MOASH

Board Officers

Barbara Flis, President

Jodi Brookins Fisher, PhD, CHES, Vice-President

Michelle White, BS, Secretary

Kyle Guerrant,  Treasurer

Board Members

Nicole Adelman, MPH

Cheryl Gibson-Fountain, MD, FACOG

Jennifer Salerno, RN, MS, CPNP

Chelsea Schmitt

Herbert C. Smitherman, Jr., MD, MPH, FACP

Bonnie Willings, MSA, CHES

 PRESIDENT:
Barbara Flis, BIS, (Farmington Hills) is the Founder of Parent Action for Healthy Kids. Barb has more than 15 years of experience advocating for children's health issues and working with districts and teachers in the arena of health, HIV and sexuality education. Barb has provided training and technical assistance to sex education trainers in every corner of the state of Michigan. She is a nationally recognized expert, keynoting conferences for professionals working in school health, teen pregnancy prevention and health education, and parent engagement. Her work coordinating Michigan Governor's Talk Early & Talk Often® program has been cited in national press including Newsweek. Her motivation and inspiration for this work comes from her grass-roots experience being "just a parent" in a suburban Detroit community.

VICE-PRESIDENT:
Jodi Brookins-Fisher, PhD, CHES, (Mt. Pleasant) is a human rights advocate who has been recognized for her contributions to underserved populations, especially GLBT populations. She serves on her local school district sexuality education advisory board. The mother of three school-aged children, she believes in the need to inform young people about their sexual health and development. In her spare time, Jodi likes to run and spend time with her family and friends. In her professional life, she is a Professor in the School of Health Sciences at CMU where she teaches public and school health courses. Her research interests include the evaluation of university-community partnerships, programs for underserved populations, and sexuality education curricula.

SECRETARY:
Michelle White, BS, (Jackson) has been working in teen pregnancy prevention for over a decade at the Jackson County Health Department. She has experience as a Health Educator, TP3 Coordinator, and most recently, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative Coordinator in Jackson County. Michelle led her community through an in-depth strategic planning process for a coordinated plan around teen pregnancy prevention, and published the document Pursuing Hope for Our Youth with the United Way of Jackson County. She is very passionate about the issue of teen pregnancy prevention, working with young people and their parents, and mobilizing a community around the issue. Michelle is the mother of three young children. She believes in the importance of teaching young people early about their development and promoting sexual health throughout one’s lifetime.

TREASURER:
Kyle Guerrant, LMSW, (East Lansing) is a school health champion who believes young people need the knowledge and skills, and have access to programs and services, to ensure they are physically, mentally and socially healthy. In his professional career, he is the supervisor of the Coordinated School Health and Safety Programs (CSHSP) Unit for the Michigan Department of Education. Mr. Guerrant and his team are charged with improving the health and educational outcomes of Michigan students through the implementation of Coordinated School Health initiatives. Kyle believes in the need to equip young people with the necessary knowledge and skills about their sexual health, and serves on his local school district sexuality education advisory board. Kyle received his BA in Psychology (Child Development) from Long Island University, and his MSW from the University of Michigan . Mr. Guerrant has been a strong leader and advocate in youth health and safety issues in community-based non-profits, local schools, and state government for the last 9 years.

DIRECTORS:

Nicole Adelman, MPH (Ann Arbor) has worked with adolescents and sexual health for her entire professional career. She is currently Vice President of Education, Training and Outreach at Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan, which serves 22 counties across the state. Nicole is dedicated to ensuring youth have information, skills and access to services needed to ensure their sexual health, which greatly contributes to their overall health. Nicole also serves on the board of the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Ypsilanti, MI as well as the Board of Alumni Governors at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Cheryl Gibson Fountain, MD, FACOG (Grosse Pointe Park) is a native Detroiter, and a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist who practiced for 20 years at Detroit Riverview Hospital, serving as chief of staff from 2004 -2007. She is presently on staff at Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe. Dr. Gibson Fountain was medical director of the Detroit Public Schools Charles C. Vincent Education Center (a school for pregnant and parenting teens), and has been a member of numerous committees and task forces, including the Governor’s Provider Task Force for Preventing Unintended Pregnancies and the Michigan Provider Task Force for Preventing Adolescent Pregnancies. In her personal life, she was blessed to partner with her late husband, Pastor Renzo L. Fountain, Sr, to provide 10 years of free annual health screenings and immunization fairs, and clothing and book drives for local residents as well as obstetric and gynecologic care to women in Nigeria during a medical mission. She is the proud mother of Anne Marie Frances Damron, a senior at the University of Michigan.

In May 2010, Dr. Cheryl Gibson Fountain became the 127th President of the Wayne County Medical Society of Southeast Michigan which will enable her to continue to passionately and aggressively pursue and address the concerns of women, children and families of our communities!

Jennifer Salerno, RN, MS, CPNP (Brighton) is a nurse practitioner and director of the University of Michigan Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools (RAHS) school based health center program. Her passion is to provide, promote and mentor quality adolescent health care with a special interest in adolescent risk assessment and counseling related to sexual health. She has served on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV Guideline Development Project Panel and the Michigan Provider Task Force for Preventing Adolescent Pregnancies and has assisted in developing the Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium Teen Pregnancy Prevention Clinical Guideline. She has presented at state and national conferences on adolescent risk assessment and communicating with teens around sexual health behaviors.

Chelsea Schmitt (Milan) Chelsea Schmitt has been active for over five years in sexual health education through a number of sexual health education and advocacy programs including participation in the Sexual Health Advisory Committee for Milan High School, Planned Parenthood’s Project Straight Talk and SafeHouse Center’s Teen Voice program, where she received 20 hours of training on dating violence and sexual assault, presented to teens throughout Washtenaw County and interned in SHC’s shelter for one month. In addition, she advocated for abstinence-plus education in TELL (Teens Educate Lansing Legislators). She was an inaugural member of MY Voice, the statewide youth advisory council on sexual health, and serves as the MOASH Board liaison to My VOICE.

Herbert C. Smitherman Jr., MD, MPH, FACP (Detroit) Dr. Smitherman is an Assistant Dean of Community and Urban Health, and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is also President and CEO of Health Centers Detroit Foundation, a Federally Qualified Health Center Look Alike in the city of Detroit, serving the underserved and uninsured. Dr. Smitherman has spent the past twenty-three years as a practicing physician working with diverse communities in Detroit to improve access to healthcare that integrates the health and social goals and concerns of the community. Dr. Smitherman has recently co-authored a healthcare policy book entitled Taking Care of The Uninsured: A Path to Reform, released in 2008. Dr. Smitherman was also recently recommended to President Obama for the position of U.S. Surgeon General. Dr. Smitherman is committed to examining and addressing disparities in adolescent sexual health risks and access to services.

Bonnie Willings, MSA, CHES (Traverse City), served on the Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) Michigan Model Committee, and TCAPS Sexuality Education Committee as a professional representative; she currently serves as a community representative on the Sex Ed Committee. Now retired, she worked in reproductive and sexuality health education for over 25 years, most recently with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS education, testing and counseling, and community outreach. She enjoys biking, walking the beach, and volunteering for the Traverse City Film Festival and State Theatre.