Trainer Bios

Russell Kirby, PhD, MS, FACE is a professor at the Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Kirby is a perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist trained in the social sciences, with a doctorate in human geography (Wisconsin, 1981) and MS in preventive medicine-epidemiology (Wisconsin, 1991). He has conducted numerous studies examining the public health implications of health policies and programs, with special reference to perinatal and maternal/child health. He has also developed a concept of population health informatics, and begun to explore its ramifications as a platform for population health practice, focusing on database design, quality of databases and data elements in existing population-based information systems, and the role of geographic information systems — all also with special reference to maternal and child health.

Ravi K. Sharma, PhD is Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. His research is directed at understanding the community/neighborhood and environmental determinants of health and illness focusing on the underlying socioeconomic & physical mechanisms in the USA as well as globally. In particular, his research has focused on how neighborhood level factors in conjunction with individual level variables explain spatial variations in adverse reproductive health outcomes. He uses GIS, spatial data analysis and multilevel models in his research.

Dianne Enright is a GIS Analyst at the State Center for Health Statistics in North Carolina and became manager of the Spatial Analysis Unit in 2002. She is involved in statewide GIS activities and serves as Chair of the State Government Users Committee and a representative to the North Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council.

Zi Zhang, MPH, MB is the Director of the Health Survey Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health & Family Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine.