Class Notes

Carol E. Hayes, 88MN/MPH, has joined the Emory University Regional Training Center as a program coordinator. She is coordinating Title X Family Planning Training for the state of Georgia and managing a CDC HIV prevention grant. She is also coordinating the Annual Nurse Practitioner Women and Their Health conference and is serving as a liaison with the Georgia Nurses Association.

1990s

Tracy Lynn Jensen, 90MPH, 90MBA, and David Sayen of Alameda, Calif. are pleased to announce the birth of their son, Julian David, on February 9, 2001. Jensen spent eight years with the US Health Care Financing Administration and the Office of Vice President Al Gore before being appointed the senior services administrator for Oakland, Calif., in July 2001.

Alexander Emeral Crosby, MD, 91MPH, is now a medical epidemiologist with CDC in Atlanta. Crosby has worked since 1991 with the CDC’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention in the areas of preventing suicide, child abuse and neglect, violence among adolescents, and assault injuries among minorities. “My greatest reward so far has been showing that public health and prevention have a more critical role to play in violence prevention than criminal justice,” says Crosby. He entered the Epidemic Intelligence Service of CDC in 1991 and is a commander in the US Public Health Services’ Commissioned Corps. He also holds an MD degree from Howard University’s School of Medicine.

John Robitscher, 92MPH, was recently named to the Emory University Board of Governors, representing Oxford College. He is the current president of the RSPH Alumni Association.

Shamiram ("Shami") Ruth Feinglass, 93MPH, 97M, married Gregory Jeffries from Toronto, Canada, on April 28, 2001, in Seattle. Another 97M alum, Kimberly Isaacs Leversedge, attended and her daughter, Chelsea, was the flower girl. Feinglass is a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Washington, where she is conducting health services research and looking at school-based health clinics and access to mental health care for teens.

Gordon Robert Freymann, 93MPH, married Leslie A. Earle of Arlington, Va., on Sept. 22, 2001, in Hartwell, Ga. He is acting chief of the Office of Health Information and Policy of the Georgia Division of Public Health. She is a project coordinator at Global Green USA, a nonprofit environmental organization. The couple lives in Chamblee.

Kara L. Jacobson, 93MPH, and her husband, Terry, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Ariel Sydney, born April 9, 2001. Kara is a health behavior and disease prevention researcher with the new Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality (formerly known as the USQA Center for Health Care Research. The Emory Center is housed in the Department of Health Policy and Management at RSPH.

Teresa Rivero, 93 MPH, was recently named an at-large member of the Emory University Board of Governors.

E. Anne Peterson, MD, 94MPH, was appointed assistant administrator for global health at USAID by President George Bush this past year. She was previously the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health. She has also worked as a consultant for the CDC and the World Health Organization in health education, program evaluation, and training in epidemiology and social marketing. She was a speaker and moderator on food safety and social marketing for the US Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Pork Producers. She also has served as a medical doctor, both internationally and in the United States, spending almost six years in sub-Saharan Africa doing community development, AIDS prevention, and epidemiology training. She resides in Oakton, Va., with her husband and three children.

Allison Cohen Howard, 94MPH, and her husband Dan proudly announce the birth of their daughter, Kate Olivia, on June 16, 2001. She joins her brother, Matthew Benjamin, age 2-1/2.

Richard A. Schieber, MD, 95MPH, is a captain in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and is working as a medical epidemiologist for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. His specialty is preventing childhood injury, such as head injuries from in-line skating and bicycling, or pedestrian injuries. Schieber helped organize SAFE KIDS of Georgia, part of the national campaign to prevent child injuries through changes in the law, improved enforcement, and family safety education. He received his medical degree from Northwestern University.

Patrick Ng, 96MPH, married Martina Chou in New York on May 27, 2001. He is originally from Brooklyn and is glad to be back in New York, where he is working at AOL Time Warner as a senior business analyst.

Diona Cheng, 97MPH, has been promoted to diversity program manager for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, located in Oakland. Diona and her husband, Chris Hunt, have recently been busy building a house.

David Gundersen, 97MPH, was appointed executive director of the Wisconsin Tobacco Control Board in March 2000. He administers the 20-member governor-appointed board, which is developing a comprehensive tobacco prevention and control program for Wisconsin. “The number 1 preventable cause of death—tobacco use—kills 7,800 people a year in Wisconsin and results in more than $1.3 billion in health care costs,” says Gundersen. Wisconsin’s program funds over 80 local coalitions statewide, an aggressive social marketing campaign, a youth-led movement called Fighting Against Corporate Tobacco (FACT) and a statewide Quit Line and cessation support system.

Erin Brand Jackum, 97MPH, and her husband, Joshua Jackum, 98M, had their first child, Ethan William, on November 16, 2000. He was born in Providence, RI., during Joshua’s residency in pediatrics at Brown University. The Jackums have since moved to Goldsboro, N.C., where Joshua has joined Goldsboro Pediatrics with Carey Ziemer, 83M.

Michelle Lackey, 98MPH, took a position in May 2001 as an epidemiologist in the Health Investigations Branch of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in Atlanta. ATSDR is a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, and it aims to implement sections of law that protect the public from hazardous waste. Some of Lackey’s responsibilities include conducting epidemiological health studies in populations exposed to hazardous substances and serving as a technical officer for state cooperative agreement programs. She previously worked as a district epidemiologist for the East Metro Atlanta Health District, serving Gwinnett, Rockdale, and Newton counties.

Michelle Ann MacDonald, 98MPH, is currently serving as the 67th president of the Ann Arbor Jaycees, a leadership training organization for people aged 21 to 39. This chapter has 234 members and is the ninth largest in the country. Michelle with niece, Kellie Lynn Allen, and sister, Kimberly Allen.

Marisa Ani Rogers, 98MPH, 99M, married Eston Griffin III on May 19, 2001, near Philadelphia. She is currently a third–year resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. After finishing her residency in June, she plans to complete a one-year primary care residency and then look for a job with under-served populations, preferably in Atlanta or Philadelphia.

Jared Gwynne Kerr, 99MPH, and Lisa Farmer, 00MSP, were married on June 30, 2001. They both work at Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, IN. He is a therapeutic area associate, and she is a statistician.

2000s

Carrie (Heist) Grabowicz, 00MPH, married Brian Grabowicz on July 28, 2001 in Danielsville, Penn. The ceremony was outdoors at the Woodstone Golf Club. They honeymooned in Bermuda. The couple has purchased a house in Haddonfield, N.J., about 25 minutes from Philadelphia. Carrie is currently a technical information specialist at Information Ventures, Inc. (IVI) in central Philadelphia. She is working on a CDC contract helping maintain the Comprehensive Health Information Database sponsored by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. IVI is responsible for databases on health promotion, epilepsy, prenatal smoking cessation, and cancer prevention. “We screen journal articles, reports, and program materials, and abstract and index the materials for the database,” she says.

Ali Rahimi, 00MPH, is currently a second-year student at the Medical College of Georgia and is president of the AMA Chapter there. Ali and his wife, Layla, have two children; Yasmin, 5, and Kayvon, 2.

Kristen Jennifer Wells, 00MPH, began a PhD program in clinical psychology at the University of South Florida in August 2001. She was previously a research project coordinator supervisor in the RSPH Health Policy and Management Department.

Elizabeth (Beth) Loftus, 01MPH, married Michael Schwartz on June 16, 2001 in Doylestown, Pa. Carrie Heitzler, 01MPH, sang at the ceremony and three other alums were in attendance— Stephanie Gofus, Colleen Crowe, and Jake Johnson, all 00MPH. The couple recently moved to Cambridge, Mass.