ACPM Fellows

Dr. Prasad Acharya, MD, MPH, MBA is a dynamic physician leader driving innovation in population health. As Chief of Staff at Prometheus Federal Services, he spearheads strategic initiatives and advances innovation by aligning people and teams, developing processes and strategy, and advancing organizational goals related to population health, business strategy, and technology integration.

At ACPM, Dr. Acharya is the Chair of the Membership Committee, a member of the Strategy Committee, and has been a key contributor to the Visibility Task Force. He serves on the Population Health Faculty, designing coursework for a comprehensive Population Health Integration Curriculum for the CDC on the intersection of health innovation, health IT, and health equity to advance population health. Recently, Dr. Acharya created an innovative course sponsored by the CDC on physician leadership, stakeholder engagement, and change management to catalyze transformation across the health ecosystem. He has advised numerous digital health startups as a consultant focused on effectively engaging underserved populations. Additionally, he serves as President-Elect of the California Academy of Preventive Medicine. For Dr. Acharya’s contributions to the field of Preventive Medicine, his efforts were recognized with ACPM's Rising Star Award.

Dr. Algotar is a clinical associate professor with the University of Arizona in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is also a member of the University of Arizona Cancer Center and a physician-scientist with a special interest in the utility of lifestyle modification in addressing effects of cancer progression and treatment. Dr. Algotar is board certified in preventive medicine, a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine as well as a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

In his clinical practice, Dr. Algotar provides medical weight loss services at the Banner University Medical Center through a lifestyle based multi-modality clinic. Additionally, he also provides cancer survivorship services through the University of Arizona Cancer Survivorship Clinic. Dr. Algotar’s research addresses the role of weight and lifestyle modification in reducing the burden of multiple chronic diseases including cancer. His recent work has focused on developing novel interventions to reduce bias against patients with obesity among healthcare providers. Dr. Algotar’s research has received critical acclaim at various international and national conferences and his work has been published in prominent journals such as Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, Prostate, Journal of Diabetes, Nutrition and Cancer, and Cancer Prevention Research.

Dr. Beatty completed his Preventive Medicine residency training through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004. He served eight years in the US Public Health Service; including two years with the Navajo Nation in Crownpoint, NM and six years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He focused on global health and vaccines for four years while at the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea until 2011. Dr Beatty then lead the global clinical trials for an adjuvanted influenza vaccine at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. Dr Beatty joined San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency in December 2020 to address COVID-19 in the Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch and is currently the Assistant Medical Director. Dr Beatty completed his MPH at Johns Hopkins University.

Catherine Brett is a board-certified preventive medicine and women's health expert with over 20 years of experience in the medical field. Trained as both an Obstetrician & Gynecologist at Georgetown University Hospital and a Preventive Medicine and Public Health physician at the University of South Carolina, she has worked in large academic centers, Rural Health Centers, and Federally Qualified Health Centers during her career prior to transitioning away from clinical practice.

As the Clinical Medical Director, Health Informatics, for Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM), Dr. Brett aligns her professional career with her passion of caring for the women and children of Mississippi. She utilizes her background in analyzing and interpreting healthcare data to inform decision-making at DOM, to ensure evidence-based, high quality health coverage for vulnerable Mississippians.

Dr. Abraham Chukwu, is board-certified in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. He is the medical director of the Occupational Medicine Department of Texas Specialty Care, where he practices clinical occupational medicine. As the medical director of Workforce Health System, he provides independent medical examination, independent medical reviews and other occupational medicine consulting services to the public.

Dr. Chukwu is a medical graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria. He trained at the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He obtained his Master of Public Health in Environmental and Occupational Health from the same university.

Dr. Charles G diPierro is a physician-scientist with expertise in research, hospital administration, clinical practice, military and CBRNE medicine/surgery, public health, decision analysis, and drug/device development. Upon graduation from the University of Virginia School of Medicine he remained at UVA for neurosurgery residency and an MS in Epidemiology. He then practiced as an attending academic neurosurgeon in Norway where he also obtained full medical licensure. Upon returning home and to UVA he completed a PhD in Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics before completing Preventive Medicine residency training at Stony Brook University under Dr. Dorothy Lane and a concurrent MPH at Columbia University.

Since 2013 he’s worked as an Army Preventive Medicine officer with multiple deployments in combat and garrison environments, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Spartan Shield (OSS), specializing in public health, tactical combat casualty care, and counter WMD medicine. Most recently he completed a combat deployment as Central Command’s (CENTCOM) Preventive Medicine Chief and Public Health Emergency Officer (PHEO) for the entire 21-nation CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR). Stateside he has supported Special Operations medical community counter-WMD efforts under Strategic Command, Special Operations Command, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). He is the Preventive Medicine Reserve Consultant to The Surgeon General of the Army. He also has a medical and scientific consultancy, Metascience LLC, that partners with various US government agencies and contractors.

Sucheta J. Doshi, MD, MPH FAAFP is the Chief Well-Being Officer for the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Doshi is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine and earned her MPH in from Boston University School of Public Health. She completed her Family Practice Residency at Concord Hospital/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center followed by her Preventive Medicine and Public Health residency at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is double board certified in Family Medicine and General Preventive Medicine/Public Health, a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and a member of the Scientific Review Committee of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Doshi is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Adjunct Instructor in Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and the VA Boston Site Director for the Harvard School of Public Health Occupational and Environmental Medicine residency program.

As an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2005-2007, Dr. Doshi worked with multiple international organizations on global health and vaccination policy, and subsequently worked with the MA Department of Public Health on maternal child health and injury prevention. She joined the VA in 2008 as a women’s health physician and currently practices as an environmental health registry clinician. Most recently as the Medical Director of Occupational Health at VA Boston, Dr. Doshi has been influential in successful collaborations with multiple clinical specialties in addition to co-authoring multiple publications on the impact of COVID-19 vaccinations among veterans and employees. She was as a 2021 scholar in the inaugural year of the highly selective American Academy of Family Physicians Leading Physician Well-Being Program and is a graduate of the nationally recognized Stanford University Physician Wellbeing Director Course. As the current Chief Well-Being Officer at VA Boston, Dr. Doshi continues to work toward transforming organizational culture to mitigate burnout and prioritize wellness centered leadership through the only role within the VHA enterprise dedicated to clinician well-being.

Michael Jan is an Executive Director, Drug Safety Physician at Organon & Co., a pharmaceutical company with a focus on women's health. In this role he protects the health of patients and the public by ensuring the safety of medicinal products and devices.

Prior to joining Organon, Dr. Jan completed the ACPM-Otsuka Pharmacovigilance Physician Program and then continued working at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. as a Safety Physician. Alongside a group of fellow preventive medicine physicians, he contributed to evidence-led pandemic response efforts that directly advised Otsuka’s Executive Leadership Team. He also co-founded and co-led the Wellness at Work series, which provided monthly companywide educational engagements to keep colleagues connected through topics of health promotion as Otsuka transitioned through new ways of working.

Dr. Jan earned BAs in Biochemistry and English Literature from Columbia University followed by an MD and a PhD in Pharmacology from Temple University School of Medicine. He then completed Internal Medicine training at Temple University Hospital and Preventive Medicine training at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He remembers well the epidemiology and biostatistics courses from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health since he applies this knowledge on a near-daily basis.

Dr. Jasmin currently serves as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Oregon State Hospital, focusing on quality improvement initiatives and integrating primary care and psychiatric services. Previously, she worked as Medical Director of Behavioral Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, where she is part of the leadership team responsible for the city's initiatives in violence prevention, substance use and prevention, and mental health. For Chicago's COVID-19 response, provided medical guidance for the city-run isolation housing for residents who could not safely do so on their own. She was also the health department's lead on piloting Chicago's wastewater-based epidemiology project to serve as an early warning system for detecting SarsCoV-2.

She specializes in both Preventive Medicine (General Public Health) and Family Medicine and is an alum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Cook County-Loyola Family Medicine Residency Program, where she served as a Chief Resident during her final year.

CAPT Curi Kim, MD, MPH, is a career medical officer in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, currently serving as Senior Advisor for the Bureau of Health Workforce’s Division of Medicine and Dentistry within the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and as the Designated Federal Officer for the Council on Graduate Medical Education, which provides advice and recommendations to the HHS Secretary and Congress on medical education and the physician workforce. Prior to joining HRSA in 2022, she was the Director for the Division of Refugee Health at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within HHS’ Administration for Children and Families and the founder of ORR’s Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children. Her previous federal service includes many roles within HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global Migration Health.

CAPT Kim received her BS and MPH degrees from the University of Michigan and her MD from Wayne State University. She completed residencies in both Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine at the University of Michigan and is board-certified in each specialty. She also cares for underserved patients at the Arlington Free Clinic in Virginia.

Wendy Gwirtzman Lane, MD, MPH, FAAP, FACPM is a clinician and researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She is board certified in General Pediatrics, Child Abuse Pediatrics, and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Lane serves as Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program and as Medical Director at Lifebridge Health Center for Hope, an organization focused on violence intervention and prevention. She is Director of the Maryland Child Abuse Medical Professionals (CHAMP) program, providing training, peer review, and technical assistance to physicians and nurses who evaluate children with suspected maltreatment.

Since 2016, Dr. Lane has chaired Maryland’s State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect helping to pass legislation creating a Medical Director for Child Welfare and reducing sexual abuse and misconduct in schools. She serves as the Principal Investigator for B’more for Healthy Babies Upton/Druid Heights, a community-engaged intervention to improve birth outcomes. She has examined disparities in the medical evaluation, identification, and reporting of maltreatment and has developed maltreatment prevention and intervention programs.

Dr. Lane serves on the University of Maryland Medical Center Child Protection Team and performs medical evaluations for children with suspected maltreatment at Center for Hope and at the Howard County Child Advocacy Center.

Ryan Moran, MD, MPH, completed medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he finished an internal medicine residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center before attending the UCSD/SDSU General Preventive Medicine residency. After graduating and obtaining his MPH in Health Management and Policy at San Diego State University, he joined the UCSD/SDSU General Preventive Medicine program core faculty. His preventive medicine and research interests include risk reduction and aging resilience, including health promotion regarding driving and transportation safety, and fall risk in older adults.

He currently is the Associate Program Director for the UCSD/SDSU program and is involved in resident training in clinical, research and didactic education capacities, and serves as the Medical Director for an exercise science lab on the UCSD campus, EPARC, where residents directly engage in physical-activity related research. He provides primary care at UCSD in internal medicine, where he has launched and provides preventive medicine focused clinics including shared medical appointments for fall risk mitigation, and travel medicine consultative services.

Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Nolan has a background in Family Medicine, social epidemiology, medical humanities and General Preventive Medicine/Public Health. She is currently a physician-investigator at HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to her current role, Maggie was a Physician Scientist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, where she focused on clinical tobacco dependence treatment in cancer patients and traditionally hard-to-reach populations. She was also Associate Director of the University of Wisconsin Preventive Medicine Residency Program. During her post-doctoral fellowship at Mayo Clinic, her research focused on tobacco dependence treatment in surgical patients and medically complex populations. Other areas of interest include chronic disease epidemiology, risk management, and behavioral or pharmaceutical interventions for chronic disease prevention.

Maggie is currently working on several projects related to chronic disease risk management, particularly cardiovascular disease, as well as vaccination and pharmacovigilance. She is working on a project with the U.S. Department of Labor to help rebuild a healthy and productive workforce and sees patients part-time in an Occupational Medicine clinic in Minneapolis. Maggie also serves as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Peter W. Pendergrass is a public health physician who has dedicated nine years to population-based medical quality improvement at both state and federal levels. His extensive public health experiences include local, regional, and state levels. His career began at the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District in San Antonio. Subsequently, he held positions as the Bureau Chief of Communicable Disease at Texas Department of Health in Austin and as the Region 1 Regional Medical Director for the Texas Department of State Health Services in Lubbock. He has also served as program director for Public Health and General Preventive Medicine residencies at the Texas Department of State Health Services, The University of Mississippi Health Science Center in Jackson, and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler.

Peter completed his Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to this, he completed an Internal Medicine Residency and an Endocrine Fellowship at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. Peter obtained his degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Pendergrass is board certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine, as well as by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

Born in Erie, PA, Carla Picardo, MD, MPH earned her Bachelor, Medical, and Master of Public Health degrees at Harvard, Wake Forest University, and UNC-Chapel Hill, respectively. She trained clinically in Oregon and North Carolina and is double board-certified in Obstetrics-Gynecology and General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Picardo has engaged in research and projects within the areas of women’s reproductive health with both the Navajo and Lumbee Native American tribes and with populations in Nepal, Cambodia, Oregon, North Carolina, and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Areas of research included contraception access, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, gestational diabetes, and intimate partner violence.

Dr. Picardo has worked in various clinical settings in Erie including an FQHC, a not-for-profit reproductive care clinic, and in private practice providing obstetric and gynecologic care for nine years. From 2015-2022, she delivered gynecologic and women’s preventive health care at Women’s Wellness & Gynecology, a practice she started and operated herself. During these years, Dr. Picardo appreciated the need for better education about and management of perimenopausal, menopausal, and sexual concerns among the women in the Erie area. This prompted her to take a position with UPMC to start the Magee-Womens Midlife Health Center in Erie in 2022. She is now a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner and consults to help individuals within this scope of practice.

Dr. Picardo has served on the Board of the Erie County Department of Health since 2011 and is currently the Vice Chair. She also represents the American College of Preventive Medicine on the national Women’s Preventive Services Initiative. This group reviews research/scientific evidence and drafts and revises recommendations for women’s preventive care which, if approved, is then covered under the Affordable Healthcare Act to all eligible women in the United States.

Dr. Laura Power is the Director of the Office of Public Health Practice and a Clinical Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She completed medical school and Internal Medicine Residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI followed by an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, MA. After working as an infectious disease clinician and director of infection prevention for several years, she completed training at the University of Michigan School of Public Health Preventive Medicine Residency Program in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.

She currently serves as the Director for several public health workforce development programs including the University of Michigan Preventive Medicine Residency Program, the Region V Public Health Training Center, and Public Health Prepared a part of the Michigan Center for Infectious Disease Threats. She focuses on supporting public health capacity by facilitating connections across academia, medicine, and public health; she continues to have a special interest in infectious disease epidemiology and prevention.

Dr. Rehman completed her undergraduate degree in Human Biology and Anthropology from Michigan State University (2005), Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health (2009), Medical Degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine (2014) and Residency in Preventive Medicine and Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (2018).

She has served local public health in Michigan and Virginia, largely providing medical directive during the COVID-19 response, as well as medical oversight for Communicable Diseases, Family Planning, STI, Immunizations, Maternal & Infant Health, and Adolescent Health. Notably, she oversaw the COVID-19 response in the City of Detroit, focused on long term care and persons experiencing homelessness, establishing best practices for the most impacted residents. She represented ACPM during the CDC-sponsored Zika Emergency Preparedness rotation in Guam by co-leading a tabletop exercise among the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands, served as an editorial fellow with the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and resident with the ABC News Medical Reporting Unit.

She is the Medical Director for Grand Traverse County Health Department in Traverse City, Michigan, a Community Staff Physician at Munson Medical Center and instructs medical students through Michigan State University’s rural health training program.

Michelle W. Robertson, MD, MPH is an Occupational and Environmental Medicine physician at VA New Jersey-War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC) where she works with post-deployed Veterans with military exposure-related health concerns. She is the Clinical Director for the Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Center of Excellence, as well as the VA East Orange Lead Environmental Health Clinician.

She received her medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and completed Family Practice Residency training at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan. She completed post-doctorate training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers) where she also received her Master’s degree. Afterwards, she joined the staff at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), where she evaluated first-responders in the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program.

She later became the Associate Director of the residency training program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Rutgers. Dr. Robertson is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at the Rutgers School of Public Health. She is board certified in both Family Medicine and Occupational Medicine.

Hunter Jackson Smith, MD, MPH, MBE is a Major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and the Focus Area Lead for Antimicrobial Resistance, STI, and Enteric Infections at the Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance Branch in Silver Spring, MD. In this capacity, he oversees the DoD’s disease surveillance efforts across the globe in these pathogen domains.

Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor for the Uniformed Services University in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics where he teaches preventive medicine, epidemiology, and emerging infectious disease topics. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics where he teaches bioethics. He also serves as a subject matter expert for the Department of Defense Medical Ethics Center. MAJ Smith practices travel medicine at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he teaches clinical preventive medicine.

MAJ Smith serves on the Board of Governors of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine Focus. He is also an enthusiastic member of the American College of Preventive Medicine and volunteers on several of the College’s leadership committees. He is the Chair of the Preventive Medicine 2024 Conference.

Dr. Smith is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. He graduated from Tulane University with a BA in Philosophy and Religious Studies. He couldn’t stay away from the crawfish etouffee, so lived in New Orleans four more years to earn his MD and MPH in Epidemiology from Tulane University. Dr. Smith completed his intern year at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii where he met his lovely wife, Joy. He went on to complete his residency training in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University, during which time he earned an MBE from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Danny Whu, MD, MPH is a board-certified physician in Preventive Medicine & Public Health, Integrative Medicine, and Medical Acupuncture. His day-to-day medical practice focuses on preventive medicine with an emphasis on integrative and holistic health.

Preventive medicine and the health of the emergency first responder population is near and dear to Dr. Whu and it is his passion. He is a retired firefighter-paramedic and SCUBA rescue diver who worked 30 years in the fire service and EMS. At Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the sixth-largest fire and rescue department in the nation, he served as Division Chief for fire, rescue and EMS Operations, Assistant Director for the Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management, and Deputy Incident Commander of the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center.

Whenever disasters strike, Dr. Whu also practices disaster emergency medicine. For over three decades, he has been a Medical Team Manager for FEMA’s Urban Search & Rescue, Florida Task Force-1. In this capacity, he has deployed to multiple national and international disasters, including 9/11, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2017 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse in Miami Beach. For these efforts, he has received commendations from several Federal, State, Local, and international government agencies.