David M. Mannino
David M. Mannino, M.D., is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and is a retired captain with the United States Public Health Service. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Mannino completed his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After finishing the internal medicine residency program at Lankenau Hospital in Philadelphia, he traveled to West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown for a fellowship in pulmonary medicine. He has spent his professional career at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lexington, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He has held academic posts at UK, WVU and Emory University. In addition, he has provided consulting services for the World Health Organization, the Burden Lung Disease Project and the National Lung Health Education Program.
Mannino also has served on numerous boards and committees related to public health and received several honors, including a Meritorious Service Medal for his work with the United States Public Health Service. He and his wife live in Lexington.
L. Creed Pettigrew
L. Creed Pettigrew, M.D., is a tenured professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. He has been the director of the UK Stroke Program since 1995. As a physician-investigator, Pettigrew has devoted his entire professional career to translational research in ischemic or hemorrhagic brain injury. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and a master of public health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.
After residency training in neurology, Dr. Pettigrew completed a two-year research fellowship in cerebrovascular disease (stroke) at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Since joining the faculty at UK in 1989, Pettigrew has competed successfully for a National Institute of Health (NIH) Clinical Investigator Development Award, a merit review grant awarded by the Veterans Administration, and two NIH R01 grants, the latter of which is funded through 2008. He has been a principal contributor to two major clinical trials funded by NIH R01 grants, the Warfarin-Aspirin Recurrent Stroke Study and the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention trial, and has served on the executive committees of both studies.
Pettigrew has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, abstracts and invited reviews, all of which address ischemic or hemorrhagic brain injury. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of the Neurological Sciences and has served as a member of scientific review committees for the NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Veterans Administration and the American Heart Association. Presently, he is serving as the chairperson of the advisory committee for the NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center at the UK Medical Center.
Kristin Ashford
Kristin Ashford serves as an obstetrics education coordinator at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Washburn University in Topeka, a master in nursing from the University of Louisville and doctoral degree from the University of Kentucky. Professionally, Ashford has served as staff nurse (labor and delivery) at Saint John’s Hospital, Springfield, Ill.; divisional charge nurse/staff nurse (labor and delivery) at University of Kentucky Hospital; an obstetrics case manager/women’s health nurse practitioner at UK Hospital/Bluegrass High Risk Obstetrics; and obstetrics coordinator, UK College of Nursing. She holds the following certifications: Kentucky Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, Kentucky Registered Nurse, CPR/Neonatal Resuscitation, NCC National Certification, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrical and Neonatal Nurses, Kentucky Nurses Association, Kentucky Coalition for Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwifes. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, Delta Psi Chapter and serves as the University of Kentucky Hospital ARNP Co-chair (2000-01. She's a member of National Certification Corporation and the Southern Nursing Research Society. In addition, Ashford has received numerous honors and awards and has given numerous public health presentations. Presently, she is conducting research at the University of Kentucky in the field of prenatal passage smoke exposure.
Amy Barkley
Amy Barkley is a member of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids “State Team.” She provides technical assistance and strategic advice on tobacco control policy to advocates in some of the major tobacco producing states - Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina – as well as West Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. Before joining the Campaign in 2000, Amy served as project manager for the statewide tobacco control coalition, Kentucky ACTION. In that role, she helped to direct the legislative, grassroots, media and youth advocacy efforts of the coalition.
Before joining the Kentucky ACTION staff full-time, Amy served as a consultant to the organization providing training and project management for a variety of tobacco control policy initiatives.
Amy also served as the executive director of a Kentucky-based non-profit organization, the Coalition for Health and Agricultural Development (known as CHAD) from 1995 - 2004. CHAD was a leader in establishing a dialogue between tobacco farmers and health advocates statewide and regionally. As a result of this work, Amy and seven other Kentuckians were invited to a roundtable discussion with President Clinton to advise him on tobacco issues. Before moving to Kentucky in 1995, Amy worked in tobacco control in North Carolina, first as a program director for the American Cancer Society in Greensboro, then as a founding member and local coalition coordinator for the ASSIST project.
Amy began her professional career as a reporter, producer and weather anchor, working for five years at several television and radio stations in Virginia. She is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Amy currently lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her 11-year-old son, Davis Barkley.
Cathy Melvin
Cathy Melvin holds a Ph.D. and master of public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked extensively in the field of maternal and child health. She currently serves as an associate professor at the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Maternal and Child Health in the school of public health. In addition, she has been a research fellow and director of Child Health Services at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC; served as the director for Smoke-Free Families, National Dissemination Office, UNC; served as senior scientist, division of reproductive health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; worked in the program services and development branch, division of reproductive health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC; was chief for program implementation and clinic management unit in the program services and development branch, division of reproductive health at CDC; and worked as assistant deputy commissioner for health services, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in Columbia. In addition, she has worked at the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the Department of Health and Environmental Control in South Carolina and served as a private consultant with Custom Microcomputer Systems. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications and has been the recipient of several awards.
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