Biography
Maggie Potter, JD
Margaret A. Potter is Director of the Center for Public Health Practice and Associate Dean for Public Health Practice at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management. Her academic work focuses on the application of science and professional experience in public health practice to improve the health of populations. As a health policy analyst and teacher, Potter is recognized for her leadership and innovation in public health law and policy, workforce development, and public health systems research.
Ms. Potter holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the Rutgers-Newark School of Law and has practiced law in the both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She also received a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Information Sciences from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
She has served as principal investigator for two major workforce development projects funded by federal public health agencies. One of these is the University of Pittsburgh Center Public Health Preparedness funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (past, 2002 through 2005). The other is the Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Training Center funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (current, since 2000).
Ms. Potter is immediate-past chair of the Coordinating Council for Public Health Training Centers – the national body representing all 15 such centers. She has also served as vice chair and acting chair of the Council of Practice Coordinators of the Association of Schools of Public Health. She serves currently as vice chair of the Board of Directors for the Public Health Foundation.
Ms. Potter serves as a consultant to national and local public health professionals and organizations. In 2002, Potter served a five-month fellowship from the CDC as Visiting Scholar in Extramural Prevention Research at the Public Health Practice Program Office. She remains a consultant to CDC as a fellow of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education (ORISE). She also provides consultation to county and municipal public health boards and agencies.
She has received honors including her school’s Outstanding Teacher Award, the Curriculum Innovation Award of the Delta Omega Honor Society in Public Health, and the Award for Academic Public Health from the Pennsylvania Public Health Association.
Samuel Stebbins, MD, MPH
Dr. Stebbins is the Principal Investigator and Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Preparedness. The Center trains public health professionals, including professionals in related organizations, to respond to bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and other public health threats and emergencies. Areas of special focus include pandemic and avian influenza, leadership development, legal preparedness and response, strengthening of local and state public health systems, education and training of graduate students, rural settings and populations, the needs of underserved populations, and K-12 school readiness.
He is also the co-Principal Investigator of the “Pittsburgh Influenza Prevention Project”, a $2.75 million project to study the transmission of influenza in schools and homes and to develop effective non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent influenza outbreaks. This project is funded by and conducted in close collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.
Dr. Stebbins joined the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) faculty on September 1 st, 2005 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. He teachers and lectures on a wide variety of public health topics, co-directs the GSPH “Capstone Course” and oversees the activities of interns and graduate student researchers. He also serves on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Avian Influenza Advisory Committee, the Pennsylvania Pandemic Influenza Response Plan Workgroup, and the University of Pittsburgh Pandemic Preparedness Work Group.
From 1999 through 2005 Dr. Stebbins was the Deputy Health Officer for San Mateo County, California. In San Mateo his responsibilities included control of Tuberculosis, Sexually-Transmitted Diseases, a wide variety of communicable diseases, and medical direction of the County’s homeless care mobile health van, as well as a wide variety of disaster and epidemic preparedness and response activities. In addition, he was the first male in 20 years to serve on the County’s Commission on the Status of Women.
Dr. Stebbins graduated from Yale University, and completed his medical and public health degrees at Tufts University Medical School. He has completed residency training in both Family Practice and Preventive Medicine/Public Health. He is committed to development of a public health approach to a wide variety of issues affecting populations, believes strongly that primary prevention is the best medicine, and works to strengthen the capacity of local public health and the connection between academic institutions and the communities around them.