Advisory Board
Karla Armenti, MS, ScD
Dr. Karla Armenti is the Principal Investigator of the New Hampshire Occupational Health Surveillance Program (NH OHSP) in the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire. She has been in the field of occupational and environmental health for over 30 years, concentrating in occupational health surveillance and occupational and environmental health policy. Dr. Armenti received her Master in Science and Doctorate degrees from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In addition to managing the NH OHSP, Dr. Armenti teaches environmental health in the UNH Master of Public Health Program. Dr. Armenti has worked on a variety of research grants focused on preventing risks and protecting the health and safety of workers. As Director of the NH OHSP, she works with many partners to enhance surveillance activities focused on priority worker safety and health topics, with the intention of integrating occupational health into traditional public health in the state. Understanding the causes and impact of work-related injuries and illnesses gives us another tool in developing prevention strategies that benefit all workers in NH.
Semra Aytur, PhD, MPH
Dr. Semra Aytur is an epidemiologist whose research focuses on relationships between health behavior, chronic disease prevention, environmental justice, and climate change. Prior to joining the University of New Hampshire as Associate Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, Dr. Aytur completed her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her MPH at Boston University. She is particularly interested in health disparities, climate justice, and access to health-promoting resources. She also focuses on risk and resilience in the context of complex socio-ecological systems. Dr. 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 has led several multi-sectoral team-science projects and transdisciplinary research teams. Her methodological focus areas include Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods such as Photovoice, participatory GIS, and community mapping. Quantitative methods include Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM), mediation analysis, complex systems models, and Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Dr. Aytur has published over 55 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Additionally, she obtained practical public health experience by working in public health departments in several states, focusing on policies related to equity and chronic disease prevention. Dr. Aytur is deeply committed to community-engaged research that supports innovative ways to improve population health.
Matthew Cahillane, MPH
Matthew Cahillane is a public health professional with over three decades of experience solving environmental health problems in the Northeast US. His most recent position was manager for the Climate and Health Program within the NH DHHS Division of Public Health Services. He has also been a principal investigator on several research projects, including a CDC cooperative agreement to assess the health impacts of climate change, and developing a state environmental health tracking system. He also managed the Health Officer Liaison Unit (HOLU) to help local municipalities to solve problems related to housing, indoor air quality, pest infestations, and sanitation. His educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree (B.S.) in Preventive Health Studies from UMass Amherst, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in health education & behavioral sciences from UCLA. He lives with his family along the Merrimack River in Concord, NH.
Mary Ann Cooney, MSN, MPH, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Mary Ann is a passionate advocate for public health and social justice. Her 30+ year career has been devoted to improving population health through nursing practice, advancing health policy, and advocating for health and human services systems change. Mary Ann started her career in health as an intensive care registered nurse. That experience drove her to identify the root causes of illness and promote policy to address the determinants of health. Mary Ann believes in equity as a value and continues to promote policies for a healthy and prosperous future for all. Mary Ann currently works at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials as the Vice President of Health Equity and Diversity Initiatives. She previously held the position of Deputy Commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. Before that, she was New Hampshire’s Director of Public Health, serving as the state health official. Mary Ann has served as adjunct faculty for the Master of Public Health Program at the University of New Hampshire and received UNH’s 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award. Mary Ann also was President of the New Hampshire Public Health Association, chaired the New Hampshire’s Statewide Tobacco Prevention Coalition, and served on several public health focused boards and committees. She received her baccalaureate in nursing from Saint Anselm College, a Master of Science in nursing administration from University of New Hampshire, and Master of Public Health from the University of New Hampshire. Mary Ann loves theater, kayaking and cycling.
Patricia Edwards, MD, FAAP
Dr. Edwards has been a pediatrician at Concord Pediatrics, PA for 36 years and has watched her practice grow from three doctors to seven pediatricians and two APRNs over the years. She is also a member of the NH Vaccine Association, treasurer of the AAP NH chapter as well as the AAP vaccine advocate for the NH chapter. In addition, she is on the Dartmouth Co-op board and the Concord Hospital Credentialing Committee. She and her siblings own a Tree Farm in NH and are very interested in conservation. In her free time she is a member of Clan MacPherson Pipes and Drums as a snare drummer and a Girl Scout leader and on the Alumni board of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. Her family includes two children, a son and daughter and a grandson and granddaughter. Climate change is one of her main concerns especially as a pediatrician and its effect on our future generations and their wellbeing.
Neal C. Hogan, PhD
Neal C. Hogan PhD is the author of Leading on Climate Change: How Healthcare Leaders Stop Global Warming coming from Tilly Press in March 2022. Neal also serves as Chairman of the Healthcare Climate ActionWorks, a firm dedicated to researching and sharing best practices in emissions reductions, and to helping health systems implement climate actions with an ROI. For 30 years Neal has been an advisor to health system leaders, and he has been a contributor to the climate action group 350.org for over a decade. As Managing Director at the Advisory Board Company, and then at BDC Advisors, Neal worked with hundreds of organizations to improve performance on initiatives ranging from reducing medical errors to increasing surgical throughput. He has developed strategies for organizations that include Mass General Brigham, Duke Medicine, Providence Health and Services, Common Spirit, and the University of Chicago. Neal serves on the board of the non-profit INTEGRIS Health which operates 9 hospitals in Oklahoma. He received his PhD in the History of Science from Harvard University. He is the author of numerous publications, starting with his book Unhealed Wounds: A History of Medical Malpractice. Neal lives with his family in a solar powered home in New Hampshire.
Robert McLellan, MD, MPH
Dr. McLellan is a Professor Emeritus at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Recently retired as the Chief of the Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Dr. McLellan has extensive experience as a consultant and clinician addressing environmental health issues at work and in the community. He has served as a president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and the New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. McLellan founded The Jordan Institute, a non-profit that operated for 20 years in NH to reduce energy use and carbon emissions from buildings. He has written extensively and lectured throughout the nation and internationally on a range of issues related to occupational and environmental medicine, including public health effects of climate change and disaster response. He has received numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from ACOEM, the Total Worker Health® Founder’s Award from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Roger Fossum Award from the New Hampshire Public Health Association “for dedicated commitment and leadership in environmental and public health,” and a commendation from Governor Hassan of New Hampshire for commitment and dedication to the community and state.
Jessinta Palack, BS, medical student
Though I grew up in Virginia, I moved to Hanover, NH to begin medical school at Dartmouth this past year. I initially became interested in the effects of our changing climate and human health through my undergraduate coursework at The College of William and Mary. After graduating from W&M in 2019 with a B.S. in Biology, I joined the US Peace Corps and served as an Education Volunteer in the arid, semi-desert region of Singida, Tanzania, where I taught biology and physics to secondary school students. During my service as a Peace Corps volunteer, I felt closely connected to my environment. I caught all the water I used from the rain, relied entirely on solar energy to power my house, and ate locally grown produce and freshly killed meat every day. As our climate continues to change, severe weather events, exacerbations of cardiovascular disease, increasing habitat ranges for disease carrying vectors, and food and water insecurity are just a few challenges which will test our medical system. I’m excited to work with NH Healthcare Workers for Climate Action to better educate and prepare our communities for the health effects of a changing climate, and to share my passion for sustainable and mindful living.
Dan Quinlan, MBA, MS
Dan Quinlan is father of two soon-to-be physicians and is married to his partner in life Pat for just shy of 40 years. In his work-life, he is an independent consultant working on projects tied to climate change, clean energy and health, especially impacts on vulnerable populations. Dan provides strategy, communications, and other services to NGOs and for-profit clients. For three years, he ran a DOE nationwide consortium of companies providing technical assistance to cities and towns spinning up clean energy programs. Dan currently leads/co-leads groups similar to NHHWCA in Vermont and New Jersey. He is also the founder of SolaVida.org, a non-profit whose mission is to help widen the community of people taking action to address global warming and promote clean energy. He has a particular interest in developing new communication outreach strategies and ideas. Dan began his career as a research physicist at Bell Labs, followed by a series of senior management and finance positions for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Dan holds MS and MBA degrees, has been awarded five patents, and has published a gaggle of largely uninteresting papers and articles.
Mary D. Lemcke-Stampone, Ph.D
Dr. Mary Stampone is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of New Hampshire where she teaches undergraduate courses on weather, climate, and natural hazards. As an applied climatologist, her research focuses on monitoring and modeling variability and change in regional-scale climate system processes with an emphasis on hydroclimatic hazards (i.e., drought, flooding, severe weather). Dr. Stampone also serves as the State Climatologist for New Hampshire, providing citizens, educators, and government agencies with weather and climate information in support of environmental management and adaptation activities. She co-authored the "Northeast" chapter of the 2018 4th National Climate Assessment and the recently published New Hampshire Climate Assessment, 2021. She also served on the 2018-2019 NH Coastal Flood Risk Science and Technical Advisory Panel and continues to serve as a member of the NH Drought Management Team.
Christine Tappan, MSW, CAGS, CWMF
Christine Tappan specializes in applying progressive practice, program, policy, strategy, and financial expertise across the health and human services spectrum. She has 25+ years of experience working in the public, social, and for-profit sectors, as well as primary and higher education, both in the United States and internationally. Throughout her career, she’s focused on building partnerships that use data and analytics to drive collaboration and integrate transformational change at key intersections of the social determinants of health, including early childhood, economic mobility, housing, behavioral health, child welfare, and environmental justice. Currently, Christine is the Co-Director of Abt Associates Global Center on Technical Assistance and Implementation and guides the advancement of Abt’s cross-cutting portfolio of health and human services capacity-building efforts and partnerships across the United States. A focus of Christine’ role is to leverage research and best practices to directly impact the capacity and resiliency of individuals, families, communities, organizations, and systems. Prior to joining Abt, Tappan was Associate Commissioner at the New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services and Director of Local Government Affairs at American Public Human Services Association. She also served as a Fulbright Program Specialist in Central Asia, and as an NGO capacity building expert with a focus on child protection and strengthening child and family serving systems. Christine has an MSW from the University of Michigan and BSW from the University of New Hampshire. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Education and Leadership from Plymouth State University and is a Certified Forest and Nature Therapy Guide and Trail Consultant through the Association for Nature and Forest Therapists (ANFT). Christine recently founded BirchWalking, an organization that brings beings together in nature and creates safe spaces to deepen connections that promote resiliency and capacity for all to thrive and live well. She provides guided forest therapy walks for individuals, families, groups, and teams in New Hampshire and beyond both in person and virtually. Christine’s inspiration to become a forest therapy guide came from her own experiences as a health and human services professional and leader experiencing burnout and vicarious trauma. After traditional trauma treatments failed to relieve her symptoms. Christine attended a multi-day forest bathing retreat and experienced profound benefits that lasted over time. She subsequently undertook training through ANFT to become a certified guide and now offers tailored forest bathing experiences for individual health and human services practitioners, as well as teams, leaders, and organizations. Christine is also a volunteer with the Old Growth Forest Network where she is a County Coordinator for two counties in New Hampshire, Rockingham and Strafford, leading efforts to identify and preserve old growth forests. She is also nearing completion of her certification to become a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator through the Mindful Leader Institute, Brown University.
Deborah Klein Walker, EdD
Deborah Klein Walker, EdD, (@DKWpublichealth) is a public health leader, behavioral sciences researcher, educator and advocate for public health and social justice. She has more than 45 years of experience developing and implementing programs and system change, developing and implementing policy at the local and state levels, and conducting research and evaluation in community settings. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and at the Tufts School of Medicine as well as consultant on maternal and child health and other public health issues. Most recently, she was a Vice President, responsible for Public Health and Epidemiology in the US Health Division at Abt Associates. Prior to Abt, Dr. Walker spent 16 years at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she was the Associate Commissioner for Programs and Prevention. Prior to state service, she was a faculty member for over a decade at the Harvard School of Public Health and Graduate School of Education. She currently is a board member of Family Voices and the Institute for Community Health, and a member of The Children’s Forum of The National Academies of Science. She is a former president of the American Public Health Association, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, and the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice; a former Trustee of the Cambridge Health Alliance and chair of its Cambridge Health Department subcommittee; and a former Board Member of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. Dr. Walker is the author of many peer reviewed articles, 3 books and numerous commentaries, book chapters and reports. She has received awards from organizations representing maternal and child health, disabilities, data science and at-risk populations. She earned a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an EdM and EdD in Human Development from Harvard University. Currently a resident in Meredith, NH, she has been coming to the Lakes Region for over 60 years. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust.
Dan Weeks
Dan Weeks is a climate advocate and clean energy entrepreneur on a mission to transition New England from fossil fuels to renewable energy. As vice president and co-owner at ReVision Energy, Dan leads commercial sales, project finance, and development for the region's largest clean energy company while promoting climate action. He has written on climate, poverty, and democracy for The Atlantic, New York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and other outlets. As a father of three and a Director of St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, he is particularly concerned about the public health impacts of the climate crisis.
A 12th-generation Granite Stater, Dan left New Hampshire after high school to serve with AmeriCorps and attend Yale and Oxford on scholarships. He was fortunate to live and work on four continents before returning with his South African wife Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, a human rights lawyer and academic. He has been named one of New Hampshire's “Most Influential Business Leaders” by NH Business Review and “Young Professional of the Year” by Stay Work Play New Hampshire.