Town Hall Meeting Speakers

Back to Event Home Page

Speakers' Biographies

Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH

Director, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, CDC

Dr. Marcus Plescia joined CDC in July 2009 as the director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. In this position, he leads a national program of state cancer coalitions, cancer screening services, and state cancer registries. He also oversees a well-developed research agenda, which includes the national Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network. For the last 20 years, CDC’s cancer division has supported national cancer screening efforts by funding every state to provide breast and cervical cancer screening services to uninsured women. In his first year at CDC, Dr. Plescia led the implementation of a national colorectal cancer control program that funds states to expand screening use across the population and provide screening services to uninsured adults.

Before taking a senior leadership position at CDC, Dr. Plescia served for six years on the senior management team of the North Carolina Division of Public Health. As chief of the Chronic Disease and Injury Section, he directed the program policy, planning, and evaluation efforts for 12 state- and federally-funded public health programs and the State Center for Health Statistics. During this time, he helped expand the state’s cancer screening programs and enact tobacco, cancer, and obesity-related legislation, including a strong state law banning smoking in all restaurants and bars. He also led major research and surveillance efforts in cancer detection, tobacco control, and health disparities.

Dr. Plescia has an extensive clinical background in family medicine. He started practice in a federally qualified health center in the south-Bronx, where he also led a multidisciplinary team providing care to the homeless. From 1995 to 2003, Dr. Plescia held an academic appointment at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine as faculty in the Family Medicine Residency Program at Carolinas Healthcare System. During this period, he started a family medicine satellite practice and residency program in an urban, underserved community and implemented a community-oriented primary care demonstration project. This project was awarded an eight year, $7 million grant from CDC to address racial and ethnic disparities and ultimately demonstrated nationally-recognized improvements in community-wide health behavior. After changing his career focus to public health, he has continued to practice family medicine in rural, underserved settings.

Dr. Plescia received his medical degree, master of public health, and bachelor of science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He trained in family medicine at the Montefiore Residency Program in Social Medicine in the Bronx, NY. He holds an academic appointment as associate professor in the University of North Carolina’s Department of Family Medicine. He has published his academic work extensively in the public health and family medicine literature.

  Top of Page

Kathryn Chapman, DPA

Director, Cancer Prevention Branch, Alabama Department of Public Health,

Program Manager, Alabama FITWAY Colorectal Cancer Prevention Program

Kathryn Chapman, DPA, is the program manager of the Alabama FITWAY Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Prevention Program and the director of the Cancer Prevention Branch at the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). Prior to funding being awarded for the CRC Prevention Program, Dr. Chapman managed the Comprehensive Cancer Program, where she continues to contribute 15 percent of her time towards comprehensive cancer activities and 5 percent to the prostate component. As manager of the Comprehensive Cancer Program, she collaborated in a study of hospice usage in Alabama. The study linked provider reports to death certificates to identify areas where hospice services are underutilized.

Before moving to the Comprehensive Cancer Program, Dr. Chapman worked for 10 years at the ADPH Center for Health Statistics where she analyzed death certificate data. Her areas of interest included diabetes, pregnancy-related mortality, suicide, motor vehicle deaths, and mapping disparities in mortality by region. Dr. Chapman also worked in the elderly services arena before working in state government. She directed programs funded by Title III of the Older Americans Act, both Part A and B. In Hawaii, she was a researcher for elderly services for ALU LIKE, Inc., an umbrella organization that provides services for native Hawaiians.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Ohio University, her master’s degree in sociology from the University of New Hampshire, and her doctor of public administration from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.

  Top of Page

Susan Kuhn

Primary Care Consultant for the New Hampshire Colorectal Cancer Screening Program

Biography is not available at this time.

  Top of Page

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, MD, MPH

State Epidemiologist, Division of Public Health Services,

New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis received her degree of doctor of medicine cum laude from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. She completed her internal medicine residency at Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Israel. She then continued to work as an attending physician and was director of the regional outpatient clinic for the largest health maintenance organization in Israel.

In November 2007, Dr. Alroy-Preis moved with her family to New Hampshire and completed an infectious disease fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. As part of her interest in public health and health care delivery, she completed a preventive medicine residency at Dartmouth and received her masters in public health from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth Medical School.

On July 1, 2010, Sharon joined the Division of Public Health Services within the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services as the new state epidemiologist for public health.

 Top of Page