Who We Are

Director
Thomas M. Becker, MD, PhD
Tel: 503-494-1175
Email: beckert@ohsu.edu

Dr. Becker is a CDC-trained epidemiologist with substantial experience in public health-related research, particularly in special populations. He serves as the Director of the Center for Healthy Communities, Professor and Chairman in the Department of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at OHSU, and an investigator at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board.

By training, Dr. Becker is a medical epidemiologist with interests in both infectious and chronic disease epidemiology, with focused interests in viral carcinogenesis as related to cancers in special populations. He has published extensively on American Indian and Hispanic health issues, and is currently funded to carry out etiologic studies of cervical neoplasia in American Indian and Alaska Native populations. In addition to his training in medicine and public health, Dr. Becker also has a PhD in Anthropology, and his research has been designed to combine his experience in all of these disciplines. At OHSU, he teaches courses in epidemiologic methods and in infectious disease epidemiology.

Associate Director
William Lambert, PhD
Tel: 503-494-9488
Email: lambertw@ohsu.edu

Dr. Lambert is Associate Director for the Center for Healthy Communities and Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at OHSU. Dr. Lambert has served as an environmental epidemiologist on several large cohort studies, including respiratory disease- and cancer-related investigations in the Southwest and in Mexico. In the Northwest, Dr. Lambert works with the Yakama Nation Fisheries Program to evaluate health risks posed to tribal members who eat fish from the Columbia River system that are contaminated with PCBs, organochlorines, and metals.

Program Manager and Evaluator
Tosha Zaback, MPH

Tel: 503-494-1330
Email: zabackt@ohsu.edu

Tosha Zaback is a Program Manager/Evaluator at the Center for Healthy Communities, a CDC-funded Prevention Research Center.  In this role she assists Investigators to implement, manage, and evaluate health intervention and professional development projects within tribal communities.  She works closely with the Center's community partner, the Northwest Portland Indian Health Board on program evaluation and capacity building projects in research training, cancer control and prevention, and injury prevention.  Ms. Zaback has been working in the health care field for over 15 years including clinical care in research and allied health, health care access research, health education, and program management and evaluation of health interventions and professional development projects. Ms. Zaback earned a Master of Public Health in Health Education/Health Promotion from Portland State University. 

Assistant Program Manager;

Spirit of EAGLES, Program Manager
Jessica RB Kennedy, BS
Tel: 503-494-1126
Email: blarjesj@ohsu.edu

Jessica Kennedy graduated from Portland State University with a BS in Public Health Education in 2006. She is a Research Assistant in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and works closely with the PRC’s Center for Healthy Communities as the communications and information system contact, the Native Researchers' Cancer Control Training Program, and manages the Spirit of E.A.G.L.E.S. Community-based Cancer Control program.

Nurturing Healthy & Empowered Youth, (HEY), Program Manager                              
Nichole Hildebrandt, BS
Tel: 503-494-2947
Email: hildebrn@ohsu.edu

Nichole Hildebrandt graduated from Portland State University with a BS in Business Management and Business Marketing. She is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe from Fort Hall, Idaho. Ms. Hildebrandt works within the Department of Public Health & Preventive Medicine and serves as the Program Manager for the HEY project.

Vision Impairment Prevention Project, PI
Steven Mansberger, MD, MPH
Tel: 503-413-6453
Email: smansberger@deverseye.org

Steven L. Mansberger, M.D., M.P.H. is an Associate Scientist and Director of Ophthalmic Clinical Trials for the Devers Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon. He is also the Director of Glaucoma Services at the Veterans Hospital, and holds appointments at Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Clinical Assistant Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Mansberger received his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed an ophthalmology residency at Shiley Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, and a glaucoma fellowship at Devers Eye Institute. He also earned a Masters in Public Health degree (MPH-Biostatistics/Epidemiology) from OHSU.

Dr. Mansberger has research grant support as principal investigator from the National Eye Institute, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Glaucoma Society. He has authored over 40 journal articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He has won numerous awards including a Heed Fellowship, The Robert Watske Ophthalmology Instructor of the Year, American Glaucoma Society Clinician-Scientist award, among others. He is on the Editorial Board for Journal of Glaucoma and American Journal of Ophthalmology, and is an invited reviewer for Archives of Ophthalmology, British Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and Survey of Ophthalmology.

Hearing Loss Prevention Project, PI
William Hal Martin, PhD
Tel: 503-494-7954
Email: martinw@ohsu.edu

Dr. Martin is Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He directs four programs within the Oregon Hearing Research Center: the OHSU Tinnitus Clinic, Tinnitus Research Program, Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring Services and the Dangerous Decibels® Noise Induced Hearing Loss and Tinnitus Prevention Program. Dr. Martin also serves as the Research Scientist in Residence at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Hearing Loss Prevention Project, Program Coordinator
Linda C. Howarth, BA Physiological Psychology

Linda has worked for hearing advocacy for 17 years. She started as the public information specialist then manager for the University of Washington Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center in Seattle. She has been with the Dangerous Decibels program since 2001.