New PPHA Board Members

The 2005 Pennsylvania Public Health Association (PPHA) conference marked the changing of the guard for the PPHA Board.  This year the nominating committee was chaired by Richard J. Cohen, APHA Representative, with Gerry Barron (Immediate Past President) and Rob Gage (President 2002-2004).

Nominees were chosen by the committee based on his/her experience within PPHA and their commitment to supporting the public health infrastructure of Pennsylvania. The nominees for officers were: President, Michelle Davis, Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Health; President Elect, Andrea Crivelli-Kovach, Director of Community Health Programs, Arcadia University; Secretary, Diane Renzulli, Assistant Vice President for Communications, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation; and Treasurer, Jessica Riccio-Boyer, Senior Communications Officer, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation.  Additionally, the following PPHA members were nominated for board membership: Walter Tsou, Immediate Past President, American Public Health Association; Jo Ann Glad, Epidemiology Manager, Allegheny County Health Department; and Molly Eggleston, Associate Director for Workforce Development, University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Practice.

The nominations were presented to PPHA members via email for feedback.  The slate was unanimously approved by the membership at PPHA's October 2005 board meeting. According to Richard Cohen, chair of the nominating committee, “Our task was to find individuals committed to forwarding the public health agenda in Pennsylvania.  I am confident we did that.”

In 2006, Michelle Davis appointed two new board members to fill vacant slots: Yasmin Dada-Jones, Executive Policy Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health; and Michael K. Huff, R.N., Director of the Bureau of Community Health Systems in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Information on some new board members is listed below:

Jessica Riccio-Boyer, Treasurer

Jessica Riccio-Boyer is the senior communications officer for Philadelphia Health Management Corporation (PHMC).  She contributes to PHMC publications, oversees the PHMC website as well as assisting with development initiatives for PHMC and its affiliates. In addition to assisting with the organization of special events and conferences, Jessica also coordinates PHMC's annual United Way campaign that raised over $105,000 for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania's 2005 campaign. In 2004, she was co-chair of the PPHA/PHI annual conference held in Philadelphia and was an executive committee member in the Philadelphia Partners in Public Health initiative that coordinated a Philadelphia mega-exhibit at the 2005 APHA annual meeting. Additionally, Jessica completed the Northeast Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (NEPHLI) in 2004. She is a dual master's candidate in public health and social work at Temple University in Philadelphia expected to graduate this May. 

Diane Renzulli, Secretary

Diane Renzulli is Assistant Vice President for Communications at the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation (PHMC), a nonprofit public health agency that has served Pennsylvania residents since 1972. In this position, she oversees publications, news media outreach, special events, and related marketing initiatives for PHMC. Before coming to PHMC, Diane spent eight years as an investigative reporter covering ethics in government for the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan watchdog organization. Diane received a master's degree in health and social behavior from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2003. She was the assistant conference chair for PPHA's 2004 Annual Meeting and in 2005, she acted in a leadership role in the development of Philadelphia Partners in Public Health, a coalition that seeks to increase the public health capacity of the Greater Philadelphia region and promote the region as a great place to work, study, and live. She is a member of the American Public Health Association.

Molly M. Eggleston, New PPHA Board Member

Molly M. Eggleston is the Associate Director for Workforce Development for the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) Center for Public Health Practice (CPHP).  Eggleston, a Certified Health Education Specialist who holds an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joined the University's Center for Public Health Practice in 2000. 

In her capacities with the CPHP, Eggleston has managed delivery of over 500 professional development courses for Pennsylvanian health workers.  She conducted training needs assessments, designed evaluation tools, collected and analyzed data for both the HRSA-funded Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Workforce Training Center (POPHTC) and the CDC-funded the Center for Public Health Preparedness.  Additionally, Eggleston is responsible for the training component of a federally-funded project to build environmental health capacity in a local health department.  She annually coordinates the GSPH Public Health Week-a local celebration of a nationally observed week honoring public health.

Eggleston has made public health contributions in developing, coordinating and facilitating trainings, conferences, and programs for teenagers, the hearing impaired, nurses, hospital workers and health care educators on the state and national level.  Eggleston served as Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Public Health Association, has presented at the annual American Public Health Association conference, and has been published in the Journal for Public Health Management and Practice.

Andrea Shissler, Communications Chair

Andrea Shissler is a five-year veteran as PPHA's Communications Chair.  She was introduced to PPHA while earning her Master's of Public Health Degree from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Gerald Barron, now immediate Past PPHA President, and still teaching at the University,  invited all of the students to become members.  Shissler immediately joined PPHA and attended her first conference in Pittsburgh in the fall of 1999.  In 2001, Andrea presented some of her graduate work at the Philadelphia Conference.

“I have learned a tremendous amount while serving with PPHA.  The board members are very welcoming and I was thrilled to be recognized with the prestigious President's Award for Outstanding Excellence and Dedication to the Organization at this year’s annual conference.  I began my journey as a timid student who was looking for an opportunity to learn more.  Now I have the same opportunity, but with the roles reversed.  I have the chance to help other students and to show them how to transition from their roles as students to policy makers and leaders and those who fulfill the mission and various roles of public health professionals every day.  I see students write for our newsletter and express an interest in serving the public in various capacities such as nurses, epidemiologists, statisticians etc.  I consider this a great privilege and challenge, and I am thankful to everyone who has come along side and encouraged and helped me. It has been very exciting to see things come full circle and to have to opportunity to give back.”

Andrea attended as a student and taught at the Pa Governor's School for Health Care as a Learning Team Consultant.  At the Governor's School, she discovered what has become a life-long passion for improving mental health.  She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in psychology and began her career as a freshman taking a work study job on the Pittsburgh Youth Study, looking at the causes and correlates of crime and delinquency.  Shissler served as Sr. Data Manager, Analyst at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center until 2002.

She lives with her husband and two daughters (ages 3 and a half and 19 months) in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Yasmin Dada-Jones, New Board Member

Yasmin Dada-Jones was appointed Executive Policy Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health in 2005.  In this current role she is responsible for developing evidence-based policy for the Department, the Governor’s Policy Office and Executive Management in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Before arriving in Harrisburg she was Chief Director Social Sector, in the Policy Coordination and Advisory Service of the Presidency of South Africa in which role she provided technical policy advice to the President and Deputy President of South Africa.  In this position she was instrumental in developing a blueprint for social policy action for South Africa for the next decade as well as a monitoring a evaluation framework.  Dr. Dada-Jones has 10 years of experience in Public Health planning, research and implementation.  She has conducted research on issues as diverse as economics to health promotion.  As a health economist she has studied the impact of poverty and inequality on health.  As a public health professional she has worked on women’s health and children’s health as well as concentrated on developing a sustainable Healthy Cities Program, additionally her background as a molecular biologist has also helped in developing a public health research priority process for South Africa.

Michael K. Huff, R.N., New Board Member and Preparedness Liaison

MICHAEL K. HUFF, R.N., is Director of the Bureau of Community Health Systems in the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

As Director of the Bureau of Community Health Systems, Mr. Huff administers the statewide implementation and evaluation of public health programs through a network of 6 health district offices, 57 health centers, and 10 Act 315-funded County/Municipal Health Departments, all of which act as the implementation arm for the Department’s public health programs.  In addition, this bureau is also responsible for the Division of School Health, which administers the Department’s school health programs.

Mr. Huff served as Acting Director of the Department’s Office of Public Health Preparedness from November 2002 to December 2003.  In this capacity, he served as the principal advisor to the Deputy Secretary and the Secretary of Health on public health preparedness planning and implementation.

Mr. Huff’s previous positions with the Department include Director of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Project, Director of the Division of Communicable Disease, Director of the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, and Acting Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness.  Prior to joining the Department, he held senior management positions in nursing and hospital administration in community health settings, clinical instructor for nursing care of the older adult and advanced surgical nursing, and was responsible for strategic development and program evaluation of cancer, cardiac and women’s health services, as well as clinical positions in the areas of medical-surgical, critical care, and emergency trauma.  Mr. Huff has also served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.

He is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau, National Nursing Honor Society, and currently serves as a board member of several community organizations.  Mr. Huff was appointed to the Pennsylvania Homeland Security Advisory Council in December 2002, and serves as an Ad Hoc member of Pennsylvania State University’s Master of Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness Advisory Board.