Health Management and Policy Faculty
Semra Aytur, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor
Semra.Aytur@unh.edu
Education — University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill , Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Epidemiology; Boston University School of Public Health, MPH; Brown University, BA, Human Biology
Courses Taught — Aytur joined the Health Management and Policy Department at UNH in 2009 and teaches courses in health policy, social and behavioral health, and biostatistics.
Research Interests — Prior to joining UNH, Aytur completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research interests focus on relationships between policy, environment, and systems change to promote healthy behaviors and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. She is particularly interested in health disparities and in relationships between land use, transportation, and environmental policies which affect access to health- promoting resources. Aytur received a dissertation grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine the relationships between land use policies, transportation infrastructure investments, physical activity, and obesity. She also received an award in 2008 from the University of North Carolina Center for Urban and Regional Studies to conduct a community-based participatory research project in a rural African-American community, examining the impact of a local Farmer's Market on health behavior. Additionally, Aytur obtained practical public health experience by working in public health departments in several states, focusing on policies related to healthy eating, active living, and chronic disease prevention. She also has experience working in hospital settings, conducting patient-centered outcomes research. Aytur continues to be involved in collaborative, transdisciplinary projects to examine how policy, environment, and systems change can improve population health.
Awards — Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Active Living Research Dissertation Award (2004);
University of North Carolina IMPACT award for applied research (2005);
University of North Carolina Epidemiology dissertation award (2006);
University of North Carolina Center for Urban and Regional Studies award for participatory research in lower-income communities (2008).
Professional Organizations — Aytur is a member of the Society of Policy Scientists, and serves on the Monitoring and Evaluation committee of The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. She is a contributing editor and reviewer for the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Hobbies — Aytur lives with her husband and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, and skiing. She also enjoys painting.
Rosemary M. Caron, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor
Rosemary.Caron@unh.edu
Education — Regis College, BA
Dartmouth Medical School, PhD
Boston University School of Public Health, MPH
Harvard School of Public Health, Post-doctoral Fellow
Courses Taught — Caron joined the Health Management and Policy Department at UNH in 2006 and teaches public health courses in the undergraduate and Master of Public Health curriculum. Specifically, Caron teaches courses in epidemiology, disease ecology, and toxicology.
Research Interests — Prior to joining UNH, Caron obtained practical public health experience by working as an Assistant State Epidemiologist and Chief of the Bureau of Health Statistics and Data Management at the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services (DPHS). The Manchester Health Department created a position for her where she worked as the Environmental Toxicologist and Chronic Disease Epidemiologist at the local public health level. Caron also has experience working with the federal government as a Senior Toxicologist for a private consulting firm.
Caron's research interests reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of public health, as well as her own comprehensive professional experiences. Currently, Caron is working on projects aimed at undergraduate and graduate public health education; chronic disease prevention; childhood lead poisoning; academic-community partnerships; risk communication; disease ecology; environmental health; college student health; and emerging infectious disease preparedness and policy; and public health workforce competencies.
Caron enjoys collaborating on public health projects with faculty and students.
Professional Organizations — Caron has served on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire Public Health Association and The Jordan Institute since 2006. She is also a member of the American Public Health Association and serves as a reviewer for the American Journal of Public Health. Caron is an Associate Editor of the Prevention Education Research Council, a web-based repository of educational materials related to prevention and population health. She is also the Chair of the Public Health Workforce Development Committee for the New Hampshire Public Health Improvement Action Plan at DPHS. Caron is also a member of the Institutional Review Board for Health-Related Research at DPHS.
Caron represents the UNH MPH Program on the Council of Graduate Programs in Public Health and the New England Alliance for Public Health Workforce Development. Caron is also an Advisory Council Member to the Center for Graduate and Professional Studies at UNH and the NH Center for a Food Secure Future. She also serves on the Summer Teaching Assistant Fellowship Committee at UNH and represents academia on the NH Council on the Relationship between the Environment and Public Health.
Hobbies — Caron resides in Manchester, NH with her husband and three children. She is actively involved in her children's school activities and her various alumni organizations.
Susan Fox, Co-Director, CACL; Clinical Assistant Professor, IOD
Phone: (603) 228-2084
Email: sue.fox@unh.edu
Education
Doctoral Candidate, Sociology, University of New Hampshire
M.A., Sociology, University of New Hampshire, 2006
M.S., Educational Leadership, Lesley University, 1981
B.S., Education, University of Massachusetts, 1977
Professional Background
Susan is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Institute on Disability (IOD) at UNH leading New Hampshire’s work to prevent unnecessary institutionalization and to support all citizens to live within their home communities. Prior to this, she served for five years as the State Director of the Division of Developmental Services. She managed services in a community agency serving persons with disabilities for over ten years. Including her years working in special education, she has been active in regional and statewide initiatives involving persons with disabilities and older adults for over 30 years.
Marc D. Hiller, Dr. P.H., Associate Professor
Education — University of Pittsburgh, B.S., 1972;
University of Pittsburgh, M.P.H., 1974;
University of Pittsburgh, Dr.P.H., 1978.
Courses Taught — Professor Hiller's in engaged in teaching, public service, and scholarly efforts in public health (policy and practice; tobacco prevention/control) and in health ethics. Currently, his primary teaching includes: Introduction to Public Health, Public Health - History and Practice, Health Ethics and Law, and U.S. Health Care Systems.
Research Interests — Hiller is an associate professor of health management and policy, having come to UNH from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. From 1999 to 2001, he was a Faculty Fellow in UNH's office of the Vice President for Research and Public Service while continuing to teach in both the department's undergraduate and graduate programs. From 2001 until 2003, he served as a visiting scholar in the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Cancer Society (Atlanta, GA). His current scholarly activities include examining the governing authority of local boards of health by state statutes, university/college tobacco prevention and control policies, and ethical issues associated with tobacco prevention and control activities, ethical issues associated with immunization policies and practices.
Professional Awards/Activities — In July 2009, Hiller received the New England Regional Director's Award for Dedicated Service to Public Health from the National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH). A longtime national leader in the American Public Health Association (APHA) resulted in his receipt of a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Service from the Association's Committee on Affiliates in November 2007 and an Exceptional Leadership and Service Award from the Association's Executive Board in November 2006. In April 2005, his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, presented him with the Margaret F. Gloninger Award for Community Service. In 1999, Hiller was the recipient of the University of New Hampshire's Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Public Service, and in 1998, the New Hampshire Public Health Association's (NHPHA) honored him with its Presidential Service Award.
He has been a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Fellow in medical ethics at the University of Virginia, a fellow at the Hastings Center, and a visiting faculty member in the Ethics Program of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and in the Muskie Institute of the University of Southern Maine. Currently, he serves on the Oversight Committee of the American Medical Association's Ethical Force Program, chairs the Society of Public Health Education's Ethics Committee, and sits of the APHA's Ethics Special Interest Group (of which he was one of the founders), and the American College Health Association's Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of and contributor to Medical Ethics Advisor. He is also an active member of multiple tobacco prevention committees of national public health organizations.
Hiller was the project director of the New Hampshire Turning Point Initiative, a statewide strategic planning effort to strengthen the State's public health system in the 21st century, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson and W.K. Kellogg foundations. He remains active in the American Public Health Association (APHA), National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH), and the Society for Public Health Education. More regionally, he remains involved with both the Maine Public Health Association and the New Hampshire Public Health Association. Locally, he sits on the executive committee of the York County (Maine) District Public Health Council, an advisory body to the Maine CDC, and is a long-standing member of Wentworth Douglass Hospital's standing Bioethics Committee, among many other professional and civic organizations.
He is the author/editor of two books, Medical Ethics and the Law Implications for Public Policy (1981) and Ethics and Health Administration Ethical Decision Making in Health Management (1986) and, has authored journal articles and delivered professional/scientific papers on a variety of public health and ethical issues and policies.
Personal — A 25 year resident in the NH seacoast, he and his wife and identical twin sons relocated to South Berwick, ME in 2005. He serves as vice president and board member of Temple Israel of Dover (NH), a reformed seacoast Jewish congregation.
David LaFlamme, Assistant Professor
david.laflamme@unh.edu
Education — B.S., Health Education, Plymouth State College, 1989; M.P.H., International Health, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, 1997; Ph.D., Health Policy and Management, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2003. Professor Laflamme joined UNH in 2003 as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy. He also serves as an Epidemiologist with the NH DHHS Bureau of Maternal and Child Health (BMCH) and conducts research with the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice. As the BMCH Epidemiologist, he supports the use of data to inform the bureau's multiple programs focused on improving the health of mothers and children throughout NH. He teaches a course in health program evaluation in the Master of Public Health program. His research interests include online health information seeking (particularly among low-income Internet users), health literacy, health locus of control, psychosocial factors related to indoor air quality, the effects of employee monitoring on workplace climate, the use of handheld computers (e.g. Palm ) to conduct surveys, community-based participatory research methods and maternal and child health issues. His curriculum vitae is available online.
James B. Lewis, Sc.D., Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Program
james.lewis@unh.edu
Education — University of Pittsburgh, B.A., 1972;
Northwestern University, M.M., 1974;
Johns Hopkins University, Sc.D., 1985
Courses Taught — Health Planning, Strategic Management, Social Marketing, Public Health Finance and Budgeting
Research Interests — His major area of research is childhood obesity, and the relationship among body composition, level of fitness and ability of kids to perform fundamental skills. He has been involved in research projects related to these topics in both the U.S. and New Zealand. Along with two HMP colleagues, Lewis is also working on a book on health care quantitative methods. He also has research interests in cost effectiveness analysis and the financial analysis of health care organizations.
Professional Organizations — He serves as a member of the New Hampshire Board of Licensure for Nursing Home Administrators and is a Board member of Amare Cantare, a chamber chorus on the Seacoast. Lewis came to UNH after fifteen years as a health care management consultant, based in Chicago.
Les MacLeod, Professor
macleod@unh.edu
Education — Boston College, B.S.;
Yale School of Medicine, M.P.H.;
Harvard School of Public Health, M.Sc.;
University of South Carolina, M.Sc.;
University of New Hampshire, M.A.;
Dartmouth Medical School, M.Sc.;
University of Massachusetts, M.Ed., Ed.D.;
Courses Taught — Les teaches Healthcare Management, Critical Issues in Healthcare, the health management and policy Pre and Post Practicum, and is faculty supervisor of the Summer Practicum. He also teaches periodically in the M.P.H. and M.B.A. programs.
Research Interests — MacLeod's interests include rural health, healthcare finance, governance, and hospital operations.
Awards — Roger A. Vitro Award, ACHE Life Fellow, NHHA Trustee Emeritus, Pi Gamma Mu, Paul Harris Fellow, various local, state, and national professional awards.
Professional Organizations — He has served as chairman of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, the New Hampshire Rural Health Association, the American Hospital Association's Governing Council for Rural Hospitals; AHA House of Delegates, the International Hospital Federation, the New Hampshire JUA. MacLeod is Vice-President of the Brewster Academy board of trustees and is a certified Master Level Coach with USA Hockey. Before joining the UNH faculty, Les served as CEO of the Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was CEO of Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
Robert J. McGrath, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Chair and Director or Graduate Programs
Robert.McGrath@unh.edu
Education — University of New Hampshire, B.S., 1996
Harvard University School of Public Health, MS, 1998
Brandeis University, MA, 2000
Brandeis University, Ph.D. 2006
Research Interests — Dr. McGraths research focuses on health care disparities in vulnerable populations. Specifically, he examines how measurement and data quality affect information used for policies affecting vulnerable populations.
Courses Taught — U.S Health Care Systems, Health Care Research I&II, Health Policy, Health Policy Analysis, Biostatistics, Survey Research Methods.
Awards — Roger A. Ritvo Award, Brandeis Dissertation award. Multiple grants and contracts.
Professional Organizations —Dr. McGrath currently serves as the director for the New Hamsphire Health Information Center which oversees the New Hamsphire Connects for Health Project with the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice and in conjunction with the New Hampshire Citizen's Health Initiative. The goal of the project is to encourage the electronic exchange of clinical information between all health providers in the state to reduce medical error, increase patient quality, and enhance the efficiency of the health system. He also serves as a policy analyst for the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice and remains engaged with work on state based health data and health data systems. Additional professional organizations include APHA, NHPA, and Academy Health.
John W. Seavey, M.P.H., Ph.D., Professor and Sackett Professor
John.seavey@unh.edu
Education — Bates College, A.B., 1966
University of Arizona, M.A., 1968
University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1973
Harvard University, M.P.H., 1979
Courses Taught — He currently teaches health policy and health policy analysis courses in the undergraduate and MPH programs as well as the capstone course in the MPH program.
Research Interests — His major area of research is rural health care delivery with a focus on hospitals and the development of integrated service delivery systems. His publications include two books and numerous articles in scholarly journals. During 1995 - 96 he was a research fellow at the Maine Rural Health Research Center at the Muskie Institute. He has shifted his research focus to include social determinants of health.
Awards — He has been the recipient of the College of Health and Human Services Teaching Award (1986), UNH Outstanding Associate Professor Award (1991), UNH Bill Kidder Faculty Award (1999), College of Health and Human Services Distinguished Career Research Award (2003), UNH Faculty Social Justice Award (2005), and Distinguished UNH Professor (2005). He is the Everett B. Sackett Professor in the College of Health and Human Services and a Senior Fellow in the Carsey Institute at UNH.
Professional Organizations — appointed by the Director of Public Health to serve of the SB 102 Ethics Committee dealing with potential pandemics in the state.
Lee F. Seidel, Ph.D., Professor
Education — Hobart College, B.A., 1967;
Pennsylvania State University, M.P.A., 1972;
Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D., 1976.
Courses Taught — He typically teaches the junior-level course, Health Care Financial Management, and the senior level management capstone course, Strategic Management for Health Care Organizations. He currently serves as the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Research Interests — Seidel's interests are in health administration education and the operation and strategic management of hospitals and other types of health care organizations.
Awards — In 1991, he received the University Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service.
Professional Organizations — In the academic field of health administration, Seidel served five years on the board of directors of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) and as its chair in 1984 - 1985. He is currently a member of the AUPHA Undergraduate Program Committee. He has also served on boards and committees of national professional societies and local voluntary health care organizations. He is currently a member of the NH Board of Nursing Home Examiners. He is the senior author of two management texts, published in the Journal of Health Administration Education, served as chair of his academic department at the University of New Hampshire (1979 - 1985), and directed demonstration grants funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, state agencies, and non-profit organizations. During the period 1993 - 2006 he served as the founding Director of the UNH Center for Teaching Excellence. Since 1994, he is also a visiting professor in the Executive M.B.A. in Health Services Management at the School of Business of the University of Colorado. Recent consulting clients include Georgetown University's Graduate Program in Health Systems Management. Professionally, Seidel has served on the senior management team of Frisbie Memorial Hospital (N.H.) and joined the UNH faculty from the New York office of Arthur Andersen & Co. where he provided consulting services to medical centers. He also served on the Mayor of The City of New York's Task force on Medicaid. From 1967 - 1971 he was an officer in the United States Air Force.
Hobbies — Seidel resides in Durham, NH with his wife Alice and son Eric. He served two elected terms on the Oyster River School Board and currently is active with the high school athletic boosters club.
Robert S. Woodward, Forrest D. McKerley Professor of Health Economics
Education — Haverford, B.A. in Economics, 1965;
Washington University, Ph.D. in Economics, 1972
Research Interests — Woodward actively seeks to involve bright and motivated students in a variety of his research endeavors. These include (but are not limited to) studies of 1) the socio-economic factors (race, education, income, insurance, etc.) determining the medical outcomes of kidney transplants; 2) the value of diagnostic information and the value of air quality forecast information to patients and health care providers; 3) the role of consumption amenities, risk aversion, and hope as drivers of rising health care expenditures. His research activities at WU included manipulations of large databases to determine the cost of disease and the cost saving potential of new pharmaceuticals and treatments.
Background — Woodward has over 70 publications in refereed journals, some of which reflect his experiences in Puerto Rico, Canada, Brazil, and Russia. Here at UNH, he is particularly enthusiastic about showing students how exciting research on the frontier of science can be. Woodward came to UNH from the Graduate Health Administration Program in Washington University's Medical School where he taught health care finance and economics for 23 years and was the founding Executive Director of the Pharmaco-Economic Transplant Research Group.
Awards — Woodward is the recipient of the College's 2009 Distinguished Career Research Award. During his tenure at WU, he received two Teacher of the Year awards. Woodward was the recipient of a Brookings Economic Policy Fellowship (1975-76) during which time he served with Stuart Altman who was then the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in what was then the Department of Health Education and Welfare. Woodward was a W. K. Kellogg Foundation National Policy Fellow between 1981 and 1984. In 1992-93, he served with Gail Wilensky in what was then the Office of Legislation and Policy of the Health Care Financing Administration.
Professional Organizations — Woodward is a member of the American Economics Association, the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, the International Health Economics Association, the American Society of Health Economists, the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, AcademyHealth, the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Hospital Financial Management Association, and the American Society of Transplantation.
Ned Helms, Director
ehelms@cisunix.unh.edu
Education — University of New Hampshire, M.S., American Government.
Research Interests — Ned Helms, M.S. serves as Director of the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice. Helms provides intellectual and administrative leadership for the Institute by overseeing the continued growth and direction of the Institute, investigating and pursuing the development of research and demonstration projects, and facilitating collaborative linkages with health and health policy organizations throughout New Hampshire.
Professional Organizations — Helms has over 30 years of experience in New Hampshire health policy and politics. His experience spans the health policy continuum and includes, but is not limited to serving as a legislative and administrative assistant for health policy within the U. S. Senate, Commissioner of Health for New Hampshire, founder and president of a health policy consulting firm (Helms and Company), and chief administrative officer of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Hampshire. Helms is co-principal investigator for the Empowering Communities through Access to Information
Holly Tutko, Research Associate
Holly.Tutko@unh.edu
Education — Dartmouth College, M.S., Evaluative Clinical Sciences
Research Interests — Tutko, M.S. serves as a research associate at the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice. Tutko has seven years work experience in community health assessment and improvement. Her experience varies from participating in the development of a community health assessment survey to conducting comprehensive health assessments of over 150 indicators for several metropolitan areas to providing technical assistance to communities and states implementing community-based child injury prevention interventions.
Current Projects — Tutko serves as the training coordinator for the Empowering Communities Through Access to Information and Training Project. Tutko also serves as the project manager for another institute project to develop a continuing education curriculum for postgraduate social workers
Amy Costello, Community Data Analyst
Research Interests — After completing her Masters of Public Health degree in 1999, she co-authored a compendium of data on women's reproductive health in developing countries.
Current Projects — Willard is working closely with the institute and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on a grant from the Endowment for Health Empowering Communities through Access to Information and Training. As part of her responsibilities on the grant, she manages the content of the Health Data Inventory Web site, a single web-based community resource for health information and reports. In addition, she will coordinate the development and instruction of a Data 101 course for community network leaders. Because of her work on the Health Data Inventory, she will also be participating in the development of the Granite State Data Archive project at UNH.
Professional Organizations — Amy Costello is a community data analyst at the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice. She came to UNH from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where she was data manager and analyst for the REACH 2010 Breast and Cervical Cancer Project, a project aimed at investigating and eliminating racial disparities in health.