DRAFT AGENDA

Please click here to view the draft agenda in PDF format.

PROPOSED PLENARY SPEAKER BIOS

Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D.

Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D., bridges two worlds of medicine—traditional Navajo healing and conventional Western medicine—to treat the whole patient. She provides culturally competent care to restore balance in her patients' lives and speed their recovery. Dr. Alvord is a Stanford-trained surgeon who was the first Navajo woman to be board certified in surgery. But she says, when she returned to the New Mexico reservation to work in a Navajo community, she discovered that, "Although I was a good surgeon, I was not always a good healer. I went back to the healers of my Tribe to learn what a surgical residency could not teach me. From them I have heard a resounding message: Everything in life is connected. Learn to understand the bonds between humans, spirit, and nature. Realize that our illness and our healing alike come from maintaining strong and healthy relationships in every aspect of our lives."

Surgery can remedy many ills, but as Dr. Alvord worked with her Navajo patients she learned that modern scientific medicine by itself could not reestablish the missing harmony in their health. Navajo healers (hataalii) use song, ceremony, and symbols (such as corn pollen, eagle feathers, masks of the Navajo Gods, and sand paintings) with their patients, and involve family and neighbors in the process. The psychological and spiritual comfort thus provided can prepare patients for surgery, childbirth, or chemotherapy, for example, and speed their recovery afterwards.

Dr. Alvord is still a surgeon, but she tries to heal, not just fix, her patients by working with families and other practitioners, and maintaining constant cultural awareness. She looks for the places in the patient's life, such as relationships (both personal and with health care providers) and environment, where things are out of balance. "Hospitals need to have places where you can see trees and grass and sky and sun ... animals nearby, and not just for children and the elderly," says Dr. Alvord. "Beauty is so important—artwork on the walls, gardens, outdoor porches with a view. A hospital should also have the right smells, the right foods, the right sounds, the things in life that soothe us. We should also avoid the things that are wrong, that cause stress—no harsh sounds, no bright lights, no invasive overhead paging."

In Dr. Alvord's New Mexico house, her two worlds sit side by side—a beeper on the table, a cell phone on its charger, and a stack of medical journals share space with a handmade wood and leather cradleboard, and a menagerie of bear talisman that inhabit the mantelpiece.

Hilda R. Heady, M.S.W.

Hilda R. Heady, M.S.W., is Associate Vice-President for Rural Health at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University (WVU). She is jointly appointed to the University System of West Virginia and works with the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and WVU in implementing an interdisciplinary, rural health-training network covering 47 of West Virginia's most underserved counties. She serves as the Executive Director of this program, the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Rural Health Association, and various national and State task forces and committees addressing rural health and rural economic development issues. She has been involved in rural health issues and rural community development for 25 years. She has served in a leadership role in rural health care reform, policy development, technical assistance, and coordination of statewide resources for rural health. She was an invited participant to the Health Care Reform in Rural Areas Conference held in Little Rock, AR, in March 1993, and a regional finalist for the 1997 White House Fellows program.

Ms. Heady is active in rural networking activities in West Virginia on issues including managed care, community health information networks, health professions recruitment, and delivery systems. She served as the CEO of a small, 58-bed rural hospital and provided the necessary leadership to turn it around from near bankruptcy by working with the community and leaders to restructure its mission and debt. Prior to her role as CEO, she also established an alternative birth center and improved obstetric services in the county.

Ms. Heady holds a Master of Social Work from West Virginia University. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health in 1996; the 1992 Exemplar Award by the West Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers; and the Award of Achievement by the West Virginia Hospital Association and the American College of Healthcare Executives Regents Award, both in 1991. She also received the Susan B. Anthony Award from the State chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1990, and was selected as "Woman of the Year" by both the Preston County News and the Dominion-Post in 1983. Ms. Heady's highest honor remains being the mother of two sons, Eli and Jesse.

Marcia Brand, Ph.D.

Marcia Brand, Ph.D., is Associate Administrator for Rural Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She has led HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) since January 4, 2001.

HRSA works to fill in the health care gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. The agency uses its $6.6 billion annual budget (FY 2006) to expand access to quality health care for all Americans through an array of grants to State and local governments, health care providers, and health profession training programs.

As director of ORHP, Dr. Brand is responsible for health policy, research, and grant activities that promote better health care services in rural America. These programs include the Rural Outreach Grant Program, which requires partnering among grantees to improve health service delivery; and the Rural Network Development Program, designed to further collaboration among rural health care organizations. Working with a staff of 28 in an office established by Congress in August 1987, Dr. Brand oversees a $168 million budget (FY 2006). The office advises HHS on matters affecting rural hospitals and health care, coordinates related HHS activities, and maintains a national Rural Assistance Center as the Department's "single point of entry" for rural health inquiries.

Dr. Brand led efforts in planning and implementing the State Planning Grant Program from 1999–2000 to help states explore options in providing health care coverage for their uninsured residents. She coordinated HRSA's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) from 1997–2000 and during the same period, she worked on the Secretary's Initiative on Children's Health and the President's Interagency Task Force on Children's Health Insurance Outreach, aimed to increase enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid. In 1997, Dr. Brand served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, during which time she worked on the Secretary's Initiative on the Future on Academic Health Centers and prepared a report to the Secretary on the challenges facing academic health centers. From 1995–1997, she served as Deputy Director of the Office of Research and Planning for the Bureau of Health Professions.

Dr. Brand earned a Doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania and both a Master and Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene from Old Dominion University.

Katrina Poe, M.D.

Katrina Poe, M.D., earned a biological sciences degree from Mississippi State University (MSU) in 1992 and paid her way through college with the assistance of a T.A. Spain academic scholarship and by working as a resident assistant. At MSU, she was active in the Gamma Beta Phi, Lambda Sigma, Alpha Lambda Delta, Beta Beta Beta Biological Sciences, and the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Medicine honor societies. During her senior year of college, she worked in the Agent, Food and Nutrition Educational Program at the Montgomery County Extension Service and was presented with the Cultural Diversity Academic Achievement Award.

Before earning a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Mississippi (UMC) in 1998, Dr. Poe received the CIBA-Geigy Community Service Award from UMC. She completed her family medicine internship from UMC in 1999, the same year she won the Gillis Award—the equivalent of Intern of the Year. In 2001, Dr. Poe completed a family medicine residency at UMC, where she was the Family Medicine Assistant Chief Resident for 2 years. That year, she joined the GLH Kilmichael Clinic as a physician. Also in 2001, she became Chief of Staff of Kilmichael Hospital, the second largest area employer and the cornerstone of the community's economic structure.

Dr. Poe's return to her hometown of rural Kilmichael, population 900, coincided with a critical juncture for the community—the town was about to lose its only physician. Dr. Poe opened a family clinic there, where she now sees 250 to 300 patients per week. Staying on call 24/7, she also makes hospital rounds and house calls, serves as the Medical Director for the local nursing home, and monitors residents of the community's home for mentally challenged youth.

In 2004, Winona Times named Dr. Poe the area's Business and Professional Woman of the Year. In 2005, the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Association presented her with the President's Award. The leaders of Texas-based Staff Care, one of the nation's fastest growing interim health care staffing service firms, thought Dr. Poe exemplified a continuing contribution to rural healthcare. As a result, in 2005, Staff Care named Dr. Poe, then 35, Country Doctor of the Year. She was selected for the award from nearly 400 candidates and was the youngest-ever recipient of the 11-year award program. In 2006, Poe received the Mississippi Trailblazer Award and was named one of Mississippi's 50 Leading Business Women.

America Bracho, M.P.H., CDE

America Bracho, M.P.H., CDE, is the Executive Director of Latino Health Access, a center for health promotion and disease prevention located in Santa Ana, CA. This center was created under her leadership to assist with the multiple health needs of Latinos in Orange County. Latino Health Access facilitates mechanisms of empowerment for the Latino community and uses participatory approaches to community health education. The programs train community health workers as leaders of wellness and change.

Dr. Bracho worked as a physician in her native Venezuela for several years, after which she came to the U.S. to obtain a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan. Her public health specialty is health education and health behavior. After completing the master's program, Dr. Bracho created and directed the AIDS projects for Latino family Services in Detroit, MI, for 4 years. The program integrated HIV education programs that addressed needs confronted by the community including the need for jobs, parenting classes, women's health services, drug treatment, and many others. Dr. Bracho has been a trainer, presenter, and consultant for numerous Government and private agencies around the nation including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Council of La Raza; University of Michigan; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Maryland; Wayne State University; University of California in Riverside; John Hopkins University; University of California in San Diego; the U.S.-Mexico Border Association; Texas Department of Health; Joslin Diabetes Center; National Conference of Lay Advisors; and the National Conference of Community Outreach Workers, among others.

Dr. Bracho serves as a consultant for the Pan-American Health Organization and has been a valuable faculty member for several international courses in Latin-America. In the past, Dr. Bracho has been involved with the Spanish-speaking media as hostess of a daily radio and TV talk show on health-related topics. She has also been a columnist of a local newspaper. She remains involved with the media as a source of information related to health awareness. Dr. Bracho is recognized at the local, regional, and national levels as an expert in the area of Latino health issues, health education, minority women, cultural competency, community organizing, diabetes education, and HIV. She has received several awards for her contributions to the Latino community. In addition to her degrees earned, Dr. Bracho is a Certified Diabetes Educator.

Linda Chamberlain, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Linda Chamberlain, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Founding Director of the Alaska Family Violence Prevention Project and an epidemiologist who specializes in childhood exposure to violence and implications for brain development. A frequent keynote speaker for the California Attorney General's Safe from the Start initiative, she works as a consultant for the Family Violence Prevention Fund and holds affiliate faculty appointments at the University of Alaska and Johns Hopkins, where she did her doctoral research. Dr. Chamberlain earned her public health degree from the Yale School of Medicine, specializing in maternal and child health. She is the Co-Chair of the Family Health Working Group for the International Union for Circumpolar Health.

The author of numerous publications on family violence, Dr. Chamberlain is Editor-in-Chief for the e-journal, Family Violence Prevention and Health Practice. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work including a National Kellogg Leadership Fellowship. Dr. Chamberlain resides on a rural homestead outside of Homer, AK, and uses her dog team to talk to communities about team-building, diversity, and leadership.