Preparedness Initiatives: Region 3 Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response
Preparedness Initiatives

Region 3 Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (CHS) and the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) lead the Regional Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 3, which includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.  

This work is part of a national initiative to enhance public health preparedness and response (PHPR) capabilities across the United States. The 10 Regional Centers will form a network to enhance communities’ ability to prepare for and respond to public health threats by advancing the uptake of evidence-based strategies and interventions.  

The Region 3 PHPR Center will organize its work using a framework developed through a collaborative effort with regional stakeholders and will focus on 1) Communication and Community Engagement; 2) Coordination Across Agencies, Community Organizations, and Systems; and 3) Workforce Recruitment, Retention, and Competencies Growth. Each focus area will interweave a foundational component of Social Equity, Vulnerability, and Determinants of Health. Outcomes from this work will result in building agency capabilities and/or growing community resilience, and work will occur across all hazards. This framework also serves as a foundation for sustainable communities of practice that will be developed through the work of the Center to support collaborative approaches to PHPR in Region 3.

Region 3 PHPR Center Focus Areas and Priorities

Figure 1: Region 3 PHPR Center Focus Areas and Priorities

For more information, please visit Regional Centers for Public Health Preparedness and Response.

Team

Project team leads: Tara Kirk Sell, PhD, MA; Crystal Watson, DrPH, MPH; J. Lee Jenkins, MD, MS, FACEP

Project team: Jonathan Links, PhD; Gabor Kelen, MD, FACEP; Eric Toner, MD; Tener Goodwin Veenema, PhD, MPH, MS, RN, FAAN; Aishwarya Nagar, MPH; Vanessa Grégoire, MSc; Madi Neufeld, MPS; May Han, MSPH

Project partners:

  • James Kendra, Director, University of Delaware Disaster Research Center
  • Jennifer Horney, Professor and Founding Director of the program in Epidemiology, University of Delaware and University of Delaware Disaster Research Center
  • Cynthia Baur, Director, Horowitz Center for Health Literacy at the University of Maryland 
  • Cathy Slemp, MD, MPH, former health commissioner of West Virginia

Supported by: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Readiness and Response (ORR) Division of Readiness and Response Science (DRRS) CDC awarded a total of $9,054,230 across 10 institutions (one in each HHS region) for the first year of the 5-year cooperative agreement, subject to available funding.

Steering Committee (listed alphabetically):

  • Jillian Austin, BS, AAS, Director, Office of Preparedness, Delaware Department of Health and Social Services/ Division of Public Health
  • Sara Barra, MS, CPM, CBCP, Director, Office of Preparedness and Response, Maryland Department of Health
  • Gail Carter Hamilton, MSN, RN, CSN, Chief Racial Equity Officer, Philadelphia Department of Public Health
  • The Rev. Phillip Huber, Chair, Maryland VOAD
  • Jonathan (Sam) Hurley, MPH, EMPS, NRP, Senior Deputy Director, Health Systems and Preparedness Administration, DC Health
  • Michael Kilkenny, MD, MS, Chief Executive Officer and Health Officer for Cabell-Huntington Health Department
  • Col. Robert J. Kincaid, Director, Office of Threat Preparedness, West Virginia Department of Health
  • James Moss, State Hospital Coordinator, Office of Emergency Preparedness, Virginia Department of Health
  • Andrew Pickett, MS, Director, Bureau of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Pennsylvania Department of Health
     

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