Staff
PHII's staff is made up of a diverse team of professionals in public health, information systems, training and communications.
Leadership
Vivian Singletary, MBA, JM
Director of PHII
Vivian Singletary, MBA serves as director of the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII), a program of the Task Force for Global Health. In this role, Vivian guides PHII’s work to improve health outcomes worldwide by strengthening health practitioners’ abilities to use information effectively.
Vivian’s experience combines almost 20 years in systems development and in public health. Earlier in her career, she served in leadership positions in supply chain management and information systems implementation for Home Depot and M&M before transitioning into public health. She was introduced to the Task Force for Global health in 2009 as the global supply chain manager for the International Trachoma Initiative, where she oversaw the pharmaceutical supply chain of over $1 billion in Zithromax donations and built in-country capacity for over 15 African and Asian countries.
Vivian has played an integral role in developing PHII’s global portfolio. Her work for the institute began with improving, designing and analyzing business processes and developing functional requirements for health insurance information systems. She established PHII’s Requirements Laboratory business unit in 2012. As the unit’s director, Vivian played an essential part in managing informatics projects in both the U.S. and in developing countries. Key projects include her leadership role in developing the African Workforce Planning project—a tool that helps allocate health care practitioners to areas of greatest need in Mozambique and Tanzania—and acting as director of informatics practice for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) initiative, which addresses the causes of childhood mortality in developing countries.
Vivian holds a master’s of business administration degree from Kennesaw State University and a juris master's degree from Emory University School of Law, with a focus on global health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Daniela Salas O'Connell, MPH
Deputy Director
Daniela Salas O’Connell serves as PHII's deputy director. In this role, Daniela oversees financial and operational aspects of PHII, including grants management and new funding.
Daniela brings to this role 10 years of experience in the planning and implementation of health projects, as well as a strong background in grant management. Daniela was a project manager with PHII’s Requirements Lab for the previous two and a half years, overseeing multiple project activities, deliverables and budgets. Prior to her position at PHII, she worked as program associate for TEPHINET, managing a multimillion-dollar CDC cooperative agreement and a portfolio of 15+ projects that focused on health systems capacity building and strengthening field epidemiology training programs. Daniela also worked at Emory’s School of Medicine, where she developed grant proposals and managed day-today operations for multicultural diabetes education programs.
Requirements Lab
The Requirements Lab helps domestic and international public health practitioners use information and information technology effectively. Through application of our Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology (CRDM)TM and business process redesign, the Requirements Lab seeks to improve business processes to enhance public health practices and outcomes.
Jimica Tchamako, MPH
Director, Requirements Lab
Jimica serves as the director of the Requirements Lab at PHII, where she is responsible for leading teams and collaborating with public health professionals and their stakeholders on projects centered around business analysis, process improvements, requirements development, information system solutions and informatics training.
Prior to joining PHII, Jimica served as a senior management consultant in health care operations and delivery, where she partnered extensively with numerous health systems of varying size and complexity across the U.S. to lead teams responsible for evaluating and reengineering those health systems’ business processes to maximize efficiency. In addition, Jimica led the design and implementation of information systems, enforcing best practices, coaching and empowering the health systems’ leadership, and shepherding the health systems through the volatile financial healthcare landscape that ultimately resulted in the increase of each of those health systems’ annual revenues by tens of millions of dollars and ability to effectively serve growing populations.
Jimica holds a Bachelor of Science in Human and Organizational Development, International Leadership and Development, and Political Science from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. She also has a Master of Public Health focused in Applied Public Health Informatics from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.
Lisa Cogdill, MPH
Senior Business Analyst
Lisa Cogdill serves as a senior business analyst for the Requirements Lab. Lisa has over 9 years of IT data-related experience, spanning data extraction, transformation, integrations, and building a variety of data driven solutions. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Health Services Administration from Ohio University, and earned her Master’s of Public Health in Applied Informatics at Emory University.
Prior to joining PHII, Lisa worked as Lead Informatics Analyst for the Data Solutions team at Emory. In that position, she was primarily responsible for the design, development, analysis, and implementation of IT deliverables among various levels of leadership and domains at Emory University Hospital.
Michael DeMayo, MPH
Project Manager
Michael DeMayo serves as a project manager at PHII. Prior to joining PHII, Michael was a consultant for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, AIDS Office, where he recently co-developed a 5-year strategic plan for HIV direct care and prevention services in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo Counties. He also served as a project coordinator on a five-year CDC Medication Therapy Management Demonstration Project in partnership with HealtHIV in Washington, DC, Walgreens Community Pharmacies, and the University of North Texas System College of Pharmacy. Michael is no stranger to Emory. He served as the Associate Director of Programs for the Southeast AIDS Training and Education Center (SEATEC) in the School of Medicine from 2010 until 2015.
Michael received his MPH from the University of California/Berkeley in 1995.
Noy Hawkins, MPH
Senior Business Analyst
Noy Hawkins serves as a senior business analyst for the Requirements Lab. Noy has over eight years of IT data-related experience in program analytics and developing solutions through data extraction, transformation, and integration.
Prior to coming to PHII, Noy worked as an Informatics Analyst for the Data Solutions Team at Emory University. She worked primarily with the Brain Health Center to create data-driven solutions to help Emory Neurologists reduce the burden of Alzheimer's and related diseases in their patient population through early detection and effective intervention.
Noy holds an MPH in Applied Informatics from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a B.S. in Medical Sociology from Kennesaw State University.
Greco Johnson, MPH
Project Team Lead
Greco Johnson serves as a Project Team Lead for PHII's Requirements Lab. He first came to the Public Health Informatics Institute as a Senior Business Analyst, a role he served in for just over 4.5 years. In this role, he facilitated PHII’s Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology (CRDM) and software development activities to define information system business processes and requirements on various projects, including USAID's Neglected Tropical Disease Information System (NIS) in conjunction with the NTD Support Center, Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS), Medical Nutrition Therapy for Prevention (MNT4P), and the Puerto Rico Department of Public Health Zika Response. Greco brings 20+ years of work experience in supporting the successful implementation of information technology solutions to support large-scale public health, clinical health, and academic informatics initiatives.
Prior to joining PHII, Greco worked as business analyst for the Emory School of Medicine. In that position, he was responsible for the analysis, assessment and documentation of institutional business processes and technological system requirements. Greco’s past work experience also includes acting as the project lead/business analyst for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National ALS Registry project. On this project, he led an application development team charged with developing a registry to determine the incidence and prevalence of ALS in the United States.
Greco earned his Master of Public Health (MPH) in Applied Public Health Informatics from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Bachelor of Science (BS) in Information Technology (IT) from Kennesaw State University.
Rachelle Jones, MPH
Senior Business Analyst
Rachelle serves as a senior business analyst for the Requirements Lab, where she provides business process analysis expertise to a portfolio of global projects. Her professional experience chiefly centers on expertise in information system architecture for managing laboratory data.
Prior to coming to PHII, Rachelle worked as a senior informatics specialist for the Association of Public Health Laboratories, where she served as an informatics subject matter expert on a number of key projects undertaken in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and numerous global ministries of health. Prior to that, Rachelle was a senor informatics analyst for Emory University, where she focused on software for laboratory information management.
Rachelle holds an MPH in Applied Epidemiology from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a B.S. in Biology from Kennesaw State University.
Chelsey Kamson, MPH
Project Manager
Chelsey Kamson serves as a project manager for the Requirements Lab at PHII. She has over seven years of experience in program and project management, business development, technical assistance, stakeholder engagement and evaluation. Chelsey has worked in a diverse set of fields and verticals including the federal government, nonprofits, state/local health departments and the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining PHII, Chelsey served as a project manager and public health analyst in NCIRD (CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases), providing technical assistance, strategic planning and communications to develop and implement a new programmatic vehicle and information reporting system.
She earned her Master of Public Health from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Neuroscience from UC San Diego.
Julie Obiero, MPH, PMP
Project Manager
In her role as project manager, Julie Obiero manages PHII's opioid work portfolio. She brings to this role almost a decade of project management experience, including in strategic planning, training and resource allocation. Prior to joining PHII, Julie served as a Project Manager for the Neglected Tropical Disease Support Center, another Task Force for Global Health program. Previously, Julie worked chiefly in research at institutions including the Public Health Sciences Institute at Morehouse College, University of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt University.
She holds an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, and earned her PMP certification in 2019.
Juneka Rembert, MPH
Project Team Lead
Juneka Rembert serves as a Project Team Lead for PHII's Requirements Lab. Prior to moving into this role, Juneka served as a senior business analyst for the Public Health Informatics Institute for eight years. In this role, she was responsible for understanding processes and developing requirements for public health information systems through utilization of PHII’s Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology (CRDM)™.
Prior to joining PHII, Juneka worked as a contractor for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the National Center for Environmental Heath/ATSDR and PGO for over eight years as a senior business analyst/project lead, where she was responsible for software development, system implementations and enhancement, gathering requirements, and project planning and management. Juneka also worked as a program analyst at Citrix Systems Inc., where she performed analysis of the Subscription Advantage process and gathered subscription renewal statistics and reports.
Juneka holds a Master of Public Health in Applied Public Health Informatics from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, a Bachelor of Science degree in Therapeutic Recreation from Morris Brown College, and a Project Management Professional Certification.
Arush Ujawal, MS
Data Analyst
Arush Ujawal serves as a Data Analyst on the CHAMPS informatics team. In this role, he is responsible for maintaining and analyzing data on global childhood mortality.
He brings to this position a background in data analysis and modeling, data visualization, and programming. He has previously held roles in academia and in the private sector, including for companies that focus on automotive technologies, IT and educational technology platforms.
Arush holds an MS in Business Analytics from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, as well as a bachelor's in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Practice Support
PHII’s Practice Support joins public health practitioners, health officers and community partners together to share knowledge and expertise and address the barriers to improving population health. Projects in Practice Support focus on providing public health agencies with services that strengthen their informatics capabilities.
Lura Daussat, MPH
Director of Practice Support
Lura Daussat serves as the director of the practice support business unit, a position she assumed in 2021 after taking on the director role on an interim basis for several months. Prior to stepping into a leadership role, Lura was a senior informatics analyst for PHII. Previously, she spent 12 years at OZ Systems, where she partnered with state public health programs that included newborn hearing screening, critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening, and newborn bloodspot screening as they implemented OZ Systems software. In addition to supporting newborn screening programs, while at OZ, Lura authored two implementation guides for HL7 on exchanging data from devices to public health for newborn hearing screening and for CCHD.
Prior to joining OZ Systems, Lura’s career spanned continents, as well as the fields of nonprofit and academia, with a particular focus on HIV, reproductive health and domestic violence as a public health issue. She earned her Master of Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine after she completed three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana. Her undergraduate degree is a BS in Biology from the University of North Texas.
Birgit Bolton, MPH
Project Manager
As a project manager, Birgit Bolton manages a portfolio of funding streams that include CDC’s immunization information systems, for which she provides management and oversight to project budgets, timelines and deliverables.
Prior to joining PHII, Birgit served as the assistant director of country programs for the International Trachoma Initiative from 2012-2020, providing program support and technical assistance to countries eliminating blinding trachoma. In this role, she assisted with the preparation of annual forecasts, drug donation applications and strategic national plans.
From 2007-2012, Birgit was a contract project coordinator with CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, where she was the principal investigator for health studies assessing risk factors for environmental contaminants in selected populations. Prior to CDC, Birgit worked for the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization. As the programs coordinator, she initiated, organized, and coordinated a variety of public health, conservation, and sustainability programs to help improve water quality and quantity for metro Atlanta.
Birgit’s public health background includes a 2010 Global Field Experience with CARE Rwanda as a water, sanitation and hygiene evaluator. In this position, she conducted an assessment of a microfinance, gender equality and behavior change strategy for a community-based WASH program for marginalized populations. She also studied neglected tropical diseases as a graduate assistant with the Carter Center’s international health programs in 2011. Birgit has a Master of Public Health in Prevention Sciences from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Samantha Chao, MPH, PMP
Senior Informatics Analyst
Samantha Chao serves as a senior informatics analyst for PHII. Prior to joining PHII, she worked for the Tennessee Department of Health, where she held various roles (strategic planning manager, deputy immunization information system manager, and epidemiologist). She has also worked in emergency preparedness for the Virginia Department of Health, conducted global health research in Ethiopia, and held a graduate assistantship in CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Samantha has a Master of Public Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia. She also holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute.
Judith Kerr, MPH
Project Manager
Judith Kerr serves as project manager for PHII’s data modernization portfolio. Judith brings to this role nearly a decade of experience in public health program management within state and nonprofit programs. Prior to joining PHII, Judith oversaw child health screening programs, including newborn screening and early hearing detection and intervention programs at the Georgia Department of Public Health. In this role, she conducted strategic planning, coordinated activities of grant funded projects, managed a special project to strengthen the early childhood system, and provided technical assistance to state and local partners. Prior to working in state public health, Judith led the expansion of a pediatric vision program through a local nonprofit agency.
Judith earned her Master of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Georgia State University.
Anu Laxmi, MPH, PMP
Project Manager
As a project manager for PHII, Anu Laxmi keeps crucial domestic public health projects on time and in budget, and manages associated project activities.
Prior to her role at PHII, Anu served as a research project manager for the Neglected Tropical Disease Support Center, another program of the Task Force for Global Health. She has also worked in healthcare and research coordination, and began her professional career with a stint in Americorps. She has worked abroad in Kenya and Brazil. Anu holds a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from Georgia State University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in psychology.
Ashley Nash, DrPH, MPH
Project Manager
As a project manager for PHII, Ashley Nash supports a portfolio of domestic public health projects. She has more than 12 years of public health experience and has had the opportunity to act in many different roles in public health, giving her a multidisciplinary approach to project management. Ashley brings deep project management and public health experience to her role, having worked at CDC where she coordinated cooperative agreements and grants and led key research projects. While at CDC, she worked in the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), specifically on sickle cell disease, Zika, and Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI). She holds a doctorate of public health degree and has a background in microbiology.
Sarah Shaw, MPH, PMP
Senior Informatics Analyst
Sarah Shaw serves as a senior informatics analyst for PHII, where she primarily focuses on data modernization for sexually transmitted infections and other reportable conditions. Prior to coming to PHII, Sarah ran her own successful consulting firm, where she provided her expertise to health IT and nonprofit companies. Sarah's other previous professional experience runs the gamut from private health IT to state public health; in the latter role, she specialized in early hearing detection and intervention as well as health policy.
Sarah holds a Master's of Public Health from Tulane University, where she also earned her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor's of Science in cellular and molecular biology.
Danielle Sill, MSPH
Informatics Analyst
Danielle Sill serves as an informatics analyst working on PHII's ongoing public health data modernization efforts, including a project on childhood and adolescent mental health. Prior to coming to PHII, she served as an epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, focusing primarily on the state's immunization information system; in her time in this role, she took a special temporary assignment to lead support for state contact tracing efforts.
Danielle holds a master's of science in public health from the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health, where she specialized in epidemiology. She earned her bachelor's of science in biology from Iowa State University.
CHAMPS
The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network is a joint project. Along with its partners, PHII is working to identify global causes of child mortality in order to inform interventions. CHAMPS is a long-term program that will take place at up to 20 sites with high under-five mortality rates.
Margaret Basket, MS, PMP
Director, CHAMPS Business Unit
Margaret Basket serves as the director of the CHAMPS informatics office at PHII. She was promoted to this role from Senior Business Analyst, and prior to that served as a Technical Project Manager for CHAMPS.
Margaret transitioned from a career as a mechanical engineer (Bachelor of Science from Michigan Technological University) to the health information sector after almost four years as a Peace Corps Rural Health Care Agent in Senegal, West Africa. Upon returning to the U.S., she completed her Master of Science degree in Information at the University of Michigan, followed by a two-year fellowship at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD. She has worked at various information-based start-up companies in product management, and then as an account manager in the pharmaceutical industry for the publisher Elsevier. She joined the Public Health Informatics Institute after five years developing, testing and implementing population management software platforms for Forward Health Group in Madison, Wisconsin.
Margaret’s professional interests include software design and development, agile project management, and user-centered design. Margaret is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
Lucy Liu, MS, MBA
Informatics Analyst
Lucy Liu serves an informatics analyst for the Gates Foundation-funded CHAMPS project. Prior to coming to PHII, she worked as an informatics data analyst at Emory University, where she specialized in the development of ETL (extract, transformation and load) processes and data models. Prior to that role, Lucy worked in IT and SAS-based data integration.
Lucy holds a Master of Science in information systems from Kennesaw State University and a Master of Business Administration in information technology management and business analytics from Georgia Institute of Technology. She also has earned professional certifications that include an Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certificated Professional from Oracle Certification Paths, as well as a Computing for Data Analysis Certification from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Shailesh Nair, MPH
Lead Informatics Analyst
Shailesh Nair has over 15 years of experience in database administration, performance optimization, coding and data model design.
Before joining PHII, Shailesh led several data-driven projects that advanced the clinical and research objectives of Emory's academic and health care mission. The high impact programs for which he served as a technical lead include the Wounded Warrior Project, NIH funded Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center (MaHPIC), Emory's Brain Health Initiative, and departmental data marts aimed at providing data-powered insights for quality improvement, workflow optimization and biomedical research.
As a manager in the data solutions team at Emory University's Library and Information Systems department, he supported a passionate group of informatics analysts. He worked in close cooperation with Emory physicians, researchers and administrators to help analyze their information requirements and collaboratively design and implement data-driven solutions. His professional interests include building cost-effective, scalable database applications that leverage open source technologies of today.
Shailesh recently completed his master's degree in public health (MPH) with a concentration in applied public health informatics at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. He also holds master’s degree in computer application from Gujarat University, India.
Navit Salzberg, MPH
Business Analyst
Navit Salzberg is a Business Analyst on the CHAMPS informatics team, where she guides the CHAMPS data quality monitoring and improvement workstream, supports the design and implementation of data collection forms, and provides support to all aspects of CHAMPS informatics projects.
Prior to joining PHII, Navit served as associate director of research projects for the CHAMPS Network, where she was central in developing the CHAMPS protocol, mortality surveillance procedures and data collection forms. Most recently, she spearheaded data quality and monitoring and evaluation activities for the multi-site network. She has worked on a variety of global health projects, focusing on global mental health and health equity.
Navit holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She also earned a Master of Global Public Health focused in Community Health and Development from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.
Stormm Van Rooi, MPH
Operations Support Analyst
Stormm Van Rooi serves as the operations support analyst for PHII's CHAMPS Team. In this job, she provides application and operations support to the CHAMPS sites and the informatics team at the program office. She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Georgia State University and her MPH from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
Prior to joining PHII, Stormm worked at the Emory Global Health Institute as a program coordinator with the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) and CHAMPS. During her time with EGHI, Stormm's efforts were focused on communications, program management and CHAMPS data-to-action. Before her transition to public health, Stormm worked for a nonprofit focused on international mission work and spent time abroad supporting various community health programs.
Communications and Training
Communications develops tools and resources that support the work of public health professionals and disseminates them to wider audiences through all communications channels. Through training, PHII develops and delivers learning materials through practice-based training sessions, online courses and downloadable resources to support the professional development of the public health workforce and advance informatics education.
Piper Hale, MPH
Assistant Director of Communications
Piper Hale serves as the assistant director of communications for the Public Health Informatics Institute. In this role, Piper manages the communications team and is responsible for supporting the mission of the PHII through the coordination and creation of written, visual and digital communications. She is the co-creator, host and producer of PHII's podcast, Inform Me, Informatics.
Piper originally came to PHII and the Task Force for Global Health as a communications specialist, a role she served in for two years before transitioning to a communications manager, and later the assistant director of communications. She brought to this position several years of experience working in newspapers, literary journals and higher education communications. Her nonprofit work includes a two-year teaching and writing fellowship with the Deep Center, an award-winning Savannah-based organization recognized in 2015 by the White House for its commitment to promoting literacy and creative expression among public school students.
Piper enjoys distilling complex concepts into clear, easily digestible writing to promote accessibility to information that may serve the public good. She has a double B.A. in journalism and anthropology and holds a Master of Public Health in prevention science from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.
Lisa Jones
Communications Manager
Lisa Jones serves as a communications manager for the Public Health Informatics Institute. She has called the nonprofit world her professional home for most of her career. Lisa has applied her writing, editing and digital communications skills at several nonprofits and The John Maxwell Company.
In previous roles, Lisa helped organizations tell their stories in the areas of health, higher education, leadership development and philanthropy. Before coming to PHII and the Task Force for Global Health, she served for five years as digital content manager for Oxford College of Emory University. Lisa has a B.A. in communications/journalism from Berry College.
Jelisa Lowe, MPA
Communications Manager
Jelisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Public Relations and a Master of Public Administration from Georgia State University. She brings a diverse background of work from corporate, nonprofit, agency and educational settings with experience in producing both internal and external communications materials. Her work has focused on writing, media relations, social media and strategic communications planning. Jelisa served as the global public affairs and communications intern for The Coca-Cola Company before joining the Task Force and has held additional communications positions with other leading organizations including the American Red Cross, Georgia Aquarium, Edelman and Silverpop Systems, a digital marketing company. She also served as a contributing writer for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies’ website and bi-monthly magazine while completing her master’s degree. Jelisa is active in her community, giving back to the youth through motivational speaking and serving as a mentor and tutor.
Operations
The operations team works to ensure that PHII's daily business needs are met. They oversee financial services, coordinate logistics, manage resources and improve processes to enhance workflow.
Tonya Duhart, MPA
Senior Business Manager
As senior business manager, Tonya Duhart is responsible for supporting budget tracking, meeting logistics, process improvements and other aspects of PHII's operations work. Prior to joining PHII, Tonya worked with another Task Force for Global Health program, TEPHINET, for six years. In this role, she honed her expertise in contract management, budget management, cooperative agreement management and meeting logistics. Tonya holds her Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia.
Irfan A. Momin
Senior Financial Analyst
As senior financial analyst for PHII, Irfan Momin oversees all financial aspects of PHII’s projects including budgets, proposals, forecasts and various financial analyses.
Irfan has over 20 years’ experience in accounting and financial management in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. He has worked in a variety of industries including retail, wholesale, manufacturing and service and has specialized in grants administration and reporting, as well as endowment management and job order costing.
Irfan received his bachelor's degree in accounting from Kennesaw State University.