Webcast 24
Disparities in Obesity and Disability (Part 2):
Developing Research Partnerships and Collaborations
Thursday, March 4, 2010 (2pm CST/3pm EST)
About the Presenters
Margaret Campbell, PhD, is a Senior Scientist for Planning and Policy Support with the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education. In this capacity, her primary responsibilities involve serving as a program officer and providing scientific direction for strategic planning and priority development, particularly in the areas of aging with disability, technologies for successful aging, health disparities, and research capacity-building.
Dr. Campbell also serves as a representative from the Department of Education to the: Federal Interagency Workgroup (FIW) for National Health Objectives related to Healthy People 2020, chaired by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Other responsibilities at NIDRR include serving as the program coordinator for the Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training (ARRT) program, which funds institutions of high education to conduct multidisciplinary post-doctoral research in rehabilitation and disability.
Prior to joining NIDRR, she served for eight years as the Research Director for the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Disability at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Downey, CA.
Christine C. Ferguson, JD, is a Research Professor at George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services. Her research includes state and national health reform efforts, Medicaid, child health and development issues, and emergency preparedness. She is also the Director of the STOP Obesity Alliance, designed to rethink our nation’s approach to obesity.
Before joining the faculty of George Washington University, Ms. Ferguson served for over two decades at the highest levels of government. She has an unusual combination of federal and state experience in health care financing, public health, emergency preparedness, and social services.
She served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Massachusetts and Director of Rhode Island Department of Human Services as well as counsel and deputy chief of staff to the late U.S. Senator John H. Chafee (R-RI), where she led many changes in national health care and social service programs and policies. She was the lead staff negotiator for Mainstream senators in the development of a bipartisan health reform proposal in the 1990s – work for which she was heralded as a "profile in courage" by David Broder in his book The System.
Ms. Ferguson is a member of the Board on Children, Youth and Families for the Institute of Medicine National Academies and Rhode Island Blue Cross Blue Shield. She has served on the boards of a variety of other regional and national organizations. She has been recognized as being one of the Most Influential Health Policymakers by Faulkner & Gray Healthcare, one of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal, and one of the 25 Most Influential Working Mothers by Working Mothers Magazine.
Ms. Ferguson holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the Washington College of Law, The American University.
James Rimmer, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development, Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health and Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
He is Director of two federally funded Centers, the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.ncpad.org) and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Exercise Physiology and Recreational Technologies for Persons with Disabilities (funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, www.rectech.org).
Dr. Rimmer's research has focused on the effects of physical activity on reduction of secondary conditions, including obesity and deconditioning, in adults and youth with physical and cognitive disabilities. He is principal investigator of a 5-year NIH clinical trial examining the impact of the built environment on obesity in people with mobility disabilities. He currently directs a staff of 52 full- and part-time employees in the Center on Health Promotion Research for Persons with Disabilities (www.uic-chp.org).
Rochelle L. Rollins, PhD, MPH, is Director of the Division of Policy and Data in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) where she oversees efforts to improve health disparities research coordination, evaluation and performance measurement, and data collection and reporting. She also directs OMH’s efforts to ensure that minority communities benefit from and have access to health information technology and clinical trials. Dr. Rollins participates on the federal team to plan Healthy People 2010 and 2020 and is the alternate chair for the National Partnership for Action (NPA) to End Health Disparities Federal Team.
Prior to joining OMH, Dr. Rollins worked as Special Assistant to the Deputy Director of the NIH/National Cancer Institute. Prior to that she served as a Branch Chief at HRSA/BPHC and helped to establish several cancer initiatives such as the Cancer Collaborative which galvanized community health centers to excel in cancer screening, diagnosis, and referral for treatment. Earlier in her career, she was the Research Director of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition in Boston, Massachusetts where she advocated for the inclusion of more people of color in AIDS clinical trials.
Dr. Rollins received her BA from Wellesley College, her MPH from Boston University and her doctorate from Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management where she was a Pew health policy fellow.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 03 March 2010 at 10:51 AM CST
