Stephen Browning
Stephen Browning served as the Director of Programs, South Pacific Region, US Army Corps of Engineers. As one of three civilians to enter Baghdad after U.S. troops arrived in April 2003, Mr. Browning spent ten months in Iraq, while acting as the Senior Advisor/Acting Minister for Ministries of Health, of Transportation and Communications, of Electricity, of the Environment, and of Religious Affairs and as the Director of Infrastructure for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Mr. Browning credits the prevention of the spread of disease and the restoration of electricity to its prewar level as among the most rewarding achievements of his team's tenure in Iraq. In early 2003, while serving in Baghdad, Mr. Browning and Dr. Gary Selnow, Executive Director of WiRED, collaborated on ways to use information technology to assist in the development and reconstruction of the Iraqi health care system. Mr. Browning was impressed with the immediate and positive results of WiRED's use of IT to enhance medical information systems in Iraq's medical schools and teaching hospitals.
Prior to Mr. Browning's service in Iraq, he was deployed to New York City where he served as the senior defense official on scene overseeing emergency response in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. He also served as the Federal Technical Lead for Hurricane Mitch Recovery and Redevelopment.
After two decades of public service, he left the Corps of Engineers in 2006 to join MWH Global, an international environmental engineering firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Browning currently serves as Vice President and Global Strategic Planning Officer for MWH and will soon be relocating with his family to Boulder.
A registered professional engineer, Mr. Browning holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Engineering and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University. Mr. Browning enjoys kayaking and triathlons. Steve and his wife, Marie, are parents of Colette Rainier Browning.
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Richard Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS
In 2006, Dr. Carmona successfully completed the statutory four-year term of the U.S. Surgeon General and was named vice chairman of Canyon Ranch, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona, and president of the non-profit Canyon Ranch Institute.
Born to a poor Hispanic family in New York City, Dr. Carmona experienced homelessness, hunger, and health disparities during his youth. The experiences greatly sensitized him to the relationships among culture, health, education, and economic status and shaped his future.
After dropping out of high school, Dr. Carmona enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967. While serving, he earned his General Equivalency Diploma and went on to become a combat-decorated Special Forces Vietnam veteran. After leaving active duty, he attended Bronx Community College of the City University of New York through an open enrollment program for veterans. He then attended the University of California, San Francisco, where he received a bachelor of science degree (1977) and medical degree (1979). At the University of California Medical School, Dr. Carmona was awarded the prestigious gold-headed cane as the top graduate.
Trained in general and vascular surgery, Dr. Carmona also completed a National Institutes of Health-sponsored fellowship in trauma, burns, and critical care. Dr. Carmona was then recruited jointly by the Tucson Medical Center and the University of Arizona to start and direct Arizona's first regional trauma care system. He went on to become the chairman of the State of Arizona Southern Regional Emergency Medical System, a professor of surgery, public health, and family and community medicine at the University of Arizona, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department surgeon and deputy sheriff.
As U.S. Surgeon General from 2002 to 2006, Dr. Carmona focused on prevention, preparedness, health disparities, health literacy, and global health to include health diplomacy. He also issued many landmark Surgeon General communications during his tenure, including the definitive Surgeon General's Report about the dangers of second-hand smoke.
Throughout his career, Dr. Carmona has maintained a commitment to underserved populations. “We must help diverse populations become more health literate so they can be involved in improving their overall health and well-being,” explains Dr. Carmona. “This also means focusing on preventing health problems, not just fixing them after they’ve happened.”
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Mr. Sheldon S. Cohen, Esq.
A certified public accountant and tax attorney, the Honorable Sheldon S. Cohen, Esq. is currently a Director at Farr, Miller & Washington, LLP and a professorial lecturer at the George Washington Law School.
In 1963, Mr. Cohen was appointed Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), then served four years as Commissioner, becoming the youngest person to hold that position. He later left government service to become a Washington, D.C. tax attorney, developing a distinguished career that spans 50 years.
Mr. Cohen is a frequent lecturer at various tax institutions and universities across the country, recently serving as the keynote speaker at a United Nations conference on tax administration in developing countries. He is listed in Euromoney's Guide as one of the world's leading tax lawyers, and he has written numerous articles on tax subjects that have appeared in publications such as The American Bar Journal, The Tax Advisor, The Journal of Accounting, and the Pennsylvania Law Review. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Who's Who in American Law, and is a member of the American College of Tax Law and The American Law Institute.
Mr. Cohen graduated with honors from The George Washington University in 1950, and received his law degree with highest honors, graduating first in his class from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1952. Active in numerous civic organizations, Mr. Cohen is the former chairman of the Board of Trustees of George Washington University, past chairman of the American Jewish Historical Society, and current treasurer of The Supreme Court Historical Society. He also co-chaired the Mayor's Transition Committee to Review the Department of Finance and Revenue in the District of Columbia during 1994-95.
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Suellen Crano, Ph.D.
Dr. Crano currently serves as Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness at Western University, a graduate university of medical sciences in Pomona, California. After earning her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration/Student Personnel in 1984 from Michigan State University, Dr. Crano served in administrative roles at Texas A&M University, The George Washington University, The University of Arizona, State of Michigan Department of Higher Management Systems and Wyeth Laboratories, Inc.
Not satisfied by underwriting WiRED's VideoVisit program, which enables families to communicate with their children undergoing life-saving medical treatment in western countries, Dr. Crano helped coordinate the launch from a children's cancer ward in the Hospital of Pisa. Her role as a WiRED director enables her to continue a lifelong passion of helping people rebuild devastated lives.
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Ralph Daniels
Mr. Daniels graduated from Pomona College in California with a degree in liberal arts and completed postgraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley before beginning a lengthy career in broadcasting. Mr. Daniels spent 15 years at CBS in various capacities, including Vice President and General Manager of WCBS-TV and President of the CBS Owned Television Stations Division. He joined NBC in 1975 and served as Senior Vice President in charge of Broadcast Standards. He is a former board member of the National Association of Broadcasters Code Authority and the Television Bureau of Advertising. Mr. Daniels served for 23 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services.
Mr. Daniels strongly supports WiRED's programming that enables people to communicate and access information via the Internet as they struggle to rebuild their countries in the aftermath of war.
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Lewis Eigen, Ph.D.
Dr. Lewis Eigen has joined WiRED's board of directors. Lewis is chairman of Potomac, Maryland-based professional services firm BEA Enterprises, Inc. He comes to WiRED with wide-ranging experience in education, business, publishing, and government service.
His background includes positions as chief executive officer of Educational Design Inc., associate director of the U.S. Job Corps, and professor of educational psychology at Temple University.
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Charlotte Keegan Ferretti, R.N., Ed.D., CCM, FAAN
Dr. Ferretti brings extensive experience working in community health care with underserved populations as well as expertise as a resource for WiRED health education programs. Dr. Ferretti built a nursing career in hospitals while raising two children with her husband, Robert, an orthopedic surgeon. She expanded her skills in her chosen field, earning a doctorate from the University of San Francisco with a focus on curriculum and instruction. Obeying an earlier inclination towards teaching, Dr. Ferretti went on to serve as professor at the San Francisco State University School of Nursing from 1985 to 2000. Also in 2000 she took the post of director of the Marian Wright Edelman Institute in San Francisco, a position she holds today.
Dr. Ferretti's own concentration in community health care with underserved populations, particularly families and children, sharpened when she set up a clinic in the city's Mission district. "I got a passion for working with that population and forging a link of education with community needs," she said. "I am interested in linking nursing and community needs, whether local or global." That made her the right fit for WiRED, to which she helped set up teleconferencing between San Francisco State/University of San Francisco resources and physicians WiRED was working with in developing countries.
Already a member of four boards, Dr. Ferretti is now "thrilled" to join the WiRED board and bring not only her unique background in health, community service and education but her ties to resources. "I want to continue to be vigilant about how areas of the university can connect with WiRED's programs." she said.
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Elizabeth Fine, Ph.D.
Dr. Elizabeth Fine is a Professor at Virginia Tech, where she holds a joint appointment in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Department of Communication Studies. She is Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. Her research interests include cultural studies, African American folklore, performance studies, and Appalachian Studies.
She received her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Texas at Austin (1978), her M.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley (1973), and her B.S. in Speech Communication from the University of Texas at Austin (1971) and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1971). She is the author of numerous articles, as well as the books Soulstepping: African American Step Shows (2003), The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print (1984, 1994), and is co-editor of the book Performance, Culture, and Identity (1992).
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Tatjana Grgich
Ms. Grgich serves as President of the Tatjana Grgich Family Foundation and is dedicated to projects, programs, and services that assist youth from strife-torn areas of the world. Based in California's Sonoma Valley, her foundation supports local and national charitable organizations which provide educational, medical, and spiritual sustenance to families and individuals.
Ms. Grgich is currently serving as a member of the Board of Regents of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and as a benefactor and board member of the Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth Institute) at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, PA.
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George Guszcza
George Guszcza brings a wealth of experience to WiRED International. He is a graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, where he specialized in medical logistics and health facilities planning.
While in the army, Mr. Guszcza served first as an ambulance platoon leader. He then went on to become executive officer of the forward surgical team with the 82nd Airborne Division, brigade engineer for the 30th Medical Brigade and the Chief of Logistics, and HHD Commander at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.
During his seven years of service, Mr. Guszcza was deployed to Kosovo as the Task Force Medical Falcon logistics officer and chief of Logistics and Facilities at the Camp Bondsteel Bi-Lateral US-UK hospital. In 2003 he served as the national director of Health Facilities for the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Whilst there, he witnessed first-hand the work of the WiRED team, which sparked his interest and work with the organization. “WiRED distinguished itself as one of the most dedicated and courageous organizations that worked in Iraq,” said Mr. Guszcza.
In 2005, Mr. Guszcza returned to Iraq as a federal civil servant, acting as the program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While there, he oversaw the health, disaster response, and various reconstruction programs.
Mr. Guszcza received the bronze star in 2003 for his service in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And later for his civilian service, the Department of the Army awarded him the Superior Civilian Service medal.
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Saul Hamond
Mr. Hamond majored in accounting at City College of New York and presently still resides there. He is a keen sportsman with particular interest in sailing, tennis, and skiing, and he also loves the arts--theater, music, and art. He has owned the insurance brokerage company, Hamond and Company, for 46 years, and has also participated in running other related businesses. He has served as a member of the board of Cases, a center for alternative sentencing and employment.
Mr. Hamond is supportive of many grass-roots organizations and philanthropic causes, among them the 92nd Street Y, of which he is a member and whose events and programs he attends regularly. He participates on the Board of WiRED because he believes it to be a noble and worthwhile venture.
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Anthony Hodge
Anthony Hodge is the retired president of Anthony Hodge & Associates, an executive search firm serving a wide range of industries and functional areas. With more than thirty years of experience in the field, much of Mr. Hodge’s work focused on telecommunications, data communications, financial services and consumer products.
Prior to forming his own firm he was a vice president at Korn/Ferry International and a director at SpencerStuart, two world leaders in executive search and selection. Mr. Hodge began his career at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation and for 13 years worked in international sales and marketing and human resources in Oakland California and Jamaica, West Indies.
Mr. Hodge serves on the Board of Advisors of San Francisco State University’s College of Business, and he was active in the World Trade Club of San Francisco until its closure. He holds a degree in Political Science from Stanford University. He served in the United States Marine Corps as an artillery officer.
Mr. Hodge believes that the many individuals, organizations and entities involved in addressing global public health and medical care issues can be well served by WiRED International which can help coordinate and distribute their educational material in developing regions.
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Allison Kozicharow
Allison Kozicharow first became involved with WiRED as a volunteer through Richard Gilbert, D.D., her father and board member, and now edits documents and writes articles on an ongoing basis for this organization.
Currently, Ms. Kozicharow works in English and Spanish for ICF International's publications department, editing and writing materials in the fields of health, education and drug and alcohol abuse prevention and treatment under government contracts such as the Department of Health and Human Services' Underage Drinking Prevention Initiatives and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the Department of Defense's Quit Tobacco Campaign and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Global AIDS Program.
Ms. Kozicharow received her B.A. from Duke University in History and Art History and moved to Washington in 1974. There she worked for the publishing company Robert B. Luce and supervised 10 books from production to release (including The Federalist Papers). Over the years she continued to wield her pen, notably working for Polo magazine, writing historical tours for a company serving D.C., and serving as a freelance editor.
Ms. Kozicharow believes that WiRED is an organization based on compassion, ingenuity, and hard work. WiRED identified a lack in the world and has labored tirelessly to correct it.
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Robert S. Northrup, M.D.
Dr. Northrup, board certified in internal medicine, earned his bachelor's degree at Yale and his medical degree at Harvard. His experience in global medicine is vast: Dr. Northrup served as Senior Technical Advisor for Project Hope where he provided technical support in Indonesia and Central Asia and later became the interim Director of the Health of the Women and Children Unit. Working with Management Sciences for Health in Boston, Dr. Northrup served on the Equity Project in South Africa, which provided integrated primary healthcare, a comprehensive package of essential services in rural areas. He was the Technical Officer and Director of Working Group with the BASICS Project on programs for child health and survival in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and other countries. In this capacity, he also collaborated with the World Health Organization on the development of a medical school curriculum on Integrated Management of Childhood Illness. Dr. Northrup was the Technical Director for the PRITECH Project. In this role, he also taught staff members of voluntary organizations as well as USAID health officers about life-saving therapies. Dr. Northrup was Chairman and Professor of the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. In addition to Dr. Northrup's expansive educational and humanitarian activities, he finds time to be a choral singer, music director and arranger, actor, and athlete. He is married with two grown children. Dr. Northrup's works have been published in numerous academic journals.
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Robert Ohrenschall
Mr. Ohrenschall brings a wealth of experience in international business and community service. After earning a degree in history from Yale University, Mr. Ohrenschall founded Soyster & Ohrenschall Inc., International Marketing and Design Consultants. He is Chairman Emeritus of Addison Design.
Mr. Ohrenschall serves on the boards of The Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, the International Diplomacy Council, the Ohrenschall Center for Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University, the Tiburon Belvedere Rotary Club, and the Romberg Tiburon Environmental Centers.
Mr. Ohrenschall serves as co-chair of WiRED's board of directors because he believes the Internet to be a gateway to the future for those who have been disadvantaged through war and economic conditions.
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Miriam Othman, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Othman brings a wealth of medical and international public health experience to WiRED International. Currently, she is Project Coordinator for WiRED International's Community Health Information (CHI) program, developing the texts for the tutorials and study materials offered in WiRED's new training program for grassroots communities.
Dr. Othman received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Baghdad, Iraq in 2000, and her Masters of Public Health from The George Washington University, Washington, DC, in 2009, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She was the Senior National Medical Officer of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Baghdad, Iraq, from July 2003 to January 2006. From 2004-2006, she was Project Manager of the Palestine Children Relief Fund (PCRF) in Baghdad, where she coordinated with the International Committee for the Red Cross, the MNF, International hospitals, and health facilities.
In her capacity as Advisor for the Iraqi Ministry of Health from 2005-2006, Dr. Othman assessed and established cancer prevention and rehabilitation programs for health facilities, surgeons, physicians, nurses, lab technicians, and administrative staff and coordinated international evacuations of patients who needed specialized treatments. She also managed medical assessment, placement and transfer of patients domestically, and established a global network to facilitate patient evacuations with hospitals, clinics, the embassies of various countries, and several transnational relief organizations.
In addition to being selected as a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Othman was honored in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2005 for her dedication and commitment to providing medical services under extremely difficult circumstances when she was selected for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Award 2004. She was also selected for training to conduct the Global Migration Health Assessment by IOM Migration Health Assessment Department in Nairobi, Kenya in 2005.
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Virgil Scudder
Virgil Scudder is president of Virgil Scudder & Associates, a New York-based executive communications and media relations firm. He has conducted media and presentation training programs in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and serves as ongoing communications counselor to CEO's of some of the world's leading corporations.
Prior to starting his own firm in 1990, he was senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's largest public relations firms. Earlier, he was a news broadcaster at NBC News, ABC News, and Westinghouse Broadcasting. An arts and sciences graduate of Indiana University, he currently serves on the Dean's Advisory Council of that university's College of Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Scudder believes that effective communication and the work done by organizations such as WiRED are essential to promoting world peace and understanding.
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Gary Selnow, Ph.D.
Gary Selnow is a professor at the Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University and Director of WiRED International. Selnow is the author/co-author of seven books including Society's Impact on Television, High Tech Campaigns, Electronic Whistle-Stops: The Impact of the Internet on American Politics, and most recently The People, Press and Politics of Croatia.
Selnow was twice a Fulbright Scholar—in Austria, then at the University of Zagreb in Croatia; he served for three years on a Fulbright Senior Scholar review panel. Selnow has lectured at the London School of Economics, the University of Warsaw, the Free University of Amsterdam and other universities in Europe. Selnow coordinated a national communication program for a White House task force and served as a research methodologist for the U.S. Information Agency. He has consulted with the U.S. Department of State and for NBC Television and the National Academy of Sciences. Selnow was a pilot and information officer for the U.S. Air Force. He was a regular commentator on Public Radio International's Marketplace program.
Selnow was awarded the 2004 President's Medal at San Francisco State University. He earned his bachelors degree in technical writing at Rutgers University and his masters and doctoral degrees in communication and psychology at Michigan State University.
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Christopher Spirito
Mr. Spirito is currently a principal engineer with The MITRE Corporation, a federally funded research and development center. Through this position he met Dr. Selnow and started working with WiRED on the Iraqi Telemedicine Network. In 2009 MITRE and WiRED joined forces with Partners Healthcare and students at the Harvard School of Public Health to create a Seminar in Management of TB-HIV Co-Infection. Prior to rejoining MITRE, Mr. Spirito was the director of technology for Lux Research. He has also held positions with The LinQuest Corporation, General Dynamics, EMC, and BBN.
While still in high school at The Pingry School, Mr. Spirito worked weekends and summers in the Respiratory Therapy department at Overlook Hospital, a teaching hospital in New Jersey. His clinical experience over the following 13 years included positions in a Cardiac Unit interpreting EKG's, EMT positions in Massachusetts and New Jersey, including a tour with UMDNJ-Newark EMS, and thousands of hours on rounds learning along the way.
Mr. Spirito graduated from Boston College with a degree in mathematics, attended a summer session in Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, and received a Graduate Certificate in information security from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Mr. Spirito's past clinical experience and passion for healthcare drive his support and commitment to WiRED. He looks forward to bringing his expertise in engineering and technology to WiRED International and its Global Telemedicine outreach programs. Mr. Spirito believes the impact of WiRED's global health programs over the past 10 years has been remarkable. He hopes to help build out new programs and expand existing ones in support of healthcare providers worldwide.
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