Speaker Bios
2023 Speaker Biographies
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David Kern
Deputy Commissioner
Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Dave Kern started his professional career at the Chicago Department of Public Health in the Office of LGBT Health and now serves as its Deputy Commissioner for the Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau. Mr. Kern previously worked as the Director of Prevention with NASTAD in Washington, D.C. and Manager for Infectious Disease Prevention with the State of Washington. Mr. Kern serves as chair elect of NASTAD and as a member of the Internal Advisory Board for the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research.
Allison Arwady, MD, MPH
Commissioner
Chicago Department of Public Health
Dr. Allison Arwady, MD, MPH, is the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), charged with leading the nation’s third-largest city’s health department. Dr. Arwady has been at CDPH since 2015, where she initially served as Chief Medical Officer, overseeing the disease control, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and behavioral health divisions, before being confirmed as Commissioner in January 2020. Prior to CDPH, she worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. With CDC, she worked on HIV and tuberculosis in Botswana, and international outbreak responses in Saudia Arabia (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and Liberia (Ebola). While based at the Illinois Department of Public Health, she responded to disease outbreaks across the state. She has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University, and completed medical school and clinical training at Yale University. Dr. Arwady is a board-certified internal medicine physician and pediatrician, a member of the American Colleges of Physicians, and continues to see primary care patients regularly.
Keynote presentation by
Michelle Van Handel, MPH
Associate Director - Program and Performance Improvement
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Michelle Van Handel is the Associate Director for the Program and Performance Improvement Office at CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP). In this role, Michelle works with colleagues across CDC to evaluate and enhance the efficiency, outcomes, and impact of NCHHSTP programs, policies, and activities. Michelle began her career at CDC as an Association of Schools of Public Health Fellow in 2009 and has served as a Health Scientist in the Program Evaluation Branch, Division of HIV Prevention and PPIO, NCHHSTP. She has also deployed and served details as the Acting Deputy Director for NCHHSTP and Associate Director for Science in the Chief Health Equity Officer Unit for the COVID-19 Response. She has authored 35 peer-reviewed manuscripts on monitoring and evaluating HIV testing and other HIV, STI, and viral hepatitis health outcomes in the United States, estimating population size and costs related to pre-exposure prophylaxis, and assessing communities at risk for HIV and HCV outbreaks. Michelle earned a bachelor’s degree in medical microbiology and Immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master's of Public Health from Drexel University School of Public Health.
Boatemaa Ntiri-Reid, MPH, JD
Senior Director - Syndemic Approaches
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD)
Boatemaa Ntiri-Reid (Bwa-tee-mah In-tee-ree Reed) is the Senior Director of Syndemic Approaches at NASTAD. In this role, she leads integration of HIV, viral hepatitis, and drug user health into a united framework for improving outcomes across these intersecting issues. Prior to her current role, she served as NASTAD’s Director, Hepatitis and oversaw programmatic and technical assistance initiatives related to viral hepatitis. Prior to NASTAD, Boatemaa served as Chief of the Center for Viral Hepatitis at the Maryland Department of Health coordinating departmental and statewide efforts to prevent, control, and treat viral hepatitis. Boatemaa is also an attorney and has worked in public health programs at the national, federal, state, and city levels. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, M.P.H. from Columbia University, and J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.
Graham L. Briggs, MS
State Epidemiologist
Illinois Department of Public Health
Graham has over 20 years of experience working in public health, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.
Graham began his public health career working for the Arizona State Lab in 2001. Over the years he has also worked in epidemiology at the state level and managed a county’s Infectious Diseases Control program, before serving as a local Director of Public Health in Minnesota from 2018 through 2021.
Prior to moving into Illinois’ State Epidemiologist role, Graham most recently served as a Senior Director for NACCHO, the National Association of City and County Health Officials. In this position, he oversaw NACCHO’s Infectious Diseases and Informatics work.
In his current role as State Epidemiologist Graham consults with federal, state, and local public health officials around infectious diseases, data use, and other emerging public health issues throughout Illinois.
Jennifer Seo, JD, MD, FAAP
Chief Medical Officer
Chicago Department of Public Health
Jennifer Seo, MD, JD, FAAP is Chief Medical Officer at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). As Chief Medical Officer, she is spearheading the development of CDPH’s new Office of the Chief Medical Officer, including setting strategy for healthcare system coordination and engagement, healthcare policy, and the health department’s direct health services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Seo led the public health response for the City of Chicago’s government and critical infrastructure departments and schools.
Prior to serving as Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Seo was the Medical Director for CDPH’s Bureau of Maternal, Infant, Child, and Adolescent Health (MICAH). During her time as MICAH Medical Director, she led the department’s work in addressing racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality, oversaw CDPH’s maternal child health nursing program, and served as the medical lead for CDPH’s WIC and school-based health programs.
Dr. Seo holds a bachelor’s degree in Literature from Harvard University, a law degree from Columbia Law School, and a medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She completed a medical residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago. She is dual board-certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and sees patients as a volunteer physician at a federally qualified health center.
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Hilary Reno, MD, PhD, FIDSA
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Infectious Disease - Washington University in St. Louis
Medical Consultant
Division of STD Prevention - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Hilary Reno, MD, PhD, FIDSA is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Division of Infectious Disease. She focuses on the care of patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV prevention. Her current research is working to build a Regional Sexual Health Data Platform to improve evaluation of sexual health care, center communities most affected by STIs, and affect change in access to sexual health care and the quality of that care on a regional level. Dr. Reno has been the medical director of the St. Louis County Sexual Health clinic for 15 years. She is medical director of the St. Louis STI/ HIV Prevention Training Center and a medical consultant with the CDC, Division of STD Prevention.
Irina Tabidze, MD, MPH
Director of Program Operations
Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Irina Tabidze is the Director of Program Operations, Division of Public Health Services, within the Bureau of Syndemic Infectious Diseases and oversees HIV/STI/Viral Hepatitis Surveillance, Public Health Interventions, Epidemiology, Research, and Evaluations teams. Dr. Tabidze trained clinically as a gynecologist and completed medical training and a full-time residency program at World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center, Zhordania Institute of Human Reproduction, in Tbilisi, Georgia. She subsequently trained in clinical, immunological, and epidemiological aspects of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV, and herpes simplex viruses at the Division of Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology, and Immunology in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Tabidze obtained a master’s in public health degree in epidemiology/maternal/child health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Tabidze is a public health specialist with expertise in STI/HIV (including perinatal infections) surveillance, research, and prevention and serves as a Principal Investigator on several CDC-funded projects. She published numerous peer-reviewed articles in prominent journals including Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, JAMA and MMWR.
Aniruddha (Anu) Hazra, MD
Assistant Professor - Infectious Diseases and Global Health
Director of STI Services at the Chicago Center of HIV Elimination
Department of Medicine
University of Chicago
Dr. Anu Hazra is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Chicago and Director of STI Services at the Chicago Center of HIV Elimination. In addition to his work at the University, he is also a physician at Howard Brown Health’s 55th Street Clinic. His research and clinical interests center on the impact of sexually transmitted infections on gender and sexual minorities living on the South Side of Chicago to help inform effective treatment and prevention efforts. Through such work, he hopes to reframe sexual health from the current disease-centric model towards an approach that focuses its context on broader health and wellbeing. Along with a commitment to his patients, Dr. Hazra also teaches and mentors medical students, residents, and fellows; he is currently director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at the University of Chicago. Above all else, he is passionate about the equitable delivery of healthcare to LGBTQ people of color.
Andrew Trotter, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine
Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Andrew Trotter is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an attending physician at UI Health. Dr. Trotter's clinical, teaching and research interests focus on the care of people living with HIV/AIDS and HIV Primary Care, HIV prevention including PrEP, sexually transmitted infections, and general infectious diseases. He provides care within the UI Health Community Clinic Network, UIC’s Ryan White Program. He also provides infectious disease expertise for UI Health’s HIV clinical screening and linkage to care programs and efforts to increase access and uptake of PrEP at UI Health and UIC’s affiliated Mile Square Health Centers. Dr Trotter also serves or has served as a co-investigator on several clinical research projects evaluating new HIV PrEP medications, an HIV vaccine candidate, and a CDC-funded study exploring sexual networks and syphilis transmission in men who have sex with men (MSM). Gender-affirming and LGBTQIA+ inclusive care is central to his approach to patient care; he teaches these topics to medical students and internal medicine residents and advocates for their greater inclusion in academic medicine and clinical spaces.
Kimberly Stanford, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor - Section of Emergency Medicine
Director of ED HIV and STI Screening
Chicago Center for HIV Elimination (CCHE)
University of Chicago
Kimberly Stanford, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago, and the Director of ED HIV and STI Screening at the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination (CCHE). Dr. Stanford runs a robust ED HIV screening program and developed an innovative universal syphilis screening program that has detected high asymptomatic syphilis rates among ED patients. Her research focuses on the use of the emergency department visit to address the social determinants of health, including infectious diseases, sexual and reproductive health, and interpersonal violence. She is currently funded by a K23 award from NIAID to study the implementation of ED syphilis screening. Utilizing implementation science methods to inform program development, implementation, and expansion, Dr. Stanford hopes to improve early diagnosis and access to care through innovative ED screening and referral programs.
Stephanie S. Arnold Pang
Senior Director - Policy and Government Relations
National Coalition of STD Directors
Stephanie oversees all policy and advocacy matters with a specific focus on policymaker education efforts at the federal level with the legislative and executive branches of government, as well as the organization’s expert on the 340B drug pricing program. Prior to joining NCSD, she was a senior Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Patty Murray (WA), working on issues of sexual and reproductive health and health care reform and also worked at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA). Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Beloit College.
Monique Rucker, MPH
Director for the FOCUS Program
Government Affairs
Gilead Sciences Inc.
Monique Rucker, MPH - Monique Rucker currently serves as a Director in Gilead’s FOCUS program. She partners with organizations and government agencies in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to implement innovative approaches to HIV and hepatitis diagnosis and linkage to care. Prior to her role at Gilead, she assisted with routinizing HIV and HCV screening and linkage to care at Sinai Health System in Chicago and co-led efforts to change the Illinois law to better allow for people to be screened for HIV according to the CDC’s recommendations. Ms. Rucker is from Maryland where she held multiple roles at the Baltimore City Health Department including Ryan White program officer where she launched the first HIV linkage to care program for persons reentering the community from jail and prison in Maryland, Senior Advisor for HIV and Harm Reduction to the Health Commissioner, and Bureau Chief for HIV/Harm Reduction where she managed and expanded the only legal syringe exchange in Maryland and one of few drug overdose prevention and response programs in the country at the time, and she also served as an acting Legislative Director during her tenure. She has held numerous other roles including serving as an epidemiologist and a lobbyist for HIV/AIDS issues.
Lora Branch, MS
Senior Regional Director for the FOCUS Program
Government Affairs
Gilead Sciences Inc.
Lora Branch, MS – A proud Chicago native, Ms. Branch has dedicated her entire career to social justice and public health. Ms. Branch works for Government Affairs section of Gilead Sciences Inc. where she serves as a Senior Regional Director for the FOCUS initiative and manages the Central and Northeast regions of the United States. Ms. Branch also managed the Black Church and HIV Social Justice Initiative, Gilead’s collaborative partnership with the NAACP. Prior to her role with Gilead, Ms. Branch worked with the Chicago Department of Public Health where she led program operations for HIV Prevention, Care, Housing, Capacity Building and STI/HIV specialty clinics. Ms. Branch was also the Bureau Chief for the Health Department’s Office of LGBT Health. As an ardent believer in the power of media and social marketing, Ms. Branch has developed several television programs, training videos, and public service announcements including the award winning, television series Kevin’s Room and the documentary 40th: The Story of Roberts Temple.
Nancy Glick, MD
Medical Director
Access Community Health Network
Sinai Health System
Nancy Glick is the Principal Investigator for two FOCUS partnerships in Chicago. She serves as the Medical Director of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Medical Director of HIV Services for ACCESS Community Health Network, one of the largest federally qualified health centers in the country. Dr. Glick is an expert in HIV, STDs, resistant pathogens, and hepatitis and disparities in treatment for Black and Latinx communities.
Moira McNulty, MD, MS
Assistant Professor of Medicine - Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health
Chicago Center for HIV Elimination
University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Moira McNulty, MD, MS (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health and Director of HIV Testing in the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination. She completed her MD at the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in 2010, followed by her residency in Internal Medicine (2013), Infectious Diseases fellowship (2016), and Masters in Public Health Sciences (2018) at the University of Chicago. She is an NIH-funded researcher and leads the health department-funded Expanded Testing and Linkage to Care program for routine HIV screening in healthcare settings. Her research incorporates implementation science and health services research methodologies to understand approaches to optimize HIV care continuum outcomes.
Danucha Brikshavana, MPH
Section Chief
STI Section
Illinois Department of Public Health
Danny Brikshavana. MPH is the STI Section Chief for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Division of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STI, and TB. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and his Masters in Public Health at UIC - School of Public Health. He has worked in both the communicable disease and chronic disease fields at the local health department level and at the state level. Prior to being the STI Section Chief in 2016, he was an epidemiologist at the Cook County Department of Public Health, epidemiologist at the IDPH chronic disease programs, and then epidemiologist for the IDPH STI Section.
Ashley Martell Becht, MPH
Director of Disease Investigations
Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Ashley M. Becht currently serves as the Director of Disease Investigations at the Chicago Department of Public Health in the Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau and is responsible for the oversight and management of the Office of Syndemic Infectious Disease Surveillance. More specifically, Ashley oversees the work of our Disease Intervention Specialists as it relates to Chicago’s surveillance of HIV, STIs, viral hepatitis, and Mpox. Prior to Ashley’s role in the Office of SID Surveillance, Ashley served as the Director of Disease Investigations for the COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing (CICT) team at CDPH and brings vast knowledge and experience working alongside community-based organizations for effective and strategic public health intervention among syndemic conditions. Ashley received a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in health behavior as well as a Graduate Certificate in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Kentucky. Ashley also holds a Certified in Public Health (CPH) credential from the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Eric Warren, MPH
Public Health Advisor at Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Assigned to Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Eric Warren, MPH, is a CDC Public Health Advisor who has been assigned to the Chicago Department of Public Health since 2003. He specializes in staff development, resource development, systems development, quality improvement and assurance, and training. He manages the Chicago Health Information Management System (CHIMS), the bureau’s electronic HIV/STI surveillance and case management system that allows health care providers throughout the city of Chicago to electronically report syphilis, congenital syphilis, and HIV cases. Outside of reporting he predominantly works within public health surveillance, specifically on the congenital syphilis prevention and elimination team. Prior to working with the CDC, Mr. Warren worked for the Georgia Department of Public Health as a Communicable Disease Specialist (DIS) and in syphilis surveillance.
Kathleen Ritger, MD, MPH
Medical Director
Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Dr. Ritger has practiced public health at the state and local levels since 2004, first as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer assigned to the Illinois Department of Public Health, then as a medical director at the Chicago Department of Public Health. In her current role as Medical Director of the CDPH Tuberculosis Program she ensures the safe and effective treatment for people with tuberculosis, directs contact investigations to prevent the spread of TB, and develops partnerships to identify and treat TB infection early before it become infectious. She received her bachelor and medical degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, completed residency in pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and earned a Master’s in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Ritger lives in Chicago with her husband and their two young sons.
Patrick Stonehouse, MSW
Director of Public Health Operations
Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau
Chicago Department of Public Health
Patrick Stonehouse (He/Him/His) is the Director of Program Operations for the Community Health Services Division of the Syndemic Infectious Disease (SID) Bureau of the Chicago Department of Public Health. Patrick began his public health career in 1997 in HIV and harm reduction services and joined the Chicago Department of Public Health as Director of HIV Prevention in 2014. He has since worked on population-specific systemic/structural interventions to increase access to and benefit from clinical and supportive services, and standing up the Chicago Community COVID Community Response Corps and is currently responsible for overseeing community engagement, delegate agencies implementing the HIV Services Portfolio (Healthcare Access, Housing and Resource Coordination, and Community Development and Equity), planning, evaluation, programmatic data and efforts focused on increasing equitable achieving of getting to zero new HIV infections and other desired health outcomes.
