Our Staff

 

Office of the Director

 

William H. Wiese, Director
Bill Wiese, MD, MPH returned to the School of Medicine in 2002 to launch the Institute for Public Health. In the preceding five years, he worked in state government, including as Director of the Public Health Division in the NM Department of Health. Prior to that, he was 25 years at the School of Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, developing programs in primary care, community outreach, and public health. Nationally, he served on the original U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and currently represents the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine on the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice.

 

Sarah B. Kotchian, Associate Director for Planning
Sarah Kotchian, EdM, MPH, PhD serves as the Associate Director for Planning for the Institute for Public Health. She works on assignment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen national, state, and local environmental health services and to promote environmental health leadership. Prior to joining the faculty at UNM, Dr. Kotchian served as the Director of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department for over fourteen years. She is recognized for her many national activities in environmental health, and currently serves on a number of state and national committees related to the environment and public health. She has served as a member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, Chair of the National Conference of Local Environmental Health Administrators, and President of the New Mexico Public Health Association.  

Wayne Powell, Associate Director for Administration
Wayne Powell, BA, MA currently serves as the Associate Director for the Institute for Public Health and as Associate Director for the Center for Community Partnerships. Mr. Powell is also the Project Director for Community Voices NM, a Kellogg Foundation National Initiative “Healthcare for the Underserved”. He has served as the first Cabinet Secretary the NM Children Youth and Families Department, Deputy Secretary for NM Human Services Department and has extensive experience in developmental disabilities, mental health and public health. Currently he is involved in the development of oral health programs, public policy formation, governmental relations and community organization and advocacy.

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Nina Wallerstein, Associate Director, Public Health Professions Education
Nina Wallerstein, Dr.PH., professor and director of the Masters in Public Health Program, School of Medicine,has been developing participatory research methodologies and empowerment intervention research for over twenty-five years, with her latest co-edited volume covering these fields, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in Health. She has worked both in North American and Latin American research, in healthy city initiatives, in adolescent and women’s health intervention research, and in community health development. She has been the PI for an NIAAA-funded youth empowerment intervention, for youth policy and women’s empowerment programs. Since 1999, she has been funded by CDC and NARCH/NIH grants to work in collaboration with Native American tribes, developing understandings and assessment tools for tribal community capacity, tribal public health infrastructure, and measures of social capital; and is the PI of a CBPR intervention grant to develop a family/youth/elder culturally-based intervention with two tribes in New Mexico to reduce risky substance abuse behaviors. She is currently funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities to lead a collaborative effort to refine scientific models and measurement guidelines to assess participation and partnership inputs into the creation of effective CBPR.

Bonita Ferus, Office Administrator
Bonita Ferus currently provides administrative support functions for the Office of the Director, Institute for Public Health. Ms. Ferus has been employed with the University of New Mexico since 1999.  Ms. Ferus independently oversees all administrative and operational activities of the Institute for Public Health and its various projects to include budgets, finance and cost control, human resources, facilities and logistics, data management and reporting, contract and grant administration, as well as marketing.

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Diana McEnnerney, MPH, MBA, Research Assistant
Diana McEnnerney received her MPH degree from University of California at Berkeley decades ago. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD degree in the Department of Economics and her interests include health economics and health policy research. She conducts research and facilitates writing for the Institute’s publications on health policies and disparities. Before coming to IPH, she worked as a financial executive for Lovelace for many years. Born and raised in California, she always wants to settle in New Mexico and benefit the local community.

 

 

Margot White, JD, Public Health & Human Rights Educator
Margot White, JD did her undergraduate work at Brown University, graduate work at the Sorbonne and then spent 10 years as a human rights investigator for Amnesty International. She then obtained her law degree from the University of Virginia, concentrating in health law and bioethics law, and taught subjects at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She developed and taught multidisciplinary courses in science, technology, and ethics and has lectured throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe on medical ethics and law, human rights, and health. Currently, Margot serves IPH as the Director of the Health and Human Rights program. Margot has also developed “Listening to Communities,” a project that meets the needs of people in New Mexico to participate in planning for the anticipated influenza pandemic. This project is funded by the Office of Health Emergency Management through the New Mexico Department of Health.

 

Wendy Barrington, MPH, Associate Scientist
Wendy Barrington, MPH has graduated from the UNM Master in Public Health program with a concentration in epidemiology and obtained her undergraduate degree in Earth Systems from Stanford University. Wendy is currently contributing to the Institute by developing public health and health policy issue briefs for dissemination as well as serving as a co-instructor for the UNM Master of Public Health Program. Wendy also works as an associate scientist for the Disability and Health Policy Resources Unit for the UNM Center for Development and Disabilities. In this capacity, Wendy performs health promotion evaluation via survey development, data collection, and data analysis for federally-funded grants. Wendy will be attending the doctoral program in Epidemiology at the University of Washington this fall.

 

Jillian Parry Fry
Jillian is working on a community health report card for Bernalillo County and surrounding counties based on hospital visits for ambulatory sensitive conditions. She earned her bachelors degree in Biobehavioral Health at Penn State, and will receive her MPH degree from UNM this summer. Jillian will begin a Ph.D. program in Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins in the Fall. Program Staff, Emerging Infections Program

 

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Program Staff, Emerging Infections Program

Sarah Lathrop, DVM, PhD  CoPI, FoodNet, Emerging Infections Program
Sarah Lathrop, DVM, PhD recently joined the Institute of Public Health as Co-Principal Investigator for the FoodNet component of the Emerging Infections Program. In addition to her work with FoodNet, Dr. Lathrop serves as the epidemiologist at the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI), conducting public health studies using data generated by autopsies and death investigations and serving as co-PI for the National Violent Death Reporting System.  Prior to joining UNM in 2003, her previous experience included conducting vaccine trials for Merial, an animal health company, and studying vector-borne infectious diseases as part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Karen Edge, MPH, FoodNet Coordinator, Emerging Infections Program
Karen Edge, MPH is currently the FoodNet Coordinator for the Emerging Infections Program, a joint effort between the Institute for Public Health and the NM DOH Division of Epidemiology.  Prior to this, she worked as the HIV program manager at UNM, providing primary medical care and other services for HIV positive adults in Albuquerque and northwestern New Mexico, and for children with HIV around the state. Before that, she worked as an epidemiologist with the NM DOH and has over 12 years experience in infectious disease epidemiology. New Mexico is the 10th state to participate in the CDC funded Emerging Infections Program, which includes setting up an active surveillance network for selected foodborne and bacterial pathogens in the state.

 

Lisa Butler, BUS, Surveillance Officer, Emerging Infections Program
Lisa Butler, BUS, is currently a surveillance officer for the Emerging Infectious Program (EIP) in New Mexico. Ms. Butler's 18 years at UNM includes work on nutrition related research studies involving growth hormone, HIV/AIDS, obesity, T2 diabetes mellitus (T2 DM), and body composition.  Prior to EIP, Ms. Butler worked for the Aging and Genetics Epidemiology (AGE) program.  She also worked as a Case Manager and Lifestyle Program manager for the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). Ms. Butler is co-author of 101 Tips for Simplifying Diabetes, ADA 2001. Ms. Butler is a graduate of UNM's MPH program, Spring 2007.

 

Joanne Keefe, MPH, BSN, Surveillance Officer, Emerging Infections Program
Joanne Keefe, BSN, has been an RN for 11 years, graduating with an ADN from Maryland and a BSN upon moving to Albuquerque. She has worked in a variety of healthcare settings including nursing homes, public health clinics, surgical intensive care units, and fixed wing air ambulances. In addition to her clinical experience, Ms Keefe has actively participated on UNM research projects with the School of Medicine Public Health Program, was a Department of Health HIV/AIDS Epidemiologist, and a Quality Improvement Coordinator with New Mexico Medical Review Association (NMMRA). Mrs. Keefe is a member of several professional organizations including the New Mexico Public Health Association (NMPHA), and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

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Kathy Angeles, MPH, Surveillance Officer, Emerging Infections Program
Kathy Angeles, MPH, currently serves as a Surveillance Officer for the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) in New Mexico. She is based out of the New Mexico Department of Health, District III Health Office in southern NM. Before joining the EIP team, Kathy was the New Mexico Sentinel Site Coordinator for the Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Program (BIDS), a binational collaboration between the United States and Mexico. Additionally, she teaches college-level courses related to Public Health as a part-time instructor. Kathy holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Texas at Houston where she served as a research assistant and collaborated in numerous research projects, community assessment programs, and project evaluations.

 

Southwest Addictions Research Group (SARG) Staff

• SARG Mentee List (PDF)
• SARG Community Advisory Board Members (PDF)

Master of Public Health Faculty and Staff

• http://hsc.unm.edu/som/fcm/mph/faculty.shtml

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