Planning Committee Alumni Members

Sophie J. Balk, MD, MPH, FAAP, Advisor.
Dr. Balk is a board-certified general pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. Dr. Balk is the former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health and has significant experience in planning conferences on pediatric environmental health for the pediatric community. Dr. Balk participated in curriculum and materials development.

Alison Freeman, MA, Project Officer/Advisor.
Ms. Freeman has worked in indoor environment health with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for more than 10 years. She is a key member of the EPA Environmental Tobacco Smoke team and is one of the original members of that team. Ms. Freeman has worked in tobacco control for five years and was a member of the Planning Committee of several National Tobacco or Health Conferences, during which she ran major ancillary sessions, workshops, and trainings. Ms. Freeman is the EPA Project Officer/Coordinator for the CDC Inter-Agency Agreement, with the Office of Smoking and Health.

Rita Goodman, MS, RNC, FNP, Advisor.
Until June 1, 2005, Ms. Goodman was the Chief Nurse in the Division of Clinical Quality, Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She was the HRSA/BPHC lead for prevention and asthma activities, including the Health Disparity Collaboratives focusing on asthma and prevention. Ms. Goodman served as a liaison to national prevention programs and advised on implementation of preventive services, particularly in HRSA supported Health Centers.

Betsey Siska, Liaison.
Ms. Siska is currently the Manager of Chapter Relations in the Division of Chapter and District Relations at the American Academy of Pediatrics. In this role she provides consultative and administrative services to the Academy's 66 chapters. Ms. Siska also served as the main liaison between the national AAP office, individual chapters, and the Smoke Free Homes project.

Michael Weitzman, MD, FAAP, Advisor.
Dr. Weitzman is a former Professor and Associate Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the former Executive Director of the AAP Center for Child Health Research. He is an accomplished child health researcher who has conducted research and written many seminal articles on the effects of prenatal and passive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke on children's health, behavior, and school functioning. Dr. Weitzman is uniquely positioned at local, regional and national levels to make secondhand smoke exposure one of the most prominent child health issues, as he has become a well-respected champion for child and adolescent secondhand smoke exposure reduction.

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