HEALTH FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Committee to Provide Insight in Addressing Health Problems through Systems Change

NEW BRITAIN -- June 30, 2006 -- The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) recently announced the appointment of 15 new members to its Community Advisory Committee. Members of the committee will play a key role in providing guidance and expertise to support CT Health’s mission, programs and policy in its three priority areas -- oral health, children’s mental health, and racial and ethnic health disparities.

“We are honored to have a Committee comprised of members with such a wide array of experience, and work in our priority areas,” said Board Chair and Liaison to the Community Advisory Committee Leo Canty.  “Many of the members already have been deeply involved in shaping and impacting Connecticut’s health care system through policy, education, advocacy, research and medicine. Their keen insight and feedback about how best to implement CT Health activities and processes will add tremendous value.” 

The members of the Community Advisory Committee include:

• Evelyn Barnum, J.D., Executive Director of the Connecticut Primary Care Association
• Dina Berlyn, J.D., Counsel and Executive Aide to the Majority Leader of the Connecticut State Senate Democrats
• Fernando Betancourt, Executive Director of the Connecticut Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission
• Onell Jesús Calderas, consultant with the City of Hartford Ryan White Title I Program
• Bruce Gould, M.D., General Internist and Medical Director of the Burgdorf Health Center in Hartford, and Professor of Medicine, Associate Dean for Primary Care, and the Director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine
• Lorna Grivois, Eastern Coordinator for Families United for Children’s Mental Health
• David Hadden, J.D., is the chair of Robinson & Cole's Tax-Exempt Organizations Group and general corporate counsel to numerous tax-exempt and trade organizations
• Cynthia Hodge, D.M.D., M.P.H., M.P.A, Associate Dean for Community and Outreach Programs at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and Assistant Professor, Division of Behavioral Sciences and Community Health
• Robin Knowles, Assistant Professor of Dental Hygiene at Tunxis Community College, and course leader for the Community Oral Health
• Tim Marshall, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., Clinical Manager at the Connecticut Department Children and Families Central Office
• Carol Parks Bani, Ph.D., community health education and health promotion specialist and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at Southern Connecticut State University
• Mark Schaefer, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and Director of Medical Policy for the Connecticut Department of Social Services
• Robert Schriebman, D.M.D., pediatric dentist, served as past president of the Hartford Dental Society and the Connecticut Society for Dental Association
• Laurel Tiesinga, M.S.W., Director of Community Partnerships, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital Corporation
• Nadia L. Ward, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Prevention & Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, and Director of Urban Education, Prevention & Policy Research at The Consultation Center at the Yale University School of Medicine

click here for expanded biographies of Committee members

The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent, non-profit grantmaking foundation dedicated to improving the health of the people of Connecticut through systemic change, program innovation and health policy analysis. Since it was established in July of 1999, CT Health has awarded 299 plus grants in 40 cities and towns totaling more than $23 million in three priority areas – children’s mental health, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, and oral health.

For more information, please contact Maryland Grier, Public Affairs Officer, at 860.224.2200, ext. 32 or at maryland@cthealth.org.