iSMA Board of Directors

The iSMA Board is an all-volunteer, working Board. Our goal is to have strong representation on the Board from all regions across the world. Board members serve for up to three years, can stand for re-election for a second three-year term. The Board elects its executive committee--president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer--every three years.  

Patrick Cook - President

Patrick Cook, Principal of Cook & Sow Communication, has more than 25 years of experience in leading and delivering communication, social marketing and training and technical assistance solutions. He has led large capacity-building and social marketing projects for US and Canadian government and for-profit corporations as well as delivered focused solutions for community-based organizations and local agencies. Over the years, Patrick has designed, developed, and delivered dozens of training workshops, courses, and materials that help adults working at the community level be more effective communicators and social marketers. Drawing on his academic studies in rhetoric and composition, his experience working as a social marketer and trainer, and his passion for social justice, Patrick’s work focuses on helping good people do good things better by improving communication, developing capacity, and enabling change. Prior to his current role, Patrick was Senior Vice President, Social Marketing and Communication, at IQ Solutions, Director of Training & Technical Assistance for the Social Marketing and Communication group at FHI 360, and Principal with the Strategic Communications and Marketing division at ICF International. He has previously worked as a journalist, copywriter, technical writer, and lecturer. Contact Patrick.   

Ross Gordon - Representative, Australian Association of Social Marketing

Ross Gordon is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Macquarie University in Sydney. Ross is also President of the Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM). His work focuses on social issues & social change, through a critical, reflexive & multi-perspective lens. Ross is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in Social Marketing at The Open University, a Visiting Academic at London School of Economics and Political Science, and Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Wollongong Faculty of Social Sciences. His expertise lies in social marketing, consumer cultures, and critical marketing teaching and research. He works across various social change topic areas including energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, alcohol, gambling, tobacco control, mental health, and workplace bullying. He has extensive experience in research, designing, implementing and evaluation behaviour and social change programmes. Ross has been a principal or named investigator on projects attracting over $6.6m in research funds in Australia, UK, Europe and India. He has published over 70 academic journals, book chapters and conference papers including in outlets such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Social Marketing, Energy Policy, and BMC Public Health. He has also delivered numerous client reports and invited speaking engagements. Ross co-authored a leading textbook on social marketing and social change: Jeff French and Ross Gordon (2015). Strategic Social Marketing. London: Sage. 

Julie Hentz - Chair, Communication Committee

Julie Hentz serves as the Communication Chair of iSMA, working with the Communication Team of writers and social media gurus who are committed to the improvement of public health internationally. Ms. Hentz is Director of Social Issue Marketing at IQ Solutions where she has worked across programs through partnership outreach, qualitative research, and marketing… the promotional “P”.  Her 30-year background in public health marketing and communications includes work with JWalter Thompson on Ford and Orkin accounts.  Ms. Hentz worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) as a Health Marketer for 11 years on projects with Surgeon General Carmona’s Office on “The People’s Piece on Disabilities, Call to Action. She contributed to the creation of an external partnership between CDC and Medscape to shape the CDC Expert Commentary Series, and she coordinated a social media delivery framework on the Maternal Desk of the H1N1 Emergency. She has worked with the New Mexico Department of Health to develop a social marketing framework to address behaviors contributing to mortality rates of greater than twice the national average within the Navajo, over 65 population from flu and pneumonia in San Juan and McKinkley Counties. Ms. Hentz earned a Masters of Public Health with a concentration in Social Marketing and Maternal Child Health from the University of South Florida (USF) as well as a Graduate Certificate in Social Marketing from USF. She also holds an Associates in Communication and a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing, and a BFA in Fine Art from Indiana University.

Christene Jennings - Webinar Manager

Bio coming soon

Jay Kassirer - Chair, Volunteer Committee

Jay Kassirer, President of Cullbridge Marketing and Communications, is a social marketing consultant, trainer, and web publisher. He has 24 years of professional marketing, communications and research experience involving environment, health and sustainability. He has contributed to the development of enduring outreach programs such as the Green Communities’ home energy audit and well aware programs, BC Hydro’s Power Smart program and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Healthy Housing and Sustainable Community Planning initiatives, and co-led the formation and growth of Canada’s multi-stakeholder Healthy Indoors Partnership. Jay regularly hosts social marketing instruction and case study webinars. He wrote and publishes the widely acclaimed Tools of Change website (www.toolsofchange.com), based on a community-based social marketing (cbsm) workbook he co-authored with Doug McKenzie-Mohr. Jay is recognized internationally as a leader in developing and promoting cbsm approaches. 

Nancy Lee - Representative, Social Marketing Association of North America

Nancy Lee has more than 25 years of professional marketing experience, with special expertise in Social Marketing.  She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington and the University of South Florida. She conducts seminars and workshops on social marketing and marketing in the public sector and has participated in the development of more than 100 social marketing campaigns.She has been a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Health Promotion Board in Singapore, Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, National University of Ireland in Galway, Yale, and Oxford University. She has conducted social marketing workshops for more than 5,000 public sector employees involved in developing public behavior change campaigns.  She has delivered more than 200 social marketing trainings, most recently in Jordan for USAID, Canada for the Ministry of Health, and in Seattle for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  She has been a keynote speaker on social marketing at conferences including ones addressing Public Health, Injury Prevention, Environmental Protection and Poverty Reduction. Nancy is a member of Rotary and the City of Mercer Island's Green Ribbon Commission, has been a volunteer member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Advisory Committee, and the Mercer Island School District's Advisory Committee.

David McElroy - Representative, European Social Marketing Association

David leads the Research and Evaluation team at Energy Saving Trust, sustainability not-for-profit dedicated to resource efficiency and conservation.  In his role, David is focused on the design and analysis of complex research programmes and the evaluation of nationally-significant social marketing projects. His strength in coordinating large-scale programmes is exemplified by his history of leading pan-European research in to the effects of climate change. He was formally elected to the Board of Directors for the European Social Marketing Association in 2014, and was nominated as the European representative to iSMA in 2015, a role he has held since. As an academic he has extensive experience in research, which is exemplified by his publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed environmental and social science journals, and his position as an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney.

Winthrop Morgan - Past President

Winthrop Morgan has more than 25 years of professional experience in the field of social marketing and public health communication. He spent ten years at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs as a  senior program officer and Country Director of programs in Ghana and Zambia.  He was Director of an Agricultural Entrepreneur Technical Assistance program in Bangladesh. He was Director of Marketing for the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Health Information Project and Center.  Mr. Morgan has written and edited several field manuals, including “How to Develop a Health Communication Strategy,” “Healthy Plan-it,” and “Re-inventing the Corporation.”  His “We Care” campaign in Ghana was awarded the Best Population Communication Program in the World by the Population Institute. He began the NHLBI Health Information Network, which has more than 200,000 subscribers.  While  marketing director of heat health education materials for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the institute’s cost-recovery program of publications netted in excess of one million dollars annually and disseminated more than 1.2 million health education materials nationwide each year to providers, patients, and the public. Mr. Morgan has his own consulting business which provides assistance with online and traditional social marketing and health communication strategy development for nonprofit, government, and educational organizations worldwide. 

Duncan Musamba - Representative, Africa Social Marketing Association

 Vilarmina Ponce - Representative, Latin American Social Marketing Association 

Vilarmina Ponce-Lucero is Co-Founder the Latin America Social Marketing Association (LAMSO). For more than 16 years, Vilarmina has been working as a Communication Specialist in social development projects, with an emphasis on social marketing for behavioral change. In recent years, she has been focusing on health research in various areas such as women´s health (sexuality and rights), early childhood nutrition (children, chronic malnutrition and rights), and population health (chronic non-communicable diseases - NCD). Vilarmina began her professional practice as part of division Public Impact at CVR (http://cverdad.org.pe), where she organized social mobilization actions in support of the CVR mandate and for the defense of human rights. Since then Vilarmina's work has focused on the right to health of the especially vulnerable population, namely children and women. She has been chief communications in different NGOs. In AB Prisma (www.prisma.org.pe) her mission was to achieve high levels of awareness in child health and nutrition among the target population and to create spaces for multi-sectorial consultation in health and nutrition. In Chemonics (www.chemonics.com/country/peru/) Vilamina implemented training and communication strategies for the involvement of local authorities in awareness campaigns about health and identity in native communities. Recently as head of communications in CRONICAS (www.cronicas-upch.pe) Vilarmina led a successful social marketing campaign that promotes the consumption of a common salt substitute and allowed researchers to test the change in blood pressure levels. 

Karis Schoellmann - Treasurer

Karis has worked in Women’s Health and Maternal Child Health throughout a career that spans 30-years, including work at Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and with the Louisiana Department of Health in their Maternal and Child Health Program. She is currently working as the Director of the Communication, Innovation, and Action Team at the Louisiana Department of Health’s Bureau of Family Health. Karis is also a faculty member at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she teaches Introduction to Social Marketing, Health Communication: Theory and Practice, and Social and Behavioral Aspects of Global Health courses. Two ongoing Bureau of Family Health initiatives in which Karis has played a key role and uses social marketing behavior change frameworks, are the Partners for Healthy Babies and the Give Your Baby Space campaigns. Both campaigns, designed to reduce Louisiana’s infant mortality, are targeted to parents and families. Other current work with which Karis is involved includes using social marketing frameworks in a more upstream approach to impact providers to effectively address the social determinants of health involving women’s wellness. Karis takes her role in guiding and inspiring the next generation’s global public health workforce seriously. In fact, her desire to join the iSMA board was inspired by this motivation. Karis has been elected by the iSMA Board to the position of Treasurer as Kelly Dennings steps down.

Luca Uguzzoni - Member at Large

Diogo Veríssimo - Vice President

Diogo earned his Doctorate in Biodiversity Management from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom. His latest work in press is, ”Does It Work for Biodiversity, Experiences and Challenges in the Evaluation of Social Marketing Campaigns." He is also currently Guest Editor at the Social Marketing Quarterly for a Special Issue on Biodiversity Conservation and Social Marketing. Diogo has devoted his career to the conservation of biodiversity using social marketing approaches, from research to evaluation, to make a positive impact in these areas, including the use of conservation marketing as a tool to promote human-wildlife coexistence.” Diogo is currently an Oxford Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, where he focuses on the design and evaluation of behaviour change interventions to reduce demand for wildlife products, a key part of mitigating the threat of the illegal wildlife trade on wildlife populations. As Diogo looks forward to his work with the iSMA Board, he is keen to explore ways to foster the growth of the community of social marketers working on biodiversity-related issues, and to promote information exchange between academics and practitioners working in social marketing, both through the literature and other non-formal channels. Diogo has been elected by the iSMA Board to the position of Vice President.

Jennifer Wayman - Secretary

A sought-after expert in social marketing, Jennifer has built a career out of making positive change in the world. She currently leads Hager Sharp, an award-winning U.S. agency that specializes in marketing social change. She has extensive and proven experience leading initiatives that result in pervasive social change. Throughout her career, her commitment to using communications and marketing to make a positive difference in the world has been applied to numerous “big, messy” issues, such as heart disease, cancer and violence. Jennifer is a respected thought leader in her field, serving on the editorial board of Social Marketing Quarterly and as a founding and current board member of the International Social Marketing Association. Prior to joining Hager Sharp, she spent 24 years at Ogilvy Public Relations where she was instrumental in establishing and leading the agency’s U.S. Social Change Practice. Jennifer holds an MHS in Behavioral Science and Health Education from The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a BS in Business and Economics from Lehigh University. 

Emeritus Board Members

Tom Beall - Past Secretary and Treasurer

Tom Beall is the former Managing Director of the Global Social Marketing Practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.  As Managing Director,  Tom served as senior counsel to Ogilvy’s worldwide network and as senior lead for some of the agency’s largest clients including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A 20+year Ogilvy veteran, Tom previously served as the Co-Head of the agency’s Global Healthcare Practice, a position in which he helped build the agency’s healthcare capabilities and its specialization in social marketing.  His work has included a recurring focus on supporting public and private sector clients to organize and conduct public and professional outreach and education campaigns. Tom serves on the Board of Sewall-Belmont House and Museum; the National Research Center for Women and Families; and the American Social Health Association. He previously served on the boards of the National Council on Aging; OWL: The Voice of Midlife and Older Women; and the Epilepsy Foundation. He holds a master’s degree in health services administration and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, both from The George Washington University.

Hamilton Carvalho - Former Regional Representative for South America and the Caribbean

Hamilton Carvalho is a government tax manager in Brazil who applies social marketing concepts and frameworks to address relationships with taxpayers and organizational behavior).  He holds a Master’s degree in marketing from the University of Sao Paulo. Mr. Cavalho is one of the active and popular contributors to iSMA social media groups, frequently sharing his latest readings and adding to our body of knowledge. 

Dr. Katherine Lyon Daniel

Dr. Katherine Lyon Daniel is Associate Director for Communication at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she applies behavioral science, health communication, and social marketing principles to improve public health and people’s lives. Dr. Daniel previously served as the Deputy Director of the National Center for Health Marketing at CDC, then the lead U.S. organization for health communication science and social marketing for public health. Her work there included oversight of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Dr. Daniel previously spent five years as the Associate Director of Communication Science at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at CDC, where she provided expertise in behavioral science research, health communication, and social marketing, principally in the area of maternal and child health. Dr. Daniel has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine in Social Ecology.

Kelley Dennings - Past Treasurer & Representative, Social Marketing Association of North America

After graduating from NC State with a BS degree in Ecosystem Assessment, Kelley started her environmental career working in the recycling industry. She became a local recycling coordinator in NC which included an operational, educational and policy component. She then worked for the state’s recycling office and Keep America Beautiful on a national level, where she conducted various social marketing, social media and traditional advertising projects. From 2013-2016, Kelley worked with the American Forest Foundation to help build their landowner conservation social change program. She is currently working on her Master’s in Public Health at the University of South Florida and is with Action Research, a social marketing agency.

Sameer Deshpande

Sameer Deshpande, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. Over past 15 years, Sameer has taught, published, reviewed (on the editorial board of Journal of Social Marketing and co-editor of Social Marketing Quarterly), and trained and consulted with government and non-profit organizations in India, Canada, Australia, and U.S.

Biju Dominic - Former Regional Representative for Asia 

Biju is the leader of FinalMile Consulting, a consulting firm in India.  FinalMile applies learning from Cognitive Neuroscience and Behavioural Economics to develop solutions for social problems in the world.  You may remember him from his iSMA Webinar which described this fascinating advance in social marketing (available in the archive for members.)

Judy Drennan

Professor Drennan is  a founding member of the Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM).  She has been involved in developing the social marketing discipline in Australia for the last decade.  She isan asset on the iSMA Board as a representative of AASM, which includes both a scholarly and practical community, working on its behalf to provide international social marketing insights and knowledge sharing.  Given her extensive expertise in social marketing, links with Australian industry, Government and international researchers, and PhD supervisions in social marketing, she delivers a unique Australian perspective to build strong collaboration between the AASM and iSMA.

Jeff French - Former Chair, Nominations and Election Committee

Jeff French is a recognized global leader in the application of behavior change and social marketing. Jeff has extensive experience of developing leading and evaluating behavior change projects, social marketing programs and the development of communication strategies at international, national, regional and local level. With over 30 years of experience at the interface between government, public, private and NGO sectors, Jeff has a broad practical and theoretical understanding of national and international health and social development issues.  Jeff and has published over 70 chapters, articles and books in the fields of behavior change, social marketing, community development, health promotion and communications. Jeff is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Marketing.

Houda Khayame - Former Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa              

Houda Khayame is an expert in sustainable human development with a focus on social marketing programs for women’s well-being and social empowerment. She has 20 years of experience in strategic design, management, and implementation of women’s health, human development, and environmental programs funded by USAID, WHO and UNDP in the Middle East, West and North Africa regions. She has a large experience in analyzing research, drawing targeted strategies and monitoring performance indicators to achieve behavior change and social impact through innovative approaches and sustainable public-private partnerships. She holds a Social Marketing Certificate from Georgetown University; and two Post-Graduate Certificates in ‘Conflict and Development’ and ‘Institutional Development’ with the Open University in the UK towards a MSc in Development Management. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Social Marketing Quarterly journal. Houda is fluent in English, Arabic, French and conversational Spanish.

R. Craig Lefebvre - Past Vice President; Chair, Fundraising Committee

Craig Lefebvre, PhD is an architect and designer of public health and social change programs. He is chief maven of socialShifting, a social|design, marketing and media consultancy, Lead Change Designer at RTI International, and holds faculty appointments in the George Washington University, University of Maryland and University of South Florida schools of public health. His current work focuses on the use of design thinking, social media and mobile technologies in social marketing and organizational change. He has also been coordinating a global effort to establish a digital platform and professional association for social marketers. An internationally recognized expert in social marketing, Craig's work on several hundred social marketing projects has addressed a multitude of health risks for a broad array of audiences in global, national, state and community contexts. He is the author of over 70 peer reviewed articles and chapters and serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare, Journal of Social Marketing and Social Marketing Quarterly. He is a Fellow in the Society for New Communications Research and an elected member of the American Academy of Health Behavior. Dr Lefebvre received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from North Texas State University and produces and writes the blog On Social Marketing and Social Change [http://socialmarketing.blogs.com].

Christiane Lellig

Christiane Lellig is the founder and president of “Stratagème. Agentur für Social Change,” a Zurich-based consulting firm specializing in social marketing and sustainability communications. Her work in social marketing projects includes energy efficiency programs and hazards prevention.  She has been working as asocial marketing consultant in Switzerland and Germany since 1999. She has led national research programs and behavior change campaigns in domains ranging from environmental issues to labor and social justice issues. Christiane holds a masters degree in Social Sciences from the University of Gauttingen, Germany. She is a member of the coordinating group of the European Social Marketing Association.

Doug McKenzie-Mohr

Doug believes iSMA has an important role to play in promoting social marketing and he wishes to assist with this work.  He uniquely assists iSMA in reaching an underserved audience, namely environmental program planners who design programs to foster sustainable behavior.  He has spent his career advocating for the application of social marketing knowledge to the design of environmental programs and assists iSMA with outreach to this important audience.

Robert Marshall

Robert Marshall received his Doctorate (Medical Sociology) from Brown University (1981). His work experience includes: health planning, health promotion-education, tobacco control, substance abuse, public health information/communications and social marketing. Dr. Marshall joined the Rhone Island Department of Health in 1983.  He left Rhode Island briefly to direct the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) for Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute (1991-1995). Returning in 1995, he served as Acting Associate Director for Substance Abuse (1995-1998) and Public Information Officer (1998-2006) at the Department of Health.  Currently, as Assistant Director of Health for Community Affairs, he heads the Rhode Island Office of Public Health Research, Training and Practice and works closely with the Rhode Island Public Health Institute—a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting population health and wellness.  Dr. Marshall holds an appointment as Clinical Associate Professor of Community Health (Alpert Medical School at Brown University) and Affiliate Associate Professor (College of Public Health, University of South Florida). Over the past fifteen years he developed an interest in social marketing in public health, authored numerous professional papers and presentations on social marketing, served on various related conference planning committees and editorial advisory boards and spearheaded development of a social marketing objective in Healthy People 2020.    He completed a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award with Kings College London and the National Social Marketing Center (England) in 2007 and was one of the keynote speakers at the First World Conference on Social Marketing (Brighton, England) in 2008.

Gael O’Sullivan - Former Chair, Communication Committee

Gael O’Sullivan has 25 years of international development experience, with a particular focus on behavior change communication (BCC), advocacy, social marketing and capacity building as they relate to public health issues, particularly in the areas of family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, water/sanitation/hygiene, and avian influenza.  As the lead technical expert in BCC within Abt Associates’ International Division, Ms. O’Sullivan designs and implements numerous communication strategies and campaigns using a combination of interpersonal, community and mass media messages and channels to improve risk perception and motivate audiences to change their behavior.  Examples of her work include: developing strategies to promote modern family planning methods and the early detection and treatment of breast cancer in Jordan; designing a youth-friendly initiative in Lucknow, India with four commercial contraceptive manufacturers and four medical associations to meet the needs of young married couples; and using research-driven methodologies and stakeholder analysis processes to design the first national HIV/AIDS communication strategies in Zimbabwe, Benin and Bhutan. Building local capacity to promote healthy behaviors is another major focus of Ms. O’Sullivan’s work.  She is the lead author of “A Field Guide to Designing a Health Communication Strategy,” a resource widely used in the field to develop sound behavior change communication strategies. Ms. O’Sullivan has worked extensively in: Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guinea, India, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Russia, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  She has an MBA from George Washington University, a B.S. from Georgetown University, speaks fluent French and has lived in Togo and Switzerland.

Claire Rademeyer - Former Regional Representative for East, West, Central and Southern Africa

Claire is a Managing Director at Live Moja, a social marketing agency in South Africa. She has an extension network of academics, practitioners, agencies and programmes related to social marketing in southern Africa.  She is also CEO of Footballers for Life, a nonprofit organisation that works in correctional facilities, conducting programmes on life skills and wellness, seeking reduced recidivism and healthy life habits.

Nedra Kline Weinreich

Barry Whittle

Barry Whittle has led the conception, development, implementation and evaluation of social marketing programs to improve health and well being among poor and vulnerable populations for 15 years. Currently a senior director at Population Services International, Mr. Whittle oversees the Latin America/Caribbean region which comprises 12 country offices conducting social marketing programs to improve reproductive health and to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria.  Previously, Mr. Whittle served as Regional Director for PSI's East Africa region and led PSI country offices in Cambodia and Laos.  Mr. Whittle has a masters degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and a bachelor of arts degree in Social Psychology from Columbia University.