Healthy Communities: Las Vegas
The Culinary Training Academy, North Las Vegas, N.V.
January 19, 2012
Speaker Bios
Denise Tanata Ashby is currently a Senior Scholar in Health at the Lincy Institute at UNLV and previously served as the Executive Director of the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy (NICRP) in the School of Community Health Sciences at UNLV. Ms. Tanata Ashby received her Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies from UNLV, with a minor in Sociology and received her Juris Doctorate from the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV. Her primary areas of research are child welfare, children’s health, juvenile justice and early childhood education. Ms. Tanata Ashby has over twelve years experience conducting applied research and policy analysis on children’s issues in Nevada, with an emphasis on evaluation research and data collection intended to improve policy and practice.
Gian Brosco is the President of the Nevada Community Foundation. Prior to joining Nevada Community Foundation, Gian worked at The Rhode Island Community Foundation as senior development officer and gift planning advisor and served as philanthropic service officer/vice president for the Philanthropic Management Group of the U.S. Trust Bank of America, where he counseled institutional and private clients and provided expertise for Bank of America on the subjects of philanthropy, planned giving, investment policy, fiduciary and tax matters. An experienced attorney, Gian received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and completed his Juris Doctor from the New England School of Law in 1990. Admitted to the Bars in Rhode Island and Texas, Gian has spoken extensively on the subjects of philanthropy and social change and is a member of the Tax-Exempt Organization Committee of the American Bar Association.
Joselyn Cousins is Vice President of Community Development for United Way of Southern Nevada. Cousins’ primary role includes engaging and building relationships with diverse community partners, supporting collaborative based strategies and creating innovative programs that drive positive community change in the areas of education, financial stability, health, immediate needs and volunteering. Previously, Cousins served as the Community Development Manager, Senior Vice President for Bank of Nevada for over six years, where she developed and coordinated all community development activities to ensure the Bank adhered to and complied with banking regulations established as part of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Prior to that, she was the Community Relations Officer, Vice President for Citibank. At Citibank Cousins initiated and implemented innovative community development programs that demonstrated a continued leadership role in Nevada. She has also served on numerous boards and committees involved in community development service.
Mariano Diaz is the Western Regional Vice President for Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) responsible for LISC operations in Los Angeles, the San Francisco/Bay Area, San Diego, Washington State, Phoenix, and Houston. Prior he worked for the San Diego Foundation where he was responsible for the strategic planning, implementation of community improvement programs and supporting grants in the areas of human services; science and technology; environment; arts and culture; and civil society. Prior to that, Diaz was global director for the Nike Foundation and community affairs operations. Diaz was Owner/principal of Esme & Associates. Mariano earned a masters from Harvard University and a bachelors from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jeff Edmondson is managing director of the Strive Network, a national cradle-to-career initiative that brings together leaders in Pre-K-12 schools, higher education, business and industry, community organizations, government leaders, parents and other stakeholders who are committed to helping children succeed from birth through careers. Edmondson most recently served as executive director of the Strive Partnership in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, a partnership of postsecondary, K-12, business, philanthropic, non-profit, and civic organizations in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky aimed at increasing educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment of students throughout the region.
The Strive Network was formed using lessons learned from the development of the partnership, and are currently being applied in cities across the country through a collaborative relationship with Living Cities and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities to help ensure resources in these regions are efficiently and effectively supporting the success of every child. He also served as the foundation officer for KnowledgeWorks Foundation. In this role, Edmondson was responsible for assisting the President & CEO by leading and providing support for priority initiatives, communicating on the vision and strategies of the Foundation locally and nationally, and managing the relationship with the Board of Directors. Prior to joining the foundation, Edmondson served as a Program Assistant at the 21st Century School Fund where he conducted research, published papers, and wrote legislation on local and national policy issues related to school facilities. Edmondson also worked as the Peaceable Schools Coordinator at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, the largest public secondary school in Washington, D.C. In this role he was an advocate for teachers and students in the school, built partnerships between the school and organizations and businesses in the community to improve student outcomes, and trained students and staff in mediation and other alternative conflict resolution techniques. Edmondson has a bachelor's of science in biology from University of Richmond and a master's in public policy from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he served as a volunteer and supervisor for three years in Peace Corps Gabon, Central Africa.
David J. Erickson, PhD directs the Center for Community Development Investments at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and edits the Federal Reserve journal Community Development Investment Review. His research areas in the Community Development Department of the Federal Reserve include community development finance, affordable housing, economic development, and institutional changes that benefit low-income communities. He recently served as an editor of a joint research project with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program studying areas of concentrated poverty in the United States and was also an editor of a collection of research papers and essays on the Community Reinvestment Act, which was recently translated into Chinese by the People’s Bank of China. Dr. Erickson has a Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley, with a focus on economic history and public policy. He also holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College. His book on the history of community development, The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods, was published in 2009 by the Urban Institute Press.
Tracy Ericson is a Vice President and the West Region Deal Team Manager for the Wells Fargo Community Lending and Investment (CLI) group where she originates, underwrites, and manages a portfolio of New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investments. Tracy joined Wells Fargo in 2000, since that time has held positions in a range of departments including Capital Markets, Commercial Banking, and several positions within CLI including Low Income Housing Tax Credits investments, private equity, and equity-equivalent investments to non-profit organizations. She is a graduate of Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Banking Credit Management Training Program and a recipient of the Wells Fargo Golden Spoke award. Tracy holds a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley. She received a Bachelor of Science in International Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish at the University of Denver. Tracy is actively involved in her local community on the Board of Directors of Compass Family Services and a member of the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership San Francisco program. She lives in San Francisco where she enjoys spending time with her family and friends.
Cyndy Ortiz Gustafson founded Strategic Progress in 2002. Ms. Ortiz Gustafson is a native Nevadan who has worked in public service and community development since her graduation from Washington State University with a Master’s Degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Law in 1998. Ms. Ortiz Gustafson specializes in public policy strategy, program and project development, grant research and writing, and regional planning initiative development and coordination. Strategic Progress is a strategy company as well as a grant writing company, raising over $18 million in the last five years alone.
Robin Hacke is Director of Capital Formation at Living Cities, a pioneering partnership among 22 major foundations and financial institutions that invests in revitalizing America's cities. Members of Living Cities include leading foundations such as Ford, Gates, MacArthur and Rockefeller, as well as banks and insurance companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Prudential, and MetLife. At Living Cities, Ms. Hacke manages the department that is responsible for developing initiatives to aggregate and deploy investment capital in low-income and underserved urban communities. These efforts include the Integration Initiative, the Living Cities Catalyst Fund, and research and investment in the area of equitable transit-oriented development. In her previous role as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Ms. Hacke raised over $72 million from institutional, corporate and individual investors in two funds and built a portfolio of investments in 20 start-up companies. She has spent most of her career guiding the growth of technology companies as a manager, consultant and director. She founded and ran a strategy consulting firm that worked with 110 clients, and she currently serves as a director and Audit Committee Chair of Alvarion, a wireless communications company traded on Nasdaq. Before entering the tech sector, Robin was a banker in the Public Finance Department at Shearson Lehman Brothers, where she structured mortgage-backed bonds. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA magna cum laude in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe College.
Dr. Lisa Morris Hibbler is Deputy Director of the city of Las Vegas Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. In this capacity, she manages $17 million in programs and services related to housing assistance, youth afterschool programs, neighborhood organizing, Safekey, seniors, Senior Citizen Law Project, and community initiatives including, but not limited to, foreclosure prevention and ending homelessness. Dr. Hibbler was recognized as an influential leader in the 2008 Who’s Who in Black Las Vegas and is a Leadership Las Vegas 2007 alumnus. She was named 2005 Emerging Public Administrator of the Year by the National Forum of Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), Las Vegas Chapter. She is also a member of American Society for Public Administrators (ASPA), NFBPA, American Planning Association, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a 28-year member of the American Legion Auxiliary, Post 229. Dr. Hibbler holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and a Doctorate in Public Administration from the University of La Verne, California. She is currently completing her Judicial Administration Graduate Certification at Michigan State University.
India Pierce Lee is the Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community Development at the Cleveland Foundation. India has more than 23 years of experience in housing, community and economic development. She helps lead the foundation's Greater University Circle Initiative, a unique multi-institutional partnership engaged in catalytic projects to revitalize neighborhoods that include transportation, community wealth building, employer-assisted housing, and community engagement. Prior to joining the Cleveland Foundation, India served as Senior Vice President of Programs at Neighborhood Progress Inc. (NPI), where she led several joint initiatives, including the Cleveland Neighborhood Partnership Program. She was also Senior Program Director with the Northeast Ohio Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Director of The Empowerment Zone with the City of Cleveland's department of Economic Development, and Executive Director of Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation. Prior to that, she worked as an air traffic control specialist. In 2009, India completed the prestigious Loeb Fellowship from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She spent 10 months on the Harvard campus studying best practices in neighborhood revitalization, with a special interest in sustainability. India has been recognized for outstanding service to Cleveland throughout her career, including receiving a key to the City of Cleveland from former Mayor Michael White. She received the 2011 John Logue Employee Ownership Excellence Award and was named one of Crain’s Cleveland Business “Women of Note”. India has also been named as one of the 500 Most Influential Women in Northeast Ohio by Northern Ohio Live magazine and is both an alumnus of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2002 and a Louis Stokes Fellow from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. India earned a Bachelors of Science in Management from Cleveland’s Dyke College and a Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University.
Holly Lyman is the Director of the Barbara Greenspun Women’s Care Centers of Excellence and Community Outreach at Catholic Healthcare West’s St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. Ms. Lyman has dedicated the past 20 years to improving the health of southern Nevadans by designing and implementing prevention, screening and disease management programs. At St. Rose she has had the opportunity to generate over 400,000 educational encounters through thousands of programs at the Barbara Greenspun Women’s Care Center and implemented in-patient and out-patient lactation services and a WIC clinic to serve new mothers and babies. She also oversees 8 Community Outreach Departments and $1.4 million in grant funding. Currently, Ms. Lyman also serves on the Nevada Cancer Coalition Board as the Chair of the Prevention Subcommittee, the Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition, the Southern Nevada Immunization Coalition and the Maternal Child Health Coalition. Previously, while at PacifiCare (now UnitedHealthcare) Ms. Lyman served as the Regional Health Management Manager for Arizona and Nevada where she implemented disease management programs for CHF, COPD, ESRD, Diabetes and AMI and designed interventions and programs for Smoking Cessation, Healthy Pregnancy, Depression Management, mammography and Flu and Pneumonia immunization. She also served as the Chair of the Appeals Committee and the Foundation Allocation Committee. Ms. Lyman received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and is working toward completing the MPH program at UNLV.
Cass Palmer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Southern Nevada. Mr. Palmer oversees staff and administers United Way’s activities designed to advocate its community-based agenda of advancing the common good by focusing on education, income and health Mr. Palmer brings more than 23 years of experience in the gaming and hospitality industry, government and political arenas, non-profit organizations and union environments to his new role. Before joining United Way, Mr. Palmer was the Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resource officer at Tropicana Entertainment Inc. During his tenure, he played an integral part in restructuring Tropicana Entertainment, which was the first major company in the gaming industry to successfully complete Chapter 11 reorganization. Mr. Palmer has also worked as the Corporate Vice President of Human Resources for Olympia Gaming LLC/ Southern Highlands Development Corporation, the Corporate Vice President of Human Resources for Boyd Gaming Corporation and the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Bally’s/Park Place Entertainment.
Maureen Schafer Peckman has led Cleveland Clinic Nevada as its Chief Emerging Business Officer since 2010. Cleveland Clinic established their presence in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2009 after Peckman, as the CEO of Keep Memory Alive (KMA), led the $100 million acquisition of the organization which today is known as the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and its support organization KMA. As Chief Emerging Business Officer, Peckman coordinates future Nevada and western U.S. expansion, development and partnership opportunities for the Cleveland Clinic. Peckman joined KMA in 2007 as its Chief Operating Officer, during a time when the organization was in the first stages of an $80 million construction project with world renowned architect Frank Gehry. Over the next two years, Peckman was elevated to CEO and built an internal operations team that enabled construction and future medical operating requirements to be met. Nationally, Peckman is a member of the National Foundation for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the leadership of the Congress and is an advisory member of the O’Connor Judicial Selection Initiative, a board founded and Chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that protects judicial independence. Peckman is the Chairman of the Chairman’s Council for Conservation International, an organization with a presence in 150 countries working to enhance human wellbeing and life on the planet in partnership with governments, institutions and corporations. She also leads a community-based leaders organization, the Council for a Better Nevada, an organization comprising Nevada’s leading CEOs and industry leaders whose purpose is to engage private, public and non-profit sector resources to positively impact Nevada issues of critical community interest. Ms. Peckman has been member of the Nevada Commission on Homeland Security since 2003, whose mission is to advise the governor on matters pertaining to the prevention, mitigation and response to terrorism-related events. Locally, Peckman serves on the Agassi Charter Academy school board, Agassi Foundation, and is Chairman of the Nevada Community Foundation. Peckman graduated from the George Washington University in Washington D.C., where she pursued her undergraduate B.S. degree in Exercise Science in the School of Public Health and Human Services while on a soccer scholarship and was also a member of the women’s lightweight varsity crew team. Past pursuits include competing in the Hawaii Ironman world championships, competitive cycling and ultra distance marathons. Born in Indiana and raised outside of Chicago, she has lived in Las Vegas since 1999 and has a daughter.
Lisa Richter is principal and co-founder of GPS Capital Partners, LLC, a consultancy that assists foundations, banks and institutional investors in the design and execution of profitable investment strategy that enhances public good. Her work spans asset classes, return expectations and issue areas, frequently incorporating place-based and sector focus to increase equitable access to opportunities, including health, education and sustainable community development. Lisa co-designed and serves as lead trainer for the PRI Institute sponsored by the PRI Makers Network, co-authored Equity Advancing Equity (an analysis of impact investing for community foundations) and recently published a guide to health-focused impact investing with Grantmakers In Health. She brings over two decades of fund management and development finance experience from the National Community Investment Fund and ShoreBank and has served as advisor to the Bank of America National Community Advisory Council, Wall Street Without Walls, 2009 Clinton Global Initiative, and New Frontiers in Philanthropy (a project of the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University), vice-chair of the Community Development Financial Institutions Coalition, director of the Social Investment Forum, and steering committee member of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. She holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Lawrence Sands was appointed Chief Health Officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, in March 2007, previously serving as its Community Health Division Director and Assistant Health Officer. As the district’s chief executive and medical officer he brings to the job over 20 years of experience in public health, preventive medicine and health planning and administration. Dr. Sands is Board Certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine; a Clark County Medical Society Delegate to the Nevada State Medical Association (NSMA); and a diplomat to the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners. He has been an active member of various professional and civic organizations throughout his career including serving as president for the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association. Currently, he is President of the Nevada Public Health Foundation and serves on the boards of the United Way of Southern Nevada, the American Red Cross of Southern Nevada, and the newly formed Clinics in Schools. He is a frequent presenter at various professional education conferences and has received several awards in recognition of his work as a public health physician including the Nevada State Medical Association’s President’s Award and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Award for Maternal, Infant and Child Health Epidemiology. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree with Distinction in Zoology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, his D.O. from Midwestern University/Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and his Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in health planning and administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
David R. Williams, M.D., is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies and an Affiliate of the Sociology Department at Harvard University. His first 6 years as a faculty member were at Yale University where he held appointments in both Sociology and Public Health. The next 14 years were at the University of Michigan where he served as the Harold Cruse Collegiate Professor of Sociology, a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Social Research and a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. He holds a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He is an internationally recognized authority on social influences on health. His research has focused on trends and determinants of socioeconomic and racial disparities in health, the effects of racism on health and the ways in which religious involvement can affect health. He is the author of more than 150 scholarly papers in scientific journals and edited collections and his research has appeared in leading journals in sociology, psychology, medicine, public health and epidemiology. He has served as a member of the editorial board of 8 scientific journals and as a reviewer for more than 50 others. According to ISI Essential Science Indicators, he was one of the Top 10 Most Cited Researchers in the Social Sciences during the decade 1995 to 2005. The Journal of Black Issues in Higher Education, ranked him as the 2nd Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2006. In 2001, he was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2004, he received one of the inaugural Decade of Behavior Research Awards and in 2007 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been involved in the development of health policy at the national level in the U.S. He has served on the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics and on six panels for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has held elected and appointed positions in professional organizations, such as the American Sociological Association, Academy Health and the American Public Health Association. Currently, he is a member of the of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health. His current research includes studying the health of Black Caribbean immigrants in the U.S., examining how race-related stressors (racial discrimination in the U.S. and exposure to torture during Apartheid in South Africa) can affect health, and assessing the ways in which religious involvement is related to health.
Deborah Williams is the Manager of the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (OCDPHP) at the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD). The OCDPHP team works to improve the health of the community by working collaboratively with community partners to educate, motivate, and increase skills among people to maintain healthy and safe lifestyles. OCDPHP programs encourage people to get moving, be safe, eat better, and live smoke-free. Prior to accepting her current position with SNHD in August 2005, Deb worked for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) for 23 years. She began her career in the KDHE Health and Environmental Laboratories as a virologist. After almost 11 years of confirming vaccine preventable outbreaks of mumps and measles Deb decided to make a career change to a more proactive role in disease prevention. She has worked with HIV community planning, trauma system development, public health improvement planning and most recently with chronic disease prevention. As Director of Special Studies in the Office of Health Promotion at KDHE from 2000 - 2005, Deb managed statewide programs for arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, nutrition and physical activity, and community health interventions. Deb holds a Bachelor of Arts in Microbiology and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Kansas and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Wichita State University. She also is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).
