Using an Innovative Electronic Interface to Develop a Drought Guidance Document for Public Health Practitioners, 2008

Speaker: Robert (Rob) Blake, M.P.H., R.E.H.S.

Mr. Robert (Rob) Blake received his Master’s of Public Health degree in 1987 from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor with a degree concentration in environmental health. Between 1986 and 1994, Mr. Blake worked as an environmental health specialist, community right-to-know coordinator, and environmental health director at the Washtenaw County Health Department in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mr. Blake served the DeKalb County Board of Health as the Assistant Environmental Health Director from 1994 to 1999, and as the Environmental Health Director from 1999 to 2006. In 2006, Rob transferred from the DeKalb County Board of Health to the State of Georgia as Branch Director for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention. Mr. Blake has been the chief of the Environmental Health Services Branch, part of the National Centers for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since July 2007.

Mr. Blake is past president of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). He is also the past Chair of the National Conference of Local Environmental Health Administrators (NCLEHA), the Metro-Atlanta Environmental Health Directors group, and the Metro Atlanta Surveillance Task Force (MASTF). Mr. Blake continues to serve as the CDC Environmental Health Services Branch representative to the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Environmental Health Committee and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Environmental Health Directors workgroup.

Speaker: Valeria P. Carlson, B.S., M.P.H.

Ms. Valeria Carlson, BS, MPH, is a Public Health Prevention Service Fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is currently assigned to the Western Massachusetts Public Health Preparedness Advisory Group, where she is working on assessing the capacity of local boards of health to respond to emergency events such as infectious disease outbreaks or natural disasters.

Ms. Carlson began her career in public health in Senegal, West Africa, where she served as a Rural Primary Health Care Volunteer with the Peace Corps. Upon completing her Peace Corps service, Ms. Carlson earned her MPH at the University of South Carolina. Her thesis project was to design and implement a statewide needs assessment of the oral health of kindergarten and third grade students. During her CDC fellowship, Ms. Carlson has worked on a variety of assessment and capacity-building projects with the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch and the Environmental Health Services Branch. She was one of the primary organizers of the “When Every Drop Counts” experts’ forum in fall 2008.

Speaker: CAPT Mark D. Miller, R.S., M.P.H.

Captain Mark Miller is a Senior Environmental Health Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Texes. Captain Miller is a Registered Sanitarian with the state of Texas. His 22 years of environmental health experience includes water, wastewater, food safety, injury prevention and hazardous waste. He has served in positions with private industry, Indian Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and currently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Speaker: Steve Konkel, M.C.P., Ph.D.

Steve Konkel earned a Master in City Planning from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. His past positions have included time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and in the Office of the Governor of the State of Alaska. Dr. Konkel earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Urban and Environmental Planning & Policy.

Dr. Konkel is on staff as Associate Professor in Health Sciences at TUI University (Cypress, CA) and as an Associate Professor in the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of environmental health planning, environmental regulation and policy, and decision-making. He is a certified mediator and member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) of the American Planning Association and past Editor of the Chronicle of the Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP). Dr. Konkel was awarded the National Environmental Health Association's Sabbatical Exchange Ambassador Award in 2003. He was appointed as a Visiting Scientist at King's College, London in March 2004. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dublin in Ireland.