Stay tuned for news about the 2024 MCHI Conference

2024 Keynote Speakers

Sherri Zorn photoDr. Sherri Zorn, FAAP, is a board certified pediatrician with a passion for preventing HPV cancers by starting HPV vaccination at age 9. She practiced general pediatrics in Seattle, Washington for 23 years before transitioning to a career as a quality improvement coach, researcher, public speaker and physician motivator. She serves on the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable’s Best Practices Task Group and collaborates extensively with the Washington HPV Free Task Force, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP), Washington State Department of Health and American Cancer Society. Over the past few years, Dr Zorn has coached more than 30 clinics throughout Washington, Utah and Nevada to successfully implement “HPV vaccine at age 9”. She was a recent guest on Pediatrics OnCall Podcast-episode 175: HPV Vaccine at 9 and has published 3 articles on the topic.

Gina Schumaker photoGina Schumaker is an FASD self-advocate who came to understand her story and brain-based challenges after she sought an evaluation/diagnosis at age 50. Prior to diagnosis she believed that her life difficulties were her fault and blamed her lack of supervision/parenting growing up. She had heard of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome but did not believe it applied to her because she did not have ‘the look’ (facial features). As a child she experienced life with a mother who had alcohol use disorder but found that other adults could be there for her (in particular, the faith community support was and continues to play a key role in her life.) She has risen above challenges with teen homelessness, early life substance experimentation, poor-fit jobs, and failed relationships. She vowed to not repeat the past and has successfully parented two children (ages 33 and 17), has two businesses, is employed part-time by UAA Center for Human Development, and has provided many presentations.

Gretchen LaSalle photoDr. Gretchen LaSalle is a board-certified family physician with the MultiCare Rockwood Clinic in Spokane, WA. She serves as a Clinical Associate Professor for the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and is a 2020 AAFP Vaccine Science Fellow. She sits on multiple immunization committees, including the WA State DOH Vaccine Advisory Committee and ACIP’s RSV adult vaccine work group. In addition to clinical practice, she is currently pursuing an MPH through the University of Washington. She is an active writer and public speaker on the topic of vaccines and vaccine hesitancy and, in October 2019, published a book with Wolters Kluwer Press titled Let’s Talk Vaccines: A Clinician’s Guide to Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy and Saving Lives. In a growing climate of vaccine hesitancy, her primary mission is to keep patients from falling victim to vaccine misinformation and to decrease the frustrations, while increasing the successes, that clinicians have in getting patients vaccinated.

Kima Joy Taylor photoDr. Kimá Joy Taylor, MD, MPH is the founder of Anka Consulting LLC, a healthcare consulting company, and an Urban Institute non-resident fellow. Her areas of expertise include identifying policy, programming, and financing levers to improve equitable access to and outcomes integrated behavioral health, primary care, and social services, and support the system change necessary to embrace cost-effective holistic equitable health care solutions.

Benjamin Hoffman photoDr. Benjamin Hoffman is a semi-native of New Mexico. He majored in Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, and attended Harvard Medical School. He completed residency training, and a year as Chief Resident, at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Following training, he and his wife, Jane, also a pediatrician, spent 4 years on the Navajo Nation with the Indian Health Service, where he worked with the community to develop a child passenger safety program.

Ben is a nationally recognized expert in child passenger safety, and leader in the field of community health and advocacy training for pediatric residents. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Oregon Health and Science University. There, he is the Vice-Chair for Community Health and Advocacy, Director of the Oregon Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs, and Medical Director of the Tom Sargent Safety Center. He is currently the President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Brittany Behme photoBrittany Behm, MPH is a health communication specialist in CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, supporting the national Hear Her communication campaign that seeks to reduce maternal mortality in the United States. Ms. Behm supports the division’s efforts to communicate timely and accurate information in an understandable and actionable way. Ms. Behm has been at CDC since 2010, previously working as a liaison to the news media in the Office of the Associate Director for Communication and serving as a spokesperson and strategic communicator in the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. She received undergraduate degrees from the University of Georgia in public relations and psychology and a Masters of Public Health from Georgia State University.

Brittany Behme photoPriya Helweg is the Deputy Regional Director for the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs, US DHHS, Region 10. Previously, she worked at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services and The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

CONTACT US