Pacific EMPRINTS Staff

Professor
 
Dr. Bhagavan is Professor and Acting Chair in the Department of Anatomy,Biochemistry and Physiology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is a recipient of numerous Excellence in Teaching Awards from the University of Hawaii, served as the past President-Elect of the prestigious Federation of Asian and Oceania Biochemists and Molecular Biologists, and is nationally and internationally recognized for his research, teaching and scholarship involving the interaction of chemicals and the human body. As a subject matter expert, Dr. Bhagavan brings his knowledge of biochemistry and biophysics to improve planning and management of bioterrorism and chemical terrorism threats. This expertise is reflected in online course offerings that cover biological and chemical agents as well as pharmaceutical interventions for treatment.

Live Training Event Coordinator
 
Barbara is nationally recognized for her expertise in Weapons of Mass Destruction and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Incidents. She is one of few who have successfully completed the personal development series and the Hazard series at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland. She has coordinated local training scenarios/exercises for Emergency Medical Services personnel since 1982. The exercises have included many different local, county and state agencies. In addition, she maintains certification as BCLS Instructor Trainer, Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor, Pediatric Advanced Life Support Instructor, Prehospital Trauma Life Support Instructor, Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals Instructor Trainer and Advanced Life Support Instructor Trainer. Barbara has taught at the First Responder, Emergency Medical Technical-Basic and Intermediate and Paramedic levels. She is also responsible for coordinating continuing medical education credits for classes targeted to EMS personnel.

Associate Specialist
 
John is a faculty member with the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene at the University of Hawaii Manoa where he is the Director of the Office of International Affairs. He has a long interest in Bioterrorism and a Disaster Preparedness with a special interest in the political and economic ramifications of these issues as well as the more practical side - in dealing with the role of the nursing profession in dealing with natural and man-made disasters.

Continuing Education Specialist
 
Anna is the Continuing Education Specialist for Pacific EMPRINTS. She is responsible for the development and continuing education certification of online courses and podcasts. She also assists with online Problem-Based Learning case construction, oversees survey analyses for face-to-face trainings, and helps coordinate office activities. Anna has a Master's of Social Work with a concentration in mental health from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is working toward a certificate in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance as well.

Live Training Specialist/CBRNE Awareness Instructor
 
Carter Davis has a diverse background in emergency medical services, emergency management and fire safety. He has been an EMS instructor for 20+ years here in Hawaii, mainland US and the Pacific Rim and has held leadership roles in training, management, planning and preparedness, quality assurance and community outreach. Most recently he participated in the State Civil Defense's Tactical Interoperability Communications Plan (TICP) Exercise as the City's Communications Unit Leader (COML) and to coordinate all communications activities at the exercise including "patching" or "joining" different communications systems used by Federal, State, City and private responders together. He is also a peer evaluator for the DHS at similar TICP exercises conducted in cities around the country starting in July in Denver, Colorado and traveling around the country through late October.

During August 2006, Carter participated in the State Civil Defense's statewide Improvised Nuclear Device exercise as part of the HazMat Group. He is also a member of the Hawaii Urban Search and Rescue Team and a certified train-the-trainer for FEMA , Red Cross, National Fire Academy, International Association of Fire Fighters and much more.

Graduate Assistant
 
Sean Doyle is a Graduate Assistant with the Pacific EMPRINTS Project. He is working on his Masters in Public Health degree with a focus on Epidemiology at the University of Hawaii's Department Of Public Health Sciences. As a post-baccalaureate, Sean modified a database for a diabetes surveillance project located at Kohala on the island of Hawaii. He has received his Bachelor's degree of Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Forensic Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is working with Pacific EMPRINTS to create online podcast courses for members of the health profession.

Dental Consultant
 
Patsy teaches at the Department of Dental Hygiene, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Manoa. This year marks her 25th year of teaching in the hygiene department. She also maintains a private dental practice in Hilo. In her spare time, Patsy enjoys reading, crocheting, running and tai chi. Currently, she is reviewing online bioterrorism courses for dentists and other health professionals for Pacific EMPRINTS.

Chair, Department of Emergency, Medical Services, Kapiolani Community College, University of Hawaii
 
Dr. Kalinowski is the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medical Services at Kapi'olani Community College (KCC) and the State-wide Training Coordinator for emergency medical services personnel. One of KCC's mandates includes the regular offering of continuing education programs to emergency medical technicians within the State of Hawai'i. Dr. Kalinowski, together with two of his continuing educator coordinators, will play a key role in the development of live scenarios for public health emergencies using a coordinated multidisciplinary approach involving federal, state and county agencies. His extensive experience in emergency medicine, nursing and public health and training affiliations with other State and City emergency medical personnel and his close relations with the HRSA Hospital Preparedness Committee will contribute to the overall development of relevant and quality CE courses to address the professional competency requirements of EM personnel.

First Responder Consultant
 
David is an experienced consultant in public health and emergency services. He has served numerous clients by providing program planning, evaluation, research, and special instruction. David designed and implemented an innovative training program in all-hazards disaster and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) preparedness for EMTs and Paramedics on all islands of Hawaii. Nationally, David has served on federal task forces addressing issues such as interoperability of emergency communications, treatment of pediatric victims of terrorism, and collaboration between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and public health.

David is a graduate of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, with concentrations in health behavior, health education, and epidemiology. He received honors in the inaugural Acute Disease Surveillance / Outbreak Investigation course, taught by veterans of the CDC's Epidemiologic Intelligence Service (EIS). David is a University of Hawaii lecturer, a National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) trainer, and a certified instructor of several EMS and healthcare programs. David has been in EMS and public safety field operations for over fifteen years. He currently works full-time as a Paramedic with Maui County EMS.

Associate Director & Geospatial Information Technologist
 
Phil Page received BA and MA degrees in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has over fifteen years of experience in the field of geographic information science and technology in the public, private, and academic sectors, including the application of these technologies to public health problems in a number of settings. He has extensive experience as an educator, having taught numerous short courses and workshops, as well as undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. He has international GPS field mapping experience in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America, as well as in the United States, and co-authored a book on GPS data collection with his EMPRINTS colleague, John Vogler. Before coming to the University of Hawaii to work on the Pacific EMPRINTS project, Mr. Page directed the Carolina Population Center’s Spatial Analysis Unit at the University of North Carolina, where he managed a team of geospatial analysts working on 15-20 ongoing GIS and GPS projects.

Associate Professor
 
Dr. Qureshi has extensive experience in the area of community and public health disaster preparedness. She is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Nursing, (having studied under the tutelage of Dr. Kristine Gebbie); is the former Program Director of the Columbia University Center for Public Health Preparedness; and served as a co-investigator on previous HRSA Bioterrorism Continuing Education and Curriculum Enhancement grants through Columbia University. Dr. Qureshi has previously worked with public health agencies, first responder groups (Police, Fire and EMS), and community-based providers to develop competency-based disaster preparedness training programs. During the past year she has worked extensively with the Nassau County, NY Department of Health to develop a model for first responder Point of Distribution (POD) operations, and has begun work on the role of the Medical Reserve Corps volunteer in a disaster shelter for persons with special needs. After the POD plan was developed, Dr. Qureshi developed, delivered and then evaluated the training through a county wide drill that involved 11 volunteer Fire/EMS Departments, Police Department, Department of Health and 10 hospitals. The many lessons learned at this drill will be used to refine the POD training program that is developed for use by the state of Hawaii during the coming year. One of the areas that Dr. Qureshi will be working with EMPRINTS on is the disaster shelter work, which is based upon what has been previously developed in NY, and expanded to include competency-based training for public and community health workers and other volunteer groups as well.

Graduate Assistant
 
Shahin is a Graduate Assistant with the Pacific EMPRINTS project. He is working on his Masters in Urban and Regional Planning degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is currently writing his Masters thesis on water supply problems in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. He has received his Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and is on study leave from a public university in Bangladesh, where he has an appointment as a faculty member.   At Pacific EMPRINTS, Shahin will work with Phil and John on GIS projects and training programs.

Program Director/Principal Investigator
Associate Specialist, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii Manoa
 
Ann is a faculty member in medical anthropology at the University of Hawaii's College of Social Sciences. She is also the Program Director/Principal Investigator of Pacific EMPRINTS. Her interests include health disparities, health care disparities, medical malpractice, health policy and politics and the role of public health in emergency management and preparedness. She serves on the advisory board of the Hawaii State Civil Defense, the Executive Committee for the State Department of Health's Bioterrorism Training and Preparedness Committee, HRSA's National Hospital Preparedness Program Committee for the State of Hawaii and the Hawaii Emergency Preparedness Executive Committee.

Associate Dean/Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public Health
 
Dr. Robert L. Seidman is an Associate Professor in Division of Health Services Administration, San Diego State University (SDSU). Prior to joining the SDSU faculty, Dr. Seidman was an economist with the Office of Research, Health Care Financing Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He spent two years as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the School of Hygiene and Public Health, John Hopkins University and was Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York (England). His scholarly interests and research focuses on public health workforce training and development, health information technology, health data analysis, and economic aspects of hospital and physician reimbursement and performance. Dr. Seidman has been the Principal Investigator and Director on a number of federally funded projects.

Program Specialist/Data Analyst, Graduate School of Public Heath
 
Kanako is a web developer, multimedia designer, and data analyst at the Institute for Public Health (IPH) in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University (SDSU). She obtained her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from San Diego State University in 2001. Her primary interests and responsibilities at the IPH include the design and development of interactive online training materials, program evaluation, and support for database programming. Ms. Sturgis has developed distance tutorial formats for the Pacific Public Health Training Center, the National Resource Center for Safe Aging, and other online training sites.

Webmaster/Programmer
 
Mr. Chuan Su received his MS degree in Information Systems from the Hawaii Pacific University in 2002 and is working as a webmaster/programmer for the Pacific EMPRINTS. Mr. Su had been a faculty member of the Chongqing Sanxia University, China before he came to the United States. In addtion to his prior teaching experience, Mr. Su brings to the project his years of experience and wide ranging expertise in designing, developing and maintaining large and complex websites as well as comprehensive knowledge of IT management practices and IT control procedures.

Program Specialist
 
Ivy, a graduate of Seattle University with a major in French and minor in business administration, is a program specialist at Pacific EMPRINTS. She plans and coordinates workshops and conferences for the project. Ivy has been employed in both private and public sectors, including working as a legislative aide at the Hawaii State Legislature. Travel is her passion and she has traveled extensively in Europe, Japan and mainland U.S. She hopes to go back to France some day to study French history.

Media Specialist
 
Graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BFA in visual design in 1968 and a MFA in 1971. Started in 1969 as a publications specialist with the Office of University Relations and Development and retired in 2005 as publications manager with the same office now known as the Office of External Affairs and University Relations. Received the Willard Wilson Award for Distinguished Service to the University in 1999.

Geospatial Information Technologist
 
John Vogler received BA and MA degrees in Geography from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Greensboro and UNC at Chapel Hill, respectively. He has twelve years of experience in the field of geographic information science and technology. He has extensive research project experience, including building and managing GIS databases, developing geospatial data collection and analysis strategies, and conducting GPS field mapping in a variety of international research settings. His teaching experience includes short courses, workshops, and graduate-level instruction on the application of geographic information technologies to population-environment and public health issues. Mr. Vogler is currently an ESRI-authorized instructor for the "Introduction to ArcGIS I" and "Working with ArcGIS Spatial Analyst" courses. Before joining the Pacific EMPRINTS project at UH Manoa, he was the spatial information technology specialist in the research program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, where he worked on several population, health, and land-use change projects based in Southeast Asia, managed the spatial information laboratory, and provided center-wide geospatial data collection, management, mapping, and analysis services, as well as GIS software technical support.

Problem-Based Learning/Distance Learning/Continuing Education Director
 
Seiji is a Clinical Associate Professor in Family Medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. He is also the Deputy Director the Asia-Pacific Center for Biosecurity, Disaster and Conflict Research. He is working with Pacific EMPRINTS to develop on-line problem-based learning approaches to preparedness training.

His interests include family practice, public health, medical anthropology, cross-cultural health care, political economy, social production of disease, globalization, Pacific Islands health, international health, health and human rights, ecology and health, philosophy and medicine, literature and medicine, and problem-based learning.