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Clinical Scholars

Lead the Way to a Culture of Health

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Who We Are

Home / About / Who We Are
Giselle Corbie-Smith

Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc

Co-Director

Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc, is nationally recognized for her scholarly work on the inclusion of disparity populations in research, and has over a decade of experience in using community engagement to conduct innovative, translational health equity research. Her empirical work, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, has focused on the...

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Claudia Fernandez, DrPH, MS, RD, LDN

Co-Director

Claudia S. Plaisted Fernandez, DrPH, MS, RD, LDN is Co-Director of Clinical Scholars. She is the co-author of It-Factor Leadership: Become a Better Leader in 13 Steps and an executive coach. Dr. Fernandez has led many nationally award-winning leadership programs focused on personal leadership development, innovation, and business skills for...

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Rachel Berthiaume, MPH

Deputy Director

Rachel Berthiaume is the Deputy Director of Distance Education for Clinical Scholars. Her career in public health began as a Research Assistant in HIV/AIDS/STI prevention and treatment at local health clinics in sub-Saharan Africa in the Epidemiology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health (GSGPH). She received...

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Kathy Donnald, MS

Deputy Director

Kathy Donnald is the Deputy Director for Onsite Education for Clinical Scholars. This initiative is funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and offers leadership development training and funding to multi-disciplinary clinician teams who are seeking to change the culture of health in their community and across the county. Ms....

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Melissa Green

Melissa Green, DHSc, MPH

Deputy Director

Melissa Green is the Deputy Director for Recruitment and Communications for Clinical Scholars, a program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is affiliated with CHER. Melissa’s experience includes 15 years managing research intervention studies in community settings using principles of community-based participatory research with and for African American...

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Michelle Abel-Shoup

Michelle Abel-Shoup

Program Manager

Michelle Abel-Shoup is, in addition to her work in Clinical Scholars, the Program Manager for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Robert C. Cefalo National Leadership Institute. Her work involves managing all program aspects, including communications, logistics, operations, finances, and evaluation and reporting. Prior to her work at...

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Gabrielle Diekmann

Gabrielle Diekmann

Communications Specialist

Gabrielle Diekmann is the Communications Specialist for Clinical Scholars, a national leadership program for experienced health care providers led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Gabrielle has over 7 years of experience helping leaders of nonprofits and businesses achieve...

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Liz Bucrek, MA

Online Learning Coordinator

Liz Bucrek is the Online Learning Coordinator of Clinical Scholars. The initiative is funded through the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, and the mission is to equip health care providers from every discipline with leadership tools centered in equity, diversity, and inclusion to transform their careers and the health...

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Dave Guarav

Guarav Dave, MD

Lead Evaluator

Dr. Guarav Dave is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He has over 15 years of clinical, public health and evaluation experience. Dr. Dave’s research primarily focuses on reducing health...

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Sarena Dacus

Team Coach

Sarena Dacus joined ICF in 2017 as a contractor with the Administration for Children & Families on the Region VII Office of Head Start Training and Technical Assistance team. Ms. Dacus currently serves as the Health Specialist on the TTA team. She works with Head Start grantees across Nebraska, Iowa,...

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Katie Brandert, MPH

Consultant and Team Coach

It was the decade she spent in maternal and child health—working on a host of wicked public health issues including infant mortality, undoing racism, health disparities, teen pregnancy, and more—that helped Katie Brandert realize her love for developing leaders who could take on the world’s greatest challenges. For the...

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Ruben Fernandez, JD

Program Partner

Ruben Fernandez is the president of Fast Track Leadership, Inc., which produces, runs, and supports programs that specialize in leadership development for public sector organizations, public-health and health care-related business, and academic institutions. A teacher, executive coach, and attorney, he coaches leaders and provides leadership support services in several...

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Melvin Jackson, MSPH

Program Partner

Melvin Jackson has over 35 years of experience in community engagement, public health research and program coordination. Beyond his work on Clinical Scholars, he is the Public Health Advocacy Coordinator/Local Improvement Advisor with the Alexander YMCA SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation) Program. In this role, he leads...

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Mitch Owen, EdD

Executive Coach

Dr. Mitchell (Mitch) B. Owen, Founder and CEO of Mitchen Incorporate, is the creator of the Elusive Leadership model for high performance teams and the Mitchen Organization Strategic Positioning System. His expertise and reputation has enabled him to work with a wide variety of groups, including major universities, public agencies,...

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Al Richmond

Al Richmond, MSW

Program Partner

Al Richmond, MSW, Executive Director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), is a global thought leader advocating for the increased role of communities in research and public health. In his role as Executive Director of CCPH, Al is advancing the organization’s commitment to social justice and health equity. In August...

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Angela Rosenberg

Angela Rosenberg, DrPH, PT

Consultant and Executive Coach

Dr. Angela Rosenberg is a leadership consultant who earned her Master’s in Public Health and her Doctorate in Leadership Development at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Through her company, Inside Out, Angela focuses on individualized leadership development and the development and evaluation of executive leadership teams. She is...

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Debbie Jepson, MSc

Executive Coach

Debbie Jepson grew up in the UK, where she worked for over twelve years within the British National Health Service.  Spanning roles at a strategic level for a Regional Health Authority; and at an operational level for a smaller Community Health NHS Trust; her values are shaped by her first-hand...

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National Advisory Committee

  • Ebony Boulware

    L. Ebony Boulware, MD

    Chair of National Advisory Committee

  • Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, PhD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Ella Greene-Moton

    Ella Greene-Moton

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Randy Jones

    Randy Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Barbara Kornblau, JD, OTR/L

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • John Linville

    John Linville, DVM, MPH, CPH

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Howard Liu

    Howard Liu, MD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Amy Locklear-Hertel

    Amy Locklear Hertel, MSW, JD, PhD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Cruz Delgado

    Cruz Nazario Delgado, PhD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Nirah Shaw

    Nirav Shah, MD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Janet Southerland

    Janet Southerland, DDS, PhD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Shiv Darius Tandem

    Darius Tandon, PhD

    National Advisory Committee Member

  • Jerome Williams Jr., MD, MBA

    National Advisory Committee Member

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CLINICAL SCHOLARS

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E-mail: clinical.scholars@unc.edu

Phone: (866) 849-1579

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  • Cohort 1, 2016-2019
  • Cohort 2, 2017-2020
  • Cohort 3, 2018-2021
  • Cohort 4, 2019-2022
  • Cohort 5, 2020-2023

LED BY

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SUPPORTED BY

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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Photos © 2016 Flynn Larsen, Courtesy of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation