PHII - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Informatics Analyst
- Senior Informatics Analyst With the Practice Support Unit
Candace Garcia is a senior informatics analyst with the Practice Support Unit in the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII). Candace comes to PHII with nearly 15 years of experience in healthcare management, including over a decade of experience in public health. She is particularly passionate about disease prevention and the importance of immunizations for population health.
Job Titles:
- Senior Informatics Analyst
- Senior Informatics Analyst in the Practice Support Unit
Charisse LaVell serves as a senior informatics analyst in the Practice Support Unit at the Public Health Informatics Institute. Prior to this role, Charisse worked at the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) on a CDC cooperative agreement-funded project, specifically serving as the project director over the Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System (RCKMS), a Decision Support Tool used in electronic case reporting (eCR). While responsible for guiding the strategic direction of the project, she also led the technical development, training and education, technical assistance and end user support activities. Additionally, she launched the RCKMS community of practice. Most recently, Charisse served as the technical assistance lead at Altarum working with state newborn screening programs to build towards newborn screening interoperability.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Senior Deputy Director
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Program Assistant
Deidra Baitey serves as a program assistant for PHII, where she provides core operational support. Prior to joining PHII, Deidra provided administrative and human resources support to Task Force for Global Health. She has over a decade of experience in administrative roles, as well as banking and finance.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager
- Senior Project Manager
Judith Kerr serves as project manager for PHII's data modernization portfolio. Judith brings to this role nearly a decade of experience in public health program management within state and nonprofit programs. Prior to joining PHII, Judith oversaw child health screening programs, including newborn screening and early hearing detection and intervention programs at the Georgia Department of Public Health. In this role, she conducted strategic planning, coordinated activities of grant-funded projects, managed a special project to strengthen the early childhood system and provided technical assistance to state and local partners. Prior to working in state public health, Judith led the expansion of a pediatric vision program through a local nonprofit agency.
Kati Keebaugh is a project manager at PHII. She leads project management activities for the USAID-funded Neglected Tropical Diseases Information System (NIS) and the Multi-state EHR-based Network for Disease Surveillance (MENDS) project. Kati brings to this role over a decade of experience in nonprofit, research and government health program management. Kati has managed day-to-day operations for multiple health programs, including planning and implementation, health communications, technical assistance and evaluation. Prior to joining PHII, Kati served as the research administrative coordinator for Emory's Center for Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development. She oversaw project management, data collection and grant expenditures for research grants investigating the long-term health effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in adults.
Lisa Jones serves as a communications manager for PHII. Lisa has called the nonprofit world her professional home for most of her career. She has applied her writing, editing and digital communications skills at several nonprofits and The John Maxwell Company.
Job Titles:
- Data Engineer for the Gates Foundation
- Data Engineer III
Lucy Liu serves as a data engineer for the Gates Foundation-funded CHAMPS project. Prior to coming to PHII, she worked as an informatics data analyst at Emory University, where she specialized in developing ETL (extract, transformation, and load) processes and data models. Before that role, Lucy worked in IT and SAS-based data integration.
Job Titles:
- Director of Practice Support
- Director of the Practice Support Business Unit
Lura holds an MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a BS in biology from the University of North Texas. She served three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana between her undergraduate and graduate programs, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Georgia State University's DrPH program.
Michael DeMayo serves as a senior project manager at PHII. Prior to joining PHII, Michael DeMayo was a consultant for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, AIDS Office, where he recently co-developed a 5-year strategic plan for HIV direct care and prevention services in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo Counties. He also served as a project coordinator on a five-year CDC Medication Therapy Management Demonstration Project in partnership with HealthHIV in Washington, D.C., Walgreens Community Pharmacies and the University of North Texas System College of Pharmacy.
Mondie Tharp serves as a project manager at PHII, supporting both the Practice Support Unit and the Requirements Lab. She brings over 15 years of experience in nonprofit, research and international health program management across a variety of public health topics. Prior to joining PHII, she worked at the Secretariat for The Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (located at the Task Force for Global Health), where she led the planning and implementation of GPZL's work with 12 country partners. Her other roles have included systems alignment projects at the Georgia Health Policy Center, HIV research studies in the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health and Infant and Young Child Feeding programs at CARE USA. Additionally, she worked for seven years overseeing refugee resettlement programs, both locally and nationally.
Monet Smith serves as project coordinator for PHII, where she provides programmatic assistance to PHII leadership and operations team for budget tracking, events, meetings, contracts and projects. She has over 15 years of experience.
Job Titles:
- Business Analyst
- Business Analyst II
Navit Salzberg is a business analyst on the CHAMPS informatics team, where she guides the CHAMPS data quality monitoring and improvement workstream, supports the design and implementation of data collection forms and provides support to all aspects of CHAMPS informatics projects.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Communications
Piper Hale serves as the associate director of communications for PHII. In this role, Piper manages the communications team and is responsible for supporting the mission of PHII through the coordination and creation of written, visual and digital communications. She is the co-creator, host and producer of PHII's podcast, "Inform Me, Informatics."
Santita Hooper serves as a project manager at PHII. In this role, she manages PHII's ongoing data modernization initiative. Prior to joining PHII, Santita managed a population-based maternal and child health program at the Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH). At GDPH, Santita provided technical assistance to local public health districts and stakeholders, ensured program compliance with state and federal guidelines and supervised database modifications and enhancements. Santita has over 10 years of experience leading cross-functional teams, administering programs and managing projects in state agency and non-profit settings. She brings a wealth of experience within the areas of continuous quality improvement, contract management and project management.
Job Titles:
- Senior Informatics Analyst
Sarah Shaw serves as a senior informatics analyst for PHII, where she primarily focuses on projects related to supporting jurisdictions' data modernization efforts. Prior to coming to PHII, Sarah ran her own successful consulting firm, where she provided her expertise to health, IT and nonprofit companies. Sarah's other previous professional experience runs the gamut from private health IT to state public health; in the latter role, she specialized in early hearing detection and intervention, as well as health policy.
Job Titles:
- Business Analyst
- Business Analyst for PHII 's USAID
Sarah Stallard serves as a business analyst for PHII's USAID-funded project portfolio. In this role, she conducts business analysis processes for tracking progress toward neglected tropical disease elimination and control. Prior to joining PHII, Sarah had spent several years as an epidemiologist in state health departments for Virginia and Kentucky, with an emphasis on sexually transmitted infections as well as COVID-19 and hepatitis. She has also worked in various HIV-centered roles for Emory University's PRISM initiative.
Job Titles:
- Business Analyst
- Business Analyst With
Shanti Bazouma is a business analyst with PHII who focuses on creating a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Information System to advance monitoring and evaluation goals to eradicate NTDs across the globe. Prior to serving as business analyst, Shanti served as a data specialist for the TEPHINET program at the Task Force for Global Health, where she created strong operational systems to help advance TEPHINET's mission of having every field epidemiology training program (FETP) supported by a strong workforce. She also supported a variety of projects throughout Latin America focusing on Zika research. Previously, she worked as a project coordinator for the Emory University School of Nursing, assisting in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in West Africa.
Shawn Eastridge serves as a communications manager for PHII. For the past decade, Shawn has honed his talents in a variety of industries from non-profit to education and even film. He has a wide breadth of experience in project management, digital strategy, writing and podcast production.
Job Titles:
- Senior Business Analyst
- Senior Business Analyst With PHII 's Requirements Lab
Sheereen serves as a senior business analyst with PHII's Requirements Lab, where she leads efforts around mapping public health processes. Sheereen returned to PHII in this role in 2023, but her professional history with PHII is extensive and varied. She initially joined the Task Force for Global Health in 2012 as a volunteer and later as a PHII intern with the Requirements Lab.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Business Operations
As associate director of business operations, Tonya Duhart is responsible for supporting budget tracking, meeting logistics, process improvements and other aspects of PHII's operations work.
Treonda Chapman serves as an informatics analyst for PHII. Before joining PHII, she worked as a communicable disease specialist at the DeKalb County Board of Health. In this role, Treonda trained as a subject matter expert to perform epidemiological investigations and data collection to aid in reducing the spread of HIV and STIs throughout the United States.