January 2013 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 more than 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. She also served as an officer for the Epidemic Intelligence Service in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

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

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Diane Riibe, BBL

Former Executive Director, Project Extra Mile

Diane Riibe, BBL, recently transitioned from her position as executive director at Project Extra Mile, a statewide network of coalitions and community partnerships in Nebraska working to prevent underage drinking and youth access to alcohol, where she brought her vision to the organization since its inception in 1995. Her experience includes guiding local and state-level alcohol policy efforts; encouraging community/enforcement partnerships to support heightened enforcement of youth alcohol laws; building coalitions and community organizing around environmental, evidence-based strategies; planning media advocacy strategies; and engaging youth leaders.

Riibe provides training and technical assistance as a consultant to communities across the country to reduce the public health harm from both underage and binge drinking, including her involvement for more than a decade as a national consultant and trainer for the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. She has presented at numerous state and national conferences, including keynote comments.

Riibe has also served as a member of the EU/US Civil Society Dialogue on Underage Drinking and as a national board member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving as vice president of public policy. She received a bachelor’s degree in business leadership at the College of Saint Mary in Nebraska.

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Karen Peterson, MD

Attending Physician, Denver Public Health STD and ID/AIDS Clinics

Karen Peterson, MD, is a general internist serving as an attending physician for the Denver Public Health STD and ID/AIDS Clinics. She is the on-site project director for the Denver STD CHOICES demonstration project, funded by the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities through a grant to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

She is also currently the team co-lead for the Denver Collaborative, part of the CityMatCH National Collaborative to Prevent Substance-Exposed Pregnancies. The Denver Collaborative is working in the Denver Health public hospital/community health center system to improve screening of alcohol use in women, and promote intervention for women at risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy.

Dr. Peterson received her medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and completed her residency at the Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts.

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