Who We Are
Executive Director
Advisory Board Members
- Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN
- Ronald R. Blanck, D.O.
- Xóchitl Castañeda
- Leon Dingle, Jr., MD
- Van H. Dunn, M.D., MPH
- Yolanda M. Hardy, PharmD
- H. Garland Hershey, Jr.
Executive Director - Clyde H. Evans, Ph.D.
Dr. Evans is Executive Director of the Institute for Health Protection with extensive experience creating and executing community-based health education programs. In his previous position as vice president at the Association of Academic Health Centers, Dr. Evans built a solid foundation and proven track record of educational initiatives that reached more than 3 million people and 60 thousand physicians, nurses, and pharmacists in 35 cities since 2002.
Dr. Evans served in several capacities at Harvard Medical School, including Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and member of the faculty. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, working for Senator Bill Frist on biomedical research, bioengineering, academic health centers, and cloning. He has served in advisory roles for the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Graduate Record Examination and the governor of Massachusetts. He has consulted widely on public health policy, issues of professional and organizational development, racial and gender equity and leadership. He has held faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts and Loyola University in New Orleans.
Advisory Board Members
Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN
Dr. Allan is Dean and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She was Vice-Chair of the 15-member U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 1998 to 2004, and was the spokesperson for the Task Force when Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced new federal recommendations on breast cancer screening. She was also the major spokesperson for the Task Force’s obesity recommendations.
Dr. Allan is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Nursing. She has been president of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and the Southern Nursing Research Society. She is a member of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advisory Council on the five-year project, “Prescription for Health.” She serves on Congressman Ben Cardin’s Health Advisory Committee.
Dr. Allan is a nationally recognized scholar in the area of women’s health, specifically weight management among multi-ethnic populations of women. She has held faculty positions at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and at the School of Nursing at the University of Texas at Austin.
Ronald R. Blanck, D.O.
Lieutenant General Ronald R. Blanck, D.O., (U.S. Army, retired) is a partner and Vice-Chairman of the board of Martin, Blanck & Associates, health care consultants to both government and the private sector. Previously Dr. Blanck was President of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, where he oversaw a growing academic health center including the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Health Professions.
In 2000, Lieutenant General Blanck retired as the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command, with responsibility for more than 46,000 military personnel and 26,000 civilian employees throughout the world. He also served as commander of Walter Reed Medical Center North Atlantic Region Medical Command.
Dr. Blanck is widely consulted as an advisor on bioterrorism issues and an expert in preparing the medical community to respond to mass casualty incidents or those involving weapons of mass destruction. He chairs the task forces on bioterrorism for both the Texas Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association.
His academic credentials include teaching positions at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University School of Medicine, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Xóchitl Castañeda
A medical anthropologist by training, Xóchitl Castañeda was educated in Guatemala and Mexico. She did a post-doctoral fellowship in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, and also received training in social science and medicine at Harvard University. For nearly seven years she was a professor and researcher at Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, where she also directed the Department of Reproductive Health. In 1999 she received the National Research Award on Social Science and Medicine. Xóchitl has published more than 50 scientific works and has served as a consultant for more than 20 national and international institutions. She is currently the director of the Health Initiative of the Americas, a program of the University of California.
Leon Dingle, Jr., MD
Dr. Dingle is a fellow in the Chicago Institute of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Preventive Medicine at Rush University College of Medicine. He is a visiting Professor in the European Center for Peace and Development, established by the University for Peace of the United Nations, in Belgrade, July 2000. Dr. Dingle is a visiting Professor at the School of Public Health in Athens, Greece, since 2001. He serves on several boards, including the March of Dimes and the Urban Health Center and the Center for Urban Business at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Dingle is the former Commissioner of the State of Illinois Medical Center District. In 2003 he designed and implemented a state wide health initiative for the Broadcast Ministers Alliance of Chicago promoting health prevention through health ministries. In 2004 he was the recipient of the Cristifideles Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago for contributions to the community.
Van H. Dunn, M.D., MPH
Dr. Dunn is the Chief Medical Officer of MetroHealth Plus and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest public hospital system in the country. It provides care to 1.3 million New Yorkers through eleven public hospitals, four long-term care/skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and over a hundred community-based ambulatory care clinics.
Dr. Dunn is a noted public health advocate working to improve access to quality health care for disadvantaged populations and crafting public policy on the federal, state, and local level. He served as Senior Health Policy Advisor for Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1991-1995, where he was responsible for health policy and legislation formulation in the areas of public health, health care reform, biomedical research, health professions training, nurse education, minority health, women's health, and health promotion and disease prevention. He served as the Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and as the Director of Community Health Programs for Boston City Health and Hospitals.
His areas of expertise include health care access, reducing health disparities in communities of color, quality assurance, and integrating public health and preventive health services into the provision of health care. He has held faculty positions in public health at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and at the Boston University School of Medicine.
Yolanda M. Hardy, PharmD
Dr. Hardy is Assistant Clinical Professor at Chicago State University School of Pharmacy in Chicago, IL. Dr. Hardy has developed a summer pharmacy program designed to introduce high school students from the local community to the profession of pharmacy. Dr. Hardy has held several leadership roles in the university, as well as in professional and community organizations. Her faculty areas of emphasis include community health care, patient self-care, and cultural competency for health professionals. She is co-chair for the Bouvé College of Health Sciences Diversity Committee and National Secretary for the National Pharmaceutical Association. She recently completed her term as the Secretary for the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts Young Professionals Network.
H. Garland Hershey, Jr.
Dr. Hershey is Professor of Orthodontics in the School of Dentistry and Professor of Health Policy and Administration in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, where he was Vice Chancellor and CEO of the Health Center and Vice Provost of the University for almost 15 years.
At the national level, Dr. Hershey serves on a number of boards and consultant positions for higher education and the health professions. Internationally, he has worked with eastern European nations to strength the quality of their health care systems.
He is a consultant for the American Dental Association Commission on Accreditation and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and currently is a site visitor for both the ADA and the NCAA. He serves as course director for several pre-doctoral and residency program courses, and teaches in both graduate and pre-doctoral clinics.
