About Us

Aaron M. Kipp, PhD, MSPH

Dr. Kipp is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. He is an infectious disease and social epidemiologist with research interests in psychosocial factors that affect outcomes in people with HIV, TB, or opioid use disorder. He also has experience assisting with West Nile Virus surveillance while working at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2001-2003. He has extensive experience in survey design and administration, participant recruitment, and data analysis. He oversaw all aspects of the project, specifically leading the survey data collection and statistical analyses components.

C. Suzanne Lea, PhD, MPH

Dr. Lea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. She has designed and implemented cancer and infectious disease studies in urban and rural areas in English and Spanish, focusing on environmental factors, health disparities, and the use of technology. She has previous experience working for state and local health departments to manage field investigations involving anthrax, influenza, SARS, and food borne disease. Dr. Lea assisted with participant recruitment and specimen collection and testing.

Greg Kearney, DrPH, MPH

Dr. Kearney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. His research interests include environmental and occupational asthma, climate change and public health, exposure assessment among farmers & Latino farmworkers, environmental epidemiology, and public health surveillance. Dr. Kearney has work in environmental public health at the local, state and federal levels of government. He assisted with survey implementation.

Kristina Simeonsson, MD, MSPH

Dr. Simeonsson is an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Her areas of interest include vaccine-preventable diseases, preparedness and the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Dr. Simeonsson previously worked as a medical epidemiologist with the NC Department of Health and Human Services from 2003–2007 focusing on surveillance, control, and prevention of communicable diseases and pandemic influenza planning. Dr. Simeonsson provided clinical expertise for the study, including infection control for specimen collection at the clinic field site.

William Irish, Ph.D., MSc

Dr. Irish is the Vice Chair for Research and a Research Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. He is involved in both observational and clinical research in the Department, specializing in in health outcomes research, statistical modeling and prediction, clinical trial methodology and large-scale database and claims analysis. Dr. Irish assisted with sampling design and statistical analysis.

Charleen McNeill, Ph.D., MSN, RN

Dr. McNeill is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. Her research involves community health issues to include emergency preparedness, substance abuse, and health literacy.  Her emergency preparedness research focuses on response measures inclusive of individuals and populations with access and functional needs, placement of medical response measures after an emergency, and methods to improve response measures among health care professionals and preparedness levels among vulnerable citizens.  Her publications include treatment guidelines for infectious diseases like Ebola and Listeria. Dr. McNeill provided clinical expertise for the study, including infection control for specimen collection, and logistics/contingency planning at the clinic field site.

She has since left ECU to pursue leadership opportunities at another academic institution.

John Silvernail, MD, MPH

Dr. Silvernail was the Health Director of the Pitt County Health Department during COVID-19 pandemic, but has since stepped down from that position. He was also a Clinical Associate Professor and an Occupational Health Physician at Vidant Medical Center.

Amy Hattem, MAEd

Amy Hattem was the Deputy Director and the Director of Health Education and Public Information for Pitt County Health Department during the COVID-19 pandemic.  She has worked as a Public Health Educator for 34 years and has implemented numerous evidence based interventions within local communities designed to improve health among all ages.  In her role at the health department she managed a dedicated team of public health professionals who are responsible for working within Pitt County and throughout Eastern North Carolina in the areas of maternal and child health, adolescent pregnancy prevention, emergency preparedness, communicable disease prevention, chronic disease prevention and employee / worksite wellness. She also coordinated the Agency’s Community Health Needs Assessment and serves as the local health department Agency Accreditation Coordinator.

Ms. Hattem has since stepped down from this position.