MHCN Advisory Board Chair ~ Anthony P. Vavasis, MD
Anthony Vavasis completed his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He completed his residency training in Family Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY in 1994. While in residency, Anthony focused on learning to work in underserved urban communities. During the time of his residency training, the HIV epidemic was at its peak in the Bronx. As a result, he developed skills in providing primary care both to indigent families and to patients infected with HIV.
During his third year of residency, Anthony worked with the Health Outreach to Teens (HOTT) Program as his assigned adolescent medicine rotation. HOTT is a grant-funded program that provides free or low-cost healthcare to high-risk adolescents and young adults. Their program operates out of a community health center and has a mobile medical van on which it provides medical care to homeless and other high-risk youth. Having decided that his passion is working with young people, Anthony’s work with HOTT continues and he is now the Program Clinical Director.
Anthony’s primary interest in healthcare is in integrating the principles of harm reduction theory into the practice of medicine. He has spoken on this topic extensively and has participated in numerous panels related to HIV testing and prevention for young people.
Anthony is a passionate and dedicated advocate of mobile healthcare as a viable means for increasing access to care for disenfranchised populations. As a result of his working with the HOTT mobile medical van, Anthony became interested in working to support mobile healthcare more broadly and in 2005 he joined with other mobile health providers in establishing the Mobile Health Clinics Network (MHCN) and currently serves as Chair of the national Advisory Board. Partnering with Dr. Nancy Oriol of The Family Van at Harvard Medical School, Anthony is engaged in developing an online tool that identifies mobile health programs nationally, strives to measure outcomes, and creates universal benchmarks of operation and efficacy.
Anthony P. Vavasis, MD
Clinical Director
Health Outreach To Teens Program (HOTT)
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
356 W. 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
Ph: (347) 247-2168
Em:
avavasis@gmail.com
Mobile Dentistry ~ Monica Y. Dunn, RDH
Monica Dunn attended Lake Land College school of Dental Hygiene in Mattoon IL. She began her career in private practice, but a new path in life took her into the world of public health.
Her diverse experience in public health dentistry includes positions ranging from independent contractor for school-based dental sealant programs to Program Coordinator for Tri-County Dental Clinic and Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center’s Women and Children FIRST Dental Services, both comprehensive care dental programs.
Through these positions, she has had the opportunity to be involved in facility and clinic planning, vehicle design, as well as program development and expansion. In 2007, due to the tremendous growth of the Women and Children FIRST Dental Services, Monica refocused her professional life to concentrate solely on expansion efforts. Currently, she directs and manages clinical activities and projects for the program, serves as adjunct faculty for Lake Land College School of Dental Hygiene, supervising and instructing students during clinical rotations, and maintains collaborative relationships with community partners. Monica loves all aspects of her job, but her favorite part is providing clinical services and case management to the children and families her program serves.
As a result of countless hours of research and miles of footwork, The Women and Children FIRST Dental program recently placed their order for a 40 foot, 3-operatory mobile dental clinic which will be an integral part of providing care to the underserved in Sarah Bush Lincoln’s nine county service area. Monica has a passion for the women and children who are in desperate need of dental care and it shows in her everyday work.
Monica Y. Dunn, RDH
Program Coordinator
Women & Children First Dental
Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System
104 Professional Plaza
Mattoon, IL 61938
Ph: (217) 346-3555
Em:
mdunn@sblhs.org
Mobile Medical ~ Jennifer Burris, BA
Jennifer Burris currently holds the position of Director of Health Education Programs for Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center. She is responsible for overseeing several programs including a state tobacco control program, a cancer control program, childhood obesity program, and the March of Dimes Mom and Baby Mobile Health Center. Some of her achievements with these programs include passage of the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act in 2006, currently leading a statewide collegiate coalition with 16 colleges and universities working towards tobacco-free campus policies, and implementing local obesity programs for Louisiana children.
Jennifer earned a bachelors degree from University of Louisiana at Lafayette and has been working in the field of public health education for 16 years. She actively serves on several committees for community service organizations and serves on the board of the Acadiana Division of the March of Dimes.
Jennifer Burris, BA
Director of Health Education Programs
Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center
103 Independence Blvd.
Lafayette LA, 70506
Ph: (337) 989-0001; Cell: (337) 288-2226
Em:
advocacy@swlahec.com
Mobile Mammography ~ Tina Hembree, MPH
Tina Hembree is the Program Manager for the Norton Healthcare, Norton Cancer Institute Prevention and Early Detection program were she is responsible for the strategic planning, evaluation, and research initiatives.
Tina grew up in Eastern Kentucky. Her mother is a public health nurse, thus at a young age she began to work in the public health field. She studied Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Kentucky. After college she moved to Chicago and worked at NORC, National Organization for Research, providing oversight of local, state, and national health studies. She then attended University of Illinois at Chicago and received her MPH degree in Maternal Child Health –Epidemiology. After which she moved back to KY, where she served 2 years as an Epidemiologist at the Kentucky Department of Public Health (KDPH), Maternal and Child Health Branch.
Tina Hembree, MPH
Program Manager
Cancer Detection & Early Prevention
Norton Healthcare
4001 Dutchmans Lane
Louisville, KY 40207
Ph: (502) 899-6899
Email:
tina.hembree@nortonhealthcare.org
VA Rural Health Mobile Services ~ Lesley Mansfield, MD, FACP
Lesley Mansfield graduated from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine and completed her training in Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine where she participated in a Pew-Rockefeller primary care residency program. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and an active member of the American College of Physicians, serving as the chair of the Maine state chapter’s Health and Public Policy committee.
Since completing her residency, Lesley has primarily worked for the VA, first in New Mexico where she was an Associate Professor of Medicine for ten years. She was the Director of the Albuquerque VA Women’s Health program and a clinical instructor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. While in New Mexico, Lesley left the VA to work as a general internist in a rural community in the southwestern part of the state for three years, where she continued to precept medical students interested in rural primary care practice.
After moving to Maine in 2003, Lesley served as a staff physician at the Togus VA Medical Center for four years before becoming the Assistant Chief of Primary Care. In this role, her responsibility was clinical oversight of Maine’s VA community based clinics. Maine is a highly rural state where more that half of the veteran population receives care in their local community. Maine was one of the sites chosen for the first congressionally funded VA Mobile Health Clinic pilot project in 1992.
In 2008, the Togus VA became part of the Eastern Region Rural Health Resource Center, a field office of the VA Office of Rural Health, and Lesley joined them as a Senior Project Manager. One of her projects is clinical oversight of the current VA rural mobile health clinic initiative, providing support to local mobile clinic teams and acting as a liaison with the VA Office of Rural Health. Her interest is in improving the health of the public in rural communities through collaborative initiatives between VA and local organizations.
Lesley Mansfield, MD, FACP
Senior Project Manager
VA Rural Health Resource Center, Eastern Region
Veteran’s Health Administration
Freeport, ME 04032
Ph: (207) 865-4730
Em:
Lesley.mansfield@va.gov
