Teleconference 3:
Integrating Cessation with Smoke-Free Policy Implementation
June 11, 2008 - 12 p.m. PST / 3 p.m. EST

Bruce Adkins is the current Director for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health's Division of Tobacco Prevention since 2001. His other experience includes his consulting work through West Virginia Healthcare, 18 years as a Surgical Physician Assistant, and several years as an Associate Instructor for the PA program at the College of West Virginia in Beckley. Mr. Adkins is a recognized as a specialist in tobacco control administration and leadership at the national level as evidenced by his service as Chair of the Tobacco Control Network (October, 2007 thru March, 2009), and service on the National Network on Tobacco Prevention and Poverty.

Mr. Adkins holds an M.S. in Human Resource and Health Management from University of Charleston, Charleston, WV and a BS in Medical Science from Alderson Broaddus College, Philippi, West Virginia.

Dawn Berkowitz is the current Chief of the Division of Federal and Special Tobacco Control Initiatives for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where she has worked with the tobacco control program for the past ten years. During her tenure there she provided guidance in 1999 and 2000 to the Governor's Task Force to End Smoking in Maryland which formed the legislative and programmatic framework for Master Settlement Agreement dollars coming into Maryland and worked to form the current structure of Maryland's resulting tobacco control program.

In addition to other statewide tobacco control initiatives, Ms. Berkowitz has overseen the Maryland Tobacco Quitline since its inception and served as a reviewer for the 2004 CDC Telephone Quitlines: A Resource for Development, Implementation, and Evaluation Guide prior to publication. She holds a Master's degree in Public Health from Tulane University.

Julie Doetsch is the Tobacco Program Manager for the Illinois Department of Public Health. She is responsible for overseeing the statewide tobacco prevention and control program including facilitating implementation of the Smoke-free Illinois Act. Prior to becoming the Tobacco Program Manager, Julie was the Surveillance and Evaluation Manager for the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control at IDPH. Prior to joining the state health department, Julie's work experience included program development and grant writing at a local health department in Illinois and conducting HIV/AIDS research in a community-based organization in Chicago. Ms. Doetsch received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Lake Forest College, and a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University.

Randi Lachter is currently the Manager of Policy Initiatives for the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC), a nonprofit organization that strives to promote evidence based quitline services across diverse communities in North America. Randi oversees two projects for NAQC: 1) Building Consensus: National Quitline Promotions focused on identifying opportunities to coordinate and influence national promotion efforts that use 1-800-QUIT-NOW and 2) Maximizing the Cessation Benefit from Policy Changes focused on linking quitlines and other tobacco control policy efforts by promoting quitlines during the implementation of smokefree laws or tobacco tax increases.

Randi holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Minnesota. Her public health work has focused on reducing teenage alcohol use, tobacco policy and tobacco cessation. From 2002 to 2006, Ms. Lachter managed the QUITPLAN Helpline (Minnesota's statewide quitline) contract for ClearWay MN which included implementing free NRT in 2003 and transitioning vendors in 2005. Randi also managed the quitplan.com website in cooperation with QuitNet, Inc. and was instrumental in launching the QUITPLAN Services triage center to help Minnesota tobacco users connect with the cessation option best suited for their needs. Before joining ClearWay, Randi conducted product development research for the Hazelden Foundation and UnitedHealth Group.

Todd Phillips is the Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at the Academy for Educational Development (AED). For the past 15 years Mr. Phillips has specialized in health-related communications and marketing. Mr. Phillips leads AED's health literacy and tobacco cessation practice areas where he works with a variety of government, foundation and private sector clients. Mr. Phillips manages the activities of the Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (YTCC) and the National Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (NTCC). One of the primary projects for the NTCC focuses on "Building Consumer Demand for Tobacco Cessation. For the YTCC, Mr. Phillips developed an American Journal of Public Health supplement focused on tobacco cessation among young adults aged 18-24.

From 2000-2004, Mr. Phillips provided technical assistance to state-level tobacco control programs in designing and implementing media campaigns. As part of this effort, he managed the development of "Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Control Counter-Marketing Campaign," which covers every phase of counter-marketing from planning and evaluating campaigns to implementing advertising, public relations, media advocacy, grassroots marketing and media literacy efforts. Mr. Phillips also developed a 5-day training curriculum based on the manual.

Previously Mr. Phillips worked at public relations agency Porter Novelli, where he managed stakeholder relations for the American Legacy Foundation during the first year of the national "truth" campaign. At Cygnus Corporation, Mr. Phillips managed a contract with CDC's Office on Smoking or Health where he developed, implemented and operated the Media Campaign Resource Center for Tobacco Control.

Mr. Phillips has a Master's Degree in Advertising from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland.