Presenters and Moderators
Rear Admiral Felicia Collins, MD, MPH, FAAP
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health
Director, Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Rear Admiral Felicia Collins is the deputy assistant secretary for Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As the director of the Office of Minority Health (OMH), she leads the office in its mission to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that help eliminate health disparities. She brings more than 20 years of federal service to this position and a passion for serving underserved communities. In early 2021, RDML Collins also served as the HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, where she managed the development of HHS-wide public policy recommendations and oversaw 8 public health offices, 10 regional health offices across the nation, the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
RDML Collins and the OMH Team are focused on the collective goal of the success, sustainability and spread of health equity promoting policies, program and practices. Under RDML Collins’ leadership, OMH currently has three programmatic priorities: (1) supporting states, territories and tribes in identifying and sustaining health equity-promoting policies, programs and practices; (2) expanding the utilization of community health workers to address health and social service needs within communities of color; and (3) strengthening cultural competence among healthcare providers throughout the country.
Before joining OMH in 2018, RDML Collins served a senior advisor in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC). In this role, she co-led programmatic monitoring and oversight of more than 700 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) receiving $2 billion in grants to provide healthcare services to more than 14 million vulnerable and underserved patients annually in 30 states and two U.S. territories. Prior to this role, RDML Collins served at the Food and Drug Administration, where she supported the development of safe and effective drugs for children in the U.S., consistent with the Pediatric Research Equity Act and Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act. Her first job as a U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) officer was with HRSA, BPHC and included serving as the BPHC lead for health disparities. RDML Collins has received numerous awards and commendations from the USPHS Commissioned Corps, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Secretary of the Navy.
RDML Collins’ professional experience also includes prior service as a legislative aide for the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives and as an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
RDML Collins received her undergraduate degree from Yale and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in primary care pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and received her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy.
Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA
Associate Director for Minority Health and Health Equity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Leandris Liburd is the associate director for Minority Health and Health Equity and director of the Office of Health Equity (OHE) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). In this capacity, she leads and supports a range of critical functions in the agency’s work in minority health, health equity, and women’s health. She plays a critical leadership role in determining the agency’s vision for health equity, ensuring a rigorous and evidence-based approach to the practice of health equity and promoting the ethical practice of public health in communities vulnerable to health inequities. Dr. Liburd has been instrumental in building capacity across CDC and in public health agencies to address the social determinants of health, and in identifying and widely disseminating intervention strategies that reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. She has executed innovative models of collaboration that have expanded the reach, influence, and impact of OHE, including the successful implementation of the CDC Undergraduate Public Health Scholars Program (CUPS) and the James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Diseases Graduate Fellowship.
In May 2020, she assumed the role of chief health equity officer for CDC’s COVID-19 response, which was the first time in the agency’s history that this role and function was added to the leadership of the incident management structure during the activation of CDC’s Emergency Operations Center. These and other accomplishments represent her commitment to improve minority health and achieve health equity for all people.
Dr. Liburd has received a variety of honors and awards for her leadership and management accomplishments. She was the 2021 recipient of the Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumni Award, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health. She also received the CDC Honor Award for Health Equity (Group Award) in recognition of her role as chief health equity officer and the contributions of the entire unit in the COVID-19 response. Among her other awards, Jackson State University presented her with the John Ruffin Award of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities (2016), and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions and BlackDoctor.org named her one of the Top Blacks in Healthcare in 2014 for her outstanding and noteworthy achievements in the healthcare field. In 2010, the National REACH Coalition honored her with their Distinguished Service and Leadership Award, and in 2002, CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation presented her with their Excellence in Collaboration Award for her role in developing local, national, and international partnerships.
Dr. Liburd holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a Master of Public Health in health education/health behavior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Arts in cultural anthropology and a Doctor of Philosophy in medical anthropology from Emory University.
Kevin Chatham-Stephens, MD, MPH, FAAP
Commander, U.S Public Health Service
CDC COVID-19 Pediatric Vaccine Planning and Implementation Lead
Commander Kevin Chatham-Stephens is a medical epidemiologist and pediatric preparedness expert in the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDR Chatham-Stephens serves on CDC’s COVID-19 response as the pediatric vaccine planning and implementation lead. When not working in the COVID-19 response, he leads CDC’s Children’s Preparedness Unit, which champions the needs of children before, during, and after public health emergencies. In this role, he has deployed for the unaccompanied minors mission and CDC’s responses to COVID-19 and e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI).
Before joining the Children’s Preparedness Unit, CDR Chatham-Stephens served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in the National Center for Environmental Health (2013–2015) and led CDC’s Botulism Consultation Service in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (2015–2018).
Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD
Medical Officer
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp is a developmental pediatrician and senior medical officer in the Division of Human Development and Disability (DHDD) in the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She currently leads the COVID Disability Team. Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp joined CDC in 1981 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and completed a preventive medicine residency in 1984. After coming to CDC, she designed and implemented the first U.S. population-based studies of developmental disabilities among children. These studies laid the foundation for CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which has been tracking the number and characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities in the United States since 2000.
Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp received her medical degree from Emory University and is board-certified in pediatrics and neurodevelopmental disabilities. She was the chief of the Developmental Disabilities Branch at CDC from 1999 until 2015. She has published extensively on the epidemiology of developmental disabilities, including autism. She also speaks to audiences across the country and internationally about CDC’s work. She remains committed to improving the lives of children, no matter their level of ability, and has maintained her clinical expertise by serving as the medical director of the Clayton Early Intervention Program in metropolitan Atlanta for more than 25 years.
Julissa Soto
Consultant on Latino Health Care
Diabetes Training & Technical Assistance Center
Rollins School of Public Heath
Emory University
Ms. Julissa Soto is the founder and executive director of Casa Inmigrante, where she provides consulting and education services to partners and agencies throughout Colorado.
For more than 20 years, Ms. Soto has led efforts for Latino immigrant equality, inclusion, and health equity in Colorado and across the nation. From working with teen parent programs and serving on the Colorado Vaccine Equity Task Force to promoting health equity at the American Diabetes Association, her efforts have appeared in publications in Colorado, Time magazine, and in a new documentary from the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. Her success in leading and managing evidence-based prevention programs serving new immigrants has earned her numerous awards from various state and national organizations and recognition from United States senators.
In 2021, Ms. Soto’s innovative programming and community-based intervention strategies earned one of Colorado’s most prestigious honors when Colorado Governor Jared Polis proclaimed September 20, 2021 as “Julissa Soto Day.” Since then, Ms. Soto’s efforts have led to the vaccination of more than 14,000 Latino adults and children.
Ms. Soto serves on the Health Equity Commission for the Colorado Department of Public Health and is the co-chair of the state’s Regional Accountable Entity Program Improvement Advisory Committee, which advises the state Medicaid program on health equity issues and outcomes. At the national level, Ms. Soto serves on the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health steering committee.
Holly Van Lew, PharmD, BCPS,
Captain, U.S Public Health Service
Indian Health Service COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force Deputy Lead
Captain Holly Van Lew is an advance practice pharmacist working in the Indian Health Service (IHS). She is a national trainer for multiple pharmacist and pharmacy technician immunization certificate programs, training more than 2,000 pharmacists, students, and technicians to administer vaccines. CAPT Van Lew works at the local, regional, and national level to educate pharmacists, providers, and nurses about immunizations with a focus on meeting patient vaccine needs at every encounter. She is currently the IHS COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force deputy lead where she is responsible for standing up an agency vaccine program to distribute, track, and administer COVID-19 vaccine.
CAPT Van Lew has also served as the immunization coordinator at her medical center, where 45,000 vaccines are administered yearly. She managed all procurement, storage, and distribution of adult and childhood vaccines.
Amy Hatcher, MD, CPE, FAAP
Medical Director
Valley Native Primary Care Center
Southcentral Foundation
Commander Amy Hatcher is a board-certified pediatrician currently practicing in Wasilla, Alaska. She serves as the medical director for the Valley Native Primary Care Center and numerous rural community-health centers operated by Southcentral Foundation (SCF). SCF is an Alaska Native-owned, nonprofit healthcare organization serving nearly 65,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people in Alaska’s Cook Inlet region.
CDR Hatcher has been instrumental in helping to develop and grow the role of an “integrated pediatrician” in family medicine practice, a model that is being established across SCF’s eight Anchorage-based primary care clinics, in addition to the Valley Native Primary Care Center.
CDR Hatcher has served her active duty time with the Indian Health Service, both on the Wind River Reservation in Lander, Wyoming and now with Southcentral Foundation in Wasilla, Alaska.
Vattana Peong, MPH
Executive Director
The Cambodian Family Community Center
Mr. Vattana Peong, is the executive director of The Cambodian Family Community Center (TCFCC), a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides preventive health, mental health, youth development, resident leadership, civic engagement, citizenship, immigration, and cultural preservation programs and services to low-income children, immigrants, and refugees in Orange County, California, since 1980. Mr. Vattana has more than 18 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad and is a strong champion for health equity. For the past six years, Mr. Vattana has raised more than $8 million in grant and contract funding and has increased TCFCC’s staff from three in 2015 to more than 25 in 2022.
Mr. Vattana has created, directed, and implemented several projects and initiatives to increase understanding about the health and mental health disparities that ethnic community members face and addressed the lack of culturally and linguistically competent health and mental health services and providers in Cambodian and other underserved communities.
Mr. Vattana served as the co-chair of the Cultural Competency Committee for County of Orange Health Care Agency’s Behavioral Health Services and is a member of the State of California Cultural and Linguistic Competence Committee of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. He currently serves as the community co-chair of the Orange County Health Improvement Partnership and as a member of the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) Steering Committee, a diverse group of subject matter experts focused on the mental health and substance use issues of diverse racial and ethnic communities. He has been appointed to the Hospital Community Board at Dignity Health—St. Mary Medical Center, helping guide hospital policies and strategic plans. His work to highlight health inequities and reduce health disparities has been featured in media such as the Los Angeles Times, Spectrum News 1, Orange County Register, and Voice of OC.
Mr. Vattana was recognized with the 2022 Asian Pacific Islander Leadership Award through a California Senate resolution authored by California Senator Tom Umberg and the 2018 Emerging Leader Award by the Orange County Grantmakers for his service to the community. He is also a recipient of the Asian Pacific Islanders Outstanding Graduate Student Award and Kathryn T. McCarty Scholarship for Scholastic Achievement Award. He is bilingual and bicultural in English and Khmer (Cambodian) and has a Master of Public Health from California State University, Fullerton.
Beverly Watts Davis, MA, CPS
Chief Officer of Resource Development and Program Support
Senior Vice President for Texas WestCare Foundation at the
Ella Austin Community Center
Ms. Beverly Watts Davis is the chief officer for Resource Development and Program Support for WestCare Foundation and the senior vice president for Texas operations. The WestCare Foundation operates in 18 States and three U.S. Territories to improve behavioral health, empower community residents, and reduce trauma and substance-abuse related community harm. She has over 30 years of experience in leading and managing public agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies. Ms. Watts Davis has served in many leadership capacities to include service at the Senior Executive Service level of the federal government as the senior advisor to the assistant secretary and director of The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) federal agency, the executive director of San Antonio Fighting Back, Inc. nonprofit agency, senior vice president of the United Way of San Antonio, state director for the Corporation for National and Community Service, and an elected official in Austin/Travis County, Texas for 11 years. She serves on the board of directors of the Ella Austin Community Center, the Housing First Homeless Community Coalition, and Annie’s List that supports women candidates for Texas political offices. She has served on the board of directors of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), the National Crime Prevention Council, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, the National Family Partnership, the National Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Higher Education, the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Texas, and the Texas Mental Health Association.
While at SAMHSA Ms. Watts Davis developed the Strategic Prevention Framework, brought the Drug-free Communities program to SAMHSA, established the Prevention Fellows program, implemented the first Tribal Consultation Policy recognizing the sovereign nation status of Tribes, distributed the first Rapid HIV tests to behavioral health providers around the country, established the National Registry for Effective Programs and Practices, established the Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies, developed SAMHSA’s Minority AIDS funding portfolio and expanded funding from $97,000 to over $100 million, served as the Co-Chair of the White House Disparities Subcommittee to develop the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and worked with the National Guard to develop their Prevention, Treatment and Outreach program. She also served on the Texas Task Force for State and Local Drug Control that funded the first 12,000 treatment beds in Texas prisons and was instrumental in developing and helping pass the Drug-free Communities Act legislation which has funded over 5000 communities to prevent substance abuse and its related harm.
Ms. Watts Davis has received numerous local, state, and national recognitions. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity University with a triple major in political science, social sciences, and economics and a Master of Arts in human resources management from Webster University.
Roslyn Moore, MS
Deputy Director for Programs
Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Ms. Roslyn Holliday Moore is the deputy director for programs for the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she oversees program development and implementation activities.
Before joining OMH, Ms. Holliday Moore served as the senior public health analyst in the Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The OBHE coordinates SAMHSA’s efforts to reduce disparities in mental health and substance use disorders across populations. As senior staff, Ms. Holliday Moore provided guidance and direction on national policy, program, and data initiatives that addressed health disparities and promoted health equity for underserved individuals and communities.
Before her federal employment, Ms. Holliday Moore held leadership positions in children’s mental health for the New York State Office of Mental Health’s New York City region, including serving as director of community services for the Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center. Through her work for the New York State Research Foundation, she directed the Families Reaching in Ever New Directions (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) system of care in the South Bronx. The project demonstrated cost benefits and improved health outcomes of community-based services for children.
Ms. Holliday Moore earned degrees in speech-language pathology at Queens College, CUNY, and Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a licensed speech-language pathologist.
Shayla C. Anderson, MPH, MCHES
Senior Public Health Advisor Office of Behavioral Health Equity
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Ms. Shayla Anderson is a senior public health advisor in the Office of Behavioral Health Equity at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She is a public health professional with 14 years of government experience at the local, state, territorial, and federal levels. Ms. Anderson leads policy and infrastructure initiatives, supervises behavioral health equity internship students, and serves as the subject matter lead for the SAMHSA Equity Workgroup. She leads implementation of the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health intensive learning experience, NNEDLearn, supporting community-based organizations that provide mental health and substance use disorder services with training in culturally adapted, evidence-based practices to improve behavioral health outcomes for the nation. She also leads agency efforts to modernize the SAMHSA Disparity Impact Statement for grantees with her Equity Workgroup colleagues.
Ms. Anderson has led efforts to improve health equity in diverse communities. Those efforts include leading a countywide community health needs assessment, coordinating data mapping projects to understand health disparities at the census tract level, implementing worksite health programs with local and state government employees, partnering to develop a community health information center to improve health literacy, and securing grant funding to support improving health outcomes for diverse communities.
She has extensive experience supporting the response to and recovery from a range of domestic and international public health emergencies including hurricanes, chikungunya, dengue, Ebola, Zika, 2009 H1N1 influenza, COVID-19, and others. She was an emergency medical technician for eight years, serving as a volunteer at a community rescue squad for several of those years.
Ms. Anderson obtained her Bachelor of Science in community health from Longwood University in Virginia and a Master of Public Health in community health from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She is a member of the Eta Sigma Gamma national health education honor society. She is also mental health first-aid certified and a master certified health education specialist.
Anitra Johnson, DHSc, MSN, RN
Captain, United States Public Health Service
Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response
Administration for Children and Families
Captain Anitra Johnson is a policy expert at the national level for policy planning at the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She provides direction and guidance for human services emergency planning, operational coordination, evaluation, and analysis during emergency activations and steady state.
CAPT Johnson has held various positions in HHS committed to eliminating health disparities in underserved populations and implementing strategies to improve public health. As a clinician and professor, she has helped to shape health policy and preparing and educating the future generation of nurses.
CAPT Johnson received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Coppin State University, a Master of Science in nursing with a concentration in public health from the University of South Alabama, and a Doctor of Health Sciences from A.T. Still University.