Technical Assistance Providers

The Region IV Public Health Training Center works with two Technical Assistance Providers (TAPs) to fulfill its mission. The TAPs provide technical assistance in the areas of needs assessment/evaluation, leadership training and national PHTC strategy.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

The evaluation team for the Region IV Public Health Training Center is based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They lead efforts to assess training needs and conduct evaluation throughout Region IV. The evaluation team includes:

 


 

Lisa C. McCormick, DrPH, MPH

Evaluator

Lisa serves as the Evaluator for the R-IV PHTC and holds a position as a research assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at RSPH. In addition, Lisa serves as the Director of the Office of Public Health Practice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and has been involved with the South Central Public Health Workforce Development Partnership since 2002. She has worked with both state and local public health departments in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Lisa is the Associate Director of the South Central Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center. Her research interests are primarily focused on public health preparedness and response, the organization of response systems, and assessing interorganizational networks as a dimension of response capacity and community resiliency. She has also conducted research on preparedness education training programs and expanding emergency preparedness competencies.


 

Elena Kidd, MPH

Program Manager

Elena Kidd, MPH, currently serves as program manager for Alabama-Mississippi Local Planning Site (LPS) of the Region IV Public Health Training Center (PHTC). Her current responsibilities include the execution the LPS training plan, marketing/outreach activities, identifying student field placements, and other coordinating functions. Her previous experience includes public health preparedness research involving an assessment of public health capabilities for state partners and a quantitative literature review on mobile field medical response. With over five years of experience, Mrs. Kidd possesses skills in program coordination, implementation and administration, instructional design and adult education, and event management.


 

Matthew Fifolt, PhD

Evaluation Consultant

Matthew Fifolt, Phd is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health (UAB-SOPH). Dr. Fifolt holds a PhD in educational leadership from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and University of Alabama; a master’s degree in education from the University of South Carolina; and a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University. Prior to joining the faculty of UAB-SOPH, Dr. Fifolt served as the Associate Director of the Evaluation and Assessment Unit in the Center for the Study of Community Health at UAB. In this role, he was responsible for program and outcomes evaluation for the cooperative agreements funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHHD). Dr. Fifolt has published in a variety of peer-reviewed publications on the topics of evaluation and assessment, home visiting, workforce diversity, and strategic planning; he is currently the technical editor of the Mid-South Literacy Journal.

J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, University of Georgia

As a Technical Assistance Provider for the Region IV Public Health Training Center, the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development at the University of Georgia will develop and implement leadership Institutes for public health providers from Region IV states and tribal health departments.

 


Carolina Darbisi, PhD

Assistant Director and Senior Public Service Associate

At the Fanning Institute, Carolina’s work focuses on designing innovative leadership programs to meet the needs of particular populations such as women, public health professionals, Latino and migrant groups. She designs and conducts applied research projects, principally in the form of program evaluation and needs assessment. In addition, as Assistant Director for Research and Evaluation, she provides leadership to the development and implementation of activities related to the strategic goal of continuous improvement, builds capacity among faculty to incorporate data-driven decision making and sets a clear vision for Fanning’s research and evaluation priorities to demonstrate the impact of leadership development.

Having joined the Fanning Institute in 2008, Carolina has more than 17 years of professional experience in leadership development, adult learning and nonprofit management with an extensive knowledge of Georgia and its needs; in particular, how the demographic changes influence the design, outreach and delivery of programs and initiatives across multiple communities.


 

Brandy Brown Walker, PhD

Public Service Associate

Dr. Brandy Walker’s expertise is in the design, development and implementation of leadership programming, with an emphasis on community engagement, conflict management, difficult conversations and dialogue. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning, Design, and Technology from the College of Education at the University of Georgia and is a leader in online and virtual program development and delivery. Dr. Walker specializes in programs that have a broad reach nationally and internationally. She has led leadership development programs for public health professionals across the United States and produced a 6-part series podcast entitled “Adaptive Leadership for Public Health.”

Internationally, Dr. Walker leads two U.S. Department of State projects focusing on civic engagement leadership across sub-Saharan Africa. The first is the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a summer residential intensive leadership and civic engagement program as part of the Young African Leadership Initiative and the second is the virtual African Civic Engagement Academy (ACEA), a U.S. Department of State-sponsored program unique to the University of Georgia. The ACEA program launched in 2021, reaching over 4,000 enrolled participants across sub-Saharan Africa.

Additionally, Dr. Walker teaches an interdisciplinary graduate course on community-engaged research methods. She works with Q-methodology personality and risk assessments, and enjoys collaborating with academic faculty on community-engaged projects.