidemiology associations (ACE, AES, APHA, IEA, ISEE, ISPE, and SER).

STATEMENT: I have been a member of the College since the beginning when Dwight Janerich persuaded me to join because it would be the only organization committed to addressing the issues of vital interest to the profession. Early in the history of the College, I served on a committee headed by Phil Brachman to help define the niche that the College could fill. One of the most promising developments in the epidemiology community over the last few years has been the annual meeting program of the College. Under the leadership of Dale Sandler and other officers of the College, the meeting program has been the most interesting and useful of all the association programs. It has revealed a connectedness with real world issues that I have found refreshing and reassuring. However, I believe that the College has lived up to only a fraction of the early vision some of us had for a professionally active association. For these reasons, I welcome the invitation to run for office in the College. I believe the timing could be right to add my convictions about the need for a more active College to the momentum already under way within the leadership of the College. If elected I pledge to help create a College that more completely fulfills a vision of being relevant to its members and helping its members as a group to be more relevant to society.

MARIANNE BERWICK, Ph.D., is an Associate Attending Epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Berwick received her Master’s in Public Health from Yale University Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, for work conducted in Nigeria isolating dengue virus. Subsequently, she received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at Yale University. She has conducted research in melanoma (genetic risk and secondary prevention), soft tissue sarcoma (genetic risk factors), Fanconi Anemia (risk of cancer among heterozygotes) and DNA repair (genotypephenotype understanding). She is currently a course organizer of the International Molecular Epidemiology Course sponsored by IARC/ISI/AACR-MEG and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Dermato-Epidemiology Association. She has served on numerous review committees (NIH/NCI, DOD, NCIC, Italian Minister of University Research on Science and Technology Grants) and presented her work at various international fora.

STATEMENT: It is my view that epidemiology can be both a tool to improve the public health of all nations as well as a discipline within which we can obtain insights as to the mechanism of disease. I think that it is important to work through organizations such as ACE to influence public policies that threaten the integrity of epidemiology. I would like to add my energy into the American College of Epidemiology’s programs of mentorship and the public’s understanding of risk.

BETSY FOXMAN, Ph.D., is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases (MAC-EPID) at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Foxman is a molecular epidemiologist whose interest is in the transmission, evolution and pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Her research focuses on highly prevalent, multi-agent infectious diseases with an acute, chronically recurring nature. She has ongoing studies of urinary tract infection, vulvo-vaginal candidiasis, otitis media and group B streptococcus. Foxman earned Masters' and doctoral degrees in Epidemiology from the University of California Los Angeles. She has been on the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan since 1987. In 1996, she was elected a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America. She is founding director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases (MAC-EPID). She has served as section councilor and as chair of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Epidemiology Section. She was one of the APHA representatives on the program planning committee for the 2001 North American Congress of Epidemiology, and organized and chaired a meeting of the leadership of 16 epidemiology societies held in conjunction with the Congress. Foxman has been principal investigator on several NIH grants, is an associate editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and serves on the editorial board of the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGE Net). She also serves on the executive board of the Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction (MARR) coalition, a community- based coalition whose mission is to decrease inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents and antimicrobial resistance rates through the collaborative efforts of academic, community, government, and industry partners.

STATEMENT: As an ACE Board Member I would 1) build on ACE efforts to increase collaborative ties between the many epidemiology societies worldwide; 2) seek to increase opportunities for student involvement, and obtain funding to support student participation in meetings; and 3) enhance the interface between epidemiology and public policy.

ROSANNE B. MCTYRE, Ph.D. heads the epidemiology and biostatistics practice at THE WEINBERG GROUP INC., a scientific consulting firm in Washington, DC.

BACKGROUND: Dr. McTyre received a B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College, an M.P.H. from Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health in infectious disease epidemiology, and a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in chronic disease epidemiology. During the last 20 years she has served as a consultant both for government and private clients on a wide variety of subject areas including environmental/occupational exposures, health care products, implanted medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Dr. McTyre is an active member of the Society for Epidemiology Research and the American College of Epidemiology. She is presently completing a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the American College of Epidemiology, and serves as Co-Chair of the Education Committee. She is a past member of the Ethics and Standards of Practice Committee, where she participated in the writing of ethics guidelines for the College.

STATEMENT: I am excited about the possibility of continuing to work with some of today's leaders in epidemiology in an effort to make the College a strong advocate for epidemiologists in North America. Having worked in private consulting for the last 13 years, I appreciate how the discipline has changed over time, as we continue to be held more accountable and responsible for the studies we conduct. We must continue to restore the vision of epidemiology as a scientific discipline that can be trusted. One of the ways to do this is to work to make the College strong and responsive. We need support from an organization such as ACE not only in our efforts to perform the best science possible, but also to explain, stand behind, and defend our studies once findings are published and are disseminated. Working on the Board is one way in which I believe I can make a difference. I am deeply committed to continuing education and the professional development of epidemiologists, whether they are just starting their careers or have been practicing for many years. During the past 3 years, I have devoted many hours to help plan successful annual meetings. My most important contribution has been in the planning of the ACEsponsored pre-meeting workshops both for SER and the ACE annual meetings. The success of these workshops can be measured by the unprecedented attendance attained at this year’s first Congress of Epidemiology pre-meeting courses. I would like to have the opportunity to continue this work on the Board for an additional three years, while making sure that my successor is properly trained to take over this job at the end of my term.

PAULINE MENDOLA, Ph.D. is an Epidemiologist at the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Mendola’s primary research interest is environmental factors that influence reproductive and perinatal health outcomes. Current research projects include reproductive and adverse birth outcome risk associated with drinking water contaminants and the potential health effects associated with pesticide exposures in preschool children. Her dissertation research on the risk of fetal death associated with women consuming contaminated sport fish was honored with the ACE Student Prize Paper Award in 1994.