Director
HDHHS Office of Public Health Practice
Dr. Troisi received her BA in Chemistry from the University of Rochester, her MS in Biochemistry from Michigan State University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Dr. Troisi is a member of TPHA, ASM, AAAS, and APHA. She serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UTSPH and of Molecular Virology at Baylor College of Medicine. She is a member of the Center for Infectious Diseases at UTSPH. She is member and abstract reviewer for National HIV conferences.
Division Manager
Office of Surveillance and Public Health Preparedness,
Houston Department of Health and Human Services
From 2003 to the present, she has served as epidemiologist manager and database manager. She is responsible for managing and for providing oversight for activities for HIV/AIDS Surveillance and for CDC funded special projects and studies. She provides technical and epidemiological expertise to staff and to local, state, and federal agencies.
Administrative Supervisor
HDHHS Bureau of Epidemiology HIV/STD Surveillance
Mrs. Thornton has over 18 years of employment with the City of Houston Health and Human Services in HIV/STD Prevention and HIV/STD Surveillance. She started her employment as a disease intervention specialist (DIS). She moved on to be a frontline supervisor at several STD clinics providing supervision to DIS. After several years of being a frontline supervisor, she was promoted to be the counseling and testing coordinator for HIV/STD prevention. At that time she collaborated with the City of Houston and Texas Department of Health funded community based organizations to provide counseling and testing for HIV and other STDs for Houston/Harris County. She is currently overseeing all STD surveillance activities as the administrative supervisor with the Bureau of Epidemiology. Her duties also include the oversight of HIV public Health follow-up.
Raouf A. Arafat, MD, MPH
Assistant Director, OSPHP
Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS)
Dr. Arafat is over the Office of Surveillance and Public Health Preparedness (OSPHP) that includes the Bureaus of: Epidemiology, Laboratory Services, Pharmaceutical Services, Vital Statistics, Community Health Statistics and Public Health Preparedness. He has MD degree from the School of Medicine in Egypt and MPH degree from UTSPH in Houston. Dr. Arafat has served as the Chief of the Bureau of Epidemiology at HDHHS and as Assistant Director of the Communicable Disease Division in HDHHS then moved to start the OSPHP as a new division in the Department.
Dr. Arafat started the Epidemiology Study Center in Egypt and continued as the Director of that center for 6 years then moved to initiate the work at the Public Health & Epidemiology Department for the Royal Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That Department was chosen as a training center for MPH and PhD students at the King Faisal Medical School in Khobar, KSA and for students of the Arab Board of Public Health and Epidemiology.
Dr. Arafat is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Texas, School of Public Health, Houston Medical Center, a Preceptor and Faculty Associate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Health Policy and Administration, a Member of the Advisory Board, Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Informatics Research, UT School of Public Health Informatics in Houston.
Dr. Arafat has extensive training in Epidemiology, Infectious Disease, Public Health Management and Public Health Preparedness and has special interest in program development and implementation and is a member of many national and international organizations and associations and has numerous publications in scientific journals.
Umair A. Shah, MD, MPH
Deputy Director
Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services
Dr. Shah has been Deputy Director of Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services (HCPHES) since 2004. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Shah received his undergraduate philosophy degree with an interest in medical ethics from Vanderbilt University. He then went onto obtain his Medical Degree (MD) from The University of Toledo Health Science Center, where he was also selected for an International Health & Public Policy Internship at World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva. Dr. Shah then completed his residency in Internal Medicine, fellowship in Primary Care/General Medicine, and his Master’s in Public Health (MPH) - all at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Upon completion of training, he served several years as an emergency room (ER) attending physician at the Houston Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center before becoming Chief Medical Officer at the Galveston County Health District, prior to joining HCPHES.
Dr. Shah’s interests include international/refugee health, emergency/disaster response, and health equity-related work. His large-scale disaster experiences include responses related to Tropical Storm Allison, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and most recently Ike, as well as the Kashmir Earthquake. He currently serves on the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) Health Equity & Social Justice Team, the NACCHO International Public Health Workgroup, and the Board of Directors for the South Asian Public Health Association. He served on the Second National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health.
Dr. Shah is a writer who has co-authored many peer-reviewed journal articles in public health and remains engaged in teaching as an adjunct faculty member of The University of Texas School of Public Health. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and remains active in clinical patient care.
Paul Simmons, R.N.
(Co-Executive Director)
The Centers for AIDS Information and Advocacy
Paul Simmons is a registered nurse with a certification in HIV/AIDS nursing. He serves as co-executive director for programming at The Center for AIDS, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit. He is also co-chair of the Community Science Committee at the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, which is the largest HIV clinical research consortium in the world. Paul is currently pursing his master's in nursing.
Dr. Herminia Palacio
(Director)
Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services
Dr. Herminia Palacio is an Internal Medicine physician with significant public health and public policy experience. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services. She holds faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas School of Public Health. During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she directed medical operations at the Astrodome/Reliant Park mega-shelter. She is a Past President of the Texas Association of Local Health Officials and is active in the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Charles
Henley
Manager – Ryan White Grants Administration
Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services (HCPHES)
Mr. Henley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who received his BA in Sociology from Trinity University in San Antonio and his MSW from the University of Houston. He has managed the Ryan White Grant Administration Section of Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services since 1997 and has been directly involved in administering HIV/AIDS funding in the Houston area since 1991. He is currently the Project Director for $20,000,000 in annual Ryan White Part A funds for the Houston Eligible Metropolitan Area and is co-Primary Investigator for the County’s Outreach Care and Prevention to Engage HIV Seropositive Young MSM of Color Demonstration site – a Ryan White Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) grant. Mr. Henley was the 2004 recipient of the Health Resources and Services Administration Hank Carde Award for Metropolitan Services for his role in establishing the County’s CPCDMS client-level HIV/AIDS data system.