University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
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.
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.
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.
Carolina Nkouaga, Administrative Coordinator
Carolina Nkouaga currently provides administrative support for the Office of the Director of the Institute for Public Health and for the Office of the Vice President for Community Health. She was born and raised in Costa Rica and has lived in many countries around the world working on community service projects. She supports the Institute for Public Health by overseeing its administrative and operational activities.
Sarah Lathrop, DVM, PhD Principal Investigator, FoodNet, Emerging Infections Program
An Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at UNM’s Health Sciences Center, Dr. Lathrop is the principal investigator for the FoodNet portion of the New Mexico Emerging Infections Program (EIP). Dr. Lathrop oversees population-based surveillance for foodborne illnesses in New Mexico, as well as special studies of unique aspects of selected pathogens and syndromes. Prior to joining UNM in 2003, her previous experience included conducting vaccine trials for a veterinary health company, studying vector-borne infectious diseases as part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and working as a veterinarian in southwestern Colorado.
Bonita Ferus, Office Administrator
Ms. Ferus has been with UNM for 10 years…her training originally was as a Legal Aid, but after working for lawyers for 5 years she quit and much prefers the health field. Her training since then has been mostly in psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle and now attends UNM. She has been with the Institute for Public Health/EIP for the past 6 years. She currently provides administrative support functions for the Emerging Infections Program within IPH. Ms. Ferus independently oversees all administrative and operational activities and its various projects to include budgets, finance and cost control, human resources, research support, facilities and logistics, data management and reporting, contract and grant administration, as well as marketing.
Cynthia Nicholson, MS, CCRC
Cynthia Nicholson is the FoodNet Coordinator for the Emerging Infections Program, a joint effort between the Institute for Public Health and the NM DOH Division of Epidemiology. Cynthia has over 20 years of experience in the management and oversight of both clinical and population based research. Her research arena includes infectious disease, gerontology, nutrition, and overall research compliance. As the FoodNet Coordinator, Cynthia coordinates the active surveillance network and research activities for selected foodborne and bacterial pathogens in the state of New Mexico.
Lisa Butler, MPH, Surveillance Officer, Emerging Infections Program
Lisa Butler, MPH is currently a surveillance officer for the Emerging Infectious Program (EIP) in New Mexico. Ms. Butler's 22 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.
Sarah Khanlian, MPH, Surveillance Officer, Emerging Infections Program
Sarah Khanlian, MPH, currently serves as the surveillance officer for the Northwest region of the state. She came to EIP after 10 years with the UNM Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology where she conducting basic medical research on trophoblastic diseases and other pregnancy and placental disorders. During her tenure with Ob/Gyn Ms. Khanlian also managed the USA hCG Reference Service, a specialized clinical laboratory, providing diagnostic services for clients around the world. She completed her undergraduate work in Biology at Portland State University and received her MPH from the University of New Mexico in 2004.
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.
Karen Scherzinger, MS, Special Projects, Emerging Infections Program
Karen Scherzinger currently works as a research epidemiologist on special projects, including influenza, foodborne illness, and invasive bacterial disease-related studies. She has an interdisciplinary Master of Science in Microbiology and Public Health. She was formerly a surveillance officer for the Emerging Infections Program. Prior to that, she worked as the waterborne disease epidemiologist for the NM Department of Health and as a researcher on a multi-site pertussis case control study.
Joan Baumbach, MD, MPH, MS has worked in population health settings for the past thirteen years with the New Mexico Department of Health, as District Health Officer in southwestern New Mexico for five years and as Infectious Disease Epidemiology Bureau Chief at the state level for the past eight years. Prior to that she worked in a number of settings including Indian Health Service clinics, an independent tribal authority, and community hospitals and clinics where she provided clinical services and helped develop primary care and public health programs. She is the Principal Investigator of New Mexico's Emerging Infections Program.
Joseph Bareta, MS, Coordinator of the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (ABCs) program
Joseph Bareta has been with the Infectious Disease Bureau, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health in Santa Fe since 2004. Before coming to the Department of Health to work on ABCs, Mr. Bareta was at Johns Hopkins University as the Statistical Research Coordinator/Manager (1999-2004) for a study following a cohort of IV drug users in Baltimore Maryland. Prior, he was the Data Management Center Coordinator (1997-1999) at the Complementary Medicine Program, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Previous health department experience includes Chief, Division of AIDS Service Evaluation and Analysis, at the Maryland Department of Health (1989-1997). He is a Graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee with a BS in Psychology and Anthropology (1985) and graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a MS in Epidemiology in 1988.
Emily Hancock, MS, is the Respiratory Disease Activity Coordinator for the Emerging Infections Program and an Infectious Disease Surveillance Epidemiologist for the New Mexico Department of Health. Ms. Hancock graduated from the University of Washington with a Master of Science in Epidemiology in 2007, and worked as a Research Study Coordinator in Women’s Health at the University of Washington and as an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health before returning home to New Mexico.
Institute for Public Health
MSC 07 4085
University of New Mexico
Albuqerque, NM 87131
2300 Menaul Blvd. NE
Suite 400
Albuquerque, NM 87107
Telephone: (505) 272-3881
Fax: (505) 272-3764
E-mail: i4ph@salud.unm.edu