2013 Derek Dunn Memorial Senior Scientist Officer of the Year
CDR Sara Newman
CDR Sara B. Newman currently serves as the Acting Chief of the Office of Risk Management for the National Park Service (NPS) where she provides overall management support and strategic direction for four national health and safety programs that impact 275 million annual visitors, more than 20,000 employees, and over 100,000 volunteers in 400 parks nationwide. Prior to working for NPS, CDR Newman was the Special Projects Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness at DHHS where she managed several of the Secretary’s high priority medical countermeasure initiatives. She also served for several years as a senior epidemiologist with the Division of Immigration Health Services managing the agency’s infection control program, infectious disease surveillance program, and tuberculosis continuity of care program. CDR Newman entered her career with the United States Public Health Service as a Junior Co-step with the Bureau of Prisons where she conducted the first ever epidemiologic study on sexually transmitted diseases in female federal prisoners.
CDR Newman has held multiple leadership roles within the USPHS and the Scientist Category. She served as a voting member of SciPAC for two terms and was the SciPAC Chair from 2007-2008. She is an active member on several SciPAC committees and served on the Scientist Category Appointments Board and 2013 Responder of the Year Award Committee. She also is a leader in the Commissioned Officer Association (COA) — she is serving her second term on the national board as treasurer on the Executive Committee and was recently elected to Chair-elect of the COA Board. In 2008, she served on the DC COA board. CDR Newman co-founded and continues to co-chair the 350-member USPHS Commissioned Corps Epidemiology Interest Group, which promotes professional collaboration and presents epidemiologic work at the annual USPHS Symposium. During 2007–2012, CDR Newman was liaison/public information officer and recruitment coordinator of the Rapid Deployment Force 2 Team. In 2009, she received the Scientist Responder of the Year Award and is a recipient of numerous USPHS awards. CDR Newman has authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications in the area of injury prevention and infectious disease and has delivered numerous presentations at national conferences and training programs throughout her career. She has mentored many officers and student interns, and started an internship program that has trained and placed more than 50 students in public health positions nationwide. CDR Newman is currently chair of the American Public Health Association’s Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section, a member of the steering committee of the Wilderness Risk Management Conference, and an advisory board member of the Injury Center at West Virginia University.
CDR Newman earned her doctoral degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) with focus in epidemiology and social and behavioral sciences and her master’s degree in Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. CDR Newman lives in Arlington, VA with her husband, David and her three children, Sharon, Emily and Carolyn.
2013 Junior Scientist Officer of the Year
LCDR James Kenney
Dr. James L. Kenney is a Lieutenant Commander in the US Public Health Service and a Lab Chief in the Division of Biological Standards and Quality Control, Office of Compliance and Biologics Quality, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA. LCDR Kenney manages the Laboratory of Microbiology, In-vivo Testing and Standards which performs quality control biological drug release testing and reviews manufactures’ test results to assure drugs are safe and effective before released to the public; he also manages the Center (CBER) level Standards and Reagents Production and Biological Shipping Department which produces, maintains, and ships reference standards worldwide so drug manufactures can calibrate their product’s potency during production and international regulatory agencies (like the FDA) can use the same reference standards to confirm drug potency for release testing. He also reviews Biological License Applications and their supplements to ensure drug methods are appropriately validated, product matrix is suitable for the intended test method, and release specifications reflect manufacturing process capability and are regulatory compliant. LCDR Kenney is also an accredited FDA inspector and inspects manufacturing facilities as an endotoxin product subject matter expert.
Beyond his regularly assigned duties in 2012, LCDR Kenney became a FDA Principal Investigator (PI), a voting member on the National Institutes of Health /FDA Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), a project officer for part of an Agency contract to implement a Laboratory Information Management System, and a facility/laboratory inspector for the IACUC. Furthermore, he initiated a successful regulatory review mentoring program that expanded beyond his laboratory to the Division level, was on the FDA’s White Oak Laboratory Planning Committee to ensure his Division’s new laboratories meet specifications before they move their operations into the new facility in 2014, was a member of an International Typhoid Vi Standard Advisory Committee, and was a Contract Officer /Technical Representative for six contracts that support a Rapid Microbial Methods Research Group that is funded by two BARDA research grants, which he also manages. LCDR Kenney has also participated in International Standard Calibration Collaboration Committees with the World Health Organization, National Institute of Biological Standards and Control, United States Pharmacopeia, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, National Institute of Child Health, and the National Institutes of Health.
LCDR Kenney is also the Deputy Planning Section Chief on the Regional Incident Response Coordination Team – National Capital Region, where he has been on four OFRD Deployments. He is a member of the National Commissioned Officer Association (COA), District of Columbia COA, Baltimore COA, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and Retired Officer Association and is completing an extended four-year term as a SciPAC voting member. Besides his USPHS, Air Force and Army badges and awards, in the last five years Dr. Kenney has received a FDA/CBER Exceptional Leadership Recognition Award, a FDA Excellence in Analytical Science Award, two FDA Commissioner’s Special Citations Awards, a FDA Public Health Achievement Award, a FDA Honor Award, and a FDA/CBER Group Honor Award.
2013 Scientist Responder of the Year
CDR Aaron T. Fleischauer
CDR Aaron T Fleischauer has been actively involved in preparedness and response activities at CDC for more than a decade. CDR Fleischauer entered the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program in 2002. During his tenure at CDC, CDR Fleischauer has been deployed for numerous emergency responses and investigations. In 2005, he co-lead surveillance efforts in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, and shortly afterwards co-developed CDC’s disaster surveillance workgroup, which has since evolved into the national disaster epidemiology community of practice organized by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). In 2006, Aaron co-lead the investigation of inhalation anthrax in an African drum maker.
Aaron is currently the CDC Career Epidemiology Field Officer (CEFO) assigned to the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NC DPH); where he has been stationed since July 2008. Aaron serves the role of chief science officer for NC DPH. During the 2009 Influenza H1N1 Pandemic, Aaron was asked to assume a leadership role in the NC DPH response as Operations Chief, managing and coordinating the epidemiology, surveillance, and countermeasures teams. Aaron served as Operations Chief again during the Hurricanes Earl, Irene and Sandy responses. More recently CDR Fleischauer served as Incident Commander for NC DPH during the national fungal meningitis outbreak and a multistate Salmonella paratyphi outbreak associated with contaminated tempeh, which lead to an international product recall. During 2012, CDR Fleischauer has led, supervised or consulted with local health departments on more than 75 communicable disease and vaccine preventable disease outbreaks in North Carolina. These outbreak responses have included a high profile outbreak of E. coli at the North Carolina State Fair, restaurant associated salmonella outbreaks, pertussis outbreaks statewide and the national fungal meningitis outbreak associated with contaminated epidural steroid product. CDR Fleischauer has worked to build epidemiologic capacity in North Carolina for more rapid and efficient outbreak response. As a result of this capacity building, in 2012, more outbreaks were detected and responded to, and more epidemiologic investigations were completed than in any year on record. Aaron is most proud of hiring and mentoring junior epidemiologists.
CDR Fleischauer is a SciPAC mentor and has served as a member of APHT-1 and the SciPAC Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global public Health where he enjoys mentoring, advising and teaching students.
