Martha Dewey Bergren, DNS, RN, NCSN, BC, FNASN earned a BSN from Penn State University and a masters and doctoral degree in Nursing from the University at Buffalo. Dr. Bergren has 30 years of acute and community pediatric nursing experience, including as a school nurse in four states. Prior to joining the nursing faculty at the University of Illinois - Chicago College of Nursing, she taught at the University of Minnesota and was an informatics research assistant at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Bergren has conducted research in several child health areas, including the adoption of information technology by school nurses.

Dr. Bergren holds national certification in both School Nursing and Nursing Informatics and is a Fellow in the National Association of School Nurses. She has authored over 40 publications, is the Health Services Editor of Journal of School Health, and served as editor for Information Technology column in the Journal of School Nursing from 1993 - 2005. She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. She is a frequent national presenter on school nursing, information technology and telecommunication topics.

Dr. Bergren was a consultant to the National Taskforce on Confidential Student Health Information and co-chair of the National Association of School Nurses HIPAA Advisory Committee.

Cathryn Dooly obtained her PhD in Exercise Physiology at the University of Maryland, where she also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Biological Resources Engineering Department. Prior to her appointment at UIC, Dr. Dooly served on the faculty at Slippery Rock University and more recently as the Coordinator of the Adult Physical Fitness and Cardio-Pulmonary Program, and Director of the Adult Physical Fitness Laboratory and Center at Ball State University.

Research Interests

Dr. Dooly is interested in the effect of various interventions on the metabolic syndrome; an array of physiological characteristics that make one susceptible to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. A central focus of her research concerns health and fitness issues of women. Specific issues addressing women's health are gender specific risk factors, intervention strategies and barriers to optimal health. Previously her research group has researched and been funded for studies addressing pre and post menopausal influences on the effectiveness of resistive and aerobic training programs on cardiovascular risk factors; the packaging of health promotion programs for women classified by age and ethnicity and their overall influence on cardiovascular health. More recently, her group has broadened their scope by studying women within the family context with the view to identifying effective delivery of health promotion for the family as an intact group with special emphasis given to gender, ethnicity and children issues.

Teaching Interests

One of Dr. Dooly's responsibilities at UIC is to review the new undergraduate curriculum in Exercise and Fitness to insure graduates can successfully meet the American College of Sports Medicine's certification standards for Health & Fitness Instructor. Dr. Dooly will also be responsible for enhancing research, internship and scholarship opportunities through collaborations with others in Kinesiology, Disability, Human Nutrition and Transplant Surgery. Dr. Dooly teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her expertise involves graded exercise testing, exercise prescription programming and exercise electrocardiography. A special emphasis is to disseminate effective principles of health risk intervention and design efficacious methods to inform the lay public.

Madelyn Iris, Ph.D. is Director of the Leonard Schanfield Research Institute, Council for Jewish Elderly in Chicago. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. In addition, Dr. Iris is the Director of the Northwestern University Ethnographic Field School. Dr. Iris received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Northwestern University, and holds a Masters Degree in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto. From 1989 until August, 2005 she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and at the Buehler Center on Aging, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. From 1995-1999 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, in Chicago. She joined the Council for Jewish Elderly in 2004.

Dr. Iris’ current research focuses on several topics, including improving assistance to caregivers for older adults, through education and technology, cultural beliefs and values related to Alzheimer’s Disease, and abuse and neglect of elders. Dr. Iris has consulted with numerous organizations and programs in geriatrics and gerontology, including the Chicago Department on Aging, Suburban Area Agency on Aging, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Alzheimer’s Association, and the American Medical Association. Dr. Iris is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Society for Applied Anthropology. She is currently Past President of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology and is Past President of the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology and the editorial advisory board of Doody Enterprises, Inc., publisher of MedInfoNow.

Mary Keehn received her Physical Therapy degree and a Master’s Degree in Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. Dr. Keehn is a faculty member in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is the Associate Department Head and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy. In addition to academic responsibilities, Dr. Keehn is the Director of Physical Therapy Services and the Inpatient Rehabilitation Program Manager at the University of Illinois Medical Center. The UIMC Physical Therapy Department has a staff of 21 physical therapists who provide physical therapy services to a diverse patient population and who play an active and important role in the education of physical therapy students in the academic and clinical setting.

Dr. Keehn also holds an appointment as a Co-investigator in the Midwest Center for Health Workforce Studies in the School of Public Health at UIC with a focus on physical therapy and occupational therapy workforce issues. She also serves as an on site visitor for the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE). She recently completed a term as a commissioner for CAPTE, and served on the Criterion Review Group for the 2006 revision of the accreditation criteria for physical therapist education programs.

After getting a BS in Psychology, an MS in Nursing and an MBA, Dr. Kordick received her doctorate from George Mason University. During her varied nursing career, she has practiced psychiatric nursing, taught nationally with a healthcare accreditation agency, collaborated with many healthcare disciplines to examine quality healthcare services in both the private and public healthcare sectors and worked in a managed care organization. Currently, she focuses most of her teaching energy on master level nursing students at the University of Phoenix. She also mentors residents and teaches social and clinical research, with a major focus on healthcare emergency services. Dr. Kordick lobbies for nurses and writes position papers for healthcare on both the state and national levels. Her research examines professional ethics and domestic violence.

Mary Langhenry graduated from Marquette University in Physical Therapy in 1986. She has 15 years of clinical experience throughout the continuum of care, from acute and rehab hospital care, to home care, and finally in outpatient orthopedics where she had spent most of her clinical career. Mary received her board certification as a clinical specialist in orthopedics in 2000. Since then she has worked in research specific to hip and knee joint arthroplasty with Dr. Mitchell Sheinkop, Midwest Orthopaedics, at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL. She has lectured locally and internationally for the last 4 years on rehabilitation for joint arthroplasty and is a guest lecturer at several universities. Her current research involves navigation, minimally-invasive THA/TKA and hip resurfacing.

Janet Williams is deputy director of the American Medical Association Office on Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Abuse Prevention. She has more than 30 years public policy and media relations experience. At the AMA she assists state coalitions, medical societies and physicians on policy development, strategic planning and advocacy training on underage drinking and tobacco control issues. She has received coverage for the issue of underage drinking on The Today Show, CNN and ABC Radio Network and in The New York Times, Boston Globe and LA Times. Janet is a regular presenter on underage drinking policies at APHA, OJJDP Leadership Conference and was the founder of the Illinois Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking.

Prior to joining the AMA, Janet was director of tobacco prevention and control for the Cook County Department of Public Health where she established the agency’s tobacco control program. She was recruited by the health department because of the leadership role she played in securing tobacco settlement dollars for tobacco prevention programs in the state. Prior to joining the health department she was deputy executive director of public affairs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago for 13 years. She is recognized locally and nationally as an expert on the tobacco settlement and tobacco control policy. She has been a presenter for the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, the National Tobacco Control Conference, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Illinois Department of Public Health. She has received awards from the Publicity Club of Chicago and Social Service Communicators. Janet holds a masters in media advocacy and public policy from DePaul University.

Donald Zimmerman, MD is a Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Head of Endocrinology at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Dr. Zimmerman is also a Mae and Benjamin Allen Woman's Board Professor in Endocrinology.

Dr. Zimmerman treats endocrine disorders, diabetes, growth disorders, pubertal development, adrenal and thyroid disorders and maintains special interest in diabetes mellitus, thyroid diseases, pituitary problems, growth disturbances, calcium and bone abnormalities and puberty disorders.