ABOUT US

Founded in 1936, PHANYC is one of the oldest and largest affiliates of the American Public Health Association. Since then, PHANYC has been a catalyst – informing and educating about public health issues and a more responsive and equitable health care system, and influencing public health policy. Today, its membership includes individuals and organizations involved in the diverse field of public health. Its members are public health leaders, health care providers, health administrators, researchers, scientists, professors, students and activists.

THREE MAJOR AREAS OF EMPHASIS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY ARE:

-Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health
-Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
-Emergency Preparedness

We have a diverse team of people who are actively involved with PHANYC.

CURRENT PHANYC PRESIDENT:

Dr. Nina Rothschild, DrPH, MPH, MA: PHANYC President, is a City Research Scientist III at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Currently, she works in emergency preparedness and in health and safety coordination in the Division of Disease Control. Previously, she worked in HIV/AIDS community planning; in HIV prevention; and in the Bureau of Maternal, Infant, and Reproductive Health. Before becoming President of PHANYC, she served as the co-chair of PHANYC’s Policy Committee. She is also a member of the Alumni Board of Directors of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she serves on the Executive Committee and is the Board Secretary, Chair of the Governance Committee, and an editorial board member. Nina graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa after her junior year and also holds an MA in English Literature from Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, an MPH from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences and a DrPH from the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia’s School of Public Health. She absolutely loves animals and worries a great deal about the impact of climate change, especially on polar bears, and is also an enthusiastic traveler and collector of arts and crafts from all over the world.

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS:

Dr. Steven Auerbach, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a New York native, graduated from Columbia University’s medical school and school of public health (1982-86). He completed his pediatrics residency at the University of California at Los Angeles (1986-89). Since 1989, he has been a medical epidemiologist for the US. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS). As a career commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), he launched his career as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (1989-91). At the CDC, he worked first the nosocomial hospital infections group, and then, the environmental health group including leading the first investigation of GHB as a recreational and “date” rape drug. Then he seconded overseas as territorial epidemiologist to the Federated States of Micronesia (1991-94) where among other activities he led surveillance/control and the mass vaccination campaign during measles outbreaks, and the first island wide adult health screening which became a cohort study of the genetics of obesity and diabetes. In recent years with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Region 2 Office (1994-present), Steve has served in a variety of capacities related to community health and increasing access healthcare to for the medically under-served and vulnerable in New York. In addition to his routine HHS agency work, as a PHS officer he has led teams during two emergency deployments — after typhoon Omar in Guam and after hurricane Katrina in Louisiana; and he served at Ground Zero for the first three weeks after 9-11. Currently he is assigned as a medical epidemiologist with the Applied Public Health Team for federal emergency deployments. Outside of his PHS/HHS work, Dr. Auerbach has had an appointment as a guest investigator at the Rockefeller University.  He has served, on the board of directors of the Public Health Association of NYC (PHANYC) and of Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter (PNHP), and on the residency advisory committee of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Preventive Medicine Residency program. He is a co-author on approximately 30 peer-reviewed publications. He and his wife, Dr. Karen Becker — a family physician and associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center Department of Family and Social Medicine — live in Manhattan with their two children.

Ms. Alison Braid spent 15 years in project and operational management in the localization industry prior to transitioning into the public health sector. She is in her last term of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the University of New England, expecting to graduate in the summer of 2017 as an inductee to the Delta Omega Gamma Chi chapter. Since 2016, Alison has taken on the role of President of the University of New England American Public Health Association (APHA) Student Assembly, revitalizing and rebuilding the organization through interactive webinar discussions. Additionally, she oversees and runs the social media campaigns for the Public Health Association of New York City and serves as both the NYC affiliate representative to the APHA Governing Council and the Region II Representative (overseeing New York, New York City, New Jersey, Puerto Rico) to the APHA Council of Affiliates. Furthermore, Alison had the opportunity to attend the 2016 APHA Annual Meeting in Denver through receiving the 2016 Leadership Challenge APHA Scholarship. As of spring 2017, she was voted onto the Board of the Public Health Association of New York City and accepted a fellowship with Organizing for Action with plans to develop advocacy efforts in defense of the Affordable Care Act and public health funding. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonbraid

Ms. Lauren Broussard, is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Her professional experience focused on racial disparities in the domestic HIV epidemic. She plans to pursue this work in the doctoral program. Lauren served as a project officer and policy and program specialist with the US Department of Health and Human Services and as a research associate at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention. Lauren’s research interests focus on the impact of structural forms of gender and race-based discrimination upon sexual and reproductive health outcomes among women of color. She is interested in increasing utilization of quantitative research methods to explore these issues from a societal or population level perspective.

                                                                                            

Dr. Debra Jackson, RN, MPH, DSc, is a New York based Senior Health Specialist with UNICEF. She joined the Health Section of the UNICEF Knowledge Management and Implementation Research Unit as a Senior Health Scientist in 2013, leaving the SOPH where she had worked for 13 years. While at the School, she served as principal investigator for a range of research projects, such as the multi-country PROMISE-EBF trial on promoting exclusive breastfeeding, and the National South African PMTCT Evaluation. Debra has qualifications in nursing, public health, epidemiology and biostatistics. Her interests are maternal and child health, perinatal health, nutrition, ethics and health systems research. Her most recent research focus has been on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, infant feeding and community health workers. Debra lived in South Africa for 14 years and has experience in several African countries, including South Africa, Uganda,  Zambia, Burkina Faso, Malawi, South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda. She has also worked in the Pacific Islands and the United States.
Debra is active in several professional organisations, and in particular has held leadership positions within the American Public Health Association (APHA), including chair of the Maternal and Child Health Section, Governing Councilor, chair of the APHA Nominating Committee, member of the Intersectional Council Steering Committee and the APHA Awards Committee. Debra has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and has consulted for both WHO and UNICEF in the areas of PMTCT and iCCM.

Lovelyne Julien, MPA,MPH, is a recent MPH graduate from NYU College of Global Public Health, but also holds a MPA degree from Long Island University (LIU). She is the Policy Committee Co- Facilitator for PHANYC. While at NYU, Lovelyne and her classmates conducted a rapid scan of stroke management in Ghana. It was a qualitative study to assess the resources available for stroke prevention, treatment, and recovery in Ghana. In October of 2016, Ms. Julien had the opportunity to travel to Les Cayes, Haiti to assist in post Hurricane Matthew relief to the community of Fonfrede. During her time there she helped create survival kits that addressed the basic needs of the community. While there she also conducted a workshop for staff development training on interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and leadership in Creole.

She currently works for 1199SEIU Training and Employment Fund as a Recruiter’s Assistant. She enjoys helping laid-off members and job seekers find employment in hospitals and nursing homes. Lovelyne is one of the editors for the Public Health Association of NYC (PHANYC), drafting articles on important health topics for their newsletter. Lovelyne recently obtained a certificate from the University of Rochester in Health Care Management in Public Health, Palliative Care, and Long Term Care. While in the certificate program she conducted a literature review to identify questions and possible design issues in medical aid in dying legislation. Her topics of interest are preventative care in terms of reducing non-communicable diseases, health disparities, and social determinants of health. Her future goal is to eventually apply for PhD or DrPH programs in Behavioral and Social Health.

Shamima Khan, MBA, PhD, is a faculty member at Western New England University (WNE) in Springfield, MA. She is also the President of CRE Services, Inc., located in New York City, NY. She is passionate about various public health initiatives, and her research focuses on various public health outcomes, health policy and health care reform. Her scholarly work has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. Via CRE Services, Inc., Dr. Khan also provides consulting, research and educational services to for-profit and non-profit organizations. She received her B.S., MBA and PhD degrees from The University of Louisiana at Monroe. She was a Post-Doctoral Associate at The University of Vermont, College of Medicine.

Ms. Sudha Sarode, MSPH, is an Education Program Manager at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America based in NYC, where she manages education programming for healthcare providers. She has had experience in the federal, state, local, and nonprofit levels of public health. Sudha also served on the Executive Board of the New Jersey Public Health Association and was selected as an Emerging Leader for the Behavioral Health Leadership Development Program sponsored by SAMHSA. She is passionate about systems change and maternal and child health. Sudha received her Master of Science in Public Health degree with a concentration in Healthy Policy in 2012 from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University. Her hobbies include yoga, reading, and spending time with friends/family.

Ms. Robin Vitale, BA, MA, is the Vice President, Health Strategies, NYC for the American Heart Association. She is the PHANYC Policy Committee Co- Chair and the Treasurer.