National Public Health Week 2021

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Andrea Ault-Brutus, PhD, MPA
Director of Health Equity, Nassau County Department of Health

Born and raised in South East Queens, and now a Nassau County resident, Dr. Andrea Ault-Brutus is the Director of Health Equity for the Nassau County Department of Health. Dr. Ault-Brutus has 20 years of experience improving health outcomes and access to quality health care for vulnerable and underserved populations. Previous to working for the Nassau County Department of Health, Dr. Ault-Brutus was the Senior Director of the Mental Health Innovation Lab at the New York City Department of Health, and prior to that, she was a health disparities researcher at Harvard University.

Dr. Ault-Brutus’ expertise includes community-engaged approaches to identify and implement health solutions, implementation of quality improvement interventions in clinical and community settings, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.

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Martine Hackett is an associate professor in the master of public health and community health programs at Hofstra University whose research interests include maternal-child health, infant mortality and community based participatory research.

Her previous work experience is as a deputy director at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health and as a television producer.

Dr. Hackett received her BFA in film and television from New York University, a master of public health from Hunter College and a doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

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Hannon chaired the New York State Senate Health Committee for nearly two decades. He chaired numerous task forces, civic programs, and charitable endeavors. Hannon is regarded as the spearheading force behind both the reauthorization of the Health Care Reform Act and the development of New York's Assisted Living Program. Additionally, he helped the state enact several popular health programs including Child Health Plus, Healthy New York, Family Health Plus, the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Program, early intervention efforts, concussion management and insurance coverage for autism, prostate and breast cancer screenings.

Additional initiatives included Rape Victims Bill of Rights (and funding comprehensive testing of rape kits), key laws on whooping cough vaccinations, and a mandate to require patients be offered Hepatitis C testing. Senator Hannon was a leader and prime sponsor of the landmark “I-STOP” law to curb opioid prescription drug use and to monitor controlled substance dispensing activity and patterns. He oversaw the law on electronic prescribing of medications.

In 2018, Hannon authored the Clean Water Infrastructure Act – a $2.5 billion investment in drinking water infrastructure, clean water infrastructure and water quality protection across New York, a result of exhaustive hearings upstate and on Long Island. The act created NY’s Water Council, whose recent actions have created precedented standards for water quality in the United States.

Hannon graduated from Chaminade High School (1963), Boston College (1967) and Fordham University School of Law (1970). He was Special Counsel to the law firm Farrell Fritz, P.C., ending the association on January 31, 2017. Hannon resides in Garden City, New York with his wife Bronwyn. They have twin daughters, Alexandra and Madeleine.

Hannon served in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 1989. In 1989, he was elected to the New York State Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John R. Dunne, due to Dunne’s appointment as an Assistant Attorney General in the US Justice Department. Hannon represented the 6th State Senate District, which spanned the central part of Nassau County, with Franklin Square on the west and Farmingdale on the east.

On November 6, 2018, after having served 29 years in the New York State Senate, Hannon was unexpectedly defeated in his re-election bid by Democratic challenger Kevin Thomas.

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Dr. Nicholas Mercado, Program Director/Co-Executive-in-Residence, is a clinical ethicist and program manager in Northwell Health's Division of Medical Ethics. He holds a dual faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology, and Prevention at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Professions in the School of Health Professions and Human Services and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies.

In his current position at Northwell Health, Dr. Mercado conducts clinical ethics consultations, sits on numerous hospital ethics committees, participates in scholarly research projects, and oversees medical ethics educational and clinical serv. He serves as curriculum coordinator and instructor for the Zucker School of Medicine’s ethics and professionalism curriculum and teaches communication skills and public health to medical students. Dr. Mercado is a nationally recognized healthcare ethics consultant certified through the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

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As senior vice president of community and population health, Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH, oversees Northwell Health’s community and public health strategy, including community health investment, community relations, strategic community partnerships, the Center for Equity of Care, as well as the smoking cessation, human trafficking and Food as Health programs. She is also a professor of medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Dr. Salas-Lopez joined Northwell in 2019 as senior vice president for transformation, responsible for system value-based initiatives that improve health and care delivery. She assumed her leadership role after serving as the chief transformation officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network, where she led strategy and oversaw a unique and broad portfolio, including community-based and population health initiatives, telehealth, connected care, and innovation, strategic partnerships, and operational redesigning of the clinical delivery system.

At Lehigh Valley, Dr. Salas-Lopez held various academic and clinical leadership positions. In 2009, she was appointed as the Leonard Parker Pool Chair of Medicine, a role she served in until 2015 when she became an associate chief medical officer. In 2017, she was appointed chief transformation officer for Lehigh Valley Health Network. Academically, she was a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine and the College of Public Health. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

She has collaborated with many community-based organizations on issues related to prevention, screening, and healthcare access and has partnered with other healthcare institutions to address community needs. She has led initiatives to improve quality of care and the health of the community, reduce costs, and provide better care coordination.

She is a nationally recognized speaker and educator in women leaders in medicine, healthcare disparities and equity in care, cultural awareness and language-appropriate services, and the impact of social and economic factors on health.

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Joy D. Calloway, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York- Joy D. Calloway is a charismatic, transformational leader with 28 years professional health care and non-profit leadership experience. Currently serving as the Interim Chief Executive Officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Joy is a three-time graduate of The University of Michigan (BA, MBA, MHSA) where she remains very active with her alma mater, mentoring and precepting young professionals. Prior to her current role, Joy served as Interim Executive Director for the National Association of Health Services  Executives (NAHSE). From 2013 – 2018, Ms. Calloway served as President and Chief Executive Officer of New Center Community Mental Health Services in Detroit, MI, where she revived and repositioned an agency striving to remain relevant and impactful.  A well-respected and well-connected professional and sought after consultant and speaker, Joy is finding great success with the “Joy D. Calloway” brand as both an international public speaker - on topics as wide-ranging as mental health, non-profit board development, community health, leadership, and emotional intelligence – and a non-profit consultant and group facilitator - for strategic discussions, team-building, workflow and process consulting, topical training and strategic and operational planning. Joy is active with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Southfield Alumnae Chapter, The Links, Inc. (Renaissance Chapter), Impact Detroit 100 (a women's philanthropic group), and is a member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan Board of Directors.

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Nadine A. Chang, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychology Training Director at Gracie Square Hospital, a freestanding inpatient psychiatric hospital within the New York-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network. Dr. Chang also holds faculty appointments as Assistant Attending Psychologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry (Courtesy) at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Chang earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology at NYU and Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology at Hofstra University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with Dr. Aaron Beck, where she served as Project Director and assessment supervisor for clinical studies of schizophrenia and suicide, receiving the NIH National Research Service Award for this work. Dr. Chang’s interests continue to focus on implementing and disseminating CBT for psychosis, suicide prevention and Asian American mental health.

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Steve Forti serves as the Chief Wellness and Resiliency Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery. He is an accomplished leader with a focus on the well-being of medical staff, managers and front line staff concentrating on overall stress, physical and emotional management. In addition to his position at HSS, Steve is the CEO and Founder of FitFight LLC a global fitness competition application. Steve has served as a consultant for Johnson & Johnson’s Orthopedic Trauma Division, where he utilized eight years of Critical Care and Trauma Nursing experience. In the military, he earned the rank of Master Sergeant after serving 23+ years in Army Special Forces, where his specialties included Special Forces Weapons Sergeant and Special Forces Intel Sergeant. He is a Level 1 Sniper, and attended Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab at DIA as well as the Special Operations Planners Course in Norfolk VA. Steve earned a BS in Nursing from Quinnipiac University, completed a Critical Care Residency at Yale New Haven Hospital Systems, and holds a BS in Political Science from Southern Connecticut State University.

Aditya Bisoonath is a Research Supervisor in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwell Health and Adjunct Professor in the Master of Public Health Program at Hofstra University. In his current role, Aditya oversees research operations in a multi-specialty, pediatric clinic and manages a team of research coordinators. Aditya received a Bachelor’s degree in Toxicology from St. John’s University and Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration degrees from Hofstra University.

Arpita Hazra is a physician who completed her MPH at Hofstra in 2019. She is now working as a Clinical Patient Safety Data Analyst in the department of risk management at Healthcare Risk Advisors, NYC. In her present role, Arpita identifies trends and opportunities through data and analytics to improve patient safety and quality of care in client health systems. She is also collaborating with healthcare institutions to reduce their liability exposure by assisting them with developing policies and programs to improve patient outcomes.

Joshua Moskovitz is an Emergency Physician practicing in an urban, tertiary, academic hospital that is a part of the largest municipal health system in the country. Practicing clinically and operationally at the intersection of public health and business administration, he strives to improve processes to provide higher quality care, remove barriers to care, and prevent unnecessary care that does not increase health value. Through organizational improvement Joshua delivers increased quality and performance.

Marissa Hiruma has a bachelor’s in Economics with a minor in Sociology, and a Master’s degree in Education Policy and Social Policy from NYU. In her current role at HWCLI, Marissa manages the Health Equity Alliance of Long Island, a coalition focused on health disparities and the social determinants of health, as well as the organization’s disaster response coalition, which has led the nonprofit sector’s COVID-19 response since the onset of the pandemic.

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Dr. Laura L. Koenig was trained as a linguist and speech scientist. She is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Adelphi University; a Research Scientist at Haskins Laboratories; and a Research Affiliate at the Leibniz-Centre for General Linguistics in Berlin, Germany. A major focus of her work has been to understand how speech production differs across individuals (e.g., varying in age, sex, and native language). She has also carried out studies that establish relationships between the physiology of speech production and the resulting acoustic output.

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Dr. Ashwini Namasivayam-MacDonald is an Assistant Professor and speech-language pathologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Her research specializes in understanding the determinants and consequences of dysphagia in older adults. Ashwini’s goal is to produce clinically relevant research to inform frontline practice. Her current research is focused on dysphagia in people living with dementia and dysphagia-related caregiver burden. She was the 2020 recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s award for Early Career Contributions in Research.

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Dr. Barbara E. Weinstein received her Ph.D. from Columbia University where she began her academic career as a young faculty member. A Professor and Founding Executive Officer of the Health Sciences Doctoral Programs at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Dr. Weinstein also holds a position as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in NYC. The author of both editions of Geriatric Audiology, Dr. Weinstein is a 2017 recipient of the ASHA Louis DiCarlo Award and a 2016 recipient of the New York State Speech, Language and Hearing Association Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award. Professor Weinstein developed the world’s most widely used tools to identify patients with hearing loss which has been translated into 20+ different languages and is used globally to document the negative health effects associated with age related hearing loss and the outcomes associated with hearing aid use, audiologic rehabilitation, and counseling. Dr. Weinstein’s primary research interests include hearing loss, dementia and social isolation, physician-patient communication, screening of age related hearing loss, person-centered care delivery and quantification of patient reported outcomes. Dr. Weinstein has long advocated for the integration of hearing health care into the mainstream be it cultural, medical or religious institutions. Her research on hearing loss, face masks/COVID-19, dementia, and social consequences of hearing loss, have profound implications at the intersection of audiology, public health, and society.

Lawrence Eisenstein, MD, MPH, FACP, is Commissioner of Health for the Nassau County Department of Health, Mineola, New York. Dr. Eisenstein is Board Certified in Infectious Diseases through the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Eisenstein also served as President and is on the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of County Health Officials (NYSACHO.) Prior to becoming Commissioner, Dr. Eisenstein joined the Nassau County Department of Health as Deputy Commissioner in 2009. Dr. Eisenstein completed an Internal Medicine Residency, Chief Residency, and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola.

Kerry is a Hofstra MPH alumni who serves as President of the Public Health Alumni Association for the program. She has been a research professional at Northwell Health for 3 years where she has worked in multiple and gained extensive experience in both federally funded and industry sponsored research. Areas of research include endocrinology, oncology, anticoagulants, and COVID-19. In addition to her work at Northwell, she is a certified yoga instructor and runs her own personal training business.