Meet the Speakers

Program Manager of the Food and Cannabis Section in the Public Health Investigations Division 

Talk title: A Campus Embedded in a Community 

Bio

Professor, Director of the Respiratory Centers of Excellence

Talk title: Leveraging novel institutional partnerships 

Bio

James H. Finigan, MD, is a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health. Dr. Finigan serves as Director of The Respiratory Centers of Excellence and Medical Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program. 

Executive Vice Provost

Talk title: Modalities and Delivery of Courses 

Bio

Professor and Deputy COVID Response Coordinator

Talk title: Elevating Campus Connections (panel facilitator) 

Bio

Associate Vice Chancellor/Deputy Athletic Director – Chief Operating Officer 

Talk Title: COVID-19 and College Sports: A Team Effort 

Bio 

Stuart Halsall officially joined the University of Denver on May 1, 1999, and has served in a number of positions for the Division of Athletics and Recreation.  Currently, Halsall serves as the Deputy Athletic Director, Chief Operating Officer for the Division. He brings more than two decades of sports, wellness and events administration experience, building a reputation for quality programs and services and developing great relationships.  

Over the course of his tenure at the University of Denver, Halsall has had his hand in many of the Division of Athletics and Recreation key projects and milestones. He currently directly supervises the NCAA sport programs of men’s soccer, women’s soccer, gymnastics, men’s golf and women’s golf.  

Halsall oversees one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial recreation departments in the country serving both the campus and the Denver community. The recreation department has received multiple national, regional and local awards that has recognized its leadership within the profession.

Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr. Endowed Chair in Natural Products Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry 

Talk Title: High Frequency Saliva Testing (1M+) 

Bio

Paul J. Hergenrother was born in 1972 and raised in Akron, Ohio. He attended the University of Notre Dame, where he received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1994. From there Paul moved to the University of Texas at Austin, to conduct graduate research under the direction of Professor Stephen F. Martin. While in the Martin laboratory Paul elucidated the catalytic mechanism of phospholipase C, and completed the total synthesis of erythromycin B. He graduated with his PhD in Chemistry in 1999, and moved on as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow to Harvard University, where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Stuart L. Schreiber in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. While at Harvard Paul was involved in the development of small molecule microarrays as a platform for high-throughput compound screening. 

He established his own laboratory in the Department of Chemistry (and as an affiliate in the Department of Biochemistry) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2006, to full professor in 2010, and in 2013 was named the Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr. Endowed Chair in Natural Products Chemistry. Professor Hergenrother is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Vanquish Oncology, and an anticancer compound discovered by the Hergenrother lab is now being taken by cancer patients at the University of Illinois Cancer Center and at Johns Hopkins as part of a Phase 1 clinical trial. Professor Hergenrother has been the recipient of an NSF-CAREER Award, a Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the GlaxoSmithKline Chemistry Scholar Award, the ACS David Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the ACS Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, was named as an American Cancer Society Research Scholar, was named by Technology Review magazine as one of the top innovators under the age of 35, and was the recipient of the 2016 Innovation Transfer Award from the University of Illinois. More recently he was named as the recipient of the 2016 UCB-Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry, of the 2016 Akron Section Award from the ACS, a 2017 ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the 2018 ACS Sosnovsky Award for Cancer Research. At the University of Illinois Professor Hergenrother is the Leader of the IGB Theme “Anticancer Discovery from Pets to People”, and is the Director of the NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Grant. Professor Hergenrother has served or serves on the editorial board/editorial advisory board for multiple journals, including Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Reactions, and ChemBioChem. The Hergenrother laboratory seeks to use small molecules to identify and validate novel targets for the treatment of intractable diseases, including cancer, degenerative disorders, and multi-drug resistant bacteria. 

Colorado State Epidemiologist 

Talk title: Keynote: What we can expect in the months to come 

Bio

Professor and Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship 

Talk title: Disease Modeling 

Bio

Associate Professor of Public Health in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics

Talk title: Using a three-pronged strategy of mass testing, wastewater, and contact tracing 

Bio

Sr. Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education 

Talk title(s): Backwards Contact Tracing; Closing Remarks 

Bio

Senior Vice Provost for Research 
Vice President of the Innovation Campus 

Talk Title: High Frequency Testing Protocols 

Bio

Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering

Talk Title: CUSew: Campus Sewer Monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 

Bio

At the University of Colorado – Boulder, Dr. Cresten Mansfeldt is a faculty member housed in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering Department in the Environmental Engineering Program. His background resides in Environmental Engineering, Environmental Microbiology, Bioinformatics, and Environmental Chemistry. Dr. Mansfeldt joined CU after having the privilege of working as a FS8 Research Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in the Department of Environmental Chemistry. 

The interaction between humans and microbial processes on multiple scales (industrial, municipal, riverine) captures the majority of Dr. Mansfeldt’s research interests. His most recent projects include modeling the community dynamics involved in wastewater microbial systems, determining the interaction of Eukaryotic microbes with trace organic contaminants in municipal waste, and tracking the influence of the treated wastewater treatment plant effluent on riverine systems. He combines computational simulations, molecular microbiology, reactor design, high-resolution analytics, and environmental monitoring to explore these topics. 

To learn more about the ongoing research, check out the Research Page and follow @drmansfeldt on Twitter. 

Talk title: Vaccine deployment

Professor of Mechanical Engineering 

Talk Title: Indoor risk mitigation strategies 

Bio

Director of Counseling Services, Health and Counseling Center 

Talk title: Responding to Student Mental Health Challenges 

Bio

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

PsyD Clinical Psychology, University of Denver, 2005 
MA Clinical Psychology, University of Denver, 2002 
BA Psychology, Colgate University, 1997 

Professional Interests: College Counseling, trauma, cognitive and personality assessment, ADHD, LDs, grief counseling, individual/group psychotherapy, couple's therapy, giftedness, psychodynamic treatment, eating disorders, Prolonged Exposure, DBT. 

Professional Experience: Employed at DU HCC August 2004-August 2005, and August 2006- present. Completed other training experiences at UC Boulder's CAPS, and at Metro State University's counseling center. At DU's HCC, I have also coordinated the assessment, outreach and training programs prior to becoming director (NOTE: bio is cut off here on the HCC website) 

Director of Academic Communications, Public Affairs 

Talk title: What’s possible? Engaging students and hosting events during COVID-19 

Bio

Jodi Silotto provides strategic direction and consultation to academic unit communicators for communication plans related to campus level priorities. She serves as the liaison to key internal and external stakeholder groups. Additionally, Jodi works to create resources, services and training opportunities that support academic units. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors and expanding her antique cookie jar collection. 

Deputy COVID Response Coordinator 
Associate professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies 
Director of the John Madden Center for Innovation in the Creative and Liberal Arts 

Talk title: Innovative COVID Response Science/Public Health on Campuses (panel facilitator) 

Bio

Assistant Vice President | Campus Health

Division of Student Affairs 
The Health Center 

Talk title: A campus embedded in a community: The Tulane Experience 

Bio

Scott is originally from Alabama and completed a MS in Applied Psychology from University of South Alabama and a Ph.D. in Public Health from Florida International University. He has worked in a variety of health care settings with a focus on health promotion, prevention, and integration of services. He has been at Tulane since 2008, originally as leader of the health promotion and now as the first Assistant Vice President of Campus Health. Scott's primary responsibility is to work with the various health units to ensure good quality services are provided to keep students healthy and safe at Tulane 

Sr. Director, Public Sector Strategy 

Talk title: Digital Contact Tracing 

Bio 

Brian Toolan joined the Everbridge family in April 2016 as the Technical Account Manager for the AlertFlorida Statewide notification system, and currently serves as the Director of Government Strategy. Brian came to Everbridge after completing a 24-year career in public safety with the State of Connecticut. Brian served as the program manager for the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force where he gained valuable experiencing utilizing the Everbridge platform as a customer. 

Brian was also the Operations Chief for the State Emergency Operations Center and served the State during historic blizzards, hurricanes, floods, the largest natural gas power plant explosion in the US and other natural and man-made disasters. While serving as the TAM in Florida, Brian has assisted the State Division of Emergency Management in the Florida Emergency Operations Center during Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Irma. 

COVID Response Coordinator, Professor 

Talk Title(s): On-Campus Housing Challenges; Physical and Mental Health Strategies Winter and Beyond (panel facilitator) 

Bio

Vice President for Student Affairs

Talk Title: Opening in Fall COVID19: A Multitude of Student Challenges 

Dr. Pat Whitely is in her 24th year as Vice President for Student Affairs and 39th year at UM. Her first UM position was actually as the RC of Stanford Residential College, so she is prominently featured in our Stanford stories. 

Dr. Whitely not only has had a distinguished career at UM but also has served as chair of NASPA, the leading professional organization for student affairs practitioners. Dr. Whitely also serves as a member of the executive board of the National Catholic Campus Ministry Association. 

While she has received numerous awards, she has also been awarded the Mc Lamore Award for Service from the UM faculty, the NASPA Scott Goodnight Award, and the NASPA Fred Turner Award, which recognizes exceptional work from Vice Presidents for Student Affairs across the country. 

Last November, Dr. Whitely was honored by the Miami Plaza Network as a Woman of Distinction for her service to our community.