It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Donna Biederman as the acting director of the Community Health Improvement Program (CHIP) effective July 1, 2017 for a two-year term through June 30, 2019.  In this role she will provide strategic, administrative and operational support, and oversee the successful development and execution of the School’s community health improvement initiatives and collaborations. The CHI Program is organizationally a part of OGACHI. As you know this program is an operationalization of several goals in the DUSON strategic plan.

Dr. Biederman earned a BSN from the University of Washington, Tacoma in 2004, a MSN in Communities, Populations, and Health from University of Washington, Tacoma in 2006, and a Doctorate in Public Health with a focus on Community Health Education from University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 2012.  She joined the faculty of DUSON in 2013; and was promoted to associate professor, Track II in March 2017

Dr. Biederman's work focuses on an important social determinant of health — secure housing. She collaborates closely with nurses in practice in community health and in community agencies (e.g, Durham CONNECT).  She and colleagues were selected from a competitive pool by the University of Minnesota (supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) as one of 15 teams to join the National Interdisciplinary Leaders program. The group will collaborate with other researchers and community leaders to solve challenges and advance a culture of health.

Dr. Biederman has received competitive internal and external Hillman Foundation funding for her work with medically complex patients who are homeless; has received over $600,000 in funding as co-PI and serves as a co-investigator on other externally funded projects. She is a manuscript reviewer for six journals in nursing and public health.  Her grants and manuscripts build on Dr. Biederman’s clinical expertise and career long commitment to improving the access of homeless individuals to adequate health care.

Dr. Biederman’s leadership roles in the school include being a strategy lead for the ‘Improving the Health of the Community”. She has also served for over a year as the DUSON representative on the Chancellor’s Strategic Planning Committee –Community It is Health Improvement, as well as the Johnson & Johnson Leadership Academy, and on a variety of local and national task forces and committees.

Marion E. Broome, PhD, RN, FAAN Dean and Ruby Wilson Professor of Nursing, Duke University School of Nursing Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs, Duke University Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for Nursing, Duke University Health System