Gail Coover, PhD
Phone: (608) 263-3040

Gail Coover, PhD, is an associate faculty associate with the CDH/EXPORT Center. Gail’s research interests include communication, culture, and identity. As the CDH Intercultural Communication Specialist, Gail has developed a seminar series, Intercultural Communication for Health Care at Home and Abroad, to be offered this annually. She is also involved in the development of intercultural communication curriculum and assessment for training healthcare providers at UWSMPH. In addition to teaching university courses on intercultural communication, Gail has worked with a variety of education, health care, and social service organizations on evaluating outcomes of community-based as well as evidence-based prevention and intervention programs.

Sarah L. Esmond, MS
Phone: (608) 263-9401

Sarah Esmond, MS, is the Project Manager for CDH. Sarah provides administrative oversight and lends project management skills to the many initiatives occurring within the Center. She also has a liaison role to the School of Medicine and Public Health administrative offices, supporting Dr. Johnson-Powell in her role as Associate Dean for Cultural Diversity. Prior to joining the Center, Sarah worked in the UW-Madison School of Nursing as the Research Program Manager for the Center for Excellence in Long Term Care.

Patricia Gaffney
Phone: (608) 265-1982

Patricia Gaffney is a Program Assistant with the CDH/EXPORT Center. Pat has extensive experience providing administrative support in a variety of other work settings, and is actively learning more about minority health and health disparities in her role with the CDH.

Rochelle Gutierrez
Phone: (608) 265-5996

Rochelle Gutierrez is the CDH Office Manager. Rochelle joined the CDH in June, 2006 and provides administrative support and leadership in employee training and customer service. She assists Dr. Johnson-Powell and Sarah Esmond with Center operations. Rochelle has worked with Dean Health Insurance, the American Red Cross and also provided administrative support to the City of Madison Mayor’s Office. Rochelle’s skills and expertise include implementing a diversity plan for the Red Cross which focused on addressing the health and safety needs of Hispanic-Latino communities in Dane County.

Peggy Hatfield, MS, PhD
Phone: (608) 261-1939

Peggy Hatfield, MS, PhD, is the Project Manager for the EXPORT Center. Peggy oversees and facilitates the activities occurring in the EXPORT Research, Community Partnerships, and Education and Training cores, including providing support to the interdisciplinary investigator panel, the EXPORT Pilot research project and developing a Culturally Competent Code of Conduct for EXPORT-initiated research projects. Peggy has most recently been a Senior Outreach Specialist in the School of Pharmacy, working with collaborators from the Medical School, the State Bureau of Environmental Health and Dane County Head Start programs to address morbidity related to unintentional home injuries, lead poisoning and asthma.

Susan E. Skochelak, MD, MPH
Phone: (608) 265-6127

Susan Skochelak, MD, MPH, is serving as Principal Investigator and Director of the Training Component of the EXPORT grant. Susan is the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of Medicine and Public Health and a Professor in Family Medicine. She is an expert on medical curriculum and has a major role in the development of new curriculum content areas including cultural diversity, professional ethics, and cultural competence. She is also PI on a new curriculum grant to support integration of behavioral and social sciences content into medical education.

Shannon Sparks, PhD(c)
Phone: (608) 265-2284

Shannon Sparks, PhD, is the Native American Health Researcher with CDH/EXPORT. Ms. Sparks is completing her doctoral degree in cultural and medical anthropology through the University of Arizona. Broadly, her interests include health disparities, maternal and child health, and child care giving. Her dissertation research focuses on kith and kin care giving and health care seeking behavior with young children on the Fort Apache Reservation in east-central Arizona.

Lisa Tiger, PhD(c), OCA
Phone: (608) 265-2005

Lisa Tiger, PhD (c), (Muscogee/Tsalagi), medical anthropologist, is a cancer health disparities researcher with CDH/ICTR. Her doctoral research is on the ways in which families and communities strategize cancer screening and treatment in Native American communities in northeastern Wisconsin.