Keynote Speakers
Monday, November 14
8:30 a.m.–8:45 a.m. | Centennial Complex
Josie Gonzales, Chair 5th District County Supervisor, San Bernardino County
Josie Gonzales proudly serves as Supervisor for San Bernardino County’s 5th District, which includes the unincorporated areas of Bloomington, Muscoy and Arrowhead Farms, the City of Rialto, major portions of the cities of Colton and San Bernardino and the eastern part of the City of Fontana.
In 2011 Supervisor Gonzales was elected Chair of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisor. She is the first Latina to hold the position.
Now serving her second term, Supervisor Gonzales continues to champion her priorities that focus on public safety, job generation and economic development, creating healthy communities, improved transportation, ending chronic homelessness, and environmental stewardship. She addresses these important issues through cooperative efforts built upon professional relationships developed on federal, state and local government levels.
As County Supervisor, she advocates to sustain and strengthen programs and services that address her constituents’ needs. In effort to create healthier, more productive communities, Supervisor Gonzales, in 2006, initiated a countywide campaign called Healthy Communities. The initiative promotes exercise, nutrition, and the development of safe, walkable communities. To date, 16 cities and towns throughout the county – including Rialto, Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino, are executing innovative Healthy Cities programs that encourage residents to make healthy lifestyle choices.
Supervisor Gonzales is Chair of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, as well as past Chair and current member of the Children and Families Commission for San Bernardino County (First 5). She sits on the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center’s Joint Conference Committee, and she represents the County on the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board.
Josie Gonzales
Welcome and Introduction
8:45 - 9:30 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Sandra Witt, Dr.PH.,Director, Healthy Communities North
The California Endowment
Sandra Witt joined The California Endowment in August 2011 as director of Healthy Communities North. Witt is responsible for advancing the vision and strategic direction, as well as helping achieve established goals and outcomes, through The Endowment’s philanthropic efforts in Northern California.
Prior to joining The Endowment, Witt served as the Deputy Director of Planning, Policy and Health Equity for the Alameda County Public Health Department where she was responsible for ensuring that programs and policies were accurate, effective and responsive to County residents, and consistent with the goal of eliminating health inequities. Concurrent to that role, she also served as the director of the Community Assessment, Planning, Education and Evaluation (CAPE) Unit of the Alameda County Public Health Department for which she developed and directed a unit of epidemiologists, evaluators and health educators responsible for assessing and monitoring the health status of County residents, and providing technical assistance to county, department, and community programs. In this capacity, she received an Outstanding Manager of the Year award.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of public health, Witt has served in a variety capacities, including as an epidemiologist/community researcher for the Alameda Public Health Department (1998-1999); public health consultant for the International Health Programs of the Western Consortium for Public Health in Santa Cruz, CA (1997); and as a health and development program officer and consultant for the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada (1985-1990).
Witt received a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship and Inter-AmericanHe Foundation sponsorship for her doctoral dissertation research, “Child Health, Resilient Households and Protective Practices in Ecuador Shantytown.” She earned Dr.PH. in Maternal and Child alth from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Latin American Studies/Anthropology.
Dr. Sandra Witt
Keynote address:
Achieving Health Equity: A New Public Health Practice
9:40 a.m.–10:20 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Jay Sandhu
Jay Sandhu has been working at Esri for the last 21 years. He works on developing GIS software for the transportation and business logistics industries. These tools implement notions of accessibility, human spatial interactions and optimum location. These tools are used in the retail and service industry to help find the best way to serve customers as well as for large fleet owners to optimize transportation logistics.
Jay has been an Adjunct Professor at Cal State San Bernardino teaching GIS courses in the Masters in Public Policy concentration and also served as an advisor to students in the Masters in GIS program at University of Redlands. He has presented at various international conferences on Business Location, Operations Research, and Transportation. He has been involved in designing the GIS&T body of knowledge to support the model curriculum for teaching GIS in the universities. His research area is in the area of accessibility, location and network analysis. He is very interested in finding deficiencies and providing solutions for facility locations in the access to health care.
Jay Sandhu earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University with a major in GIS. He has a masters and bachelors from the State University of New York at Buffalo majoring in GIS as well. He serves as a trustee of the Marble Fund with the American Association of Geography. This fund provides for awards such as the Garrison Award for the best Ph.D. dissertations in computational GIS as well as undergraduate awards.
Jay Sandhu
Options for Modeling and Measuring Access to Food and Healthcare in ArcGIS
9:40 a.m.–10:20 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong B)
Evelyn Trevino
Evelyn Trevino serves as a Staff Analyst II for the Healthy Communities Program in San Bernardino County. Her primary responsibility is to provide technical assistance to cities and other partners, including local health statistics and specific recommendations for policy and environmental strategies to improve residents’ health. Previously, Evelyn served as a statistician for the public health department for over ten years. Prior to entering civil service, Evelyn worked in the aerospace industry for over fifteen years in systems research, development, testing, and evaluation.
Evelyn holds a bachelor’s degree in Cybernetics and a master’s degree in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has attended numerous trainings on the built environment and health, including the inaugural Built Environment Assessment Training Institute at Emory University, and the Health Impact Assessment Practitioners Summer Training Course by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She also participated in the San Bernardino County Management Leadership Academy.
Evelyn Trevino
Healthy Communities 101
9:40 a.m.–10:20 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong C)
Jerry L. Blum, Planning Director, City of Ontario
Mr. Blum has been in municipal government for 36 years, serving three cities in various planning capacities. During his career Mr. Blum has provided creative leadership on many new and innovative planning programs, worked closely in intergovernmental affairs, and provides a keen understanding of project management. Mr. Blum became Planning Director for the City of Ontario, CA in May 1997. Since coming to Ontario he has overseen the annexation and development of an 8,200 acre master planned community of a former dairy preserve, adoption of over 13 specific plans, and a substantial amount of new development driven by Ontario’s premier location and international airport. He was instrumental in crafting the concepts of, and leading the process for, the City’s newly adopted “business plan”, known as The Ontario Plan. The Ontario Plan is a dynamic framework for sustained, comprehensive leadership in building, maintaining and governing the community. Most recently, under his direction, the Planning Department has been assigned the responsibility for administering the Healthy Ontario program.
12:45 p.m.–1:25 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Bill Davenhall, Global Marketing Manager, Health & Human Services Solutions, Esri
Bill leads the health and human services marketing team at Esri, the largest and most successful privately owned geographic information system (GIS) software developer in the world. Bill’s marketing and business development team (one of 30 industry verticals) has helped Esri to become the defacto “gold-standard” for GIS in the health and human services sector around the globe. Esri customers in health today include thousands of public health authorities, hospitals and medical centers, social service organizations, health research centers and health related foundations and NGO’s.
Bill has over 30 years of experience in using geographic and demographic information to solve business and social problems. His knowledge and experience in creating new and useful intelligence out of what seems ordinary demographic and geographic data is extensive. In the 70s he built the first geo-demographic models that helped some of America’s most well-known franchises expand across the nation; in the 80s he founded a start-up market research company that developed the first national database of estimates for the demand of healthcare services. Bill also has held executive leadership roles in hospitals, medical clinics, human service agencies, health trade associations, consulting organizations, software technology, and data companies.
Bill earned a Masters Degree, with a concentration in Medical Behavioral Science, as the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Traineeship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Bill has also served on various governmental and non-governmental boards in higher education, national research councils, and health related trade associations.
Bill’s newest mission is creating intelligent geographic solutions and technologies that would help physicians improve their diagnostic capabilities by receiving geographically and environmentally relevant information at the time of a patient consultation.
Bill Davenhall
Keynote address:
Using GIS to Design Healthy Communities
1:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Chris Ringewald, Research Manager, Healthy City, Los Angeles, California
Chris Ringewald is the Research Manager at Healthy City, the GIS program of the Los Angeles office of the Advancement Project. The Advancement Project is a nonprofit civil rights law, policy, and communications action tank that advances universal opportunity and just democracy.
Chris manages a research team that provides rigorous research and quality data and maps to pursue social justice and systemic change in communities. His primary research projects have focused on civic engagement and public sector effectiveness. Most recently, Chris supported the California Citizen’s Redistricting Commission through mapping and work on the ReDrawCA.org website.
Chris formerly worked for the National Park Service and is a graduate of Cornell University with a BA in History and an MA in Regional Planning.
Chris Ringewald
Keynote address:
Utilizing Community Resources to Support Decision Processes
2:10 p.m.–2:50 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong B)
Ryan Snyder
Ryan Snyder is the President of Ryan Snyder Associates, a transportation planning firm that prepares bicycle plans, pedestrian plans, trail plans, safe routes to school plans, transit plans and smart growth plans. He recently coordinated development of a Model Street Manual for the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health. He is a Federal Highways Administration Pedestrian Safety Design instructor, a National Sustainable Advisor Program instructor, and a member of the Steering Committee for the National Complete Streets Coalition. Snyder teaches a class on Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning to graduate students in the UCLA Urban Planning Department. He is former Vice President of the Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners. He holds an M.A. in Urban Planning and a B.A. in Economics from UCLA.
Ryan Snyder
Walkability
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Penny Newman
Penny Newman is the Executive Director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), a non-profit, grassroots, base-building organization working on environmental health and justice issues. Penny Newman has gained wide recognition for her work on Environmental Justice issues over a 32 year period with a primary expertise on policy advocacy by those most directly affected by an issue, through leadership development, public participation methods and community organizing.
Ms. Newman gained national recognition when she was the only person to testify against the appointment of Rita Lavelle to the position of Assistant Administrator at EPA for the Superfund Program and later provided documentation to officials that showed Ms. Lavelle had lied before Congress leading to Lavelle’s incarceration for perjury before Congress. Ms. Newman expanded her understanding of national policy issues through her extensive activities with communities across the nation. Ms. Newman was the coordinator for “Communities At Risk”—a nationwide network of communities near contaminated sites which advocated for, and won, strong provisions in the nation’s “Superfund” law.
Penny’s received an Associate of Arts Degree (with Great Distinction) from Riverside City College (now Riverside Community College) in 1979; and a BA Degree (with Honors) from the California State University at Fullerton, majoring in Communicative Disorders in 1981; and has graduate work towards a Masters Degree in Speech and Language Pathology with an emphasis in neuropathology. She was a Special Education Teacher through 1986 for Riverside County Superintendent of Schools teaching Severe Disorder of language (SDL) class at Jurupa Jr. High School.
Penny Newman
Community Health Impact Assessment - ENRRICH
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Samuel Soret, MPH, PhD
Dr. Soret is the Chair of Environmental Health & Geoinformatic Sciences Department. He is also Associate Professor of Earth and Biological Sciences at the LLU School of Science and Technology. In addition, he serves as Director of the School’s Center for Health Geoinformatics. He received a doctorate in Biology from Loma Linda University, an MS in Biological Sciences from the University of Valencia (Spain) and an MPH from the University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health. He has over 20 years of experience as a GIS specialist, including positions as a Staff Research Associate at UCR’s GIS Laboratory, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California’s Statewide Air Pollution Research Center. He is currently a co-investigator of the Adventist Health and Smog (AHSMOG) Study. His research interests focus on air pollution exposure modeling and on the use of geospatial technologies and methods for enhancing public health science and policy. His health GIS research includes the improvement of exposure assessment methods in air pollution studies; the potential enhanced susceptibility of kidney transplant recipients to community air pollution; the development of a methodological framework for assessing the geographic “consequences” of health policy pertaining to access to organ transplantation; and the investigation of the patterns of deployment of the environmental public health workforce. In addition, he is studying the linkages between dietary patterns and climate change with respect to agricultural practices. A member of the Delta Omega Honor Public Health Society, he frequently provides GIS expertise to local, state and national health organizations.
Dr. Sam Soret
Community Health Impact Assessment - ENRRICH
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Rhonda Spencer-Hwang, DrPH, MPH, Assistant Professor, Loma Linda University School of Public Health
Dr. Rhonda Spencer-Hwang is an assistant professor with Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Spencer-Hwang is an environmental epidemiologist with diverse research interests. She has worked with the Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) Department of Epidemiology in Portland, Oregon. While at OHSU she studied the distribution of bacterial antibiotic resistance across the U.S. In the summer of 2000, she graduated from Loma Linda University School of Public Health with a master’s degree in Epidemiology. Shortly after graduation she went to work as an Epidemiologist for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health (SBCDPH) with the HIV/STD program. While working for SBCDPH, Dr. Spencer-Hwang completed her doctorate degree from Loma Linda University School of Public Health in the field of Epidemiology. For her doctoral dissertation she assessed the impact of air pollution on survival of kidney transplant recipients. she is currently a co-investigator on the Railyard Research Study (project ENRRICH). Project ENRRICH is founded on community based participatory research methods (CBPR) and will provide valuable data on how living near a major railyard in San Bernardino may impact the health of local residents. She also has interests in understanding how the surrounding environment impacts vulnerable populations, including kidney transplant recipients and more recently individuals with drug addictions.
Dr. Rhonda Spencer
Community Health Impact Assessment - ENRRICH
4:00 p.m.–4:50 p.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Robert Ogilvie, PhD
Robert Ogilvie directs the Planning for Healthy Places program at Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP). Over the past 15 years he has worked extensively in community development and planning to help improve low- and middle-income neighborhoods. Prior to joining PHLP, he served as a faculty member in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley; as a consultant to city and county governments, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhood activists; and as Director of Volunteers at the Partnership for the Homeless in New York City. He is the author of Voluntarism, Community Life, and the American Ethic (Indiana University Press, 2004), and co-author of Opening School Grounds to the Community after Hours: A Toolkit on Joint Use. Robert co-leads the California Convergence Joint Use Policy Task Force and is a member of the Editorial Board of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society. He is also a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research Program, and he serves on the steering committee of The Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments. Robert is also a member of the American Planning Association, the American Public Health Association, the California Redevelopment Association, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, and the Urban Land Institute. Robert holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University and is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of South Carolina.
Robert Ogilvie
Keynote address:
Strategies for Efficient Healthy Community Planning
Tuesday, November 15
8:30 a.m.–9:00 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Dora Barilla
Dr. Barilla is currently the director of Community Benefits for Loma Linda University Medical Center and assistant professor for the Health Policy and Management Department at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. She is also the founder and director for a not-for-profit organization, Partners for Better Health, promoting health initiatives in communities. Barilla has worked in health care for many years, partnering with hospitals, health care providers, health plans, and community-based organizations. She has implemented innovative alternatives to traditional health care by using a collaborative and community-based approach. She serves on the Board of Trustees for San Antonio Community Hospital and Bilingual Family Counseling Services.
Dora Barilla
Policy Implications for Healthy Communities
9:05 a.m.–9:45 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong B)
Allen Christensen
Allen Christensen is currently serving as the Community Benefit Analyst and Healthy Cities Coordinator at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California. During his two years with the hospital, he has lead the establishment of both regional and city coalitions to promote built environment and educational system change within the High Desert which includes the cities of Victorville, Hesperia, Adelanto and the town of Apple Valley. He serves as a Board of Director for the Adelanto Chamber of Commerce and is also an involved leader for the Healthy High Desert steering team.
His most recent accomplishments include getting a local farmers market organized at St. Mary’s and advocating for the very first healthy vending machine policy to be adopted into San Bernardino county. He was also recently involved in the 73 mile comprehensive non-motorized transportation plan adopted into Victorville’s general plan.
Allen has spearheaded joint-use policy work in Adelanto—one of five areas in the state of California selected to serve as a pilot model for the CDC. The progress he’s made in his joint-use work has provided national recognition and also an invitation to co-chair for the California Convergence in 2012.
Allen holds a bachelor's degree in Public Health and a certificate in Gerontology from Brigham Young University.
Allen Christensen
Policies that Work
9:55 a.m.–10:30 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Victor Rivas, Deputy Director of Capital Budget, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston, Massachusetts
Victor Rivas is the Deputy Director of Capital Budget of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). His responsibilities at the MBTA include leading the Capital Budget Group in the development, implementation and monitoring of the Authority’s $4 billion Capital Investment Program, as well as participation in the agency’s long-range financial planning process. Located in the Boston Metropolitan Region, the MBTA is currently the fifth largest mass transit system in the United States. Currently, over 1.3 million transit trips are made each day on the MBTA’s multi-modal network of commuter rail, subway (both light and heavy rail), bus, electric trolley buses, ferries and paratransit systems.
Before joining the MBTA, Victor provided consulting services to a variety of clients in both, the private and public sectors, as well as academic institutions. His work has focused on transportation systems management, operations and finance. Work assignments included projects for the MIT Global Airline Industry Program, the World Bank, Harvard Business School, Eurocontrol, etc. Victor holds a Masters degree in Urban Studies and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Art from Southern Adventist University, Tennessee.
Victor Rivas
Keynote address:
Transportation and Healthy Communities
10:35 a.m.–11:30 a.m. | Centennial Complex (Chen Fong A)
Jon Harrison
Mr. Harrison has been a member of the Redlands City Council since 2001, including 4 years as mayor. During this time, he has lead the city’s efforts to establish a community sustainability plan and to identify opportunities for alternative fuel and renewable energy projects in the city. Previously he served as a member of the Redlands Planning Commission. Mr. Harrison is a principal consultant for ESRI and is responsible for development of GIS implementation opportunities for national, state and local government clients throughout the United States and internationally. He joined ESRI in 1982. Mr. Harrison received a B.S. degree in City and Regional Planning from California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo.
Jon Harrison
The Perspective of an Elected Official
2:20 p.m.–3:40 p.m. | Esri
Sharlene Gozalians
Sharlene Gozalians is currently a DrPH candidate in the Health Education Department in the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University. She is currently working on her dissertation titled "The Effects of Photovoice on Youth Perceptions of Healthy Food Access in the Built Environment". Prior to coming to Loma Linda, she obtained her MPH in Health Education at the University of Southern California. Her previous work experience includes working for LA County Department of Public Health, Healthy Eating Active Communities, Youth Activism Against Obesity and First 5 LA. Her focus areas include community based participatory research, food access and the built environment and youth empowerment.
Sharlene Gozalians
Community Engagement Methods in Building Healthy Communities