VtPHA Board of Directors..

• Heidi Klein, MSPH - Jericho, VT - President
  Heidi Klein, MSPH is an independent consultant with 20 years of experience in public health practice, community engagement, and community environmental health planning. She provides training and facilitative services, conducts formative and qualitative research, and offers technical assistance in collaborative project design. Heidi was a founding member of VtPHA and is a 20 year member of the APHA where she has held leadership positions on the Environment Section Council and Governing Council. She is most interested in public policies that support positive opportunities at the intersection between public health, land use planning, environmental protection and economic development.
  
  
• Penrose Jackson - Hinesburg, VT - Treasurer
  Penrose Jackson is the Director of Community Health Improvement at Fletcher Allen Health Care. She is currently a board member of the Kids Safe Collaborative, Linking Learning to Life, Rotary Club of South Burlington, and UVM Alumni. Her public interests include water, food safety, public health initiatives( e.g. Tobacco), community-based supports that prevent or help with the management of of chronic conditions. Penrose is a graduate of the University of Vermont.
  
  
• Joanne Fedele, RN, MS; Newport Center, VT - Secretary
  Joanne Fedele, RN, MSN received her education at the University of Vermont and at Norwich University. Her primary focus for over 17 years was homecare and hospice. Career experiences include community-based hypertension, cholesterol screening and education, occupational health nursing, school nursing, hospital-based quality /risk management, and recently community health outreach and education. In her current role in Community Health Improvement at North Country Hospital, Joanne administers a number of grants and participates in community collaborations throughout VT's Northeast Kingdom to increase breast cancer screening, reduce tobacco use, promote healthy eating and physical activity choices. Joanne has been a VtPHA Board member since January 2004, and in recent years has served as the Board's Secretary.
  
  



• Sasha Bianchi - Jericho, VT
  Sasha K. Bianchi joined the board in May 2010. She earned her Master of Public Health degree in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Sasha currently works as a health educator for the VT State Employees' Wellness Program and volunteers for VT Cares. Other public health interests include health care access, rural health, and infectious diseases, especially in displaced and underserved populations.
  
  
• Bob Costantino, MPH; Montpelier, VT
  Bob Costantino, MPH, is employed by the Vermont Dept. for Children and Families as a Health and Early Childhood systems planner. Bob has been working in public health for over 30 years, including nine years of refugee relief work in Southeast Asia. He is a founding member and Past President of the Vermont Public Health Association and now serves as the VtPHA representative to the APHA Governing Council. Bob is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, School of Public Health.
  
  
• Deb Dameron, MSPH - Hinesburg, VT
  Debbie Dameron was the Vice President for Health Initiatives of Vermont of the American Cancer Society, New England Division until August 2010. After receiving her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she went on to work for the Vermont Dept. of Health as a community health educator for almost twenty years. Past president of the Vermont Public Health Association. She is also a former president and currently an associate member of the national association, Directors of Public Health Education (DPHE). She is the past co-chair of Vermonters Taking Action Against Cancer, a statewide cancer control coalition. She has served on the boards of both the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. Policies that support public health, especially the prevention of chronic disease, are of interest to her.
  
  
• Brian Flynn, ScD, - Shelburne, VT
  Brian Flynn is Director of the Office of Health Promotion Research, and Professor of Family Medicine at the UVM College of Medicine. His public health interests focus on health behavior and disease prevention and program evaluation. Brian has been on the VtPHA board since 2005 and currently serves as vice-president. He also has been appointed to chair the Vermont Tobacco Evaluation and Review Board that evaluates and coordinates the state-wide tobacco control program.
  
  
• Theo Kennedy - Middlesex, VT
  Theo Kennedy received his Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude from Middlebury College in 1983. After college, he worked as an administrator for Brookline Public Schools in Brookline, Massachusetts before pursuing graduate studies. He received his Juris Doctor in 1991 and Master of Public Health in 1994 from Boston University. Theo worked for the State of Vermont for eleven and a half years starting in 1999. He spent two and a half of those years as the Director of Health Rates and Forms in the Vermont Health Care Administration, and for the past seven years was the Director of Planning, Policy and Regulation at the Vermont Department for Children and Families. He is currently a general practitioner of law in the private sector with an emphasis on environmental health and public policy.
  
  
• Sally Kerschner, RN, MSN - Ferrisburgh, VT
  Sally Kerschner, MSN, RN is the MCH Planning Specialist, Division of Maternal and Child Health at the Vermont Department of Health. Employed by the Vermont Dept of Health since 1983 in a variety of supervisory and management positions for programs dealing with community health and Maternal and Child Health. Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, Kappa Tau Chapter Board member since 2000. American Public Health Association. Vermont Public Health Association board Member since 2008. Professional interests in population health planning, systems development, public health policy, and maternal and child health issues such as environmental, periconceptual health, injury prevention, and rural health.
  
  
• Amy Lefevre - Essex Junction, VT
  Amy Lefevre joined the board in May 2010. She currently works as a health educator for Marathon Health in Colchester, VT. Amy earned her Master of Education degree in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention from Springfield College. Her interests in public health include women and children’s health, occupational health and health promotion.
  
  
• Burton Wilke, Jr., Ph.D., - S. Burlington, VT
  Burt Wilcke Chairs the Department of Medical Laboratory and Radiation Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont. Teaches in the areas of microbiology and public health. Formerly was the Director Health Surveillance for the Vermont Department of Health. Have also worked in public health in Michigan and California. Interested in infectious diseases, environmental health and global health. Past president of VtPHA.