BBQ, Blues, HPV Vaccination, & You
Speaker Bios
Jennifer Berger, MD
Pediatrician at Memphis Pediatrics, Le Bonheur Pediatrics
Dr. Jennifer Berger, a native Memphian, received her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Dr. Berger completed her pediatric residency at the University of Tennessee, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and then served as a chief resident for an additional year. Dr. Berger is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is board certified in Pediatrics. She is married to Jonathan Berger, a pediatric radiologist at Midsouth Imaging, and they have 3 children. In her spare time, she loves spending time with family and friends, running, traveling, and reading.
Nathaniel “Nate” Boutte, PharmD
Manager, Community Based Specialty Store 15317; Walgreens
Nathaniel “Dr Nate” Boutte PharmD has been serving his community for over a decade in a variety of roles under the umbrella of Pharmacy. His professional career started as a staff pharmacist at a Walgreens in the heart of Memphis working closely with both HIV patients and underserved communities. From staff pharmacist to pharmacy manager to preceptor to mentor and everything in between. Currently serving as a Registered Store Manager for the specialty branch of Walgreens known as Community, focusing on removing barriers for both patients and providers in HIV, Oncology, Organ Transplant, and Hepatitis C.
Michelle Bowden, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
Michelle Bowden is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She currently serves as a pediatrician in General Pediatrics and Adolescent Clinics at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. She also has an appointment at a local behavioral health treatment facility for children and adolescents in Memphis, TN. Her primary clinical interest is in caring for the complex issues of adolescents. Her clinics meets a wide variety of adolescent needs including serving patients with eating disorders and reproductive health concerns. Her research interests are strongly influenced by her clinical work and include eating disorder identification among adolescents, HPV vaccination, teen pregnancy prevention, and improving health literacy and health advocacy among adolescents.
Rob Clark, MS, FACHE
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
As St. Jude’s Chief Government Affairs Officer, Rob is responsible for public policy and government affairs for the institution and for the SJ Comprehensive Cancer Center at the federal, state and local levels. He serves on the Government Relations Steering Committees of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, the TN Hospital Association, the Children’s Hospital Association and the Association of American Cancer Institutes. He is past President of the TN Cancer Coalition and is a past invited participant in the CDC Comprehensive Cancer Control National Technical Assistance Workgroups and in the NCI Comprehensive Cancer Control Leadership Institutes. Rob also serves the Memphis community through work on several civic boards and commissions.
Dr. Jennifer Cunningham-Erves
Assistant Professor, Meharry Medical College
Jennifer Cunningham Erves, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Meharry Medical College in the Department of Internal Medicine and adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Erves is a public health oncologist focused on cancer prevention behaviors and lowering cancer disparities. Her current research focuses on improving HPV vaccine uptake among minority and underserved populations using behavioral interventions, health communication, and implementation science.
Marcie Fisher-Borne, PhD, MPH, MSW
Managing Director, Interventions and Implementation, Office of Cancer Research and Implementation
American Cancer Society
Marcie Fisher-Borne is the Managing Director of the national Interventions and Implementation team within the Office of Research and Implementation at the American Cancer Society. In this role, she supports a broad range of cancer interventions and their evaluation across ACS’s cancer portfolio including cancer screening initiatives, HPV vaccination quality improvement projects and community grants programming. Marcie also leads the HPV Vaccinate Adolescents against Cancers (VACs) program. Partially funded through the CDC, the ACS VACs program is a national initiative to improve HPV vaccine rates through evidence-based quality improvement interventions in health systems and through other key clinical, state and national partnerships. To date, the VACs program has supported year-long quality improvement projects in over 2,000 clinics around the U.S.
Melissa B. Gilkey, PhD
Associate Professor of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina
Melissa Gilkey, PhD, is a behavioral scientist on faculty in the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health. With research interests in adolescent health, cancer prevention and health services research, Dr. Gilkey studies individual, interpersonal and organizational approaches to improving the delivery of adolescent vaccines, including human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Her work includes survey research to understand barriers to vaccination, such as provider and parental hesitancy, as well as intervention research aimed at improving vaccine delivery systems.
Michelle Heil
Senior Manager, Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships Tennessee
American Cancer Society
Michelle Heil has been with the American Cancer Society 14 years. Based in Nashville, she serves as the Senior Manager of Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships for the state of Tennessee. She and the ACS cancer control staff team focus on cancer prevention, early detection, screening, quality of life and access to care initiatives, employee health & wellness programs, and population health-related efforts to achieve cancer control priorities across Tennessee.
Pastor David Horne
David Horne at age sixty-five is a native Memphian. He is married to wife Gina and have four children Rex Horne of Arlington, Nick Horne of Memphis, Melanie Horne of Washington D.C. and Andrea Michelle Netherton Horne who is deceased. Professionally, David held senior management positions for departments of the City of Memphis including General Services, Fire Department, and Police Department. Before retiring from MPD, David was called into the Ministry under the United Methodist Denomination. Currently, he is serving a two-point charge pastoring two churches in Tipton County. David enjoys cooking for friends, family and Moriah House. He and his wife also enjoy traveling the world. David in his love for others is here today to help educate about HPV and the importance of the vaccine.
Seok Won Jin, PhD, MSW, MA
Assistant Professor and DSW Program Director, School of Social Work
University of Memphis
Dr. Jin is an Associate Professor and DSW Program Director at the University of Memphis School of Social Work. Before joining the current position in 2018, he had worked for Clark Atlanta University for five years. His educational background includes Social Work (Ph.D. and M.S.W., the University of Minnesota), Gerontology (M.A., Ball State University), Social Welfare (M.A., Kyung Hee University, S. Korea), and German Linguistics & Literature (B.A., Yonsei University, S. Korea). His research has focused on advancing health equity by eliminating health disparities in cancer-related preventive behaviors (i.e., screening, vaccinations) and developing technology-based interventions among vulnerable populations.
Representative London Lamar
District 91, Tennessee General Assembly
Representative London Lamar currently serves Tennesseans as the youngest female legislator in the Tennessee General Assembly. As the conscious of the legislature, Representative Lamar champions strong schools, healthy families, and safe neighborhoods. She passed legislation that advances maternal health, human trafficking, criminal justice, and voting rights. Now in her second term, Representative Lamar holds membership to three House committees, chairs the Shelby County Delegation of State Legislators, and serves as the Secretary to the House Democratic Caucus. Representative Lamar is honored to have received recognition from over 10 organizations for her work that uplifts families and communities. As a proud third generation resident of the 91st District, Representative London Lamar will continue to advocate for her constituents, Tennesseans, and all Americans to ensure that they have choice-filled lives.
Dr. Amanda Miller
Dr. Amanda Miller is a Family Medicine physician and assistant professor through UTHSC. She is a board certified Family Medicine physician with additional fellowship training in Advanced Women’s Health and Obstetrics. In addition to teaching medical students and residents about primary care, she also sees patients in outpatient clinic, adult hospital setting and Labor and Delivery. She is a full spectrum Family medicine physician, managing pregnancies, pediatrics, adult preventative medicine, chronic conditions and geriatrics. She is passionate about women’s health and preventative medicine, with a special interest in young families.
Emily Ogden
Regional Government Relations Director
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Emily Ogden has worked for over fifteen years on all sides of policy, politics and legislation at the local, state and federal level in Tennessee including lobbying for healthcare clients and serving as a policy advisor to former Governor Phil Bredesen. At ACS CAN, Emily has been heavily involved in the rollout and continued work of the Medicaid Covers US project. She also serves as the chair of the TN Tobacco Free Coalition as well as serves on the community advisory board for the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. Emily is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Tennessee College of Law. In her free time, she loves hanging out with her 5-year-old daughter, Grace, yoga, running, cooking and eating good food!
Rebecca B. Perkins, MD, MSc
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center
Dr. Perkins is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. Her career is dedicated to reducing health disparities in cervical cancer. Her current research focuses on improving utilization of HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening guidelines. She is currently working with the American Cancer Society, CDC, HRSA, NCI, and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She currently Co-Chairs the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable.
Debbie Saslow, PhD
Managing Director, HPV & GYN Cancers
American Cancer Society
Debbie Saslow, PhD is the Managing Director of HPV & GYN Cancers at the American Cancer Society. Since 1997, Dr. Saslow has served as the ACS subject matter expert for HPV-related cancers including cervical cancer. She provides strategic direction and evidenced-based guidance to the organization on the implementation of HPV cancer-related activities and is responsible for developing and updating ACS guidelines for cervical cancer screening and for HPV vaccination. Dr. Saslow also has served as the Vice-Chair of the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable since its inception in 2014.
Dorothy Sinard, MD, FAAP
President, ImmunizeTN
Co-chair, Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
A pediatrician, Dr. Dee Sinard serves as President of ImmunizeTN and a Co-Chair of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (TNAAP) Legislative Advocacy Committee. A graduate of University of Michigan Medical School, Dee completed her pediatric residency training at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Dee is mom to a medical student and a D-1 hockey player and wife to a Head and Neck surgeon. She enjoys using her training and her life experiences to advocate for children’s health and safety at local, state and federal levels.
Michelle Taylor
Dr. Michelle Taylor is the Shelby County Division Director for Health Services. In this role, Dr. Taylor leads the team that plans, organizes, and maintains public health programs and services for Shelby County. To that end, she leads the operation of the Shelby County Health Department, which is responsible for the delivery of all public health services and enforcement of applicable health codes and ordinances of Shelby County and applicable statutes and regulations of the Tennessee Department of Health. Before returning to Memphis, Dr. Taylor served on Active Duty for Operational Support and Statutory tours as the Credentialing and Privileging Branch Chief and the Division Chief for Aerospace Medicine in the Office of the Air National Guard Surgeon General, from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Taylor has two children, Malik (15) and Ella (7), and loves traveling to new places, baking, walking, and reading.
Susan T. Vadaparampil, PhD, MPH
Associate Center Director, Community Outreach, Engagement, & Equity
Senior Member, Health Outcomes and Behavior Program
Moffitt Cancer Center
Dr. Susan Vadaparampil is a Senior Member in the Health Outcomes and Behavior Program at Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Vadaparampil also serves as Moffitt’s first Associate Center Director, Community Outreach, Engagement and Equity (COEE). A focus of her research team the Office of COEE is to reduce HPV related cancer burden through vaccination, and screening. In 2019, she received the American Cancer Society’s national St. George Award for distinguished community service and contributions to ACS’s strategic goals in HPV vaccination and cancer health disparities. In 2020, she was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board based on her scientific accomplishments.
Michelle Whitlock
Cervical Cancer Survivor, Award Winning Author, and Super Advocate
Michelle Whitlock, award-winning author of How I Lost My Uterus and Found My Voice, is a graduate of Columbia Union College with a Bachelor’s in Organizational Management. She has an extensive career in sales leadership. At the age of twenty-six, Michelle was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, and two short-years later she battled a recurrence. Determined no other women should suffer from this preventable disease, Michelle started sharing her story. She has combined her years of leadership, resilience, and survivorship with her passion for women’s health to help empower thousands of women across the Nation. Michelle is devoted to erasing the stigma associated with the HPV virus, starting a national conversation about gynecological cancers, and helping women reclaim healthy, satisfying intimate relationships after cancer. Today she lives in Tennessee with her husband, Mark, and their three children.
Donna Wright
Caregiver and Mother
Donna Wright is a native Memphian and attended University of Memphis, where she met my husband of 43 years. She finished her education at University of Tennessee Health Sciences, Memphis with a degree in Medical Technology. Donna is a mother of two and grandmother of 3. Unfortunately, Donna’s daughter Lauren was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after having her first child. She lost her 2-year battle with cervical cancer at age 29 when her daughter was 2 years old. In memory of Lauren, Donna and her daughter-in-law, Elaine Wright, started the Memphis Chapter of National Cervical Cancer Coalition. Through this organization, they focused on changing the stigma that comes with a cervical cancer diagnosis were able to educate many groups, including many healthcare providers, on the importance of the HPV vaccine for both young girls and boys. They also supported recently diagnosed cervical cancer patients and held fund raising events which provided much needed monies to organizations focusing on cervical cancer and HPV, including St. Jude.
Joy Wright
National Cervical Cancer Coalition, Memphis Chapter Leader
Joy Wright is a wife and mother of three beautiful children. Joy was in the prime of her career when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer on November 22, 2019 at the age of 38. Following a well woman exam, Joy was asked to return for a biopsy that resulted in her cancer diagnosis. Joy now serves as the chapter leader of the Memphis Chapter of National Cervical Cancer Coalition. As a cervical cancer survivor and leader, Joy continues to serve as an example and share her experiences with others by working with other cervical cancer patients and survivors.
Dorcas Young Griffin
Director, Division of Community Services
Shelby County Government
Dorcas Young Griffin started her career with Shelby County Government in 2007, serving in several capacities including Public Health Coordinator, Ryan White HIV Program Manager and Deputy Director of Division of Community Services. She has served as the Director of the Division of Community Services since January 2018. Her past roles have included work with Shelby County Head Start, the Memphis HOPE VI Project and The Church Health Center. A product of the legacy Memphis City Schools, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Sociology and University of Memphis with a Master’s in Public Administration. Mrs. Young Griffin is currently working toward a PhD at the University of Memphis in Urban Affairs. She and her husband, Cleo, have two children Alexis, a junior at UNC- Chapel Hill, and Carter who is 4.
Kinika Young, JD
Tennessee Justice Center
Kinika Young is a lawyer and health policy advocate who frequently speaks on issues concerning access to healthcare, focusing on the role of public benefit programs to help people who lack adequate resources to meet their needs. As the Senior Director of Health Policy and Advocacy at the Tennessee Justice Center, she leads efforts to build a movement across the state to protect and strengthen the safety net for children, families, seniors and people with disabilities and move towards the equitable allocation of resources to all Tennesseans.
Special Thanks to Our Planning Committee
- Cara Azhar, Memphis Medical Society and Memphis Pediatric Society
- Leanne Bailey, Merck
- Elizabeth Berardi, Tennessee Department of Health
- Dr. Jennifer Berger, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
- Dr. Michelle Bowden, University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
- Dr. Heather Brandt, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Benita Carney, Shelby County Health Department
- Rob Clark, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Dr. Seok Won Jin, University of Memphis
- Ursula LeFlore, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Dr. Ariel Long, Cherokee Health Systems
- Lauren McCann, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
- Carol Minor, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Julia Neely, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- LQ Rouser, American Cancer Society
- Andrea Stubbs, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Dr. Michael Ulm, West Cancer Clinic
- Michelle Whitlock, cervical cancer survivor and super advocate
- Dr. Tina Williams, Williams Comprehensive Health Care