I was an Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, where I did my graduate studies before moving to France twenty years ago. My undergraduate degree is a BSN from the University of Pennsylvania. My MPH and DrPH are in Public Health, specializing in Health Education, Behavioral Sciences and Health Services Administration. While at Hopkins I was responsible for teaching the Health Education curriculum and even served as Acting Director of the Division of Health Education for a time. I then spent twenty years in France, working for the French equivalent of NIH (INSERM) as a Senior Research Associate with responsibility for project development, grant writing, supervision, implementation, analyses and publication. I have been the principle investigator on numerous grants over the years and have published extensively. I have also had contact with the private sector in Europe, especially France, and am considered an expert on the cross-cultural development and translation of Quality of Life scales for various diseases.
In addition I have developed materials, and implemented and evaluated training programs for health care professionals in Francophone Europe, the Caribbean and Africa; the latter as a consultant for CDC. My particular areas of interest are chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C and HIV. Since 1989, I have been a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for CCCD Program in French speaking African countries doing educational diagnosis and evaluation of programs concerning communicable diseases in children: i.e. HIV/AIDS, Diarrhea, Malaria in the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, and Congo. In 2007, I helped develop the HIV/AIDS educational curriculum for students and teachers in Ghana under the auspices of the Ghanaian Department of Education.
In addition, as researchers do not normally teach in France, beginning in 1991, I developed and was the Curriculum Director, for the Diabetes Education Study Group, the Francophone Section of the Diabetes Education Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). This group has now become associated with the ALFEDIAM which is the expert group on Diabetes for Francophone countries. In addition to aiding in the development of multidisciplinary networks, I have developed and implemented a training program for health care providers in Francophone countries that lasts two and a half years and prepares them to manage patients in groups or in individual encounters. This was the first program to provide multidisciplinary training in France. I was also the Secretary of the Diabetes Nutrition Study Group of the EASD.
For the last four years I have been the Director of Research for the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute (NFBJI) whose national office is in Baltimore, MD. I have assisted in the development of a research agenda for the NFB. I also developed collaborative relationships with other research and academic partners, evaluated existing projects, and oversaw the development of research projects with collaborating universities. I conducted research and evaluation studies with the target population, blind and low vision people in the United States.
After four years as the Director of Research at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, I have done short term consulting for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Agency for International Development (AID), and other professional groups around Baltimore.
HONORS AND AWARDS
1982 - 1983 Member, International Blue Book
1982 Citation from the Governor of the State of Maryland for "out-standing services to the citizens of this state" for participation in the 1981 White House Conference on Aging.
1979 Award as one of the "Outstanding Young Women of America".
1974 "Academic Reward for College Scientists" (ARCS) Scholarship. Given for the highest academic average in a School of Public Health.
Companies I like:
Climber.com, Universities, Government, United Health
Since graduating, with a DrPH, Health Education, I have been responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of research projects here and in Europe. I am experienced in the training and monitoring of multiple levels of assistants and associates within these projects. I have developed and taught multiple curricula in the US, Europe and Africa.