Caryl Heard, Meredith Parents Network

Caryl Heard is with Meredith Corporation, the nation’s leading media and marketing company serving women.  Meredith is home to some of the biggest and best known brands in the country: American Baby, Parents, Family Circle, Better Homes & Gardens.

Caryl’s team at Meredith, The Parents Network Custom Media, is dedicated to connecting marketers with young families in meaningful ways.  The custom group creates original communication programs designed to resonate with young families today.  As a long-standing member of the NWA Business Council, Meredith is proud to create educational programs for the WIC audience. 

Caryl is the Director of Business Development and has been with Meredith for 5 years.  She has been in the publishing business for over 20 years.  Originally from the Midwest, she lives with her family in Hoboken, NJ.  She’s mom to a 14 year old die-hard Yankee fan.

Mike Whaley, CA; Patsy Leisering, OK

Mike Whaley, IT Director           Public Health Foundation - WIC Program      Mike is the IT Director at PHFE WIC.  They have over 60 locations in the Los Angeles area and over 700 employees with a complex network including over 40 servers.  PHFE supports several applications for the state of California and many research projects.  Mike's background in IT and Securty ranges from working on the Northrop Stealth Bomber at a top secret facility to supporting California's breastfeeding peer counselor support application. 

Presented by: Melinda Newport, SPIRIT Consortium; Janet Moran, Mountain Plains States’ Consortium; Alice

Patrick Henry, VT; Graduated from the University of Buffalo with a Masters in Statistics and from the State University of New York at Oswego with a Bachelors degree in Mathematics. I have worked for the State of Vermont for 6 years as both a Fiscal Analyst and Data Analyst.

Debra Thingstad Boe has worked for Dakota County Public Health for 21 years and been the WIC Coordinator for 10 years.  She holds a baccalaureate degree in nursing and a master of public health degree in public health management and policy from the University of Minnesota.  She recently had an article, Improving Service Delivery in a County Health Department WIC Clinic: An application of Statistical Process Control Techniques, published in the American Journal of Public Health.  Debra is a member of the Minnesota State WIC Advisory committee and the NWA Technology Committee.  Dakota County WIC, known for quality and innovation, is the third largest program in Minnesota 

Mike Whaley, CA  Mike is the IT Director at PHFE WIC.  They have over 60 locations in the Los Angeles area and over 700 employees with a complex network including over 40 servers.  PHFE supports several applications for the state of California and many research projects.  Mike's background in IT and Securty ranges from working on the Northrop Stealth Bomber at a top secret facility to supporting California's breastfeeding peer counselor support application.

 Joy Endres is the Deputy Director of Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services.  Joy served as Co-Chair of the SPIRIT (Successful Partners in Reaching Innovative Technology) Consortium since it's inception in 2002. Joy has served as the first point of contact for new states seeking information in conducting their feasibility studies, requesting access to the Spirit Demonstration Site (Spirit Playground), and scheduling state to state visits to Chickasaw Nation.  Joy holds a Bachelors degree in Nutritional Science, and a Master's degree in Public Health Administration and Policy. She has 12 years experience administering Food and Nutrition Programs at the State level.

Judy Powell, AR  Judy graduated from the Unversity of Arkansas with a Bachelors in Health Science.  She is currently completing her masters in Public Administration.  Judy has worked for the Arkansas Department of Health for the past 27 years.  She has worked with WIC many of those years, in the local units, regional offices, and the state office.  Judy has served as the Arkansas WIC Vendor Manager and is now the MIS Section Manager.

Mark Davis, MO Mark is the Missouri WIC Data Systems Manager. He has been in this position for four years. He has a masters degree in computer resources and information management from Webster University in Saint Louis, MO.

Joan Bowsher, MT  Education:  Bachelor of Science Degree in Food and Nutrition from Mankato State University.  Montana State WIC Director for the past 3 and a haft years.  23 years with Lewis and Clark County in a variety of positions including WIC Director, Environmental Health Division Administrator, and Health Officer.  In the past have also worked  for the retail food industry and a private non-profit.  Professional Interests:  Local and State Public Health  Issues.

Greg Schueman is a Principal Consultant with Keane, Inc. He is the project manager for the implementation
of the SPIRIT SAM WIC information system in the State of Maine. He has 20 years of Information
Technology experience having manages global systems implementations across both the government and
commercial sectors. He holds both a BS and MS in Computer Science, an MBA in Finance and is PMP
certified as a project manager. In addition, he also holds a copyright for a software package and maintains
professional memberships in the PMI, ACM and IEEE .

Carol Rowe, MN  Carol has managed WIC information systems for the past 10 years at the Minnesota Department of Health.
Carol is a RD with a M.S. in Human Nutrition and Management with 25 years experience administering
Food and Nutrition Programs at the State level.

Chris Harr, PA; Loren Bell, Atrium Institute

Loren Bell, B.A.
Institute Fellow and Director for Food Assistance and Nutrition
Loren Bell is a nationally known expert in food assistance and nutrition education program policy and program operations. He has more than 26 years experience working with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) at the State and national levels. Under Mr. Bell's leadership, Altarum has emerged as a leading provider of technical assistance and evaluation services in the area of food assistance, nutrition education programs, and assessment of social and health service delivery systems. He has managed a number of projects, including two studies of how the new WIC food package is being implemented, two studies examination of the food purchasing patterns of WIC clients, five SNAP nutrition education technical assistance and evaluation projects, two national studies of WIC vendor management practices, a needs assessment of adolescents participating in the WIC program, and a national study of how States have re-engineered their Food Stamp Programs as a result of welfare reform. In addition, Mr. Bell has managed a number of technical assistance efforts, including projects to help States revise how local WIC agencies are funded, conducting assessments for States developing participant-centered nutrition education in their WIC programs, and assisting states with using program data for improved program management. Mr. Bell also directed an effort for USDA to examine the link between obesity, poverty, and participation in food assistance programs.
For 11 years, Mr. Bell directed the Washington State WIC Program. He received three national awards from the USDA for this work. Mr. Bell also held senior management positions in the California Department of Health. He holds a bachelor's degree in communications and undertook graduate studies in business and organizational communications at California State University, Fullerton.
 

Deanne Torres, NM  Deanna Torres has worked for the New Mexico WIC Program for 22 years. She has worked as a local Nutritionist, State Nutrition Coordinator, Deputy WIC Director , and has served as WIC Director for one year. She has been involved with New Mexico WIC EBT implementation for the past 10 years.  Deanna has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition and a Master's Degree in Public Administration.
 

Stan Bien began his career with the State Michigan – Department of Community Health (MDCH) in 1977. He has worked with a variety of diverse health programs - while coordinating various grants, finance, systems and operations related positions. He has over 20 + years related experience to the WIC Program.  
Currently, Stan is serving as the Michigan WIC Director and the overall project manager for several key activities within the MDCH – Bureau of Family, Maternal & Child Health. 
In his previous position, as the Director of WIC Vendor Management & Operations (referred to as VMO ) – this section is responsible for the 8th largest WIC Food Delivery System in the country, previously internally processing/reconciling over $147 million in WIC food benefits for over 243,000 clients using 10 million WIC coupons, plus the authorization, management, and related compliance activity for over 2,000 WIC vendors statewide. Michigan WIC is the first in the country to successful pilot and rollout statewide WIC online Electronic Benefits Transfer (referred to as EBT) using a magstripe card instead of paper for WIC benefits, which is being evaluated for expansion. Michigan continues to use technology to improve services and increase efficiency (ie: Nutrition Education via the internet, new MI-WIC web-based system, online interface with Medicaid, GIS for VMO). 
Stan received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Economics from Ferris State University and his Masters in Public Administration from Western Michigan University. He also completed a Public Health Leadership Program via the Michigan Public Health Institute and is a current and previous committee member of the National WIC Association. Stan and his wife Jeannie of 30 years reside in the Lansing area

Sara Sloan is a Nutrition Consultant with the Oregon State WIC program. She serves as the state's Nutrition Education Coordinator and oversees participant education and the annual local agency nutrition education plan. She is also a member of the state's training team and provides monitoring, oversight and technical assistance to local agencies. Sara has been actively involved in the development and rollout of WIC's participant centered education initiative, Oregon WIC Listens.

Kendra Sticka  Kendra is currently an Assistant Professor in Dietetics & Nutrition at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She received her bachelor's in nutrition from Montana State University, her Master's in nutrition from Central Michigan University and recently completed her Master's in Adult Education with an emphasis on e-Learning at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has been involved in e-Learning for about 10 years as both a student and instructor. For the past 5 years she has worked through the University of Alaska Anchorage to develop and deliver online training for WIC program staff, particularly paraprofessional staff.

 Kay Klumpyan joins us here from Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and is currently working on a Master in Public Health. She has been with the Nevada State WIC Program for nearly 3 years. One of her first projects with Nevada State WIC was determine how to bring the WIC training Program on-line. She is here today to tell us about the process that Nevada went through to established an e-Learning format to train WIC clinic staff in Nevada.
 

Erin McBride, USDA--

Erin is an Information Technology Specialist in the Food and Nutrition Service WIC WIC National Office. He is responsible for WIC Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) systems.   Erin’s primary roles are to provide EBT project technical guidance, WIC EBT technical standards development, and State agency EBT implementation and policy.  Prior to working with the WIC program, Erin supported SNAP EBT, Commodity distribution and Information Technology.   He has a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science.

Johnny Sena, KY  Mr. Sena has over 13 years of experience with WIC EBT.  Mr. Sena started working with Stored Value Systems (SVS) in April of 1996.  At that time, SVS had a WIC EBT off-line system in pilot with the State of Wyoming.  Mr. Sena helped enhance the SVS WIC EBT system for the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) Health Passport Project.  The SVS WIC EBT was eventually deployed statewide in Wyoming and to most of Nevada.  At SVS in 2003-2005, Mr. Sena played a lead role in the development of an online WIC EBT system.  This system was a proof of concept commissioned by the FNS and was deployed in a demonstration project in Tacoma, Washington during 2005.  Since July 2007, Mr. Sena is an independent contractor and is assisting Custom Data Processing (CDP) with the development of an online WIC EBT system for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  The system is currently in pilot.  Every WIC EBT system has included an interface between the WIC EBT and the WIC MIS. 

Jerry Owens  Project Manager for Chickasaw Nation IT and WIC EBT Project. MIS degree from University of Oklahoma and MBA from Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Kim Word is the Data Team Lead for the State of Oregon WIC Program. She is the business manager for the Oregon WIC data system and project manager for program-wide initiatives such as the conversion to the new WIC food packages. Kim has been with the Oregon WIC Program for 2 years and has over 10 years of health and technology experience. She holds a Masters of Public Health degree from UCLA.

Billy Noll  Mr. Noll has three decades of IT experience and is currently serving as a Network Analyst for two clients, a State and Federal Agency; each client is a multi-billion dollar enterprise -- one of which is Texas Health and Human Services Commission.  Billy’s experience includes six years with Texas WIC.  He helped transition from analog modems to Satellite VSAT (circa 1999 – 2003); and away from costly travel-intensive training.  Today advanced training delivery garners million dollar savings via multicast full-motion Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) with quantity and quality improvements.  Current focus is helping upgrade present VSAT only infrastructure to a hybrid network consisting of cellular 3G+, terrestrial, MPLS and WAN optimization as well as Satellite VSAT technologies.  Previous clients include The Boeing Company, Air Force, Navy, DoD, AT&T, Nuclear facilities, Utilities, Non-Profits, Federal and State Government agencies, and various Test Facilities.  Billy has a Top Secret SCI clearance, a M.S. and B.S. in Computer and Information Science.  He is MCSE+I and CNE certified and currently pursuing security and multiple Cisco Industry certifications.

Erin McBride, USDA

Erin is an Information Technology Specialist in the Food and Nutrition Service WIC WIC National Office. He is responsible for WIC Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) systems.   Erin’s primary roles are to provide EBT project technical guidance, WIC EBT technical standards development, and State agency EBT implementation and policy.  Prior to working with the WIC program, Erin supported SNAP EBT, Commodity distribution and Information Technology.   He has a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science.no bio on file

Jim Chilcoat  20 years of experience in Information Systems, five years with the Kentucky WIC Program and currently working for CDP, Custom Data Processing, Inc. in Frankfort Kentucky. Project Manager for Kentucky WIC's UPC Database development along with heading up CDP's Retailer Relations for Kentucky WIC's online WIC EBT Effort.

Susan Tweedy  20 years of experience in Information Systems, five years with the Kentucky WIC Program and currently working for CDP, Custom Data Processing, Inc. in Frankfort Kentucky. Project Manager for Kentucky WIC's UPC Database development along with heading up CDP's Retailer Relations for Kentucky WIC's online WIC EBT Effort.

 Deborah Morgan  Debbie has worked for Maryland WIC for 18 years and is currently chief of Information Technology Management.  She was the Project Manager for the WOW System Development project, the VI WOW Transfer project and is the contract manager for all WOW system maintenance, support and enhancement activities.

Joy Endres is the Deputy Director of Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services.  Joy has served as Co-Chair of the SPIRIT (Successful Partners in Reaching Innovative Technology) Consortium since it's inception in 2002. The SPIRIT consortium is comprised of 13 WIC State Agencies in the Southwest Region located in New Mexico and Oklahoma. These 13 State Agencies partnered to develop the first State Agency Model WIC Automation System. In 2007, Chickasaw Nation began hosting a centralized data center on behalf of the 12 other Spirit State Agencies.  Joy holds a Bachelors degree in Nutritional Science, and a Master's degree in Public Health Administration and Policy. She has 12 years experience administering Food and Nutrition Programs at the State level.

Erin McBride  USDA

Erin is an Information Technology Specialist in the Food and Nutrition Service WIC WIC National Office. He is responsible for WIC Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) systems.   Erin’s primary roles are to provide EBT project technical guidance, WIC EBT technical standards development, and State agency EBT implementation and policy.  Prior to working with the WIC program, Erin supported SNAP EBT, Commodity distribution and Information Technology.   He has a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science.

Patty Davis, R.D. 
Education: Graduated magna cum laude from Northeast Louisiana University
Dietetic Internship - Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
Registered Dietitian - since 1978          Work Experience: Was in the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer for almost 12 years and served in a variety of assignments, both in clinical and administrative dietetic positions in hospital settings. After leaving the Army, joined a private consulting group and worked as a technical advisor and instructor for hospital food service data systems. Have worked for USDA since 1989, starting as the staff person responsible for the funding formula and allocation of WIC funds and then as the Team Leader for the Funding and Reporting Section. Currently serve as the Branch Chief for the Program Analysis and Monitoring Branch in the Supplemental Food Programs Division. Responsibilities include funding and financial policy, allocation of WIC funds, reporting systems, infrastructure grants, rebate systems, vendor monitoring and analysis, management evaluations, EBT and State MIS systems oversight.
 

Mike Montgomery has more than 30 years experience with WIC, having served across the spectrum of management and administration in positions at the federal, state, and local level. He came to the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) in 1996 to serve as the leader of the Texas WIC project development team for the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) project.  After successfully building the foundation for the EBT project, in 1997 he became the Chief of the Bureau of Nutrition Services, with oversight for the WIC, Farmers’ Market, Public Health Nutrition, and EBT Programs.   In 1999, Mr. Montgomery was asked to lead the DSHS Children’s Health Bureau until his return to Nutrition Services in 2001.  As the Children’s Health Chief, he managed the Early Periodic Screening and Diagnostic Testing (EPSDT) and the Children with Special Health Care Needs Programs, as well as the state Dental, Newborn Genetic Screening, and the School Health and Adolescent Health Programs.   Currently he is the DSHS Director of the Nutrition Services Section (formerly the Bureau of Nutrition Services).  Before coming to DSHS, Mr. Montgomery was a management consultant with the City of Dallas Department of Environmental and Health and Human Services local WIC Program.  Prior to that he served 22 years with the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service as Regional WIC Director for the Southwest Region for five years and as Deputy Regional Administrator for 12 years with 1 ½ of those years serving as the Acting Regional Administrator.  Mr. Montgomery holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York with majors in Sociology and Psychology

Stan Bien began his career with the State Michigan – Department of Community Health (MDCH) in 1977. He has worked with a variety of diverse health programs - while coordinating various grants, finance, systems and operations related positions. He has over 20 + years related experience to the WIC Program.
Currently, Stan is serving as the Michigan WIC Director and the overall project manager for several key activities within the MDCH – Bureau of Family, Maternal & Child Health.
In his previous position, as the Director of WIC Vendor Management & Operations (referred to as VMO ) – this section is responsible for the 8th largest WIC Food Delivery System in the country, previously internally processing/reconciling over $147 million in WIC food benefits for over 243,000 clients using 10 million WIC coupons, plus the authorization, management, and related compliance activity for over 2,000 WIC vendors statewide. Michigan WIC is the first in the country to successful pilot and rollout statewide WIC online Electronic Benefits Transfer (referred to as EBT) using a magstripe card instead of paper for WIC benefits, which is being evaluated for expansion. Michigan continues to use technology to improve services and increase efficiency (ie: Nutrition Education via the internet, new MI-WIC web-based system, online interface with Medicaid, GIS for VMO).
Stan received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Economics from Ferris State University and his Masters in Public Administration from Western Michigan University. He also completed a Public Health Leadership Program via the Michigan Public Health Institute and is a current and previous committee member of the National WIC Association. Stan and his wife Jeannie of 30 years reside in the Lansing area
 

 Janet Moran has worked with the Wyoming WIC Program in various capacities at the state level for the past 27 years and has been the WIC Program Director for Wyoming since 1996.  She is a member of the Executive Steering Committee for the Mountain Plains States Consortium (MPSC) and has been actively involved with the design and development of the State Agency Model (SAM) system for Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah and the development and implementation of a new EBT system for Wyoming based upon the New Mexico/Texas model. Janet is a Registered Dietitian and holds a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and a Bachelor’s degree in Community Nutrition from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  In addition to being the current Vice-President of the National WIC Association, she is a member of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the Wyoming Dietetic Association (WDA), the Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors (ASTPHND), and the Wyoming Public Health Association (WPHA).

Fran Hawkins has worked with the Kentucky WIC Program at the state level since 1980. She has been the worked in various supervisory capacities since 1981. She has been the Branch Manager for Nutrition Services since 1996. She was instrumental in the design of the first automated system for the state of Kentucky and has been involved in the development and implementation of  the online integrated EBT pilot for Kentucky. Fran is a Registered Dietitian and holds a Masters in dietetics from the University of Kentucky.

Closing General Session, Pacific Salon