SciPAC Executive Board

2006/2007
 

CDR (Sel.) Newman has been a voting member of the Scientist PAC since September of 2004. For the past four years she served as the Chair and co-Chair of the COA Scientists Category Day Subcommittee, served for two years on the Science subcommittee and in 2007 served as the PAC Vice Chair.

In December of 2006 CDR Newman began in a new position within the Corps as the Injury Prevention and Control Epidemiologist with the National Park Service (NPS). In this position, CDR Newman is launching a new program to track injury and deaths in our National Park System and to identify needed prevention programs to reduce injury and death in National Parks throughout the United States.

Prior to her assignment with the NPS, CDR Newman worked in the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (OPHEP), the Office of the Secretary as the Special Project’s Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures where she designed and implemented special studies to inform initiatives of and decisions by the DAS on issues related to public health emergency medical countermeasures.

Before serving at OPHEP, CDR Newman worked for nearly three years as an epidemiologist with the Division of Immigration Health Services (DIHS) where she managed the agency’s infection control program, managed an infectious disease surveillance system and assisted in management efforts on a continuity of care program for Tuberculosis.

CDR Newman earned her doctorate degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences with emphasis in epidemiology and social and behavioral sciences. In conjunction with her dissertation work on sexually transmitted infections in female prisoners, in September of 2001, Dr. Newman joined the United States Public Health Service as a Jr. COSTEP where she worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
 

LCDR Matthew Newland is currently a Public Health Analyst in the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). He initially came to HRSA through the HRSA Scholars Program and has worked there since September, 2003. For two years, he was in the Global HIV/AIDS Program as Project Officer for the Twinning Center and HIVQUAL International, two activities designed to strengthen capacity and improve quality at HIV/AIDS clinics among countries supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In 2006, he was appointed Project Officer in HAB’s Division of Community Based Programs for grantees in the state of Florida providing HIV/AIDS services to affected communities.

LCDR Newland earned his doctorate in Medical Sociology and also his MPH at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also has another Masters in Asian Studies from the University of Oregon. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on HIV/AIDS in Thailand, analyzing Thailand’s health care system and how Buddhist monks and nuns provide HIV/AIDS services for affected communities. LCDR Newland was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.
 

CDR Bensyl earned a Master of Arts in Sociology from Baylor University and a PhD in Preventive Medicine and Community Health from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She joined CDC and USPHS in 1999 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer assigned to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Alaska Field Station in Anchorage, Alaska. After finishing EIS, CDR Bensyl served as a staff epidemiologist at the NIOSH Alaska Field Station. CDR Bensyl's work in Alaska focused on evaluating risk factors for work-related injuries and fatalities, mostly within the fishing and aviation industries. She also completed infectious disease investigations, an assignment to Nigeria for Guinea worm eradication, and served as Adjunct Faculty for Epidemiology at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. In 2002, she transferred to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health where she worked on evaluating risk factors associated with unintended and teen pregnancy, and served as Acting Team Leader for the Unintended and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program from May 2004 through January 2005. In February 2005, CDR Bensyl accepted a position with the EIS Field Assignments Branch as an EIS Field Supervisor where she trains, supervises, mentors, and supports EIS Officers who are assigned to state and local health departments. She currently supervises assignees in Alaska, California, Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia.