2013 SHINE Conference Panelist Biographies

Building Bold Innovative Partnerships to Prevent and Reduce STIs/HIV Among Youth

Panelist Biographies 

Greg Mooney is the Executive Director and Vice-President of the Comer Science & Education Foundation (CSEF), where he oversees all aspects of the Foundation’s engagement in the Gary Comer Youth Center, Gary Comer College Prep, local public schools and the surrounding community. In addition to providing strategic direction for all education initiatives and community development projects, he manages Foundation and Youth Center operations and collaborates with senior management of the schools supported by CSEF. Mooney began his career as a junior high school teacher and coach, working in the Englewood community on Chicago’s South Side. Prior to joining the Comer Science & Education Foundation in 2002, Greg served as Executive Director of the Inner-City Teaching Corps, where he helped to launch the first alternative teacher certification program in the State of Illinois. He also served as Vice-President of 21st Century Urban Schools, assisting with the creation and implementation of the Alain Locke Charter Academy, a top performing charter elementary school on Chicago’s West Side.

A summa cum laude graduate of Villanova University, Greg received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A 2008 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, Greg currently serves on the boards of Catalyst Schools, Leadership Greater Chicago, Cook County Justice for Children and Gary Comer College Prep, LLC, as well as the St. Malachy School Strategic Advisory Board.

Panel 1: Community Violence

Nanette Benbow, M.A.S., is Deputy Commissioner for the HIV/STI Services Division. She is the key advisor and liaison on all HIV/STI related matters at the Chicago Department of Public Health, engaging national and local partners around programs, priorities, research, trends and changes in medical and public health care services. Ms. Benbow has worked at the health department for over 20 years as an epidemiologist and researcher in HIV/STI, violence prevention and minority health.  She received her master’s degree in Applied Statistics from Ohio State University and her undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 

Danny K. Davis, PhD, was chosen by the people of the 7th Congressional District of Illinois as their Representative in Congress on November 5, 1996. He has been re-elected to succeeding Congresses, most recently to the 113th Congress in 2012. Before seeking public office, Davis had productive careers as an educator, community organizer, health planner/administrator and civil rights advocate.

In the 113th Congress Representative Davis serves on the Ways and Means Committee. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the Labor Caucus, and the Urban Caucus. He also serves as Co-Chairman of the Community Health Centers Caucus and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Sugar Caucus. Prior to his election to the Congress he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and served for eleven years as a member of the Chicago City Council as Alderman of the 29th Ward.

Davis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arkansas A.M. & N. College. He earned both Master’s and Doctorate degrees respectively from Chicago State University and the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has six honorary Doctorate degrees from well-known colleges and universities. 

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, and writer who lives in Chicago. Her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, and supporting youth leadership development. Mariame is a published author, a teacher, and has served on numerous nonprofit boards.

Kaba is currently the founding director of Project NIA (www.project-nia.org), a grassroots organization with the long-term goal of ending youth incarceration in Illinois.  Prior to launching Project NIA, she spent five years as a Program Officer for education and youth development at the Steans Family Foundation and also as the coordinator of evaluation for the foundation.

Kaba has a long history of anti-violence organizing and education. She has co-founded several organizations including the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women (www.chitaskforce.org), the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team(www.rogersparkywat.org) and the Chicago Freedom School (www.chicagofreedomschool.org).  Kaba has been honored with several awards including the Moxie Award from Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Community Advocate of the Year Award from the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, the Community Spirit Award from Chicago Safe Start (Chicago Department of Public Health), the 7th District Community Award from State Senator Heather Steans, the 2012 Courage Tour Award from A Long Walk Home and the Ed Marciniak Award from the Bright Promises Foundation. 

Cathy Krieger, AM ’79, MBA ’91, is the President and CEO of The Children’s Place Association an innovative human services agency serving 550+ children and families with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses in Chicago and Haiti. As founding CEO, she launched the Midwest’s first residential and nursing center for HIV-affected children in 1991 and has led the organization’s service expansion to include foster care, early childhood education, family housing, and international programming.

Prior to joining The Children’s Place Association, Krieger served as the director of social services for the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic where she developed the social services program to address the psychosocial elements of juvenile delinquency, and child abuse/neglect among Clinic clients. She has also worked as a clinical social worker and counselor at the Juvenile Protective Association and the Salvation Army Tom Seay Center. Selected awards include La Rabida Children’s Hospital Big Hearts for Young Heroes Outstanding Professional Award in 2001, and AIDS Legal Council of Chicago Support Services Advocate of the Year in 2011.

Alfonza Wysinger is the First Deputy Superintendent and a 27 year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. A native Chicagoan, he attended the Chicago Public Schools and continued his education at Chicago State University and Calumet College of St. Joseph, where he attained a Bachelors Degree in Law Enforcement Management. During his years of service on the police department, First Deputy Superintendent Wysinger has worked in many units, including Patrol, Narcotics, the Detective Division and the DEA Task Force as an officer and supervisor.

An alumnus of the Northwestern University Center of Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command, First Deputy Superintendent was voted Vice President of the One-Hundred and Sixty Fourth Class of 2001. He is also a 2006 graduate of the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute for Police in Boston, MA.

First Deputy Superintendent Wysinger was the recipient in 2008 of the City of Chicago’s highest honor, the Lambert Tree Award. He also received the Chicago Police Department’s Award of Valor. Both of these honors were bestowed upon him for his acts of bravery during the performance of his duties.

As First Deputy Superintendent, he is second in command of the Chicago Police Department and is responsible for overseeing all of its daily operations. As a leader, he is recognized nationally for his service to his profession and his community.

Panel 2: Mental Health 

Felicia Davis joined Mayor Emanuel’s administration in 2011 as his First Deputy Chief of Staff. Ms. Davis previously served the Chicago Police Department, with distinction, for 10 years. During her tenure at CPD, she worked in many roles, completing her law enforcement career as a Detective in the Department’s Violent Crimes section, where she focused on investigating violent offenses. During Mayor Emanuel’s first year, Felicia managed the City’s Public Safety portfolio and served as the Mayor’s lead advisor on public safety policy. She was tasked with leading a comprehensive and strategic public safety agenda, promoting accountability, dialogue and cooperation among diverse stakeholders, and building support for initiatives and policies that reduce violence and support community stabilization.

In June 2012, Mayor Emanuel named Felicia as the first Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement. The Office of Public Engagement is tasked with connecting community members to resources across City government to help them serve and celebrate their communities; and collaborating with neighborhood and civic organizations, nonprofits, policy advisory groups and various city agencies to inform and engage citizens for the betterment of their communities and the city at large.

Matt Richards is the Manager of Community Programs and Prevention at the University of Chicago’s Care2Prevent program in the Department of Pediatrics. In his capacity with Care2Prevent, Richards manages the University of Chicago’s HIV Prevention programs that are funded by the Chicago Department of Public Health and also administrates its Ryan White HIV Program. He is currently developing a drop-in program for LGBTQ adolescents/young adults on Chicago’s South Side that is set to open in January of 2014 – it will be the first of its kind on the South Side. Matt is a 2011 graduate of University of Chicago School of Social Work Administration and has a particular interest in LGBT healthcare, adolescent mental health, and evidenced-based behavioral health interventions.   

Deborah Gorman-Smith is a Professor in the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Director of the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention. The Center is one of six national Academic Centers of Excellence funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Her program of research, grounded in a public health perspective, is focused on advancing knowledge about development, risk, and prevention of aggression and violence, with specific focus on minority youth living in poor urban settings. Gorman-Smith has published extensively in areas related to youth violence, including the relationship between community characteristics, family functioning and aggression and violence, and the impact of family-focused preventive interventions. She also serves as Senior Research Fellow with the Coalition for Evidence Based Policy—a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to promote government policy based on rigorous evidence of program effectiveness in Washington, D.C.

Suzanne Snyder, L.C.S.W., is the manager of the Preventive and Behavioral Health Services at Access Community Health Network. In her role at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS), Snyder provides integrated behavioral health management and spiritual care management to populations who are accessing primary medical services at ACCESS’s 40 health centers throughout Chicago and Cook and DuPage counties. Snyder also oversees the provision of behavioral health services at our school-based health centers. In addition, she provides behavioral health care to patients at ACCESS Servicios Médicos La Villita health center in the primarily Latino neighborhood of Little Village. Snyder was on a team of LCSWs who initially implemented behavioral health treatment services at ACCESS, and for more than 12 years has championed the vision and implementation of integrated behavioral health services within the primary care setting.

During her professional career, Snyder has worked as a director of an interfaith justice education organization, a parish minister, a community liaison for at risk-youth and mental health services, DUI instructor, a director of social work and discharge planning for a community hospital, and a behavioral health clinician across the entire continuum of care—from intensive inpatient care to community-based care, with a particular emphasis on at-risk youth and children.

Snyder is a graduate of Albion College (BA), the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (AM) and the Chicago Theological Seminary Master’s of Divinity.

Panel 3: New Media

Rod McCullom has written/produced for ABC News, NBC, FOX, EXTRA and is a frequent contributor to The Atlantic and EBONY. He has extensively reported political, global health and human rights issues from across the Black Diaspora. Rod has been a panelist at ICASA 2011 Addis Ababa and AIDS 2012 Washington DC and reported from AIDS 2010 Vienna, 2011 Black Diaspora MSM Conference Dominican Republic and AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona. He has been awarded several international media fellowships to report on HIV/AIDS from Austria, Ethiopia, Spain and Zambia.

McCullom is a contributor to the award-winning anthologies For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Still Not Enough and Obama and the Gays: A PoliticalMarriage. He began his career at The Los Angeles Times and his writing has appeared at The Wall Street Journal, The Advocate, OUT.com and many others. Rod has been nominated for an Emmy Award, has four GLAAD Media Award nominations and won a GLAAD Media Award in 2013. He attended the University of Chicago. His blog is ROD20.com.

Stephen “Seed” Lynn is a listener, artist, problem solver (and troublemaker) creating a second home in the Chicagoland area. Through a practice that heralds deep listening and sharing, Lynn assists communities in the emergence of their most necessary narratives, across political, social and cultural boundaries. At the University of Chicago’s Ci3 (Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual & Reproductive Health), he leads workshops and designs learning experiences, exploring how art, new media and games combined with a careful awareness of narrative can deepen health learning and improve health outcomes for some of the city’s most vulnerable youth.

Tim’m T. West is a poet, scholar, rapper, and youth activist who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised primarily in rural Arkansas. A contemporary Renaissance man, he is a featured voice in many documentaries about hip hop and masculinity because of his ground-breaking work as a gay-identified hip hop artist, AIDS activist, and youth advocate, among other affiliations. A teacher and cultural producer at a number of secondary and post-secondary institutions, West received a B.A. from Duke University and graduate degrees from The New School for Social Research and Stanford University. He is author of several books, is widely anthologized, and also has produced and released nine hip hop albums, the first several with iconic queer rap group D/DC. In 2013 he released his fifth solo project, snapshots. West travels and lectures widely and, professionally, serves as Director of Youth Programs at Center On Halsted in Chicago.

Robin Robinson is founding anchor of WFLD Fox 32 News at 9pm, reporting for the Chicago audience since the launch of the news operation at WFLD-TV in 1987.

While Robinson’s journalistic interests are wide ranging, she is particularly focused on stories, policies, trends, discoveries and investigations that have a direct impact on quality of life issues.  Her work with the on-going series, “Chicago at the Tipping Point,” demonstrates her commitment to solution oriented reporting.

Having received more than a dozen EMMY Awards for her reporting from the Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Robinson is most proud to be recognized as an active member of her community, a true partner with her audience.

Robinson was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago before her father, a writer for Johnson Publishing Company, moved the family to Southern California when he became the first West Coast Editor of Ebony Magazine.

A graduate of San Diego State University, Robinson began her career at KGVT, the ABC affiliate in San Diego while still in college. She then moved to KMGH-TV in Denver as a consumer reporter, before returning to Chicago where she first reported and anchored at the local CBS affiliate and then moved to the Fox affiliate to begin a newscast that would help the then fledgling network establish a credible presence in the nation’s third largest market. Robinson is the mother of three young adults, the founder of the mentoring program Sisters Peak for middle school female students, an active supporter of Clara’s House Shelter for homeless women and children, as well as Orchard Village – an agency serving developmentally disabled adults.

Panel 4: Evidence-Based Interventions

Kischa Hampton, M.S.W., is the director of the Preventive and Behavioral Health Services at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS). Hampton provides health center program management, spiritual care, medical and supportive case management services and strong evidence-based interventions to high-risk populations (HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, addictions, re-entry, prevention and homeless) who are accessing medical services at ACCESS’s more than 40 health centers in Chicago and Cook and DuPage counties. In addition, she oversees ACCESS’s behavioral health services and the integration of these critical services within the primary care setting. Due to her strong experience with youth, Ms. Hampton also currently manages one of ACCESS’s school-based health centers located on the South Side of Chicago.

During her professional career, she has worked in child welfare, mental health, human services and community-based health care organizations that serve many diverse communities and populations. Hampton also serves as a Principal Investigator for working with Young Men who have Sex with Men (YMSM) project. She has also presented at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conferences as a featured panelist and expert to speak on such issues as recruitment, retention, implementation, best practices, integration and strategy.  In addition, Hampton has also been selected to speak in other venues on program development, re-entry population in a federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) and the effects of substance abuse in urban African-American communities. She has also served as a reviewer for the Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action (PCHP) in the Science of Community Engagement journal (2012).

In March 2012, Hampton was honored with the Emerging Leader Award from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy).  Hampton received her Bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University in 1998 and her Master’s degree in social work from Indiana University in 2002.

Pastor Christopher T. Harris, is the CEO and Founder of Bright Star Community Outreach. Pastor Christopher T. Harris has been senior pastor at the Bright Star Church of God In Christ in Chicago since 1999. Bright Star has experienced exponential growth under his leadership and in 12 years his church has increased to more than 1200 parishioners.

Recognizing the need for more “community-minded clergy,” and due to increasing violence in Chicago, he created the Progress Around the Schools (P.A.T.S. Program) in 2007. Every first Saturday of the month, Pastor Harris, clergy, congregants, and community members throughout the city join together in prayer around Chicago Public Schools in order to combat the violence in the city and among youth. The success of the P.A.T.S. Program led to the establishment of the Bright Star Community Outreach (a 501c3 non-profit organization). This organization is committed to creating collaborative partnership program models designed to provide educational enrichment programs, anti-violence prevention and intervention activities, along with good student incentives. Pastor Harris is also the founder of the Bronzeville Family Festival where over 9,000 community residents attend annually to receive free laptops, book bags, school supplies, health immunizations, food and more. As a result of his vast community work, he was voted Chairman of the CPS Bronzeville Community Action Council whose sole focus is to make schools better in Chicago.

Keith R. Green is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, where his focus is on the intersection of behavioral and biomedical HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. His research experience includes time spent as project director for the first federally-funded research study to explore the acceptability and feasibility of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among young men who have sex with men.

Green earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, concentrating on the needs of individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness. He is an active board member of the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, and a nationally recognized spoken word artist, HIV/AIDS activist, social justice advocate, and community journalist. He maintains a regular column in the nation’s most widely read HIV treatment education journal, Positively Aware, and has been a frequent contributor to both TheBody.com and BlackAIDS.org.

Harold Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. He is also Co-Director of The University of Chicago Crime Lab and an Executive Committee member of the Center at the University of Chicago. He has published widely at the interface between poverty policy and public health. His research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Health Services Research, Pediatrics, and Social Service Review. A 2012-14 Robert Wood Johnson Investigator in Health Policy Research, Professor Pollack has been appointed to three committees of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Before coming to SSA, Professor Pollack was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at Yale University and taught Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His writings regularly appear in the Washington Post, the Nation, the New York Times, New Republic, and other popular publications. His American Prospect essay, “Lessons from an Emergency Room, Nightmare” was selected for the collection Best American Medical Writing, 2009.

Monica Longmire, M.H.A., is the supervisor of Preventive and Behavioral Health Services at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS). Longmire provides program management for CDPH Youth Services, CDC and SAMSHA funded programs, case management services and strong evidence-based interventions to high-risk populations (HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, addictions, re-entry, prevention and homeless) who are accessing medical services at ACCESS’s 40 health centers in Chicago, Cook and DuPage counties.

During her professional career, she has worked in human services and community-based health care organizations that serve many diverse communities and populations. Longmire was a finalist at the NAHSE competition in 2008 representing Governors State University (GSU) in the Everett Fox Student Case Study Competition. In addition, Longmire was the president of the GSU chapter of Student Health Care Management Association (SHCMA).

In March 1999, Ms. Longmire earned her Associate in Applied Science degree with an emphasis on Nursing. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Administration from Governors State University in 2007, and her Master’s degree in Health Administration from Governors State University in 2009.

Keynote Speaker:

Judith Auerbach is a public sociologist, independent science and policy consultant, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She previously served as Vice President, Research & Evaluation at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Vice President, Public Policy and Program Development, at amfAR, Director of the Behavioral and Social Science Program and HIV Prevention Science Coordinator in the Office of AIDS Research at the NIH, Assistant Director for Social and Behavioral Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Senior Program Officer at the Institute of Medicine. Auerbach received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught, presented, and published widely in the areas of HIV/AIDS, social science, public policy, and sex and gender. Her work has appeared in such journals as Health AffairsJournal of Health and Social BehaviorScienceGlobal Public HealthJAIDS, and the American Journal of Public Health.  Auerbach has served on numerous professional and advisory groups, including the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (OARAC), Institute of Medicine Committee on the Outcome and Impact Evaluation of PEPFAR, American Sociological Association Council, the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, and the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy.

In 2012, she was elected to the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society.  She has received numerous awards including the 2004 Feminist Activist Award from Sociologists for Women in Society, the 2006 Research in Action Award from the Treatment Action Group (TAG), the 2008 Career Award from the Sociologists AIDS Network, and the 2010 Thomas M. Kelly Leadership Award from Project Inform.

Judith Auerbach’s research interests focus on the social organization of scientific knowledge, specifically, the role and standing of social research in the HIV/AIDS response; social determinants of health and wellbeing; and the relationship between science, program, and policy.