Affiliate Specialist Program |
Donna Ricketts-Ajike Ms. Ricketts-Ajike has 12 years of professional experience designing health and wellness programs for women, children and minorities. She has expertise in curriculum development and outreach to minority communities and is well versed in a range of health and wellness content areas. She possesses significant experience promoting childhood health and wellness via development and implementation of health and wellness curriculum, workshops, and community outreach/ and organizing. Ms. Ricketts-Ajike has worked with schools, communities and non-profit organizations developing, leading and organizing wellness activities, programs and policies to improve the health of families and communities. She also provides strategic planning, marketing, team building and staff development. Ms. Ricketts-Ajike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology - Exercise, Nutrition and Wellness, from California State University, Hayward and is a candidate for M.P.H. with a emphasis in Maternal and Child Nutrition, San Jose State University Fall 2007. Ms. Ricketts-Ajike assists with field research activities as well as outreach design and implementation. Karen Kunze Ms. Kunze is an affiliate specialist with extensive expertise in mental health billing, contracts, business management, and state and federal reporting requirements. She served as a senior business manager at Bonita House (an Alameda County non-profit provider of mental health services) for over ten years. She also possesses property management and development expertise, having negotiated Shelter Plus Care contracts in Berkeley and Alameda County. Jeff Pector Mr. Pector, an affiliate specialist, brings over twenty years of experience with database design to our team. Gibson & Associates typically contracts with Mr. Pector to design Access databases to code and analyze qualitative data. Mr. Pector designed the database that was used to analyze community input from under-served groups for the San Mateo County Mental Health Services Act planning process. This database allowed researchers and the client to sort data by ethnicity, age, region, and a number of other variables. Sandra Meucci, PhD Dr. Meucci served as the Senior Associate for the Community Research and Evaluation Team at Gibson & Associates for five years and continues to work as an affiliate specialist for a range of project. For twenty-five years, Sandra Meucci developed and evaluated youth services and programs. Her academic work as a Sociologist is focused on youth policy and her experience as a program and agency director, has been in piloting research-based models of youth services. Early in her career she successfully developed a community-based residential service system in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for multiply handicapped children living in institutional environments. This required fostering agreements with medical, social service, vocational, academic, and community-based institutions to treat and provide for these exceptionally vulnerable children. This work was on the forefront of the 1970s social movement to reintegrate institutionalized handicapped people into the fabric of community life. During this time Sandra Meucci became certified through Syracuse University to evaluate human service programs and she consulted with several state Directors of Health and Human Services to set up statewide systems of community re-integration services. In California Sandra again designed and piloted innovative models of youth services, as part of the planning project for the California Wellness Foundation (described earlier). She subsequently worked for years in stride with the public health movement in California to change social norms around tobacco use among youth. California is, of course, on the cutting edge of the public health campaign, which has succeeded in substantially reducing tobacco use and has documented major improvements in heart and lung disease prevalence as a result. With a grant from the California Department of Health Services, Sandra designed and implemented a model of involving youth (middle school and college-aged youth) in enacting policies and practices regarding tobacco use Constance Milbrath, PhD Dr. Milbrath is a research psychologist with over twenty years experience as a senior public health researcher. She has served as a principal investigator on National Institutes of Health-funded studies on adolescent health and coping. She has served as adjunct faculty at the University of California San Francisco, and visiting faculty at UC Santa Cruz and Stanford University. Dr. Milbrath currently serves as a senior researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She possesses extensive expertise in quantitative and qualitative analysis and research areas include: adolescent health and sexuality, cultural issues in public health, developmental psychology and coping. Dr. Milbrath provides consultation related to quantitative evaluation design and methodologies. Jesus Verduzco, MA Mr. Verduzco has five years experience facilitating community capacity building, implementing local and regional planning efforts, and developing social marketing campaigns with under-served communities across the Bay Area. He possesses a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and has served as a planning consultant to the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, School Health Services Coalition for the past two years. In this capacity, Mr. Verduzco has assisted with the design and implementation of a regional adolescent health and wellness project in the Tri-Valley area. He also currently manages the Latino Community Preparedness Program at the American Red Cross and has been responsible for developing and disseminating social marketing and community capacity building activities in seven Bay Area Counties to Latino communities. Mr. Verduzco possesses corporate training in media relations and is bilingual in Spanish. Content Expert Affiliate Specialists Our many years working with communities to strengthen supports for children, families and under-served communities has allowed us to build a strong and thriving network of affiliate specialists who are locally and nationally renowned experts in the areas of health and fitness, childcare and school readiness, substance abuse prevention, and poverty reduction. For this project, we have received commitment from the following experts to provide consultation to each of the task forces: Manal Aboelata, MPH Manal J. Aboelata, Program Director at the Prevention Institute, is an advocate for public health and the elimination of health disparities. Ms. Aboelata works to improve community well-being and public health practice by developing new tools, promoting effective strategies and providing technical assistance to community based agencies, foundations and local governments. Ms. Aboelata’s work emphasizes policy and community based strategies to improve access to healthy foods, prevent injuries and promote safe physical activity. Under the auspices of the Health Funder’s Partnership of Orange County’s Community Advocacy Initiative to Prevent Type II Diabetes, she has provided consultation and technical assistance to 6 community collaboratives in Orange County to assist in efforts to advance local policy and advocate for healthier eating and physical activity opportunities. In 2003 Ms. Aboelata worked with the University of Irvine to lead two leadership sessions to build the capacity of Orange County youth to prevent injuries and promote traffic safety. She currently provides staffing and coordination to Strategic Alliance for Healthy Eating and Activity Environments, oversees the development of a Nutrition and Activity Local Policy Database, and is directing a national mapping project to identify key hubs of social and political activism to reverse health inequities. She is principle author of The Built Environment and Health: 11 Profiles of Neighborhood Transformation. In 2004 Ms. Aboelata was certified by the California Department of Health Services and CalTrans as a California Walkability Expert. She currently serves on the Governing Council for the Southern California Public Health Association. Ms. Aboelata received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in American Studies with an emphasis in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley and obtained her Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology, from the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles. She will provide content expertise to the Health and Fitness Task Force. Kristen Anderson, Ph.D. Dr. Anderson is a child care planner, coordinator and consultant who has developed child care policies and strategies for public and private agencies. As child care coordinator for Redwood City, California for over 20 years, she has facilitated supply-building and quality improvements in community child care and early education programs and facilities. She is the author of Planning for Child Care in California (Solano Press Books, 2006). She has been involved with the development and roll-out of San Mateo County’s Preschool for All pilot project, and has worked with the Local Investment in Child Care Project in San Mateo County for a decade. Kristen is an experienced preschool and child care teacher, parent of three sons, and college instructor, and she holds a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford and a Master’s degree in Child Development. Bonnie Benard, MSW For over 20 years, Ms. Benard has brought the concept of resilience to the attention of national and international audiences. She is currently a Senior Program Associate in WestEd’s Health & Human Development Program in Oakland, CA. She writes widely, leads professional development, and makes presentations in the field of prevention and resilience/youth development theory, policy, and practice. Her 1991 WestEd publication, Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community, is credited with introducing resiliency theory and application to the fields of prevention and education. Her most recent publication, Resiliency: What We Have Learned (2004), synthesizes a decade and more of resiliency research and describes what application of the research looks like in our most successful efforts to support young people. Benard’s work in resilience has also led to the development of the California Department of Education's Healthy Kids Survey's Resilience and Youth Development Module, which surveys students throughout California and elsewhere on their perceptions of supports and opportunities in their schools, homes, communities, and peer groups. Larry Cohen Prevention Institute founder and Executive Director, Mr. Cohen has been an advocate for public health and prevention since 1972. He formed the first coalition in the nation to change tobacco policy, helped catalyze the nation's food labeling law, and helped shape strategy to secure passage of bicycle and motorcycle helmet laws, strengthen child and adult passenger restraint laws, and establish fluoridation requirements in California. Mr. Cohen developed the Spectrum of Prevention as a tool to promote health through public policy and continues to promote the understanding and utility of primary prevention. He has developed a unique approach to health equity and has produced numerous resources on the topic, including: the California Health Department’s state-wide strategy, The California Campaign to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health, co-chaired by the American Public Health Association, the California Health and Human Services Agency, and staffed by Prevention Institute; and THRIVE (Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments), an interactive web tool to help communities understand and prioritize factors in the environment that impact health disparities. Mr. Cohen writes and trains nationally on nutrition and physical activity environments, including The Built Environment and Health: 11 Profiles of Neighborhood Transformation, a set of 11 program profiles focused on low-income communities that highlight neighborhood-level changes to the built environment that can have a positive influence on the health of community residents. Under his leadership, Prevention Institute facilitates Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a California statewide coalition working to promote healthy eating and activity. In addition, Prevention Institute has developed tools to help community members work locally to make healthy eating and regular activity a realistic option for everyone, including the Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool (ENACT) and the ENACT Local Policy Database, which catalogues promising local policies that can used as catalysts for advancing policy in other locales, and at the state and federal levels. Mr. Cohen is the co-editor of Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Wellbeing, an academic text with a unique focus on prevention, published in March 2007 by Jossey-Bass/Wiley and co-publisher, The American Public Health Association. Mr. Cohen is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary's Award for Health Promotion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. James Kooler, PhD As the Administrator for the California Friday Night Live Partnership, Dr. Kooler provides leadership and support to 54 county Friday Night Live programs. From his office at the Tulare County Office of Education, with support from the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and the Office of Traffic Safety, he leads the implementation of Friday Night Live, Club Live, Friday Night Live Kids, Friday Night Live Mentoring and the California Youth Council. He is a strong ally to young people and has worked in the prevention field for almost 20 years. He previously was the Director of the Governor’s Mentoring Partnership and Deputy Director for the Prevention Services Division at the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. He will provide content area expertise to the Underage Drinking Task Force. Sean Slade, M.Ed. Mr. Slade has over 18 years of experience in the education field. Currently a Research Associate managing the Oakland office of the California Healthy Kids Survey, he has been involved with a number of other Health and Human Development projects at WestEd, including the California Student Survey, California Tobacco Student Survey, California's Pupil Nutrition Act Evaluation Study, San Mateo Obesity Project, Dairy Council Nutrition Project, and the Career Technology Education Study. Prior to relocating to the US he was the Senior Education Officer for the NSW Department of Education and Training in Australia, providing professional development and overseeing Drug Education implementation in all of Sydney's public schools. He has worked as a Curriculum Developer, Head of Department (Physical Education), and a teacher, with a background that encompasses 4 continents and 5 countries. Sean holds a Masters Degree in Education, from the University of South Australia and has published educational articles in the US and Australia. Kevin Fong, Founder & Principal of Kevin Fong: Organizational Design, Affiliate Specialist for Gibson & Associates Mr. Fong is the founder and principal of Kevin Fong: Organizational Design, a consulting firm that utilizes Eastern traditions and philosophies along with conventional management and leadership theories to design ... |