Feds to Focus on Securing "Communities"

I got this story in a forward from Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG), another one of the many elists I get that I never signed up for. I barely get time to open most of what I get but I thank them for this. Kinda brings it all into focus for me too.

Napolitano: terror threat may be highest since 9/11

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 9, 201

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/02/09/terror.threat/

There is an increased reliance on recruiting Westerners into terrorist organizations, Napolitano said during testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee. State and local law enforcement officers are increasingly needed to combat terror, and a greater focus is needed on aiding law enforcement to help secure communities, she said.

Along with the joint terror task force led by the FBI, the nation's four-pronged counterterrorism response includes locally run "fusion centers" aimed at facilitating intelligence-sharing and analysis; a nationwide reporting initiative for suspicious acts; and the "If you see something, say something" campaign designed to "foster public vigilance," Napolitano added.

The campaign has been rolled out at major public events such as the Super Bowl and at retail centers, Napolitano said.

What's our "potential for crime" analysis? Do we think they have enough of our private data to determine our potential value or problem status in our home community?

And I have to say it, GO PACKERS!!!!, because I was born in Wisconsin and my dad thought Vince Lombardi was a saint worth quoting at every opportunity. My cheesehead people must have had a great time watching that game. I wonder if any of my people felt compelled to write down the FBI contact information on how to report "suspicious acts." I'll bet some did.

Don't call the cops?

From our friend Connie:

November 7, 2010

In the Name of All That’s Holy — Don’t Call The Police!

Posted by William Grigg on November 7, 2010 09:47 AM

Whenever police murder an innocent human being, the official stenographers in the government-aligned media resort to dissimulation of the kind one would expect from a North Korean propagandist. Thus the entirely unnecessary death of 61-year-old Pennsylvania resident Robert Neill, who was lethally electrocuted at about 4:00 a.m. November 6, is described as a result of his own “aggressive” behavior to the mob of armed strangers who repeatedly electrocuted him in his own home.

There is a sense in which Mr. Neill bears a measure of responsibility for his death: He made the mistake of calling the police to complain that he was being harassed by neighbors. The harassment he could have endured, but the “help” he received from the police proved fatal.

Dutifully reciting the version offered by Mr. Neill’s killers, Fox affiliate WPMT reports: “As the police tried to investigate the harassment claims Neil became very aggressive and combative. Neill continued to struggle with the officers after several attempts to calm him down and the officers used a taser on him which did calm him down.”

After officers from the Mount Joy Borough Police Department had tranquilized Neill through a mild dose of electro-shock torture, officers from two other agencies — the Susquehanna Regional Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police — arrived on the scene to “assist” the assailants. Thus fortified in their confrontation with the “aggressive,” “combative” man, the heroes once again deployed the taser against Neill. This succeeded in “subduing” the frantic man, who was collected by EMTs and died en route to the hospital.

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman informed the local press that the county medical examiner will perform an autopsy on Neill, which will inevitably find that something other than the repeated taser assaults — perhaps coronary artery disease, a drug overdose, or “excited delirium” – was the chief cause of the 61-year-old’s death. It’s not that the police killed him, you see: He just happened to die while being electrocuted by the scrum of armed tax-feeders who were, after all, only there to help.

Update: The term excited delirum was new to me, but it's been around for a few years. The communitarians love to think up new disorders for their theories, like the totally bogus hoarding syndrome. The fact that it's been used as a CAUSE OF DEATH in more than one instance should make all our hearts skip a beat. From the link above:

Recent Cases
Below are some recent instances in which excited delirium was cited to explain the deaths of people in police custody. In each case, the deceased had also been stunned with a Taser:
June 13, 2005 – Shawn C. Pirolozzi, 30, of Canton, Ohio, dies after police tried to subdue him with a Taser. His death certificate listed excited delirium as the cause of death. The Taser was not listed as a contributing factor.
April 21, 2006 — Alvin Itula, 35, dies after a struggle with Salt Lake City police. Itula led officers on a foot chase, then fought with them when the officers caught up,
according to police. Officers tased Itula and also used pepper spray and a
baton. Itula stopped breathing soon after. The medical examiner found that
Itula died of excited delirium brought on by methamphetamine and cocaine.
April 24, 2006 — Jose Romero, 23, dies in Dallas police custody. He was in his underwear, screaming and holding a knife on his neighbor's porch. Police tased him multiple times. He died shortly thereafter. The Dallas County medical examiner ruled Romero died of excited delirium.
Sept. 5, 2006 — Larry Noles, 52, dies in Louisville, Ky., after a struggle with
police. Noles, an ex-Marine, was standing naked in the middle of a street when police were called. Police said he was agitated. They tased him two or three times. He died a few minutes later. The Jefferson County medical examiner ruled Noles died because of excited delirium and not the Taser.
Oct. 29, 2006 — Roger Holyfield, 17, dies after police in Jerseyville, Ill., shocked him twice with a Taser. Holyfield had been walking down a street, holding a phone in one hand and a Bible in the other, yelling that he wanted Jesus. After policed shot him with the stun gun, Holyfield went into a coma; he died the following day. A medical examiner ruled the death was probably a result of excited delirium.
Dec. 17, 2006 — Terill Enard, 29, dies following a disturbance at a Waffle house in Lafayette, La. He was naked and yelling, with a broken leg bone piercing his skin. Police stunned Enard with a Taser; he died several hours later. Police said the forensic report from the Lafayette Parish coroner's office found Enard died as a
result of "cocaine-induced excited delirium."
— by Laura Sullivan

What war did these people die in?

Is a semi-private police state more livable?

Here's another great example of Big Mother's ideas for building a more livable world:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/08/669723/lists-of-pain-pillpatients-sought.html#ixzz0z2n1Ei9U

The D.C. Communitarian COPS' ideas for data gathering were the focus of all my early ACL research. Wouldn't you like to see your UN Local COPS' "Potential for Crime" file too? Is it too much of a coincidence that the same guy who "invented" the COPS' COMPASS database of American's most private information is now Obama's Drug Czar?

Thanks Curt!

Task Force on Community Preventive Services

What is "community health?" Is there anything more vague than putting the word "community" in front of something that normally only applies to individuals? Every (yes, every) program that uses the word COMMUNITY in its title is a communitarian program. Communitarian law is often called Community Law. Consuelo sent this post at Lew Rockwell:

July 16, 2009
A Shot in the Arm, Whether You Like It or Not
Posted by Mike Tennant on July 16, 2009 06:57 AM

Among the countless horrors our Dear Leader wants to visit upon us with his health care “reform” bill is this: ”grants to states to improve immunization coverage of children, adolescents, and adults through the use of evidence-based interventions. States may use funds to implement interventions that are recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force, such as reminders or recalls for patients or providers, or home visits.”

“The bill lists eight specific ways that states may use federal grant money to carry out immunization-promoting ‘interventions.’ Method ‘E’ calls for ‘home visits’ which can include ‘provision of immunizations.’”

In other words, whether you want your kids (or yourself) to receive certain vaccines, the state can forcibly administer them in your home.

Anyone think that Big Pharma won’t back this bill 100 percent?

The title "Task Force" has such a militaristic tone it always suprises me how often the communitarian government uses it to describe how they're going to "help" us. Like the Anchorage Mayor's Task Force on Obesity, these overeducated, overdecorated academic elite phonies think their communitarian titles entitle them to intrude on our bodies.. literally. These people are the 21st century's most honored version of Nazi medical teams. We the people obviously need to establish our own Task Force on Communitarian Scams. The US Constitution prohibits officials from accepting Titles of Nobility, so, naturally, the crafty communitarians elevated their academic titles above the status of nobility... they are bestowed with "god" status. Now when an average person dares to question the "authority" of these community health teams to enter homes and force preventions, they are questioning the wisdom of all these people at the top... and really... come on.. how many books have you written and how many extra letters follow your name? You're all just a bunch of nobodies who don't even exist without the community. Your lowly opinions and your claims to own your own bodies is a sign of your ignorance. Every person who attempts to resist being taught new behaviors must somehow prove they know more about health related issues than ALL these esteemed scientists:

Biographical Sketches

Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, MBA (Chair)

Jonathan E. Fielding is the chair of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. He is currently the county director of public health and health officer, Los Angeles County; professor of health services and pediatrics, Schools of Public Health and Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; and a commissioner of the Los Angeles County Children and Families First–Proposition 10 Commission. He is also a director of the American Legacy Foundation. He has certification from the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Preventive Medicine, for which he has served as president and regent. He has authored or coauthored more than 175 original research articles and chapters on various aspects of public health, preventive medicine, and health services. Dr. Fielding received the Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Service from the American College of Preventive Medicine; the Roemer Prize for creative local public health work and the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for outstanding lifetime achievement in improving the public's health, both from the American Public Health Association; the Porter Prize for National Impact on Improving the Health of Americans; and the Outstanding Alumnus award from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and serves on their Population Health and Public Health Practice Board. Dr. Fielding is the editor of the Annual Review of Public Health. He graduated cum laude with his MD from Harvard University School of Medicine and has a master of public health in health services administration and health economics from the Harvard University School of Public Health. He received his MBA in finance from the Wharton School of Business Administration.

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Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH (Vice-Chair)

Barbara K. Rimer is dean of the School of Public Health and alumni distinguished professor of Health Behavior and Health Education School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Rimer received an MPH (1973) from the University of Michigan, with joint majors in health education and medical care organization, and a DrPH (1981) in health education from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Previously, she served as deputy director for population sciences at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill (2003-2005), director of cancer control and population sciences, National Cancer Institute (1997-2002); professor of community and family medicine at Duke University (1991-97); and director of behavioral research and a full member at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia (1981-91). Dr. Rimer has conducted research in a number of areas, including informed decision-making, long-term maintenance of behavior changes, interventions to increase adherence to cancer prevention and early detection, dissemination of evidence-based interventions and use of new technologies for information, support and behavior change. She was one of the first researchers to test the impact of stepped interventions for cancer control. She currently leads an NIH-funded study to increase regular use of mammography and recently led a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assess the impact of cancer-related mailing lists on cancer patients/survivors and caregivers.

Dr. Rimer has authored more than 238 peer-reviewed articles, 42 book chapters and six books, and she serves on several journal editorial boards. Her numerous awards and honors include the Healthtrac Foundation Award for Health Education (2004), the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2000), the Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health (2000) and the American Cancer Society Distinguished Service Award (2000). Dr. Rimer was the first woman and behavioral scientist to lead the National Cancer Institute’s National Cancer Advisory Board, a Presidential appointment. She is vice-chair for the Task Force on Community Preventive Services and serves on the editorial board for MMWR.

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Ana F. Abraído-Lanza, Ph.D.

Ana F. Abraído-Lanza is an associate professor in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University in New York City. She teaches courses on Current Issues in Latino Health, Health Psychology, as well as a course entitled Seminar in Research and Professional Development. Her research focuses on cultural, psychosocial, and socioeconomic factors that affect psychological well-being, adjustment to chronic illness, and mortality and health among Latinos, as well as health disparities between Latinos and non-Latino whites. Her current research projects include the study of (1) Latina women’s beliefs and attitudes about breast cancer; (2) sociodemographic and cultural factors that influence breast cancer screening behaviors among Latinas and non-Latina whites; (3) acculturation and cancer screening behaviors among Latina women; (4) coping and psychosocial adjustment among Latinos with arthritis; and (5) socioeconomic status, disability, and disparities in arthritis between Latinos and non-Latino whites. These projects reflect her overall interest and expertise in the health of Latino populations in the United States; socioeconomic status and health; breast and cervical cancer screening; acculturation theory; psychological adjustment to chronic illness, especially arthritis; psychological thriving; social support and coping with illness; social roles and identity theory; and health disparities between Latinos and non-Latino whites.

Dr. Abraído-Lanza received her PhD in social-personality psychology with a concentration in health psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She also completed a post-doctoral training fellowship program in psychiatric epidemiology at Columbia University's School of Public Health.

Dr. Abraído-Lanza is the chair of the Diversity Committee of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, and she co-chairs the Diversity Committee of the Mailman School. She also was recently appointed to serve on the Professional Schools Diversity Council at Columbia. Dr. Abraído-Lanza served as a faculty advisor to the department’s Community Scholars Program, and is currently the director of the Training Core of the NIH/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities-funded EXPORT Center, the Columbia Center for the Health of Urban Minorities (CHUM). She served as the director of the Initiative for Minority Student Development at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, an education project grant funded by the NIH. She has also served as a committee member on scientific, professional and non-profit organizations, including the Board of Directors of Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, the Program Committee of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professions, the Board of Directors of inMotion (a New York City-based non-profit organization that provides free legal services to women), and the Medical and Scientific Committee of the New York Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

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Ned Calonge, MD, MPH

Ned Calonge is the chief medical officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. He also is an associate professor of Family Medicine and of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

At the Department of Public Health and Environment, Dr. Calonge is responsible for supervision of health-related divisions, including the Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division, the Preventive Services Division, the Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division, the Laboratory Services Division, the Colorado Health and Environment Information Services Division, and the Emergency Preparedness and Response Division. He also supervises the Office of Health Disparities.

Outside of the Department, Dr. Calonge serves on the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses and provides regulatory oversight for physicians. He teaches epidemiology, biostatistics, and research methods at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Nationally, Dr. Calonge is the chair of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, a federal panel of experts convened by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that is charged by Congress to develop national evidence-based recommendations for preventive health care services for clinicians. He is a member of the CDC's Evaluating Genomic Applications for Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) Workgroup, which is charged with creating evidence-based recommendations for genetic testing services. He has recently been appointed as a member of the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau's Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorder and Genetic Diseases in Newborns and Children.

Dr. Calonge received his bachelor’s in chemistry from The Colorado College, his MD from the University of Colorado, and his MPH from the University of Washington; he is board certified in both family medicine and preventive medicine. He is the 2004 recipient of both the Public Health Award and the Robert Graham Physician Executive Award given by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

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John M. Clymer

John Clymer is a senior advisor to the Alliance for the Healthiest Nation, which fosters public-private collaboration to spark innovative actions and connect individuals to a national movement to make the U.S. the healthiest country in the world. Mr. Clymer also serves as a senior advisor to the Directors of Health Promotion and Education and as adjunct faculty to the Loma Linda University School of Public Health. From 2001-2008, he was president of Partnership for Prevention. Under his leadership, PfP quadrupled its budget, won passage of landmark Medicare legislation, developed a health reform framework to which Barack Obama aligned his agenda, and forged strategic partnerships with AARP, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Chamber of Commerce and World Economic Forum. Clymer serves on the U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services and World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Chronic Disease and Malnutrition. He serves as an informal advisor on health policy to Administration officials, members of Congress and CEOs, and is a consultant to nonprofits and corporations.

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Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH

Karen Glanz is professor of behavioral sciences and health education in the Departments of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, and Epidemiology; Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Research Scholar; and director of the Emory Prevention Research Center at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Glanz also is a member of the Winship Cancer Institute Population Sciences Program. From 1993 to 2004, she was professor and Director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program at the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i at the University of Hawai'i. From 1979 to 1983 she was a professor in the Departments of Health Education and Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.

She received her MPH (1977) and PhD (1979) degrees in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan. Dr. Glanz’s research focuses on theories of health behavior, obesity and the built environment, cancer prevention and control, social and health policy, and the use of new health communication technologies for disease prevention. Dr. Glanz and her team are committed to conducting scientific research with promising short-and long-term application to improved community health, health care, and public health services. Dr. Glanz has been recognized by colleagues in the Public Health Education and Health Promotion section of the American Public Health Association with the Early Career Award (1984), the Mayhew Derryberry Award for outstanding contributions to theory and research in health education (1992), and the Mohan Singh Award for contribution to humor in health promotion (1996). She was a member of the Behavioral Medicine Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1996 to 2001. Her scholarly contributions consist of more than 260 journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Glanz is the 2007 recipient of the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award from the James and Sarah Fries Foundation. She served as editor of the NCI’s monograph Cancer in Women of Color (2002), and she is senior editor of Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice (Jossey-Bass Inc., 1990, 1996, and 2002), a widely used text now in its third edition. She was recognized in 2006 as a Highly Cited Author by ISIHighlyCited.com, in the top 0.5% of authors in her field over a 20-year period.

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Ron Z. Goetzel, PhD

Ron Z. Goetzel wears two hats. He is both the director of the Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS) and vice president of Consulting and Applied Research at Thomson Healthcare. The mission of the IHPS is to bridge the gap between academia, the business community, and the healthcare policy world – bringing academic resources into policy debates and day-to-day business decisions, and bringing health and productivity management issues into academia. At both Emory and Thomson Healthcare, Dr. Goetzel is responsible for leading innovative research projects and consulting services for healthcare purchaser, managed care, government, and pharmaceutical clients interested in conducting cutting-edge research focused on the relationship between health and well-being and work-related productivity. He is a nationally recognized and widely published expert in health and productivity management, return-on-investment (ROI), data analysis, program evaluation and outcomes research.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Goetzel’s work has focused on large-scale evaluations of health promotion, disease prevention, and demand and disease management programs. He is principal investigator for Medicare’s Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration (SRRD) and New Opportunities for Healthy Aging in Medicare project. He is also principal investigator for a project sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) focused on obesity prevention and management at the worksite. For the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Goetzel is the principal investigator for a New York City project supporting collaborative efforts between the private and public sectors in health promotion and disease prevention programs directed at employers. He has functioned as principal investigator for research efforts directed at employer health and productivity management initiatives at Applied Materials, Boeing, Chevron, Pacific Bell, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Florida Power & Light, Duke University, Sharp Health Care, Saturn Corporation, PG&E, The Associates and HERO. He has also been a principal on several health and disease management evaluation projects for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Federal Employee Program (FEP), General Electric, Ford, PSE&G, Dow Chemical, Motorola, Delta, Lucent, International Truck and Engine, First Tennessee Bank and Texas Instruments. His pharmaceutical industry work with Aventis, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, and Eli Lilly has focused on establishing the health and productivity cost burden of certain illnesses.

Before joining Thomson Healthcare in 1995, Dr. Goetzel was vice president of Assessment, Data Analysis and Evaluation Services at Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Goetzel was one of the original members of the core development and marketing group at Corporate Health Strategies, currently a division of Ingenix. Earlier in his career, Dr. Goetzel was the medical school education program evaluator at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was appointed to the psychiatry faculty.

Dr. Goetzel earned his doctorate in organizational and administrative studies and his MA in applied social psychology from New York University (NYU), and his BS degree in psychology from the City College of New York (CCNY). He is located in Washington, DC.

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Lawrence W. Green, DrPH DSc(Hon.)

Lawrence W. Green is adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the School of Medicine and Co-leader of the Society, Diversity and Disparities Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California at San Francisco. He joined CDC in 1999 as Distinguished Fellow-Visiting Scientist to study what accounted for the success of tobacco control in the last third of the 20th century, and how we might take those lessons to other areas of public health. He served as director of CDC’s World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Global Tobacco Control and as acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health. He then served as the director of CDC’s Office of Science and Extramural Research and as associate director for Prevention Research and Academic Partnerships in the Public Health Practice Program Office. He was also visiting professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and later health and society visiting professor at the University of Maryland and visiting professor at the UC School of Public Health, Berkeley. For most of the 1990s, Dr. Green was the director of the Institute of Health Promotion Research and professor and head of the Division of Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion, Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Dr. Green has broad experience in health education, prevention, population health, and community interventions for health promotion and risk reduction. He served as the first director of the U.S. Office of Health Information and Health Promotion in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health under the Carter Administration, and as vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. He has been on the public health faculties at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Texas and Emory. Dr. Green is a past president and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education and recipient of the American Public Health Association's highest awards (the Distinguished Career Award, the Award of Excellence, and the Mayhew Derryberry Award), the American Academy of Health Behavior first Research Laureate Medal, and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and 12 other journals in his field, and as associate editor of the Annual Review of Public Health. His textbooks have been widely adopted. Community and Population Health with Judith Ottoson is in its 8th edition; Health Program Planning: An Educational and Ecological Approach with Marshall Kreuter is in its 4th edition. The latter has been the repository for description of his Precede-Proceed model and the more than 1,000 published applications of this social-environmental model in case studies, research, and other textbooks (see www.lgreen.net).

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Robert L. Johnson, MD

Robert L. Johnson began his appointment to the Task Force on Community Preventive Services in February 2003. He is interim dean and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. His active interest in the health and well-being of youth is evidenced by his chairmanship of the Board of the Adolescent Health Center and of the Medical Board of The Door, New York, NY; he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Newark (NJ) Boys' Clubs, Inc. Dr. Johnson is a member of National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine Health Care Services Board; the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council Committee on Improving Research Information and Data on Firearms; the DHHS Council on Graduate Medical Education; and is the DHHS Region II chair of the Male Involvement Advisory Committee. He also serves as the chair of the NIH Consensus Panel on Antisocial Behaviors in Youth, and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Health Professions Education Summit. Dr. Johnson received his MD from the College of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ in 1972. He is the recipient of many awards, including the New Jersey Governor's Award (1997) and the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Crystal Award (2001).

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C. Tracy Orleans, PhD

As the senior scientist and Distinguished Fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), C. Tracy Orleans has led or co-led the Foundation’s public policy- and healthcare system-based grant-making in the areas of tobacco control, physical activity promotion, childhood obesity prevention, and chronic disease management. She served as convener of the Foundation’s Tobacco Working Group and its first Chronic Disease Management Working Group, and as leader of its Health & Behavior Team. She has developed and/or led or co-led numerous RWJF national initiatives -- including Addressing Tobacco in Health Care, Smoke-Free Families, Helping Young Smokers Quit, Bridging the Gap/Impact Teen, Substance Abuse Policy Research, Improving Chronic Illness Care, Prescription for Health, Active Living Research and Healthy Eating Research. A clinical health psychologist, Dr. Orleans has authored or co-authored more than 200 publications, served on numerous journal editorial boards, national scientific panels and advisory groups (e.g., Institute of Medicine, National Commission on Prevention Priorities, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force) and as president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

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Nicolaas P. Pronk, PhD, MA, FACSM, FAWHP

Nicolaas P. Pronk is vice president of Health & Disease Management and executive director of the Health Behavior Group at HealthPartners, a large non-for-profit, member-governed integrated health system in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Health Behavior Group is a HealthPartners business unit that provides health promotion, disease prevention and disease self-management products and services to the international wellness market. As a senior research investigator at the HealthPartners Research Foundation, he conducts studies in the areas of behavior change, population health improvement and the impact of systems-level change on health-related outcomes.

At HealthPartners, Dr. Pronk has directed the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of health plan-, care system-, and employer-based health promotion and disease management programs and initiatives. Independent, external evaluations have recognized these programs as being benchmark or best-in-class and recognition for the quality of the services has been awarded by the Secretary of Health Human Services’ Office at DHHS, the National Institutes of Health Foundation, The C. Everett Koop Award, and The Dannon Institute, among others.

Dr. Pronk has published more than a dozen books and book chapters and over 100 scientific articles in the areas of exercise and physical activity, behavior change, economic impact of health risk factors, and the integration of health risk management strategies in population health initiatives. He is currently an associate editor for the ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, and an editorial board member of the CDC e-journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

In support of national health improvement initiatives, Dr. Pronk currently serves as a member of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services; member of the Clinical Obesity Research Panel (CORP) at the National Institutes of Health; Chair of the ACSM’s Interest Group for Worksite Health Promotion; member of the Alliance of Health Insurance Plans’ Obesity Initiative Advisory Board; and is an immediate past member of the Defense Health Board (DHB; formerly the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board) for which he was nominated by the Armed Forces Surgeon’s General and confirmed by the White House.

Dr. Pronk is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the former Association of Worksite Health Promotion (AWHP). He received his doctoral degree in exercise physiology from Texas A&M University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in behavioral medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

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Gilbert Ramirez, DrPH

Gilbert Ramírez is professor and director of the Master of Public Health Program (Urban Health) at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, California. He teaches courses in evidence-based decision methods. His research portfolio includes numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses, several of which have been conducted as part of the AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Center (San Antonio) and the Cochrane Collaboration.

Dr. Ramírez received his DrPH from the University of Texas at Houston and his MPH from the University of Hawaii. His academic preparation and career have focused on research synthesis methodologies. Dr. Ramírez’s professional career also includes thirteen years as a public health officer in the United States Army. He currently serves as the president-elect of the Southern California Public Health Association.

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