Gaylord Anderson Leadership Award

Joan E. Dodgson, PhD, MPH

Joan came to public health after 15 years as a hospital-based registered nurse caring for the critically ill in a high-tech environment. A pivotal experience in Joan’s journey occurred when she responded to the 1979 United Nations call for healthcare workers, as thousands of Cambodians fled the Khmer Rouge’s ‘Killing Fields. “I soon found myself in Khao I Dang refugee camp, where I witnessed the incredible work of international NGOs who swiftly established a functioning city for 200,000 starving and sick refugees on a barren, dusty plain in Thailand,” says Joan. The effectiveness of their public health strategies and interventions was focused, operationally practical and often culturally tailored, without relying on high-tech solutions. These experiences changed Joan’s professional approach and trajectory. She had come to understand that promoting health and advocating for the social change required to facilitate a healthier society needed to happen in the community, not the hospital. All the threads that would weave throughout the rest of her career (e.g., working outside my culture, focusing on health inequities, and socio-culturally relevant interventions) took shape during these profound experiences within this international public health intervention and the Khmer refugee community.

Fortunately, she was able to pursue graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. She earned a MPH in Maternal and Child Health, and her PhD in Nursing. After obtaining the education and skills needed, she began her new public health-oriented path specializing in parent and child health using community-based participatory research methods. She has continued to work, teach, and research within diverse cultures and circumstances, including indigenous and Native Hawaiian communities and Chinese, Asian, and African American populations, and various professional roles such as academia, program planning, private practice, and academic publishing. The complexities inherent in teaching and learning across cultures have been a research focus that led to valuable collaborative research and program development with scholars in Japan, China, and Cambodia. Her other major research area is reducing socio-cultural and structural barriers that breastfeeding families face while facilitating community strengths and self-reliance. She has also continued working on these two areas by designing and conducting community and academic educational programs using traditional methods and newer digital venues. Most recently, she had the privilege of leading the editorial team of a multi-disciplinary international research journal in my specialty area, the Journal of Human Lactation. During the seven years of my editorship, she highlighted significant global research issues and enhanced international communications within the field by adding content about successes in breastfeeding advocacy efforts. Throughout this journey, she has endeavored to incorporate the principles of social justice and high standards of advocacy that she learned at the UMN School of Public Health.

Alumni Award of Merit

RDML Kis Robertson Hale, DVM, MPH

Rear Admiral Kis Robertson Hale serves as the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) Office of Public Health Science and serves as the agency’s Chief Public Health Veterinarian. In these roles, she oversees the science behind FSIS’ regulatory mission of ensuring safe meat, poultry, and egg products, and she represents the agency in One Health engagements. Her history with FSIS started in 2003 when she worked in the Office of Field Operations as an Enforcement, Investigation, and Analysis Officer. In 2008, she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and in 2010, she was assigned to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a CDC Preventive Medicine Fellow. As a Rear Admiral (RDML) in the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, she serves as an Assistant Surgeon General.

In 2024, RDML Hale was appointed by the Surgeon General of the USPHS to serve as the 13th Chief Veterinary Officer. In this role, she advises the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on issues central to the strength of the Veterinary Category and the assignment and deployment of Corps veterinary officers. She also provides leadership and career counseling to the >70 nationally dispersed Corps veterinarians who are committed to using their highly versatile training in animal health, comparative medicine, and infectious disease to advance the Nation’s health. 

RDML Hale’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine degree from Tuskegee University, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota.  She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. 

Alumni Innovator Award

Toni Toledo, MPH

Toni Toledo lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a dietitian who has been working in the field of nutrition and health promotion for close to 35 years. She is an adjunct instructor at San Jose State University where she enjoys inspiring students to capitalize on the power of nutrition in their lives, their families and communities.   Toni also has a small private practice serving clients with behavior change in the area of health promotion and health management.  This affords her the opportunity to work one-on-one and in small group settings to guide her clients to developing lifelong behaviors for their best health. 

She recently had the opportunity to work in the fast-growing and evolving area of medically-tailored meals working alongside chefs to develop meals that met specific nutrition needs and parameters honoring the Food Is Medicine approach to improve health outcomes.  The meals were created as a collaboration between the chefs and Toni and then the meals were cooked by teenagers who were building culinary skills. Prior to that, she worked at Palo Alto Medical Foundation in health promotion and weight management as well as in Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention (SCRDP) in program and curriculum development.

She received a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where her senior thesis was testing the effectiveness of cultural competent nutrition education materials and cooking demonstrations to Spanish-speaking clients from a low socio-economic population.  This is where her love of public health was born. Later, in her Dietetic Internship at Hines VA Hospital in Chicago—that love of public health grew in her supervised practice rotations out in the county health departments around Chicago.She received her master’s degree in public health from the University of Minnesota where she earned the Ruth Stief Leadership award.   While at the University of Minnesota she had the distinct pleasure of working with Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer developing a pilot program that focused on healthy behaviors for teenage girls that was tested out in the physical education class at a St. Paul high school.  That program lives on today and has grown into an flagship program in the School of Public Health. 

Toni also enjoys serving as a volunteer peer reviewer for the ACEND program (Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics).  In this role, she is part of a team that ensures that nutrition programs are meeting the Department of Education standards for education and training.  She feels honored to be a part of this process that ensures the caliber of education and training for future generations of dietitians. She is a member of the training faculty for the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s Certificate of Training in Pediatric and Adult Weight Management. This role allows her to be part of an interdisciplinary team of educators that instruct and inspire dietitians to meet their clients where they are and provide client-centered care based on the latest evidence-based research and behavior change models, etc.  She enjoys public speaking and often speaks on the topics of health literacy, collaboration, leadership, and nutrition counseling to fellow health professionals in many different settings such as local, state and national dietetic associations. 

Toni’s mission is to help her clients find enjoyable, creative, and sustainable ways to “add to” their lives by focusing on the positives to live long and healthy lives.  A little over five years ago—Toni and her best friend created an award-winning podcast called –PATH Positive Approaches To Health. This podcast explores inspiring, interesting, and practical examples of what is going on around the world that help people achieve their best health. She is driven by her passion and commitment, and she feels like working in the creative and unique areas of public health nutrition has been a great blessing in her career.  In fact—she thinks of this as more of a calling than a career.  She is honored to be receiving this award from the University of Minnesota as she feels such pride in the U of MN and so grateful for the education, inspiration and mentoring that she received while attending and still feels that way…decades later. 

Emerging Leader Award

Amira Adawe, MPH

Amira Adawe has more than 16 years of history of working in public health, including local, state, and community-based public health programs, research, and policy. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Beautywell Project. BW is a nonprofit organization that aims to combat skin-lightening and chemical exposures, address other environmental impacts, and improve community health literacy in Minnesota, Nationwide, and globally. For the past four years, Amira has trained government agencies in the US and globally to combat the illegal trade of cosmetics, especially skin-lightening products that contain mercury, effectively. She has been advising the global partnership initiative “Eliminating Mercury Skin-lightening Products” led by the UN Environment Program (UNEP).

 In 2023, Amira chaired and facilitated the first global stakeholder group and meeting to eliminate mercury in skin-lightening products. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Amira previously managed the Minnesota Children’s Cabinet of Governor Mark Dayton, where she worked on early childhood in all policies and systems using an equity lens. She is a public health researcher whose research interests include women’s and children’s health in access to health care, environmental justice, skin-lightening practices, and chemical exposures. Amira is the host of Beauty-Wellness Talk Podcast. 

Amira has an undergraduate degree in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership, Nonprofit, Public, and Organizational Management from Harvard Kennedy School. She was also a Policy Fellow 2015-2016 at Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Amira was a 2020 Bush Foundation Fellow. Amira’s work has been featured on local, national, and international media, including CNN, StarTribune, MinnPost, STAT news, National Public Radio (NPR), Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, and WSB-TV, Minnesota Public Radio, New York Times, Bloomberg News and Associated Press, PBS NewHour, Kare11, Good Morning America (ABC), consumer Reports, Voice of America, Sahan Journal and TIB.

Outstanding Mentor Award

Neil G. Carlson, MS, CIH

Neil Carlson received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Minnesota Morris, and his Master of Science in General Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota. Additional areas of coursework included mycology and building science. 

He has worked as a safety technician and a public health specialist at the University of Minnesota Department of Environmental Health and Safety for over 35 years. He teaches industrial hygiene for construction for the University of Minnesota Center for Construction Management. He is also an instructor for the U of M School of Public Health Center for Public Health Outreach. He is President of N.G Carlson Analytical Inc. providing industrial hygiene consulting for indoor air investigations, fungal, and particle analysis. He serves on board for the Minnesota Commercial and Noncommercial Pesticide Applicators. He serves on the board of the St. Paul Audubon Society and participates in the Minnesota Master Naturalist program.

He enjoys mentoring School of Public Health students and providing internship opportunities for industrial hygiene students.  He has published research with graduate students on ergonomics, building water damage, respirator research, and emergency response to explosions in sewer systems. 

He is a widower and proud father of a daughter who works in health care. In his spare time, he volunteers for Minnesota 4-H and assists with a local camera club focusing outdoor photography. He enjoys sharing photographs of insects, birds, lichens in books and calendars. 

Do you know a graduate of the School of Public Health (SPH) who deserves recognition?
The SPH recognizes the outstanding achievements of its alumni through the SPH Alumni Awards and various University honors. Alumni are honored at various stages of their careers. Tell us more (opens in new tab) about an alum you think deserves to be honored.