January 2012 VSTH Meeting Speakers

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Speakers' Biographies

Dafna Kanny, PhD
Senior Scientist, Alcohol Program, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dafna Kanny, PhD, is a senior scientist with the Alcohol Program in CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In this position, she helps lead the program’s work to improve public health surveillance on underage and binge drinking, provides technical assistance to state alcohol epidemiologists, and collaborates on national initiatives to prevent excessive drinking.

Prior to assuming her current position, Dr. Kanny worked for over eight years at the Georgia Division of Public Health as chief epidemiologist and as senior director for the Office of Epidemiology, Evaluation, and Health Information, and served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Dr. Kanny holds an undergraduate degree in political science, sociology, and anthropology and master and doctoral degrees in medical sociology from Bar Ilan University in Israel.

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Katy Gonzales, MPH
Alcohol Epidemiologist, Michigan Department of Community Health

Katherine Gonzales, MPH, is a CDC-funded alcohol epidemiologist with the Michigan Department of Community Health. Gonzales’s current interests include expanding alcohol-related public health surveillance, providing epidemiologic support to local coalitions and advocacy groups, and monitoring alcohol-related marketing and advertisements.

Gonzales is currently a member of the Alcohol and Other Drug Indicator Subcommittee and Alcohol Subcommittee of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and is a member of the Michigan Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup.

Gonzales received her master of public health degree from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health.

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Jim Roeber, MSPH
Alcohol Epidemiologist, New Mexico Department of Health

Jim Roeber, MSPH, is a CDC-funded alcohol epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health. Roeber’s current interests include alcohol-related public health surveillance, policy, and prevention support and program evaluation. He currently chairs the Alcohol Subcommittee of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and is a member of the New Mexico State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup.

Prior to joining the New Mexico Department of Health, Roeber worked for Kaiser Permanente Health Plan’s California division and the Boston Department of Health and Hospitals in Massachusetts.

He received his master of science in public health degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

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