2008-2009 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows

Reginald Alston, Ph.D.Reginald J. Alston, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He received his B.S. in psychology and M.S. in rehabilitation counseling from South Carolina State University. His Ph.D. degree in rehabilitation was completed at Florida State University. He has taught numerous courses, including disability in American society, medical aspects of disability, psychosocial aspects of disability, and research methods in health sciences.

His research focuses primarily on disparities in rehabilitation outcomes and psychosocial adjustment for African Americans with disabilities. He has published extensively in leading journals of rehabilitation, and he has successfully secured research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

In 2005, he received the King James McCristal Distinguished Scholar Award from the College of Applied Health Sciences at UIUC, and in 2006 he was the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching from the College of Applied Health Sciences. Also in 2006, he was selected by the College of Medicine at UIUC as the Medical Scholars Program Outstanding Advisor of the Year. As evidence of his national reputation for scholarship, he received the James F. Garrett Award for a Distinguished Career in Rehabilitation Research from the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association in 2007.

Dr. Alston has served as editor of the Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling and executive board member of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association and the Council on Rehabilitation Education.

Margaret Moss, Ph.D., RN, J.D.Margaret P. Moss, Ph.D., R.N., J.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Leadership, Systems, Informatics and Policy Co-operative in the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota, as well as Director of Inclusivity and Diversity. She is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, with equal lineage in the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe. She has researched, presented extensively, and written on the subject of American Indians, aging, and policy.  

She received a B.S. in biology from Washington State University, an M.N. from the University of Phoenix, and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Texas-Houston Health Sciences Center, where she was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

She is one of only 13 doctorally prepared American Indian nurses in the country. She then completed a 2-year postdoctorate fellowship at the University of Colorado’s Native Elder Research Center. Concurrently, she entered law school and was awarded a J.D. from Hamline University School of Law. She is the only American Indian to hold both nursing and juris doctorates.

Dr. Moss envisions advocacy from both health and legal perspectives. In 2004, Governor Tim Pawlenty appointed her to the Minnesota Board on Aging, where she serves on the diversity and the public policy committees. She was one of 19 National Congress of American Indians delegates to represent Indian issues at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. She was recently elected secretary to the National Interfaith Council on Aging, an interest group of the National Council on Aging.

Janet Phoenix, M.D., M.P.H.Janet A. Phoenix, M.D., M.P.H. is Executive Director of the Coalition for Environmentally Safe Communities, a national nonprofit organization providing technical assistance to communities at risk for environmental disease. She is a physician trained in public health who has managed research, risk communication, and health prevention and promotion programs for many organizations. She is also Associate Professor of Research in Environmental and Occupational Health in the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University.

She received her B.A. in anthropology from the University of Colorado in Denver and her M.D. from Howard University. Dr. Phoenix also completed a Masters of Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Dr. Phoenix has managed two community-based participatory research programs with faith-based organizations: one to improve lead poisoning prevention for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the other a project for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide educational interventions on childhood asthma and lead poisoning. She has directed health education activities at the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning (now the Alliance for Healthy Homes). She has been a member of two federal advisory committees: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Childhood Lead Advisory Committee and the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. Among her international activities, she has provided assistance to the Egyptian government, the Polish government and the Silesian Medical Academy, and EPA’s Office of International Activities. She organized an international lead conference, Healthy Children, Healthy Environments, which brought together technical experts and community-based representatives from around the world. She has written numerous articles relating to environmental health and lead poisoning.

Robert Ratner, M.D.Robert E. Ratner, M.D., is Vice President for Scientific Affairs for the MedStar Research Institute in Washington, DC, and Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School. He received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he also completed his internal medicine training. His fellowship training in endocrinology and metabolism was completed at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

Dr. Ratner is a principal investigator for the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and DPP Outcomes Study of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and serves on the planning and steering committees for the project nationwide. He chairs the Cardiovascular Working Group and the Outcomes Adjudication Committee and cochairs the Economic Analysis Committee of the DPP. He is also principal investigator of the SANDS (Stop Atherosclerosis Among Natives with Diabetes) Study of NIH. He currently serves on the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) study of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. His other research interests include diabetes and its complications and innovative therapies for diabetes, including in vivo islet neogenesis.

He is the author of over 90 original scientific articles and 16 book chapters. Dr. Ratner has served on the steering committee of the National Diabetes Education Program and the board of directors of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Education and the American Association of Diabetes Educators. He has also served as chair of the Government Relations Committee and the Pregnancy Council of the American Diabetes Association.

Justina Trott, M.D., FACPJustina Trott, M.D., F.A.C.P., is Executive and Medical Director of Women’s Health Services, a nonprofit organization designated as a National Community Center of Excellence in Women’s Health in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She received her B.A. in chemistry from New York University and her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and she completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and a core faculty member for the Northern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program.

Dr. Trott is the immediate past president and a current board member of the American College of Women’s Health Physicians, an organization committed to translating the latest sex- and gender-specific research into clinical practice, and a board member of RIOS Net (Research Involving Outpatient Settings Network), an innovative practice-based research network designed specifically to conduct research that has direct relevance to the Southwest’s diverse and medically underserved populations. In 2006 she was appointed chair of the New Mexico Governor’s Women’s Health Advisory Council by Governor Bill Richardson. In September 2007 she was elected to the American College of Physicians New Mexico Chapter Council and appointed to the New Mexico legislative task force to create a cultural competency curriculum for health professionals.

Thomas Tsang, M.D., M.P.H.Thomas Tsang, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Medical Officer at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center. He is committed to promoting community-based primary care and reducing minority health disparities. His interests include hepatitis B prevention, information technology and health services research.

Dr. Tsang received his B.S. from the City College of New York, his M.D. from SUNY Stony Brook, School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from Columbia University.

As Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Tsang is actively engaged in community-based participatory research, focusing on Asian American health issues, including hepatitis B clinical research. He is also Director of the Health Disparities Training Program at the NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health; in this Project EXPORT grant from the National Institutes of Health, he directs a research training program modeled on the community-based participatory model.

He spearheaded the implementation of electronic health records and advocated for the use of clinical informatics in the area of chronic disease management at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center.  An active participant in two regional health information organizations in New York City to increase the use of clinical informatics to improve the quality of care, he is working with visiting nurse services and other community health centers on their activities involving electronic health records.

He is a co-principal investigator in the Asian American Hepatitis B Program sponsored by the City Council of New York, a comprehensive program for education, screening, vaccination, and treatment of patients at high risk of hepatitis B infection. He was recently awarded a multiyear Centers for Disease Control grant to initiate a Center of Excellence for the Elimination of Disparities for Hepatitis B as a co-principal investigator. He serves on several scientific advisory boards, including the Board of Health for the City of New York.

Leonard Zwelling, M.D., M.B.A.Leonard A. Zwelling, M.D., M.B.A., is Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is a board-certified internist and medical oncologist who trained at Duke University Medical Center and the National Cancer Institute.

In 1984, after 9 years as a trainee and senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Zwelling moved his molecular pharmacology laboratory to the University of Texas. He supported that laboratory with grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society for 15 years, publishing over 130 papers and book chapters on the molecular pharmacology of antineoplastic drugs. He then received an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and began a career as a research administrator.

Most recently he was Vice President for Research Administration, overseeing the operations of the institutional research infrastructure. He was the Institutional Official for human subjects research, animal care and use, and grants and contracts, as well as the Research Integrity Officer. He was Co-Director of the M.D. Anderson/UT Health Science Center M.D.-Ph.D. program for 10 years.

Dr. Zwelling serves as the chair of the Social Justice Committee. He is on the board of trustees of Congregation Beth Israel, on the executive committee of the activist group, the Metropolitan Organization, and on the legislative committee of the Harris County Healthcare Alliance and Doctors for Change (a group seeking care for the uninsured in Harris County). He is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program. He is an alternate delegate to the Harris County Medical Society’s delegation to the Texas Medical Association.