Erin Brewer, MD, MPH
Medical Director of the Louisiana Department of Healthand Hospitals O ce of Public Health, Adjunct ProfessorTulane University School of Medicine, LSU School ofPublic Health.
Dr. Brewer has served as the Medical Director of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Office of Public Health since 10 weeks before the Hurricane Katrina and Rita disasters of 2005. Before this, she was the Regional Medical Director for the five-parish region north of Lake Pontchartrain for the same agency, starting in October of 2001.
She earned her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master's Degree in Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Brewer is a board-certified family physician and practiced medicine in rural Tennessee and North Carolina for four years prior to entering the field of public health. She is also an adjunct professor for both the Louisiana State University School of Public Health Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences where she teaches the course, Infectious Disease Epidemiology: A Public Health Approach, and the Tulane University School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine where she serves as a community preceptor for students in the combined MD-MPH Program.
P. Gregg Greenough, MD, MPH
Director of Research, Harvard Humanitarian InitiativeAttending Physician, Division of International Healthand Humanitarian Programs, Department ofEmergency Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Dr. Greenough has worked extensively in settings of disasters and conflict applying epidemiologic methods to public health problems within affected populations. After graduating from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1989), he completed a residency and fellowship in Emergency Medicine at UCLA (1997) and earned an MPH at Johns Hopkins University (1998).
He held joint faculty positions in Emergency Medicine and International Health at JHU Schools of Medicine and Public Health while working at the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response there. Currently he is the director of research at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, an attending physician at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, and an editor for Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.
Dr. Greenough has worked in relief operations in the Balkans, Central America, Africa, the US, and the Palestinian Territories. He has researched disaster preparedness in Tanzanian hospitals, and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip he directed two national nutrition and food security studies and an emergency medicine development project. He has worked with the American Red Cross during the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita responses in studying public health and sheltered populations, and with the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and implementing NGOs in developing and measuring health indicators in protracted refugee populations.
He is currently studying the psychosocial effects of landmines with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Carla Holder, MPH
Regional Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator, Office ofPublic Health and Science - Region III, Office of PublicHealth and Science, United States Department ofHealth and Human Services
Carla Holder serves as MRC Regional Coordinator (MRC RC) for Region III (DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV). She provides technical assistance and support to the existing MRC units in the region and helps people interested in the MRC program to start a unit when there is not currently an active MRC in their local community. Ms. Holder works closely with individual units to advance the U.S. Surgeon General's public health priorities and coordinate with the goals of the Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps.
Ms. Holder has more than 9 years experience in the public health field. Prior to accepting the position of Regional Coordinator, Ms. Holder worked as a consultant for HRSA's National Health Service Corps (NHSC). In this role, she assisted obligated physicians to fulfill the mission of improving the health of the Nation’s underserved communities.
Carla received a Bachelors of Science in Health Services Management from the University of Maryland and a Masters of Public Health degree from George Washington University.
James Holliman, MD
Program Manager, Afghanistan Health Care SectorReconstruction Project, CDHAM / Uniformed ServicesUniversity of the Health Sciences, Member, Board ofDirectors, International Federation of Emergency Medicine
James J. James, MD, DrPH, MHA
Director of the American Medical Association Center forPublic Health Preparedness and Disaster Response,Editor-in-Chief, Disaster Medicine and Public HealthPreparedness
Dr. James brings over 30 years of experience in the public and private health care sectors–as a clinician, researcher, professional personnel manager and program director. He is board certified in general preventive medicine, earned a doctorate in medicine at the Cincinnati College of Medicine, a doctorate in public health from UCLA's School of Public Health, and a masters in health care administration from Baylor University. Dr. James served 26 years with the U.S. Army Medical Department, serving in a multitude of capacities. His last assignment was as the Commanding General of William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. Upon retirement in 1997, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the military's highest peace-time honor. He went on to join FHC Options in Norfolk, Virginia, where he oversaw the building and management of the FHC Options team responsible for winning several multi-billion dollar U.S. government managed care contracts.
From 1999 through December 2002, Dr. James served as Director of the Miami-Dade County Health Department. There he was responsible for the oversight and supervision of public health programs throughout the county. He was charged with the management of a $60 million budget and the supervision of approximately 1000 employees. The Miami-Dade County Health Department promotes and protects the health and safety of the residents and visitors of Miami-Dade County by preventing epidemics and the spread of disease, protecting against environmental hazards, preventing injuries, promoting and encouraging healthy behaviors, responding to disasters and assisting the community in recovery efforts.
After the tragic events of September 11th, Dr. James led the Miami-Dade County Health Department as it investigated and responded to possible bio-terrorist threats to the community. His swift and effective response to the anthrax attacks of 2001 resulted in James becoming a recognized expert in the area of bio-preparedness and he was appointed to the Governor's Domestic Security Task Force as well as the Lead Health Agent for Preparedness and Response for Region 7 in Florida, an area accounting for one-third of the population of the state. Under his leadership, the Miami-Dade County Health Department was awarded the Governor's Sterling Award in 2002. This highly prestigious award recognizes organizations and businesses in Florida that have successfully achieved performance excellence within their management and operations.
Gerald Wydro, MD
Temple Univeristy Health System Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Captain Dennis E. Amundson
Commissioned as ENS in 1972, at the same time as entering COMS in Des Moines Iowa, Captain Dennis Amundson's naval career has encompassed a variety of assignments and duties as a Naval Physician. Ending his first 4 years of General Medical Officer experience with the Seabees and in a small rural Georgia clinic, he completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Naval Hospital Oakland where he met his wife, Captain (R) Stephanie Brodine.
Captain Amundson then spent 3 years on Okinawa as a General Internist followed by 2 years at Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton. After deciding Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine was his calling, he transitioned to Naval Medical Center, San Diego first as training Fellow, then as staff in Pulmonary/ Critical Care Medicine. After 11 years of heading the Intensive Care Unit, in 1996 he retired and took a 2-year "sabbatical" with the San Diego Kaiser system. In 1999 he was asked to return to active duty as Program Director for Pulmonary/ Critical Care, and he has continued to function in this capacity to date.
During his career, Captain Amundson has been deployed with the Seabees, the Marines, and with special operations forces in the Global War on terrorism. He has recently spent 6 months in Iraq as part of the Combined Land Force Coalition Command (CFLCC) under General Tommy Franks where he functioned in the Iraqi ministry of Health as coalition Task Force VII medical leader.
Dr. Amundson is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences in BBio Captain Dennis E - Google Docsethesda Md. and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego. He holds numerous faculty positions on the staff at San Diego State University and the University of Nebraska. Dr. Amundson has been principal investigator in over 30 scientific studies, has authored over 80 medical publications and has been honored with a myriad of teaching awards. He is currently finishing a Master's degree program in "Global Disaster Preparedness and Humanitarian Assistance" and teaches disaster medicine at San Diego State University.
CAPT Amundson's involvement in disaster response and chem/bio/rad mitigation has been long-standing and he has written and taught nationally and internationally on the subjects. Dr Amundson has just returned from a 4 month deployment on the USNS MERCY performing humanitarian assistance in Southeast Asia and disaster response to the Yogyakarta Indonesia earthquake.