Childrens Environmental Health Series 2021

Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA is the Founder and CEO of BayouClinic, and was the 18th United States Surgeon General (2009-2013). As America’s Doctor, she provided the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. Dr. Benjamin also oversaw the operational command of 6,500 uniformed public health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote and protect the health of the American people. As chair of the National Prevention Council – 17 cabinet-level federal agency heads, she led the development of the National Prevention Strategy: America’s Plan for Better Health and Wellness.

Dr. Benjamin specializes in prevention policies and health promotion among individuals as well as large populations, especially concerning obesity, childhood obesity, and children’s health. She has a special interest in rural health care, health disparities among socio-economic groups, suicide, violence, and mental health.

From her early days as the founder of a rural health clinic in Alabama to her leadership role in the worldwide advancement of preventive health, Dr. Regina Benjamin has forged a career that has been recognized by a broad spectrum of organizations and publications. In 1995, she was the first physician under the age of 40 and the first African American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. Other past board memberships include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Family Foundation Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health Association, and Morehouse School of Medicine.

Dr. Benjamin advises or consults with various growth companies, including technology and healthcare. She currently serves on the boards of Kaiser Hospitals and Health Plan; Ascension; ConvaTec PLC; Computer Technology Systems Inc (CPSI); and the American Heart Association. Dr. Benjamin is one of the task members of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Behavioral Health Integration Task Force that calls for the integration of primary care, mental health, and substance use services.

Dr. Benjamin is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She has been chosen as a Kellogg National Fellow and Rockefeller Next Generation Leader.

In 1998, Dr. Benjamin was the United States recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She received the 2000 National Caring Award, which was inspired by Mother Teresa, and was recognized with the Papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Ponticifice from Pope Benedict XVI. In 2008, she was honored with a MacArthur Genius Award Fellowship. In 2011, Dr. Benjamin became the recipient of the Chairman’s Award at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards.

In May 2013, Reader’s Digest ranked her #22 of the “100 Most Trusted People in America.”

Benjamin has a B.S. in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans, attended Morehouse School of Medicine, earned an MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MBA from Tulane University. She is the recipient of 30 honorary degrees.

CDR Joy Hsu, MD, MS, FAAAAI is a board-certified internist and allergist-immunologist. Dr. Hsu is Acting Chief Medical Officer of the Asthma and Community Health Branch, in the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Dr. Kensa Gunter is a clinical and sport psychologist based in Atlanta, GA. She is committed to humanizing conversations about mental and emotional wellness and she describes her work as being at the intersection of mental health, mental performance, culture and sport. Dr. Gunter currently serves as the Director of NBA Mind Health, the league's mental health and wellness platform. She is a member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee's External Mental Health Task Force and she is the President of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Rosemary Enobakhare was appointed by President Biden to serve as the Associate Administrator for the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rosemary was previously appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Engagement and Environmental Education in the Office of the Administrator at the EPA. She has previously served as the Coalition Director for the Clean Water for All Coalition, where she helped build one of the most diverse federal coalitions to defend bedrock clean water protections at the federal level.

Dr. Sarah Geiger is an evaluator and epidemiologist who currently serves as the lead evaluator for the Illinois Asthma Program. She has a Ph.D. from West Virginia University and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on environmental pollutant exposure and chronic disease risk factors, including sleep problems, asthma, obesity, and other cardiovascular disease risk factors among children. She initially obtained program evaluation training during a CDC fellowship and has served as an evaluator for several CDC-funded programs. Dr. Geiger is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and Member of the American College of Epidemiology and American Evaluation Association.

Claudia Brown, MDP, is a health scientist with the Climate and Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Claudia’s work at the CDC focuses on the human health effects of climate change, including aeroallergens and respiratory health effects, extreme weather events, and emerging infectious diseases. She serves as technical monitor to the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Climate, Health, and Equity Subcommittee, coordinated the Health Chapter of the National Climate Assessment, has been an expert reviewer for the IPCC Assessment Report, and worked as a lead coordinator of federal interagency climate and health initiatives including a research agenda on “Predicting Climate-sensitive Infectious Diseases to Protect Public Health and Strengthen National Security."

Tinelle Bustam is the National Director of Conservation Education for the USDA Forest Service. She has served various capacities in the Forest Service including National Assistant Director of Recreation at the Washington DC office, District Ranger on the Colville (WA) and Los Padres (CA) National Forests, Public Services Staff Officer at El Yunque National Forest (PR), as well as duty stations on the Six Rivers and Lassen National Forests (CA). Tinelle holds a PhD in natural resource recreation (University of FL), MS in outdoor education (State University of NY), and BS in wildlife biology (University of MT). Tinelle is published in peer-reviewed journals and most recently for the United Nations Development Programme. Currently adjunct faculty at Frostburg State University, Tinelle teaches a graduate course and was named the 2017 FSU Wellner Scholar for her contributions to the field of recreation and student education.

Kathy Reiner, MPH, BA, BSN, RN is a School Nurse Consultant with 24 years of school nurse experience and 10 additional years as a public health professional. She is a past member of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) Board of Directors and chaired the Healthy Communities Strategic Committee. Kathy is a 2019-20 Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) Fellow, represents NASN on ANHE’s Nursing Collaborative for Climate Change and Health, and serves on the Climate Change and Advocacy work groups. She has a passion for policy and advocacy and believes that working for healthy communities—including healthy school environments—and climate justice will help us ensure that all students will be healthy, safe, and ready to learn.

Teaching Professor, Pulmonary Medicine & Allergy
University of Missouri School of Medicine, Department of Child Health
Director, Asthma Ready® Communities; Author, IMPACT Asthma Kids© suite of asthma disease management tools for asthma control; Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C), Past President, Association of Asthma Educators; Teaching Professor, University of Missouri School of Medicine; Practicing Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Pulmonary & Allergy Clinics, Women’s and Children’s Hospital; PI – Asthma ECHO® (Extension for Community Health Outcomes)

Sandy Marin is a Tribal Relations Specialist with the USDA Forest Service. She works part time with the Conservation Education team to deliver a variety of conservation education programs such as Colorful Changes, an initiative that trains leaders at the unique intersection of delivery of conservation education, citizen science, and forest therapy trainings. These leaders then provide programmatic engagement on National Forest lands and in surrounding communities in collaboration with Forest Service and Forest Service partners, providing avenues in which forest therapy supports the health and well-being of individuals, and conservation education and citizen science support both communities and the land.

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves at the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), where her responsibilities include successfully organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. For the past 20 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country.

She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving on the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research and on the Leadership Council and Co-Chair of Health/Science Node of the Cancer-Free Economy Network. Ms. Witherspoon is also Board Chair for the Pesticide Action Network of North America, a Board member for the Environmental Integrity Project, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council.

Wanda M. Rodríguez-Donham is the Asthma Program Manager at the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention in Tallahassee/Jacksonville, Florida. She has been a registered respiratory therapist for over 30 years, specializing in neonatal, pediatrics and adult critical care. In addition, she has five years of experience as a middle school health teacher. She received her bachelor’s degree in health science/public health from the University of West Florida, master’s in health education from Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA, and a doctorate in global health from A.T. Still University in Mesa, AZ. 

Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician in clinical primary care practice for over 30 years and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 1997, she founded the Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP) of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, an asthma program that utilizes community health workers to implement asthma interventions in underserved, poorly-resourced inner-city communities. As Medical Director of the program, she leads a core staff that includes public health professionals, nurse coordinator, research coordinators and community health workers. Dr. Bryant-Stephens is nationally recognized for her work in community-driven, evidence-based research in asthma interventions, and over the past 23 years has led a number of projects to improve asthma management through community-based interventions.

Dr. Bryant-Stephens was a founding member of the Philadelphia Coalition of Black Pediatricians and Pennsylvania Asthma Partnership. She is a past member of the US EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. Most recently she served as a member of the Expert Panel Working Group of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute which released the 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines. She coordinates asthma care education annually for more than 70 primary care physicians in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Care Network, which serves approximately 50,000 inner-city patients and conducts over 100,000 patient visits each year.

Ananya Roy, PhD, is a Senior Health Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) with expertise in the health effects of air pollution. Her role at EDF is to provide balanced scientific evidence to inform policy and advocacy efforts to protect children, disadvantaged communities, and other vulnerable populations from exposures that are harmful to their health and well-being. She currently leads research on the health effects of ambient air pollution within neighborhoods.

Elizabeth Clark, MSN, RN, NCSN, FNASN, has over 25 years of experience as a school nurse and in school health services administration. She is currently employed by the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) as a Nursing Education and Practice Specialist. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of School Nurses, Past President of the Colorado Association of School Nurses, a nationally certified school nurse, and a Fellow of the National Academy of School Nurses. She is currently the project lead for the COVID-19 resource development at NASN.

I. Leslie Rubin, MD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine, Co-director of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Unit at Emory University, President and Founder or Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, and Medical Director of Developmental Pediatric Specialists in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Rubin is originally from South Africa where he trained in Pediatrics and arrived in the USA in 1976. He was initially at the Hospitals of the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. In 1980, he moved to The Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Harvard Medical School where he spent 14 years. In 1994 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia as Director of Developmental Pediatrics at Emory University and Medical Director of the Marcus Center. Since 1998 he has been involved with the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) at Emory. In 2004, he left the Marcus Center and Emory University and joined the Department of Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine. 

Dr. Sophia Smith received her MD degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine and proceeded to complete a Pediatric Residency and Critical Care Fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. At the conclusion of her critical care fellowship, she accomplished a post-doctoral research training program at the National Institutes of Health where she conducted extensive research and published on the relationship of iron overload and neurodegenerative disorders utilizing a number of animal studies.
 
Dr. Smith began her career as an attending physician in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) where she served as Medical Director of Respiratory Care, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University, and Associate Director of Critical Care Medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She is currently practicing in the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Department at the CNMC. Dr. Smith devotes extensive personal and professional time to the area of pediatric advocacy with activity and special interest in a number of health issues including asthma therapy, childhood obesity, and patient safety. She is a champion for the cause of organ donation and recovery through education on a public as well as a professional level to support donation awareness and preservation of every donation opportunity.
 
Dr. Smith is currently President of the Board of Directors of the Washington Regional Transplant Community and is active on the Governance and Nominating Committee, the Research Review Committee, and Community Affairs. She is a Nature Champion for the National Environmental Education Foundation and serves on the National Park Trust committee for National Kids to Park Day. Dr. Smith is a part of the Pediatric Measurement Center of Excellence Pediatric Intensive Care Expert Work Group at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Natasha DeJarnett (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville Division of Environmental Medicine researching the health impacts of extreme heat exposure and environmental health disparities. In addition, she is a professorial lecturer in Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. DeJarnett is a graduate of University of Louisville, where she completed her PhD and Masters of Public Health, both concentrating in environmental health sciences. In her postdoctoral studies, Dr. DeJarnett was awarded a fellowship by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate cardiovascular risks of air pollution exposures. In 2015, she became the recipient of the prestigious Impact Award from the Society of Toxicology’s Cardiovascular Toxicology Specialty Section for her 2014 paper “Acrolein Exposure is Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Disease Risk.” Dr. DeJarnett was named 2017 Alumna of the Year for the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences and concurrently awarded designation in the class of 2017 Alumni Fellows. Prior to becoming an assistant professor, Dr. DeJarnett was interim associate director of Program and Partnership Development at the National Environmental Health Association, leading the areas of research, climate and health, and children’s environmental health. She also previously served as a policy analyst at the American Public Health Association (APHA), where she led the Natural Environment portfolio, including air and water exposures along with climate change. Dr. DeJarnett is a member of the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, is chair of the Governing Board of Citizens’ Climate Education, a member of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a member of the Advisory Board of APHA’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity, special advisor to the Environmental Health Coalition, and the Steering Committees of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition and the Environmental Law Institute’s Emerging Leaders Initiative.

Kristie Trousdale is the Deputy Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network, where she leads the Network’s strategic development, science translation and education work, messaging and communications, and advocacy efforts. Kristie has also developed curriculum and other educational resources for CEHN’s Eco-Healthy Child Care® program and served as Co-Editor of “Putting it into Practice,” a pediatric environmental health training resource for health care faculty.

She currently serves on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the steering committee for the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative. She also chairs communications for the American Public Health Association’s Children’s Environmental Health Committee and co-chairs the Environmental Health & Equity Collaborative.

Subria Spencer serves as Deputy Liaison and Communication Specialist for the National Park Service Office of Public Health in Washington, DC, where she leads and coordinates internal and external communications for the three programmatic branches. In addition, Subria spearheads Your Park Your Health, an Office of Public Health initiative focused on innovative community-based program development led by young professionals to rebuild community relationships, inspire connectivity with nature, and establish a sense of belonging by redefining the perception of national parks as havens of inclusion.

Priya Cook supports city and school district leaders in advancing equity-based, districtwide, open access green schoolyards at the Children & Nature Network. Her focus on equity in the outdoors and public education has driven her work along the Texas-Mexico border, interior Alaska, and at home in the District of Columbia. She helped lead the Cities Connecting Children to Nature initiative for five years at the National League of Cities and previously directed middle school programs at City Kids Wilderness Project. Priya has served on the Board of Directors for the Student Conservation Association and the smallMatters Institute and holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin. You can often find her outdoors with her kids, in city parks and the backcountry.

Laura Flores is an educator in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For over 11 years, she has taught in various capacities in the community she grew up in. She has always had a strong connection with the outdoors, being exposed to camping and gardening with her parents and sisters. As her curiosity for the outdoors grew, so did her desire to share these opportunities with her students. Laura’s passion to support every kid in daily outdoor experiences has led her to serve as an Environmental Education of New Mexico Fellow to strengthen outdoor connections in and outside the school setting. She is also serving as the Program Coordinator of the Latino Outdoors Albuquerque Chapter to ensure safe and accessible spaces for our youth and their families. By providing these outdoor connections to the youth of New Mexico, she feels she is creating a love for her state, deeper awareness for local and global conservation, and joyful experiences which will continue for generations.

Sara Espinoza oversees the design, integration, execution, and evaluation of NEEF programs and pilot initiatives, as well as exploration of new themes and concepts in environmental education. She works to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, and relevance of NEEF by tracking research and emerging trends in environmental education, and identifying and disseminating promising strategies for lifelong environmental learning. Sara's previous positions at NEEF have included overseeing research and innovation, designing and implementing national public engagement campaigns with NBA and NHL, and working with broadcast meteorologists across the US to incorporate environmental information into the television weathercast. She is a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program and a member of the Bucknell University Alumni Association Board of Directors. Before joining NEEF, Sara worked on education programs at World Wildlife Fund and the Jane Goodall Institute. She holds a BA from Bucknell University and a master of environmental management (MEM) from Duke University.  

Tamberly Conway, PhD, Founder and CEO, Conservation Conexions, LLC, serves as the Director of the ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Program, as well as an Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) Certified Guide, and ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Consultant. Tamberly served for 12 years with the USDA Forest Service Conservation Education Program in Washington, DC, where she focused upon diversity engagement, health and nature connections, forest health/human health relationships, conservation education and community empowerment in conservation. Tamberly has been engaged in the health and nature realm for over 12 years, through a variety of unique partnerships between land management agencies, health care professionals, NGOs, such as NEEF, educational institutions and others. Her work continues to focus upon creating traditional and non-traditional partnerships in conservation education and community engagement to reach diverse audiences with meaningful and relevant educational and stewardship opportunities, yet now with a Forest Bathing twist. Tamberly received the 2012 USDA Forest Service Chief’s Engaging Urban America Award: Urban Connections—Latino Legacy Program, and the 2015 USDA Secretary of Agriculture Lincoln Award for Diversity and Outreach. During her tenure with the USFS, she worked to propel Forest Therapy within the agency and among the diverse communities through funding bilingual Forest Therapy sessions at community events, engaging with health providers and diversity- focused partners in nature and health collaborations, and the implementing of the first-ever bilingual ANFT Forest Therapy training in collaboration with a number of diverse partner organizations, with financial support from the US Forest Service Conservation Education Program. Tamberly is serving to advance the first ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail on National Forest lands, on El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. Tamberly holds a B.S. in Wildlife Management from McNeese State University, a M.S. in Forestry with a focus on Forest Recreation Management, and a Ph.D. in Forestry, focusing on Human Dimensions in Natural Resources from the College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University.