Lori Haskett is the Director of Injury Prevention at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.  She is responsible for developing policies for state programs, recruiting and maintaining public/private partnerships, and developing grant applications.  Lori is a Certified Child Passenger Safety Instructor and served on the National Child Passenger Safety Board.  She has been a member of the Safe States Alliance since 2002 and currently serves on the Executive Committee as President.

Shelli Stephens Stidham, M.P.A., is the Director of the Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas (IPC) in Dallas, Texas, where she is responsible for the Dallas Safe Communities effort. Dallas was the first U.S. city to receive international Safe Communities designation from the World Health Organization, and the first urban city worldwide to receive the designation. She has 28 years of experience in public health, including 22 years in injury and violence prevention. She is past-president of the Safe States Alliance and has participated on numerous State Technical Assistance Teams (STAT). She currently chairs the Leadership Development Committee. She co-chaired the National Training Initiative for Injury and Violence Prevention (NTI), and served on the committee that developed the core competencies for injury and violence prevention professionals. She chairs the Texas Governor’s EMS & Trauma Advisory Council (GETAC) Injury Prevention Committee. Additionally, she is a member of the American Public Health Association, Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR), Texas Public Health Association and serves on the External Advisory Committee for the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center.

Lisa VanderWerf-Hourigan is the Director of the Office of Injury Prevention at the Florida Department of Health and has over 25 years of experience in the injury prevention and emergency medical services fields. She is responsible for the development and implementation of the 2004-2008 Florida Injury Prevention Strategic Plan and the 2009-2013 successor plan through the CDC-funded Public Health Injury Surveillance and Prevention Program grant.  Also responsible for Safe Kids Florida, Florida Bicycle Helmet Promotion Program, Florida Special Needs Occupant Protection Program, “Keep Your Eyes on the Kids” Drowning Prevention Campaign, and the annual Injury Prevention 101 course. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and her Master’s degree from Florida State University.

Lisa has been an active member of Safe States Alliance since 2000 and has served as an At-Large member of the Safe States Alliance Executive Committee since 2003 and currently is co-chair of the Safe States Alliance Membership committee.  Lisa is also active in the Southeastern Regional Injury Control Network (SERICN), where she has held chair and vice-chair positions in SERICN.

Holly Hedegaard, MD, MSPH is the director of the EMS and Trauma Data Program at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. After completing her medical degree at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) in 1988, Dr. Hedegaard trained in both surgery and preventive medicine. She was certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in 1996, and has served as adjunct faculty to the Department of Preventive Medicine/Biometrics at UCHSC since 1995. For the past 17 years, Dr. Hedegaard has worked as a medical/injury epidemiologist at the state health department in Colorado, becoming manager of the Injury Epidemiology Program in 1996, director of the Colorado Trauma Registry in 1997, principal investigator of the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System in 2003, and director of the EMS and Trauma Data Program in 2007.

During her tenure at the state health department, Dr. Hedegaard has been the principal investigator on several CDC-funded cooperative agreements including firearm injury surveillance (1994-1997), the Phase III core injury surveillance enhancement project (2000-2004), the National Violent Death Reporting System (2003-2008), and state funds for the Colorado Trauma Registry. She has extensive experience in creating data systems, collecting data from various sources, assessing and improving the quality of injury data, data analysis, preparing technical reports as well as reports for the general public, and information dissemination. Dr. Hedegaard has served on several Safe States’ Injury Surveillance Workgroups, most recently on the ISW5 group that updated the Consensus Recommendations for Injury Surveillance in State Health Departments and the ISW6 on Assessing an Expanded Definition for Injuries in Hospital Discharge Data Systems. Dr. Hedegaard has served on several national injury surveillance workgroups, including committees that developed consensus recommendations for injury surveillance in state health departments, assessed an expanded definition for injury using hospital discharge data systems, developed recommendations for surveillance of suicide and suicide attempts, provided input on the National Trauma Data Standards for the American College of Surgeons, and developed performance measures for the collection and use of injury and emergency medical services data for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Since 2007, Dr. Hedegaard has participated on WECCI (the Workgroup for External Cause Coding Improvement), and since 2008 has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics. Most recently, Dr. Hedegaard has participated on the Data and Surveillance Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and the NHTSA expert panel responsible for updating the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). In 2011, Dr. Hedegaard was elected Secretary of the Safe States Alliance, and will serve in this capacity through 2013.
 

Linda Scarpetta is the Manager of the Injury & Violence Prevention Section at the Michigan Department of Community Health.  She has a Masters degree in Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.  Since she joined the department over 17 years ago, she has been involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of a variety of surveillance and community-based injury and disability prevention programs. Prior to joining the health department, she worked as an epidemiologist for two years in Morgantown, WV for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducting occupational injury surveillance and statistical analyses. She is currently serving a second term as the Vice President of the Safe States Alliance and has served multiple terms as a member of the Safe States Alliance Executive Committee. She has participated in the development of consensus documents for various national and Safe States Alliance committees, including the Framework for Evaluation in Public Health, Consensus Recommendations for Injury Surveillance in State Health Departments, Consensus Recommendations for Surveillance of Falls, STAT Review Guide, and Safe States.

Michael Bauer, MS, has been with the NYSDOH Bureau of Injury Prevention since 2002 and serves as Data Manager. He co-chairs the NYS Fall Prevention for Older Adults Coalition, has co-authored 12 journal articles, and has given numerous presentations at state and national conferences. Michael is committed to moving research to practice; he works with injury program staff to ensure that data is included in all program work, is easily understood, and is useful to practitioners. He has participated in two STAT visits and is currently on a workgroup reviewing the Safe States Alliance’s bylaws.

Binnie LeHew, MSW, has worked for the Iowa Department of Public Health for 13 years, where she coordinates programs located in the Office of Disability, Injury and Violence Prevention.  She directs activities in sexual violence prevention and the health care response to violence against women, and staffs the Iowa Domestic Abuse Death Review Team.  Binnie also serves on the Advisory Council for Brain Injuries, Iowa Trauma System Advisory Council, and the Sex Offender Research Council.  She was the first chair of the State and Territorial Rape Prevention Education Directors’ Council.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Kansas State University and her Master’s Degree from the University of Iowa.

Binnie has been active in Safe States Alliance since 2007, serving as the state representative for Iowa.  She has participated on the Violence Against Women workgroup, the Conference Planning Committee, and the Leadership Development Committee.

Peg Ogea-Ginsburg, M.A., has worked for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for 20 years and in the Injury Prevention Program for the past 11 years. Currently she coordinates the activities of the CDC-funded Public Health Injury Surveillance and Prevention Program. She oversees the Rape Prevention and Education Grant and serves on the Statewide Suicide Prevention Coalition and the CODES Advisory Committee. Peg assists with Safe Kids activities in Nebraska and is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician Instructor.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree and her Master’s Degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Peg has been active in Safe States Alliance since 2001, serving on the Membership Committee, co-chairing the Membership Committee, and serving on the Executive Committee as a Member-at-Large in 2006 – 2007.

Since 2004, Carol Thornton has been the State Designated Representative for Pennsylvania and served on two STAT visits. Under her leadership, Ms. Thornton established the Injury Community Planning Group and has expanded the state program from two employees to five. She serves on statewide advisory groups related to the prevention and control of motor vehicle crashes, falls, unintentional poisonings, youth suicides, teen dating violence, and sexual violence. Ms. Thornton hopes to serve the Safe States Alliance in return for its support to the Commonwealth in building the state program's capacity through the 2005 PA STAT visit and ongoing resource access.