February 2016 Speakers

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Speakers' Biographies

Patricia P. Green, MSPH

Epidemiologist, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Team, Prevention Research Branch, Division of Congenital and Developmental Disorders, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC

Patricia Green, MSPH, is an epidemiologist with the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Team, Prevention Research Branch, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work includes research on alcohol use among reproductive age women. Within the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Team, she provides epidemiologic support and consultation and leads an internal workgroup of scientists on data issues and project planning. She also provides guidance and technical assistance in program evaluation to funded entities.

Before joining the Fetal Alcohol Prevention Team, Ms. Green served as an epidemiologist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta, GA. She maintains strong interests in a variety of areas, including birth defects and developmental disabilities, women’s and children’s health, chronic disease, and health disparities.

Ms. Green received her graduate degree from the University of South Carolina School of Public Health and her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Alicia Kowalchuk, DO

Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Alicia Kowalchuk is an associate professor with Baylor College of Medicine’s (BCM) Department of Family and Community Medicine and Board Certified in both family medicine and addiction medicine. She is medical director of InSight, the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program for the Harris Health System, which is the county-funded healthcare system for the greater Houston area’s more than one million uninsured residents.

Dr. Kowalchuk served as core faculty for the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) SBIRT residency training program, in which she developed and implemented in-person, virtual, and mobile application curricula on SBIRT, as well as addiction medicine topics like pain and addiction. She serves as medical director at Santa Maria Hostel, which provides state-funded residential drug treatment to women and children in the greater Houston community, as well as the Houston Recovery Center, which operates a Sobering Center in partnership with the City of Houston and the Houston Police Department.

In her previous work on the CDC-funded randomized controlled trial of the CHOICES Plus counseling intervention, Dr. Kowalchuk developed a curriculum to inform primary care providers about alcohol exposure pregnancies, the consequences, and prevention. She then facilitated the intervention’s integration into clinic work flows. As core faculty of the CDC-funded Southern States Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Practice and Implementation Centers, she focuses on SBI curricula development.

Her passion is caring for families affected by addiction and educating other healthcare professionals and students about effectively delivering that care.

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Mary DeJoseph, DO

Adjunct Instructor and Program Facilitator, New Jersey/Northeast FASD Education and Research Center Research Advisor, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Mary DeJoseph, DO, works as an adjunct instructor and program facilitator with the New Jersey/Northeast Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Education and Training Center at the Rutgers Center for Alcohol Studies. She is a research advisor at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is licensed in Family Medicine in Pennsylvania. She serves on the New Jersey FASD Task Force and is a contributing author to journals, publications, and book chapters on FASD. She consults with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey and does workshops on a variety of addiction and mental health topics.

Dr. DeJoseph has received an Ambassador Award in the Area of Health Care from the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma and is a member and regional coordinator in the Birth Mother’s Network. She has been awarded a place in the Tom and Linda Daschle FASD Hall of Fame at the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

She received her Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and her undergraduate degree from LaSalle University.

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