CIDRAP's Promising Practices Staff
CIDRAP's Promising Practices Staff
Jill M. DeBoer, MPH
Ms. DeBoer is Associate Director of CIDRAP with responsibility for strategic planning, and program development and oversight. She is the principal investigator on the Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Tools project, and she served as expert reviewer for many of the practices that address risk communications, community engagement, and resiliency.
Ms. DeBoer is also director of the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center Office of Emergency Response. She is responsible for developing and exercising plans and procedures related to public health emergencies on campus and preparing Academic Health Center personnel and students for serving in public health response roles in the event of a large scale emergency event in Minnesota. She has established an Emergency Response Team, established a Medical Reserve Corps of more than 700 volunteers from the Medical School, School of Pharmacy, Nursing School, College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Public Health, and Dental School, and served as incident commander during a 60-day mission in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In addition, she works collaboratively with the local Metropolitan Hospital Compact and with the Center for Public Health Preparedness within the School of Public Health. She has served as a consultant to the CDC, Department of Homeland Security, and numerous state
and local health departments on public health emergency preparedness, and teaches on this topic at the University of Minnesota.
Ms. DeBoer worked for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for 15 years before joining the University of Minnesota in June 2002. For most of her time at MDH, Ms. DeBoer held the position of section chief of the AIDS/STD Prevention Services section with responsibility for a wide range of public health programs including disease surveillance, primary prevention, mass media, counseling and testing, partner notification, and noncompliant patient management. She also served as a frequent consultant to the CDC and Institute of Medicine on a wide variety of topics including the prevention of perinatal HIV infection, the prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS policy development. She has served as principal investigator on multiple federal grants related to HIV, STDs, and viral hepatitis. As an officer of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) and a founding member and officer of the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), Ms. DeBoer
influenced national policy and planning related to high-profile and often controversial issues. More recently, Ms. DeBoer held the position of director of the Office of Planning within the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Prevention and Control Division at MDH. In that capacity, she was responsible for the coordination of Minnesota's bioterrorism and public health emergency preparedness planning, including the successful development of Minnesota's initial application for $18 million in new federal bioterrorism funding.
Amy Becker LaFrance, MPH
Ms. LaFrance, project director, manages the At-Risk Populations Project (ARPP) and the Promising Practices Project. Her work has included overseeing the drafting of a national guidance document for at-risk populations and pandemic influenza planning, as well as convening at-risk populations, and American Indian tribal leaders and members in a series of community engagement meetings. Additional public health activities have included stints in the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, and Mongolia, as well as serving as an instructor in the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. She received her MPH from the University of Minnesota in 2006 in public health administration and global health and holds a B.S. in journalism and French. Prior to working in public health, she was a print journalist.
Wynfred Russell, MA
Mr. Russell is a program coordinator on the Promising Practices Project whose duties include conducting outreach, researching, reporting, and editing. In addition to his work at CIDRAP, Mr. Russell lectures and often writes about health disparities, cultural competency, HIV/AIDS prevention, educational equity, and immigrant issues. His articles have appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Mshale and Minnesota Daily newspapers, as well as Bush Chicken, The Perspective, New America Media, the Liberian Journal, Front Page Africa, and TLC Africa online magazines. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs and global studies and a post-graduate certificate in organizational and professional communication. He is a candidate for an interdisciplinary graduate degree in community health, comparative education, and communication studies at the University of Minnesota.
Natalie Vestin, MPH
Ms. Vestin is a program coordinator on the Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Tools project. She has helped coordinate survey and review activities for the project and given presentations on the project. She also does outreach, research, reporting, and editing for the project. She received her MPH from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where she conducted primary historical research on the 1918 influenza pandemic and a study of risk factors for intimate partner homicide. Ms. Vestin received her B.A. in history and international human rights from Hamline University, where she conducted research on tuberculosis prevention among Somali refugees.
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