Health Planner Appointed
THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SERVICE (TCI-GIS)
Grand Turk,
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tel: (649) 946-2801, ext. 40925
Web: www.tcgov.tc
JAMILLAH T. M. BERRY, PH.D., M.S.W. APPOINTED TO POST OF HEALTH PLANNER
GRAND TURK, Turks and Caicos Islands; Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 - Jamillah Berry, Ph.D., M.S.W., was recently appointed to the post of Health Planner in the Ministry of Health and Human Services. Dr. Berry brings fifteen years of professional experience in public service. She has managed community, family and youth development programs; directed youth service programs; provided individual and group mental health counselling to adults, children and families as well as substance abuse and domestic violence counselling; and supervised a care management program that ensured continuity of healthcare for uninsured hospital patients in Michigan before enrolling in a doctoral program at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia in 2002.
Dr. Berry earned a Ph.D. degree in Social Work Planning and Administration and Social Science with a specialization in Public Health from Clark Atlanta University, Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social work in 2006. She completed health disparities research in obesity and colorectal cancer and conducted a cross-site evaluation of community-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs during her course of study. Dr. Berry also completed a Minority Doctoral Fellowship with the Georgia Center for Health Equality funded by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, 2004-2006.
Dr. Berry established a career in health promotion and disease prevention in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, 2004-2009. She worked as the Program Counsellor for the Public Health Summer Fellows Program, 2004, and worked for the Prevention Research Center, 2005-2009. From 2005-2007, She worked as a Research Assistant for the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative. Her duties involved co-facilitation of a cross-site evaluation of 23 Southern-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs including coordination of evaluation capacity building training, and development of evaluation materials.
In 2007, Dr. Berry was promoted to Program Manager of the HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction among Heterosexually Active African American Men and Women: A Risk Reduction Prevention Intervention (HIV-RAAP). The project aimed to reduce disparities among African Americans in HIV/AIDS incidence and survival through health promotion and disease prevention. In 2008, she accepted faculty appointment as a Research Instructor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and continues to serve as faculty in a voluntary adjunct capacity.
Over the course of Dr. Berry’s academic career, she has disseminated research and evaluation findings at relevant national and international conferences including the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, American Association for Higher Education Annual Conference, National Minority AIDS Council HIV Prevention Leadership Summit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Prevention and Health Promotion Summit, and the Medical Education for the 21st Century: Teaching for Health Equity Conference in Havana, Cuba. She has also co-authored four manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals, two of which as lead author. Three have been published and one is in press.
Dr. Berry brings with her a wealth of experience to the Ministry of Health and Human Services. Her appointment as Health Planner will increase the capacity of the Ministry of Health to better plan for the health of the nation’s population and to monitor and evaluate all programmes implemented by the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
For more inform, kindly contact Dr. Jamillah Berry, Health Planner, Ministry of Health and Human Services on Ph: 649-946-2801 ext. 40801 or Email: jberry@gov.tc
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