Speaker List and Biographies

Pat Auflick has worked at the University of Arizona since 1987.  In her first position as the Learning Resource System Coordinator for the Arizona Area Health Education Centers at the Rural Health Office, she provided training and health information to health professionals and health professions students.  Since 1999 she has worked at the Arizona Health Sciences Library as the Outreach Services Librarian trying to extend the reach and the services the Library provides to groups such as public libraries, public health practitioners and tribal health providers.  Before coming to Arizona, she worked in the Philippines as the Director of the Library at the University of Northeastern Philippines. She has also worked at Georgetown University Medical Library and for a number of consulting firms in the Washington, DC area setting up health information clearinghouses on diabetes, SIDS, digestive diseases, and cancer.

Salvador Barajas (TBA)

Maya Castillo is a library associate at the Santa Rosa Learning Center, a branch of the Pima County Public Library.  She works toward providing and expanding library and information services to all communities, concentrating on services to the Spanish speaking, children and teens in the southside and downtown communities of Tucson, AZ.  She also serves on the planning committee for Nuestras Raíces Literary Arts Festival.  Maya is public about her struggles with lupus and created a digital story, “What the water gave me,” to share her story and help others give voice to their stories.  “What the water gave me” has been shown in various venues including the BHLife Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA and the Arizona International Film Festival in Tucson.  She is currently serving as REFORMA Tucson’s president for 2007-8 and also sits on the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s grants committee.

Elena Diaz (TBA)

Gale Dutcher is currently the head of the Office of Outreach and Special Populations in the Division of Specialized Services at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. This Division is responsible for the Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program as well as a number of other specialized topics, including HIV/AIDS and minority health issues.  She received a BS degree in biology from Stony Brook University (NY), an MS in zoology from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and an MLS from CW Post College, Long Island University. As the Head of the Office of Outreach and Special Populations, Ms. Dutcher is a leader of the Library’s efforts in information outreach to minority populations with the goal of improving access to information resources and services.  She develops programs and projects that help to increase the capacity of underserved populations to access electronic health resources, develop health literacy, promote awareness of resources and their use, provide training, develop specialized web sites and other electronic resources, and connect users to local libraries that can serve their needs.  The Office of Outreach and Special Populations works with many different partners, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving educational institutions, organizations of minority health professionals, departments of public health, national and local voluntary health organizations, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and tribes and organizations of Native peoples, to achieve these goals.

Richard Elías has been chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors since January 2006. District Five voters elected him in November 2004 to a new four-year term, through 2008. He was appointed to the board in February 2002 to fill the vacancy created when Raúl Grijalva resigned to run for Congress, and won election the remainder of that term in November 2002. Richard’s previous professional career focused on expanding and improving affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people. He worked in both the non-profit and government sectors. A fifth-generation Tucson native whose family roots run deep in Southern Arizona, Richard is a lifelong Democrat, and a former union steward. Richard has a degree in history from the University of Arizona. He is married to Emily Velde Elías and they have a 13-year-old daughter.

Dr. Antonio L. Estrada is a Professor of Public Health and Mexican American Studies, and Director of the Mexican American Studies & Research Center (MASRC) at the University of Arizona. He received his master's and doctorate degrees from UCLA School of Public Health. His primary interests are in Latino health, focusing health promotion and disease prevention within this population. He was the principal investigator of two studies funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), to develop, implement and assess a culturally innovative HIV/AIDS risk reduction program targeting Latino injection drug users and their female sexual partners in Tucson (One To One Program) and Ambos Nogales. He is currently the Co-Principal Investigator for an EXPORT Grant from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities focused on Diabetes and Substance Abuse among Mexican Americans and the Navajo. Dr. Estrada also teaches courses in Latino health and Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities.

Maria Gwen Gallegos is a native Tucsonan and University of Arizona alumna including a masters in nursing.  Gallegos is a Family Nurse Practitioner, Certified Diabetes Educator and specialist in Diabetes Education and Management.  She works with Carondelet Health Network in community outreach and education and partners with Mariposa Community Health Center in Nogales Arizona to provide diabetes management and education through their disease prevention program, Platicamos Salud, a promotora driven outreach program. Gallegos has worked with promatoras in the community for over 10 years. The goal is to empower people to take control of their disease, prevent problems and complications, and work with physicians to promote self management and control.

Dr. Francisco Garcia (TBA)

Donie Gignac has been a librarian with the Pima County Public Library (formerly Tucson-Pima Public Library) for 22 years.  She has been a children’s librarian, unit supervisor and is currently a senior librarian in children’s services.  She was a children’s librarian in Dallas, Texas, for 4 years.  She is responsible for children’s services at the Valencia branch library and for coordinating the Story Town and Día de los Niños programs for PCPL.  She serves as a mentor to new children’s librarians at PCPL.  She is currently co-chair for the 2008 Nuestras Raíces Literary Arts Festival to be held in March 2008.  She co-teaches “Ready to Read/Listos para leer” classes to home daycare providers.   She serves as the REFORMA - Tucson Chapter treasurer and has held all of the other chapter offices. 

Yolanda Herrera (TBA)

Micki McIntyre serves as the HealthyNJ Librarian for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in charge of the day to day running of the consumer health site HealthyNJ.   She has been in that position since December 2000 and has grown the site to approximately 400 topics; more than half of these topics offer Spanish language pages.  HealthyNJ is a complete health information site, containing more than just NJ specific information; to see it, please click on: www.healthynj.org    Micki holds level II certification as a Consumer Health Information Specialist from the Medical Library Association, and has earned graduate degrees in both library and theology. 

Sandy Kramer (TBA)

Annabelle Nuñez is a native of Tucson, AZ. In 2003 she earned an M.A. in library science at the University of Arizona. As an Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) Services Librarian she works to deliver information by providing consultative and instructional programming services for faculty, students, and Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN) clients involved in scholarship, research and clinical services. Her areas of emphasis include working as the liaison to the College of Public Health in the areas of community-campus partnerships, to improve print and electronic resources in the areas of Hispanic, border, cross-cultural, bilingual and culturally appropriate patient/consumer health issues. She developed and manages the Hispanic Health portal website that centralizes special information for students, educators, public health workers and the community. In addition, she promotes AHSL’s outreach efforts by participating in the development of community workshops, forums, conferences, and seminars. 

Cynthia Olney, PhD, is an independent evaluation consultant located in Greensboro, North Carolina, who specializes in planning and evaluation of health information outreach projects, public health projects, and academic health professions programs. She also provides training and consultation to Regional Medical Libraries and their network members through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC). She and Susan Barnes, Assistant Director of the OERC, co-authored the Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach Projects series, available at the OERC Web site (http://nnlm.gov/evaluation/guides.html#A2). At her previous position as evaluation specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, she was the evaluator for the Briscoe Library’s Health Information Hispanic Outreach projects, funded by NLM, with outreach projects involving a health careers high school, a promotora program, and two health clinics. Dr. Olney has a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona.

Karyn Prechtel is the Managing Librarian at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library of the Pima County Public Library system in Tucson, Arizona.  She holds a Masters in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona. Prior to her present position, she served as a consumer health subject specialist, a supervising librarian where she oversaw PCPL’s “Infoline” telephone reference service, and a reference librarian.   She has over 17 years of experience working with customers in the public library setting.

Mary L. Riordan is an Information Services Librarian at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library.  She has extensive experience as a reference librarian and in outreach to consumers/patients, and to Hispanic and American Indian communities, in U.S. government publications, and in rural health.

Dr. Cecilia Rosales (TBA)

Dr. Loriene Roy is Professor in the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin. She is Anishinabe, enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. She was elected to serve as the 2007-2008 President of the American Library Association.

Angela Ruffin has over 17 years of successful experience in coordinating outreach programs for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's National Network Office at the National Library of Medicine.  She has had key roles in many of NLM's major outreach initiatives directed to unaffiliated health professionals, the public health workforce, minority and underserved communities, and the public.  Angela has authored or co-authored several articles on health information outreach.  She has a B.A. from Spelman College, an M.S.L.S. from Clark-Atlanta University, an Ed.M from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Information and Library Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Patricia Tarango is the Chief for the Bureau of Health Systems Development, with the Arizona Department of Health Services.  As Bureau Chief, Patricia oversees and manages an $18 Million operating budget for a variety of statewide programs that focuses on increasing access to care and affordable primary health care for residents of the state of Arizona with an emphasis on uninsured populations.   The Bureau of Health Systems Development also houses the Arizona Health Disparities Center. During her employment with the Arizona Department of Health Services, Patricia has also served as the Office Chief for the Tobacco Education and Prevention Program where she was responsible for statewide tobacco control programs.  With over 20 years of work experience, Patricia has worked with the Arizona Department of Health Services for the past 9 years.  Prior to joining the Arizona Department of Health Services, Patricia was a Clinic Administrator with Maricopa Integrated Health System providing oversight of day to day operations for primary care clinics in the Phoenix Metro Area, providing services to medically underserved populations.  Patricia was born and raised in the small farming community of Stanfield in Pinal County and is proud of being an Arizona native.   Patricia holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the Arizona State University and Master’s degree in Health Administration from the University of St. Francis and currently serves on the Governor’s Latino Leadership Team.  Patricia is also a member of the Arizona Public Health Association, the Arizona Latino Research Enterprise and a member of the 2007 Hispanic Leadership Institute. 

Emma Torres (TBA)