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Linda B. Akanbi, Ph.D. - Dr. Linda B. Akanbi, Professor Emeritus of Reading Education for Kennesaw State University, has 41 years of experience in academe and specializes in reading education, curriculum development, and instruction. In the course of her long and distinguished career, she served as a Title I Reading Teacher, a department chairwoman and a reading institute director. She also held faculty positions in elementary, early childhood and reading education and delivered speeches on reading and multicultural education before the World Congress on Reading, the International Reading Association, the Oxford Round Table, and the National Association for Multicultural Education. Her international teaching experience include serving on the faculty of Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and also serving as a technical advisor for a reading project in Nigeria for the International Reading Association. Honors of which she is a recipient include a Partnership Award, a Distinguished Graduate Teaching Honor and a Distinguished Graduate Scholarship Award, all from Kennesaw State University. She has also been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Education, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who Among Women, and by Cambridge Who’s Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in higher education. Dr. Akanbi completed postdoctoral study in 1986 at the University of Georgia and earned her Doctorate in Reading Education in 1978 from the University of Buffalo. She received her Master’s Degree in Reading in 1971, also from UB, and her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from West Virginia State University.

Alphonce J. Brown, Jr., B.A. - Mr. Brown, an Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE), is a consultant to U.S. and international non-profit organizations who thirst to learn more about how to incorporate best fundraising practices within their organization. He is one of 87 ACFREs and is one of 94 certified master trainers within the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Believing strongly in his obligation to share his more than twenty years of fundraising experience in health, education and volunteer service, Mr. Brown founded Docere Consulting, Inc., in July 2003 with the intent of providing services to non-profit organizations and government agencies wanting to learn more about fundraising. Until November 2008, Mr. Brown was Director of Development for the National Minority AIDS Council in Washington, DC. In 2003, he served as the vice president for University advancement at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. He joined the University in July 2000 and during his tenure, the University raised and reported more than $14 million in three years. During his career, Mr. Brown has worked for large, established organizations, as well as grassroots institutions and state and Federal government agencies. His former employment also includes serving as Executive Director of the National Kidney Foundation of Southeast Texas, President and CEO of the Prairie View A&M University Foundation and Assistant Dean of External Relations, College and Graduate School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Brown earned his B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and has conducted workshops throughout the United States, Canada, China, and Europe.

Henry L. Cobbs, Jr., Ph.D. - Dr. Cobbs, a nationally recognized leader in the application of computer information technology to instructional practice and curricula, is one of CRP's content experts in the areas of information systems design, development, and management. He currently serves as Dean of Academics at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School (USAFSOS) at Hurlburt Field, Florida, where he manages the instructional systems development component of the USAFSOS curriculum. Dr. Cobbs also holds a faculty appointment at the University of Phoenix, where he teaches online courses in the education technology doctoral program. He previously has held faculty appointments in the College of Business Administration at Alabama State University including Associate Professor for Computer Information Systems, for which he coordinated online teaching methods and refined the online Integrated Learning Systems technology as a tool for teaching and learning. As Assistant Professor for Management, he introduced online and CD-ROM-based business information databases into the business communication curriculum. Dr. Hobbs is a former Executive Assistant Superintendent for Computer Technology Services for the Atlanta (Georgia) Public Schools, where he managed administrative and academic computer operations for 112 schools, 75,000 students, and over 5,000 faculty and administrators. His previous experience also includes service to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) as an information and instructional systems advisor for the RSAF commander, deputy commander, directorate of training, and other designated staff. Dr. Cobbs, who is the author of numerous papers on computer technology and instructional systems development, earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Auburn University. He earned a M.S. degree in international relations from Troy State University, a M.S. degree in curriculum and instructional development from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. degree in political science from the University of Nebraska.

Gloria Cousar, M.S. - Ms. Cousar is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Relations and Involvement and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Assisted Housing for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In both these capacities, Ms. Cousar was responsible for overseeing national policies and administering housing programs that directly supported the empowerment of low-income housing residents to be organized, to obtain economic opportunities to become self-sufficient, and to improve the quality of resident community life, both in conventional and mixed-income or revitalized public housing. Also at HUD, she directed the provision of several national training conferences for public housing resident leaders, and resident services coordinators, and led in the development of the ROSS (Resident Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency) program, which remains today. A principal focus of her consulting is engaging community residents and partners to participate in and sustain the physical, social, and economic revitalization of their neighborhoods, while improving the quality of resident life. Under her leadership, Jovian Systems is on the cutting edge of helping its clients craft innovative solutions and co-create resident initiatives to help enhance economic opportunities, life skills and youth development, along with household health and safety. A former public housing resident, Ms. Cousar, is on the Board of the National Alliance for Resident Services in Affordable and Assisted Housing (NARSAAH), a member of the National Low-income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), and the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Ms. Gloria Cousar is a graduate of Vassar College and Princeton University. She holds a masters degree in public affairs and urban planning from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She has also travelled extensively in this country and abroad, holds multiple credentials in wholistic studies, and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planning.

Maxine Fuller, M.S. - Ms. Fuller is an experienced professional with an extensive background in organizational project management, instructional design, training, and facilitation. In the past 20 years, she has developed and delivered training programs for leaders of government agencies, corporations, trade associations, and nonprofit organizations in the United States, Eastern Europe, and Brazil. Her clients have included the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Management Association, the Coca Cola Company, the Veterans Administration, Pfizer Inc., Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools, and Johns Hopkins University. She also has served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies in Baltimore, Maryland, and as a volunteer trainer for the Georgia Center for Nonprofits. She is a graduate of Virginia State University, where she earned her B.S. degree in special education. She also earned a certificate in qualitative market research from RIVA, a market research and training institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and holds a M.S. degree in personnel and human resource management from American University.

Soaring Hawk, Ph.D. - Dr. Hawk's areas of expertise include the analysis of large-scale data sets and secondary analysis. He also is skilled in evaluation theory and practice, including Longitudinal Cohort Flow Analysis, and is experienced in the complex evaluation of Federal and state contracts. From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Hawk served as the External Evaluator for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration's Local Government Division and its Local Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Grant Program. In that capacity, he evaluated statewide DWI initiatives, including 33 county local programs and their approximately 200 funded components. Dr. Hawk holds a Ph.D. in the field of educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. degree in special studies, with an emphasis in education and human relations.

Elaine Johnson, M.S.W. - Ms. Johnson is a former Senior Fellow for Youth Development Affairs at the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Washington, D.C. She formerly served AED as director of the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work, deputy director for the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, and vice president. She has also served as the director of local initiatives at the Children's Defense Fund and regional director for Camp Fire Boys and Girls, Inc. Ms. Johnson has substantial experience in technical assistance and training as well as in creating and managing national youth development initiatives. She created and led the expansion of the National BEST Network, comprised of more than 40 local and regional intermediaries that coordinate training and educational programs for youth workers and managers. She has provided guidance and oversight to several nationally recognized professional development publications, including Advancing Youth Development Curriculum for Training Youth Workers, Supervising Youth Development Practice, and the BEST Youth Worker Apprenticeship On-the-Job Training Guide. Ms. Johnson is a national spokesperson on youth development, youth worker professional development, and workforce issues. She earned her M.S.W. degree from Tulane University and B.A. degree in sociology from Xavier University.

Freddie John Martin, Ph.D. - Dr. Martin currently serves as senior consultant and adviser to the Maryland Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives (GOCI). He provides program development and business assistance for community, faith-based and non-profit organizations throughout the State of Maryland that are seeking to grow and expand their organizations through capacity-building training, and greater access to Federal, state and corporate grant opportunities. Dr. Martin has conducted extensive training, technical assistance and capacity- building with faith-based organizations seeking Federal and state grants and technical assistance and partnerships with One Stop Centers and social service agencies relative to workforce, TANF/welfare reform issues and community health centers relative to cigarette cessation. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Martin has served as a President and CEO of the American Institute for Economic Development, a “think tank” on Capitol Hill supporting business and economic growth in America, an executive administrator of the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, and national Project Director for the National Medical Association’s mentoring/training program for medical students and physicians. He enjoys a national reputation for developing and delivering high- quality and innovative technical assistance and training packages, including grant writing, strategic planning, coalition-building, fundraising, partnership and corporate community outreach for faith-based organizations, corporations, non-profits, and institutions of higher education. A native of Chicago, Illinois, he was selected as a national MOTT scholar and earned a Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Studies from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with advance courses in management and marketing from its Kellogg School of Management.

Lucille C. Norville Perez, M.D. - Dr. Perez is the President and CEO of The Cave Institute, where she oversees an extensive portfolio of global partnership programs and initiatives that are designed to address disparate health concerns and ameliorate race-based disparities in health and healthcare. As a health policy advocate, Dr. Perez advocates, nationally and internationally, for improving access to healthcare, strengthening public health infrastructure capable of meeting the population-based needs of this millennium, and assuring “healthcare of equal high quality” for all global citizens. Dr. Perez is also the Executive Vice President and National Medical Director for Universal Patient Record Information Systems, Corporation, (UPRIS) a health information technology firm. A nationally known past president of the National Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Perez has dedicated her more than three-decade career garnering resources for medical care to developing countries in sub-Sahara Africa and the Caribbean, as well as serving under-served communities in the United States. Dr. Perez was the first medical officer and Associate Director for Medical and Clinical Affairs at the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), within the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Over the span of her career, Dr. Perez has received more than 50 awards, including the Congressional Black Caucus Exemplary Service Award (in recognition of the multiple testimonies and keynote addresses she provided), the HHS Secretary’s Distinguish Service Award, the Spirituality and Medicine Leadership Award, and the Long Island Jewish Children Hospital Distinguish Graduate Award. Dr. Perez has also authored and co-authored more than 100 professional publications, articles, reports, papers and abstracts. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Perez received her doctorate of medicine from New York Medical College. She completed her residency training at Long Island’s Jewish Hillside Medical Center and a fellowship in adolescent medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Deborah R. Rosenberg, Ph.D. - Dr. Rosenberg's professional focus for more than a decade has been split between training state and local health agency staff in applied statistical and epidemiologic methods, and conducting research on topics in perinatal epidemiology and service delivery. She has led efforts by the Illinois Department of Public Health to upgrade that state's surveillance systems relevant to maternal and child health and to analyze its maternal mortality review data. She also has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an analysis of assisted reproductive technology, conducting several studies using data from the Children with Special Health Care Needs national survey as well as data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System. Dr. Rosenberg regularly teaches the Introduction to Biostatistics course and the Intermediate Epidemiological Methods courses at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Additionally, as co-principal investigator on a UIC project that supports a doctoral program in maternal and child health epidemiology, she teaches an advanced class applied methods using secondary data. She was a member of the CRP core faculty on a national project that offered a continuing education course in maternal and child health epidemiology. Dr. Rosenberg serves as a member of the data committee for the UIC Perinatal Center.

Ruth Sanchez-Way, Ph.D. - Dr. Sanchez-Way is vice president of Health and Community Initiatives at a leading international development consulting firm that provides technical assistance and program support for the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) rule of law, justice reform, and human rights projects worldwide. She has over 40 years experience in the prevention of substance abuse, the promotion of mental health, and the provision of human services and serves as a CRP consultant in these areas. As a senior Federal executive, she led the nation's primary substance abuse prevention programs from 1991 to 2002 as the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). While at CSAP, Dr. Sanchez-Way also served as the director of the Division of State and Community Systems Development. In those roles, she influenced the development of a national substance abuse prevention infrastructure based upon science-based knowledge. She also forged Federal-state partnerships for substance abuse prevention; advanced the implementation of effective prevention programs through information technology; implemented new prevention programs targeting families, children, minority, and at-risk populations; and worked with the business community to expand prevention programs in the workplace. She also directed CSAP's groundbreaking Community Partnership Program. Dr. Sanchez-Way received the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Administrator's Award for Equal Employment Opportunity Achievement in 1994, the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award in 1998, and the Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service in 2001. In 2000, she was the first recipient of the Excellence in Government Service Award from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers and holds a Certified Prevention Professional Certificate from the Maryland Association of Prevention Professionals and Advocates. Dr. Sanchez-Way received her B.S. degree in chemistry from Saint John's University, M.S.W. degree from Fordham University, and Ph.D. in public administration and health policy and management from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. She received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Fordham University's Graduate School of Social Service.

Anu Sharma, Ph.D. - Dr. Anu Sharma is a CRP content expert on prevention science, policy and research and serves as a licensed psychologist and independent consultant in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is currently a Co-investigator of the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) housed at the University of Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research, Department of Psychology. This study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is a longitudinal study of sibling influence on adolescent substance abuse and psychological adjustment. She also serves as program guide for the Positive Community Norms project, an environmental strategies program funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Montana Institute. From 1997– 2007, Dr. Sharma was a senior research scientist at the Minnesota Institute of Public Health (MIPH). She led development of the Community Readiness Survey, a measure designed to assess a community's level of readiness for alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and gambling prevention services. She also chaired the Minnesota Epidemiology Workgroup for the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Suganya Sockalingam, Ph.D. - Dr. Sockalingam has been providing consultation and technical assistance (TA) on evidence-based and best practices in mental health promotion and substance abuse use prevention and treatment for over 10 years as a member of the faculty of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. At Georgetown University, she has assisted in facilitating numerous interagency collaboration activities at the national, state, and local levels. She also has provided TA services through the National Center for Cultural Competence, the National TA Center for Mental Health, and the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Sockalingam has participated as a CRP consultant in CSAP's Policy Academy for Returning Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (RSMVF), and has participated as a trainer for other meetings, including those targeting the enhancement of behavioral health services for RSMVF.

Louise E. Taylor, Ph.D. - Dr. Taylor served as director of Delta Research and Educational Foundation (DREF), the 501(C) (3) entity of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. for over 11 years. In that capacity, she conducted research and provided services to the Sorority's over 900 chapters in family welfare educational development and international affairs. She successfully developed and implemented proposals under grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the District of Columbia Public Schools, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the District of Columbia Department of Health and Healthy Start Incentive Program, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since leaving DREF, she has served as consultant to the foundation, Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural and Minority Medicine, the Marshall Heights Community Development Corporation, the Southwest Renaissance Development Corporation, and public schools of the District of Columbia. She holds a B.S. from the New York University, a M.S. Jersey State University, and a Ph.D. in public and international affairs University of Pittsburgh.