YMH Community Advisory Board
The You & Me Healthy Community Advisory Board guides the YMH registry and its associated projects. The Community Advisory Board is comprised of Community Partners and Program Leaders from the original Say Yes! COVID Test and You & Me COVID-Free programs. Members of our Community Advisory Board played an important role, helping to design a more participant-friendly and meaningful Registry.
They worked diligently and collaboratively with the Registry study team to:
- Get the word out to community members about the Registry
- Help create materials for Registry participants
- Share their community experiences and provide input on key stages of the studies
- Develop Registry sub-studies
Janet Appling-Kasper is an entrepreneur - rancher, business owner - and a retired civil servant. She provides consulting and program administration for non-profits, local and state government. She specializes in project/program development, community engagement, and program compliance.
Nicole Brown is the Manager of Community Benefits and Diversity at CHI Memorial. Her role supports diversity initiatives, health disparities and national/local health projects. She is a recipient of Chattanooga’s 2022 Champions in Healthcare for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Medicine Award. Nicole serves on the CHI Memorial/Morehouse School of Medicine Implementation Team, CommonSpirit Health Food Systems Advisory Committee, CommonSpirit Health Community Benefit Alignment Work Group, and the CHI Memorial 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment Team. Prior to healthcare, Nicole worked in higher education and the media.
Mildred A. Council, a native of Pitt County and successful graduate of Pitt County Schools, received her bachelor's in sociology from Shaw University in Raleigh, NC. She later received her master's in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on a full fellowship. Mildred is a 16-year retiree from the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) where she specialized in educating, counseling and consulting on behalf of sickle cell disease patients and families, and as a Community Development Specialist (Infant Mortality) totaling 32 years in Eastern North Carolina. While employed full-time, she served the citizens of Pitt County for 29 years in two elected positions: Greenville City Council for 22 years (1987-2009) and 3 two-year terms as Mayor Pro Tem. She also served on the Pitt County Board of Education for a little over six years (2012-2018) where she ended her services as Chair. In 2021, Mildred served as Community Organizer, Advocate, and Spokesperson for the Say Yes! COVID Test initiative in Greenville, NC and Pitt County as a whole. Kicked off on an Easter Sunday, this was the first NIH project in the US partnered with Community Campus Partnerships for Health.
Dr. Emily D'Agostino is an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on place-based health inequalities and pediatric fitness. Emily aims to develop innovative community-engaged research strategies targeting the social drivers of health, and brings over 20 years of experience working directly in community (park and school) settings. She holds expertise in community-based participatory research, multilevel modeling techniques, and the analysis of complex longitudinal datasets. She serves as Director of Community-Engaged Research Practice within the Occupational Therapy Division in the School of Medicine, Co-Director of the Duke University Social Epidemiology for Place and Health Equity Collaborative, and RADx-UP CDCC Publications and Dissemination Chair. She completed her epidemiology doctorate at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and additional training at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Epidemiology Services.
Dr. Gaurav Dave is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Director of Abacus Evaluation, and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Gaurav is an emergency medicine physician with a master's and a doctorate in public health, and has over 20 years of experience in clinical, public health and evaluation research. He is also a Co-Investigator and the Director of Evaluation for the National Institutes of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP). The RADx-UP Program provides critical findings to inform ongoing SARS-CoV-2 public health efforts to improve the reach, acceptance, uptake, and sustainability of COVID-19 testing and prevention in marginalized and vulnerable communities across the United States. Gaurav is a Principal Investigator for two NHLBI-funded R01 studies that aim to address adverse social determinants of health associated with chronic disease risk. He is also a site Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on multiple grants funded by the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Gaurav’s research interest focuses on mitigating adverse social determinants of health to eliminate health inequities associated with chronic conditions in historically marginalized and rural communities.
Angella Dunston is the CEO of Dunston Leadership Consulting, LLC. She is an accomplished leader with a proven track record in system change and improvement. Angella has a diverse background in political, non-profit, and government environments. She has decades of experience in leadership and program development, capacity building and educational training. Angella is focused on creating transformative impact for marginalized individuals and communities. Her overarching mission is to amplify community empowerment and achieve successful outcomes that advance equitable, diverse and inclusive communities.
Minerva D. Freeman is the President of the nonprofit, Pitt County Family Development Corporation, Inc. She is a retired Social Worker from the Pitt County Health Department. Minerva is a strong advocate for the community, and provides support, referrals and education on physical and mental health, finance, social action, parenting, and more. She accomplishes this through workshops, coaching and group training, and enjoys getting the job done through collaboration.
Dr. Christoph Hornik is a pediatric cardiac intensivist and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), and serves as Vice Chair for research in pediatrics and Director of the DCRI pharmacometrics and small trials program. His research interests include the study of drugs and other interventions in vulnerable and underserved populations, including children, using innovative approaches ranging from direct-to-participant digitally enabled engagement to advanced pharmacometric modeling.
Dr. Rita L. Joyner joined Community-Campus Partnership for Health (CCPH) as Community Engagement Program Manager in 2021 to assist with the Say Yes! COVID Test and You & Me COVID-Free programs. Rita provides technical and administrative assistance while working with lead community partners to ensure project success.
Dr. Steve Roussos is a proud Mercedian who joins with many others to make life great in Merced for all people. He is a Greek immigrant who loves sharing his love of Greek culture (and food). He has been part of many community improvement initiatives in Merced and the broader San Joaquin Valley. Examples include co-founding Healthy House with a multicultural board and leading roles in the Children's Partnership, Merced Ahead, the All In For Health Equity Coalition, Life Line Inc, and the Merced County and City Continuum of Care. Steve is a strong advocate for community-university partnerships. With academic and community partners, Steve has been shaping community-engaged scholarship through UC Merced since 2002. This includes contributing to UC's first community-benefit agreement ( the "Chancellor's Pledge"), the launch of the Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES), and the development of a minor in Community Research and Service. In 2017, Steve and community partners established Community Initiatives for Collective Impact (Ci4Ci). Ci4Ci is a nonprofit organization serving local priorities for social, environmental, and economic justice in Merced and similar communities in its region. In his professional life, Steve has 30 years of experience as a researcher, educator, and social justice advocate for community health and development, primarily with vulnerable and systematically marginalized populations. Steve serves as a Director and Community Scientist of Ci4Ci and Co-Director of Hlub Hmong Center.
Heather M. Williams holds a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland University College. She is a Practice Optimization Partner for Ensemble Health Partners. Her nonprofit work includes National Alumnae Association of Spelman College (NAASC), Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Junior League of Chattanooga where she served on the Executive Board for several years.