Steering Committee
Committee Members
Co-Chair
Rebecca Perkins, MD, MSc
Co-Chair
Rebecca Perkins, MD, MSc
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine/ Boston Medical Center
Perkins has been actively involved in cervical cancer prevention research since 2003. Her work focuses on attitudes toward Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in parents of low-income, minority adolescents in the United States and the providers who serve them. She is also studying interventions to improve HPV vaccination rates in low-income, minority adolescents. She is currently working with the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Cancer Society and CDC on national HPV vaccination work.
Co-Chair
Kristin Oliver, MD
Co-Chair
Kristin Oliver, MD
Assistant Professor, Environmental Medicine & Public Health; Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Pediatrics Associates
Dr. Kristin Oliver is a pediatrician and public health specialist. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, and Environmental Medicine & Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Oliver’s scholarly and research interests focus on HPV vaccination. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ HPV Expert Physician Panel. Dr. Oliver has extensive experience working in public health and policy agencies. She served as a health care analyst for GAO in Washington DC, and has conducted projects with the CDC, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and UNICEF. Dr. Oliver holds a BA from McGill University, an MHS in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed residencies in Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital.
Vice-Chair
Debbie Saslow, PhD
Vice-Chair
Debbie Saslow, PhD
Senior Director, HPV Related and Women’s Cancers, Cancer Control Department, American Cancer Society
Debbie Saslow, Ph.D., is the Senior Director of HPV-Related and Women’s Cancers at the American Cancer Society where she has worked for 20 years. Dr. Saslow is responsible for developing and updating ACS guidelines, including guidelines for breast and cervical cancer screening and for HPV vaccination. She serves as the Society’s lead for HPV-related cancers and directs their HPV vaccination nationwide priority program of work, provides strategic direction and leads staff teams working on the implementation of HPV related activities, and provides evidenced-based guidance to the Society. Dr. Saslow is also the Principal Investigator on two cooperative agreements to increase HPV vaccination, and serves as the Vice-Chair of the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable.
Before joining the Society, Dr. Saslow was coordinator of the President’s National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. She received her undergraduate degree in biology with honors from Brown University, her PhD in human and molecular genetics from Yale University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institutes’ Laboratory of Pathology in Women’s Cancers.
Member
Noel Brewer, PhD
Member
Noel Brewer, PhD
Professor of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina; Member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Brewer studies how people make risky health decisions. His current work focuses on increasing HPV vaccination, communicating the harms of smoking, and encouraging appropriate use of cancer screening tests. Brewer is Associate Editor of Health Psychology Review. He co-edited the FDA’s book on risk communication, Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guides.
Member
Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH
Member
Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH
Director, Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Wharton received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and her infectious diseases fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Wharton joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1986 and was assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment in Nashville, TN. In 1989, she began work as a medical epidemiologist in the Epidemiology Program Office, CDC. She joined CDC’s immunization program in 1992, and since that time has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility. From 2006 to 2013 she served as Deputy Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In December 2013 she became the Director, Immunization Services Division, NCIRD. She has worked extensively on issues related to vaccine policy, vaccine safety science, and public health response. Dr. Wharton has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific journal articles, book chapters, and CDC publications.
Member
Sarah Kobrin, PhD, MPH
Member
Sarah Kobrin, PhD, MPH
Acting Branch Chief, Health Systems and Interventions Research
Dr. Kobrin has worked in the field of cancer control for more than 20 years. She is currently Branch Chief (Acting) of the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch. Her areas of interest include uptake of the HPV vaccine, shared medical decision making, use of theory in intervention research, and measurement, particularly in regard to shared decision making and cancer screening. Her research includes development of a scale, based on attitudes rather than beliefs, to assess perceptions of breast cancer risk. Prior to moving to the NCI in December 2003, Dr. Kobrin was a Walther Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Duke University Cancer Prevention and Control Program. She trained at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.
Member
Tamika Felder
Member
Tamika Felder
Chief Visionary, Cervivor
Tamika Felder is a cervical cancer survivor or as she says, "Cervivor". She is the Chief Visionary at Cervivor - a nonprofit dedicated to cervical cancer advocacy and support. Newsweek Magazine named her a "Cancer Rebel". Tamika is a highly sought-after speaker and is the author of "Seriously, What Are You Waiting For? 13 Actions To Ignite Your Life & Achieve The Ultimate Comeback". She is an award-winning producer, and is currently working on a documentary film about cervical cancer, the women living with it and the vaccine to prevent it. Tamika’s inspiring story has been featured in numerous media outlets around the globe. Tamika has served as a community representative for the President’s Cancer Panel (2003), and is a former board member of the Ulman Cancer Foundation for Young Adults. She served as a patient advocate member of the Gynecological Oncology Group and the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee- Cervical Task Force. She is also a former member of the District of Columbia’s Cancer Plan’s Gynecological Cancer Committee and the Maryland Cancer Plan’s Cervical Cancer Committee. Tamika currently serves on the board of the Global Coalition Against Cervical Cancer, the advisory council for the Alliance for Fertility Preservation, and as an expert panel member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Stratified Cervical Caner Primary Prevention Guideline Panel.
Member
Fred Wyand
Member
Fred Wyand
Director, Communications, American Sexual Health Association
Fred Wyand has been a sexual health educator for 19 years and currently serves as the director of communications for the American Sexual Health Association. A former supervisor of the National Herpes and HPV contact centers, he currently oversees ASHA’s HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention Resource Center and edits publications and online content for HPV and related diseases. In his role as ASHA’s media liaison, Mr. Wyand develops policy and position statements for the organization, coordinates all press inquiries, and gives expert interviews to journalists seeking background for articles. He has also worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in developing updated treatment and counseling guidelines for HPV-associated diseases, and served as a contributor to the STI section for the revised version of Our Bodies, Ourselves.
Member
Judy Klein
Member
Judy Klein
President, Unity Consortium
Judy is President and a Founder of Unity Consortium. UNITY brings together a wide range of organizations all with a passion for improving adolescent and young adult health through a focus on preventive healthcare and immunization. Members represent public and private organizations, industry, academia, and advocacy groups, bringing expertise to create, support and promote initiatives to enable adolescents and young adults, parents and communities to live free from preventable diseases. Previously, Judy held leadership positions at Merck. Judy has been honored to serve the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) in a variety of positions including on Advisory Boards, Nominating Committees, as Chair of the Council of Chapter Presidents, Global Board, and as President of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter. Judy has degrees in Economics from The Wharton School and Mathematics from the College at the University of Pennsylvania. Judy and her husband have three children: her daughter is a practicing nurse, her son is passionate about social justice and education working at a NYC charter school system on middle school science, and the youngest is having a blast in her freshman year of college.
Member
Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD, FACS
Member
Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD, FACS
Jack W Pou Endowed Professor and Chairman Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Science Center and Director of Head & Neck Surgical Oncology and Cancer Research Feist-Weiller Cancer Center Shreveport
Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD, FACS, is the Jack Pou Endowed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at LSU-Health in Shreveport. She is also Director of Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery and Research at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center. She completed her Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery residency and head and neck fellowship in 1995 at University of California, San Diego. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins where she started her research career. Following her fellowship she began her academic career at LSU-Shreveport. Her passion to improve outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer was the reason she moved from Mumbai India, where she went to medical school. She is a Surgeon-Scientist that maintains a busy practice treating head and neck cancer patients, thyroid, parathyroid diseases, and salivary gland tumors and also leads an active research team. Her translational research program has been funded by the National Cancer Institute since 2000 and focuses on targeted therapy for head and neck patients. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her seminal work on molecular analysis of surgical margins and has pioneered multi-institutional clinical trials using mTOR inhibitors in HNSCC patients with Wyeth and most recently with Novartis. She has also received NIH funding for chemoprevention of cancer with curcumin and has a patent for a curcumin gum. Her new RO1 on Targeting the FGFR-2 pathway for cutaneous SCC holds potential for transplant patients with aggressive cSCC. She is also a team member of the COBRE grant for viral oncogenesis. She has published extensively and has over 170 publications in peer reviewed journals and has authored multiple textbooks and encyclopedia chapters. Dr. Nathan has served on many National committees some of which include the NCI Steering committee and Task Force, the CDC-American Cancer Society HPV Task Force, board of directors for the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, ASCO Program committee and Larynx Preservation Guideline Panel and the AAO-HNS Program and Nominating committee and Head & Neck CORE research leader. She has served on many committees for the AHNS including chairing the research, prevention and finance committee and is currently the Vice-President of the American Head and Neck Society. She is also Associate editor for “Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology”. At the local level she is active, having been on the board of directors for Shreveport Medical Society, Disaster Reform committee and the Science Museum. The Shreveport-Bossier Commerce Department awarded her the Athena Award for community service and she received the Leonard Tow Humanism award from the Arnold Gold Foundation. The Board of Regents in Louisiana established the “Cherie-Ann Nathan Endowed Professorship in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery” initiated by grateful patients to honor her dedication and expertise. Dr. Nathan is married to pulmonary and critical care physician Raghu Nathan and they have two boys. Her favorite hobby is to perform with the “Nathan Family Trio” to raise money for the Arts and Cancer research in Shreveport.
Member
Tami Thomas, PhD, RN, APRN-CPNP, FAANP, FAAN
Member
Tami Thomas, PhD, RN, APRN-CPNP, FAANP, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean Research, Faculty Development and PhD Program Director, Florida International University. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar Alumna.
Dr. Thomas represents NAPNAP, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. She is a research consultant on topics including parents and children, adolescent health/risk-taking behavior, cancer prevention, and immunization.
