Leadership

404-616-8261

Director, Urban Health Initiative
Professor, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Chief of Service, Dept. of Otolaryngology, Grady Health System
Founder/President, HEALing Community Centers
Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Charles Moore received a Bachelor of Science from Union College and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed residency training in Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery and fellowship training in Craniomaxillofacial – Cranial Base, Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Moore is a Professor at Emory University and the Chief of Service in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Grady Health System. Dr. Moore has a longstanding and profound commitment to the training and development of learners from all backgrounds. His research focus has been in the investigation of factors involved in healthcare disparity with a particular focus on head and neck cancer incidence in medically underserved communities. He is the President and Founder of Health Education, Assessment and Leadership (HEAL), Inc. This organization began in 2004 as a travelling educational resource out of the back of his personal vehicle. Through this organization, he strives to educate the community on health issues, assess its needs and in the process build leaders from within the community to address those issues. This travelling resource has grown into the Healing Community Center (HCC), one of Atlanta’s newest Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers. This center is a free and affordable medical facility with four separate locations, which provide general adult medical care, pediatric medical care, specialty medical care, dental services as well as mental health services for the uninsured and disadvantaged. The HCC is focused on those who fall in the gap between public funded health care and the privately insured. A primary emphasis is on preventative health, nutrition and wellness. This center incorporates all of the major Atlanta academic institutions and community organizations in an integrated fashion to provide service-learning experiences while also providing the necessary care to those in need.

Associate Director, Urban Health Initiative
Emory School of Medicine

Brittany Prince is the Associate Director of the Urban Health Initiative, where she oversees daily operations, manages budgets, attracts philanthropic support, writes grants, recruits volunteers, and collaborates with key stakeholders. She plays a crucial role in developing departmental goals and objectives, preparing statistical reports, analyzing data, and overseeing programs including the Agriculture Careers Collaborative, Health Careers Collaborative, Tobacco Cessation, and Violence Prevention: Strategies for Just Communities.

Brittany holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Health Administration from Clayton State University. She is a graduate of Emory Healthcare’s Operations Development Program and Quality Academy. Additionally, she has earned a Health Coach Certification and a Lean Six Sigma White Belt Certification from Emory University, and a Tobacco Treatment Specialist Certification from the Mayo Clinic.

Brittany serves on several boards, including Breathe Easy DeKalb, Georgia Majority for Gun Safety, Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement, DeKalb Men’s Health Task Force, Friends of the Food Forest (Board Representative), Benjamin E. Mays High School Healthcare Science Advisory Board, Partnership of Southern Equity Just Health Circle, No Menthol ATL, RCE Community of Practice for Community Academic Partnerships, and Live Healthy DeKalb.

Co-Director, Community-Engaged Outpatient Healthcare Innovations for Achieving Equity, Urban Health Initiative
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Medical Director, Primary Care Center, Grady Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics
Emory University School of Medicine

Stacie R. Schmidt MD received her BS in chemistry at Xavier University and completed both her MD and the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program at Emory University. Dr. Schmidt serves as Medical Director of the Primary Care Center at Grady. She is dedicated to providing high quality, patient-centered care for underserved patients and using innovative methods to teach healthcare professionals about the social determinants of health and health inequities. Her current efforts involve helping vulnerable patients with chronic illnesses make healthy behavior choices around diet, exercise, and disease management, and developing motivational interviewing skills to assist patients in making choices.  This Healthy Living Group Class has led to organizational, interdisciplinary conversations about food access involving the Grady administrative team, dietitians, physicians, social workers, and community partners. Dr. Schmidt has also created an innovative experiential ambulatory module around the social determinants of health to inspire Internal Medicine residents to assist patients in overcoming barriers through goal-setting, health coaching, and an enhanced understanding of what patients endure in their daily lives. Currently, she oversees the Emory UHI Health Careers Collaborative, a pipeline program aimed at helping high school students from minority backgrounds gain exposure to, and mentorship within, the health professions. Other passions include service within Food As Medicine initiatives, and the formation of medical legal partnerships that collaboratively work within health teams to address social determinants of health (such as food insecurity and affordable housing) affecting vulnerable communities and patients.

404-727-8807

Co-Director, Urban Health Initiative, Assistant Professor
Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health
Affiliated Faculty, Nutrition and Health Sciences Program and the Masters in Development Practice Program, Laney Graduate School
Co-Director Emory Center for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Policy, Programming and Practice

Dr. Amy Webb Girard is an Assistant Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) at Emory University where she teaches courses on global health; maternal and child health; food policy; and food security. Her teaching, research and programmatic areas of interest focus on the social determinants of maternal and child nutrition and the development and evaluation of community based strategies to improve women’s capacity to nourish themselves and their families. Currently her work in maternal and child nutrition and food security encompasses nutrition‐sensitive agriculture interventions and women’s empowerment in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and India; social and behavior change strategies in Sierra Leone and Malawi; community-based health systems strengthening programs for nutrition in Bihar, India, and testing innovations in local food systems and community based food security in Atlanta.

Assistant Director, Urban Health Initiative

Originally from Atlanta, Joan has worked for a number of healthcare, academic and scientific research institutions over her career, including Yerkes Primate Research Center, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Grady Health System, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine prior to her work with UHI. Additionally, she has worked independently as a consultant for federal administrations such as the Federal Aviation Administration, US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Education, as well as for foreign governments in Nepal, Northern Ireland and Japan.

Joan has a long history of engagement with her local and “world” community. For over 20 years, Joan has been involved in advocacy issues for Native Americas on federal Indian reservations, as well as for those living in urban poverty. She has supported refugees with resettlement and worked with migrant workers living in extreme poverty conditions. She has organized public health teams and traveled to rural parts of Central America to help to improve the living conditions that were causing a high rate of infant mortality. Her background in aviation (and experience as a pilot) has been instrumental in helping to improve safety in third world airports that are essential for infrastructure as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid. Some of her current projects within UHI involve addressing food insecurity issues in urban Atlanta and teaching business skills, leadership principals, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects to inner-city youth in an entrepreneurial program that she developed. As an established teacher and trainer, her educational activities have touched military troops learning aviation and aerospace subjects, as well as graduate students, medical students, and medical residents learning about the social determinants of health and has mentored over twenty graduate practicum/master’s thesis projects.

Joan received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Mercer University, and a Master of Aeronautical Science degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. She is currently working toward a Juris Master degree with a focus in Global Health Law and International Human Rights from Emory Law School. She is board certified in healthcare administration and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE).

Tammy Reasoner serves as Assistant Director of Emory School of Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative establishing and maintaining maternal health programs and the street medicine program for housing-insecure communities.

 With her Master of Public Administration Degree from the University of Georgia, Tammy has spent the past twenty years working for healthcare and community-based, non-profit institutions and directed statewide food security programs in community and clinical settings in both rural and urban areas.   She has led community and clinical programs across Georgia to develop partnerships to address social determinants of health.

 An outspoken advocate on food insecurity, Tammy has presented at ASNNA and the Association of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Congressional briefings on the Farm Bills impact on Georgians and provided testimony for Georgia’s Senate Food Insecurity Committee.

404-778-1501

Senior Faculty Advisor, Urban Health Initiative
Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs
Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Professor, Neonatology
Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Sexson is a practicing pediatrician and bioethicist. With 28 years of service in the Air Force, he is keenly aware of the ethics of stigma and bias as it relates to the international community. Currently a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Sexson has a Master of Arts in Bioethics (Emory, 2014). For his work in bioethics locally and on a state level, he received the Hero in Healthcare Ethics Award from The Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia. He was recently (2016) recognized as “Humanitarian of the Year” by Emory University’s Department of Pediatrics. He has been continuously engaged with the Georgia Chapter of the AAP for 25 years as a legislative advocate and bioethicist with a focus on community engagement in health equity, and social justice and responsibility. Between 1992 and 1996 he served as the Chapter Vice-president and subsequently Chapter President. For his efforts for children during this time the Chapter won AAP awards as the Outstanding Large Chapter and Chapter of Excellence. He served as Associate Dean for Clinical Services at Grady for 17 years leading approximately 1,000 Emory personnel and trainees on the Grady Hospital campus each day. Since 1989, he has chaired the Grady Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee and has been personally involved in well over 1000 case consultations. This committee is one of the busier such committees in the USA, doing between 200- 250 consultations each year. He has been in 9 foreign countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East lecturing on ethics, advocacy and clinical care, while trying to improve access to care as well as maternal child mortality and morbidity in these countries. He has conducted and participated in a number of different national and international symposia on neonatal and pediatric ethics. 

404-727-1557

Faculty Advisor, Urban Health Initiative
HubertChair, Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health
Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases School of Medicine
Co-Director, Emory Center for AIDS Research
Emory University School of Medicine
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health

Carlos del Rio, MD is Hubert Professor and Chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University and Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He is Director for Clinical Sciences and International Research of the Emory CFAR and Director of the Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program.  

Dr. del Rio is a native of Mexico where he was Executive Director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico (CONASIDA, the Federal agency of the Mexican Government responsible for AIDS Policy throughout Mexico), from 1992 through 1996.  He was also a member of the Program Coordinating Board of UNAIDS (1995 -97).  

Since joining the faculty at Emory in 1996 he has served in many leadership roles including Chief of the Emory Medical Service at Grady Memorial Hospital (2001 – 2009) and Executive Director of the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center (2004 – 2006).  

Dr. del Rio is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International AIDS Society-USA, the HIVMA of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the IDSA. He is a member of the DHHS Panel for Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents and member of the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health Resources and Services Administration. He is Senior Clinical Editor for AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Associate Editor of AIDS Clinical Care and member of the editorial board of Journal of AIDS, Women, Children and HIV, and Global Public Health. Dr. del Rio has been a member of four Institute of Medicine Committees on HIV/AIDS issues (The Ryan White Care Act: Data for Resource Allocation, Planning and Evaluation; Methodological Issus on HIV Prevention Trials; HIV Social Security Disability Criteria, and Data Systems for Monitoring HIV Care). Dr. del Rio has co-authored 5 books, 30 book chapters and over 200 scientific papers.

404-616-4757

Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Vice Chair for Faculty Development, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Chief Psychologist and Director of the Grady Nia Project, Grady Health System
Director, Atlanta Trauma Alliance
Director of Postdoctoral Residency Training in Health Service Psychology
School of Medicine

Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD, ABPP is a Faculty Advisor for the Urban Health Initiative. She was a Primary Care Public Policy Fellow through the United States Public Health Service, a fellow of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program, and a Fellow of the Woodruff Leadership Academy. She was the 2014 President of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Editor of the Journal of Family Psychology (2010-2015). Dr. Kaslow is Past President of APA’s Divisions of Clinical Psychology (12), Family Psychology (43), and Psychotherapy (29), as well as the American Board of Clinical Psychology and the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is the President of APA’s Division of Psychologists in Public Service (18). She is a distinguished researcher, clinician and author. In 2013, she received Emory University’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award for service to the community. Also in 2013, she was honored at the Grady Gala with the Inspiring Mentor Award. In 2018, she became a Distinguished Lifetime Member of Psi Chi – the national psychology honor society. The recipient of multiple federal and foundation grants, she has published over 320 articles. Her primary areas of research focus include the culturally-informed assessment and treatment of family violence (intimate partner violence, child maltreatment) and suicide in youth and adults, post-traumatic stress disorder and its treatment, couples and family therapy, women’s mental health, integrated healthcare and a competency-based approach to psychology education and supervision. 

Taqiyya Alford serves as the Compliance Manager. She has volunteered with UHI since 2019 and served as the Operations Manager. Taqiyya has a diverse background in rehabilitation, clinical research, oncology, regulatory, and pharmaceuticals. Taqiyya has worked at a Clinical Research Site for Mental Disorders (ADHD, ADD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Alzheimer’s, Depression, etc.), a Global Pharmaceutical Organization (CRO), a Clinical Research Coordinator at Emory’s School of Nursing, as well as an Activations/Start-up Regulatory Specialist for clinical trials at Emory Winship Cancer Institute. Taqiyya completed her associate degree in medical assisting, a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and a master’s degree in public health. Her passion has always been to help others by spreading her love, compassion, and light to others. “I want to create a positive change and make an impact in this world that will last for generations after me”.

Juliet B. Kam is an administrative assistant with eight years of experience in the customer service industry, highlighting strengths in communication, attention to detail, and operational efficiency.

She has a Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management. Juliet combines her academic foundation with a keen eagerness to learn and adapt. She aims to simplify administrative procedures, enhance communication channels, and support the UHI team.

Juliet is eager to apply her diverse skills to contribute to the success of the shared mission. She looks forward to collaborating with the team to positively impact urban health and well-being.