The purpose of the BREATHE Advisory Board is to advise, assist, support, and advocate for development and growth of extensive partnerships, both internal and external to the University of Kentucky. The specific purposes of the Board include:
- Provide advice and counsel to the BREATHE Director and research team on matters for which external advice is critical. This may include long range planning and philanthropic endeavors as well as advice on achieving goals related to state, national, and international prominence in policy development, outreach and education, and research.
- Increase awareness of the BREATHE team's work at the state, regional, national and international levels.
- Serve as an advocacy network and ambassadors for the BREATHE team.
- Members of the BREATHE Advisory Board must have attained prominence in their respective careers and are chosen for their value in providing sound counsel to the BREATHE team and its director.
Donna Arnett, PhD, MSPH
Prior Dean of College of Public Health University of Kentucky
Former BREATHE Board Member
Arnett Spotlight
Colmon Elridge
Vice President to Global Development and Membership
International Coach Federation
Elridge Spotlight
Linda Gorton, BSN
Mayor
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government
Gorton Spotlight
Stan Holmes
City Council Member
Radcliff, KY
Holmes Spotlight
Stephanie Hong
Director of Youth Services, LFUCG
Former BREATHE Board Member
Hong Spotlight
Chilota Ilogebunam
#icanendthetrend Advisory Board Member
Student at University of Louisville
Ilogebunam Spotlight coming soon!
Debbie Long
Owner, Dudley's on Short
Long Spotlight
Diane Miller
Retired Public Health Director
Lincoln County Health Department
Miller Spotlight coming soon!
Timothy Wm. Mullett, M.D, MBA, FACS
Professor of Surgery
University of Kentucky
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Mullett Spotlight
Mark Neikirk
Executive Director
Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement
Northern Kentucky University Neikirk
Neikirk Spotlight
Carol Steltenkamp, MD
External Chief Medical Officer
University of Kentucky
Steltenkamp Spotlight
Lee T. Todd, Jr.
Retired President University of Kentucky
Former BREATHE board member
Todd Spotlight
Penny Warren, JD, MBA
Attorney
Warren Spotlight
Ellen J. Hahn, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor Marcia A. Dake Professorship, University of Kentucky
Director, Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy
Hahn Spotlight
Janie Heath, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN
Retired Dean and Warwick Professor of Nursing, University of Kentucky
Former BREATHE Board Member
Heath Spotlight
Rosalie Mainous, PhD, APRN, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN
Dean and Warwick Professor of Nursing, University of Kentucky
Kerrie Moore, MA
Director of Alumni and Philanthropy
University of Kentucky College of Nursing
BREATHE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
Donna Arnett, PhD, MSPH was the Dean of the UK College of Public Health. She is the former associate dean and chair of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. Arnett is also the former president of the American Heart Association. A Kentucky native, Dr. Arnett obtained her Bachelors of Science degree in nursing and a Master’s of Science in public health from the University of South Florida before earning her PhD in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr. Arnett has been an NIH-funded researcher for 20 years and focuses her research on genes related to hypertensive disorders and organ damage that results from hypertension. Dr. Arnett served on the BREATHE board until 2022.
Colmon Elridge is Vice President of Global Development and Membership at International Coach Federation, a non-profit organization designed to help life coaches. Colmon earned a bachelor of arts degree in History from Transylvania University, master's degree in public administration from Eastern Kentucky University and master’s degree in business administration from Sullivan University. Colmon previously worked as executive assistant to Governor Steve Beshear and was elected vice-president of the Young Democrats of America, and later appointed executive vice-president of that organization. Colmon currently serves on the boards of Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, the Alzheimer’s Association of Kentuckiana, the Bluegrass Center for Teacher Quality, Transylvania University, and as Board President of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation of Kentucky, as well as lending his time and energies to numerous other activities aimed at strengthening the broader Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 2014, Colmon was named as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Douglas Flora Dr. Flora serves as the Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services and The Robert and Dell Ann Sathe Endowed Chair in Oncology at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. He was born and raised in Cincinnati, graduating from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1999. He has been named a Cincinnati Magazine Top Doctor in Hematology and Oncology for 16 consecutive years.
Dr. Flora is a Board Member of the American Cancer Society Regional Board and the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology. He also serves on many additional committees for the American Cancer Society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Association of Community Cancer Centers, and the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Flora enjoys international travel with his wife and three children in his spare time.
Linda Gorton received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Kentucky. She worked as a registered nurse for Baptist Physicians of Lexington for 16 years. Linda was then elected as the Vice Mayor and Council Member for Lexington-Fayette County until she recently retired. Linda has been a long-time supporter of smoke-free legislation, voting for Lexington-Fayette County’s smoke-free ordinance in 2003 (the first in Kentucky). Before retiring, Linda championed the amendment of Lexington’s law to prohibit e-cigarette use in all workplaces. She is currently pursuing a career as a writer as a rural, agricultural, and urban enthusiast. On November 6, 2018, she returned to public service as mayor of the city of Lexington, KY.
Stan Holmes has served as a City Council Member for Radcliff, Kentucky since November 2006. He is an Adjunct Professor since 2007 teaching courses on small business management, organizational behavior, and managerial decision making. He also provides professional development training and management consulting through his company, Success in Life, LLC. Mr. Holmes is a “numbers and data” guy, with interest in legislation, continuous education and professional development.
Chilota Iloegbunam Is a freshman at the University of Louisville. She serves on the #icanendthetrend Advisory Board. Chilota's areas of interest include: advising youth centered initiatives, engaging in community projects, offering feedback from a youth perspective, and enjoys planning projects, research and events.
Stephanie Hong is the Director of Youth Services at Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. She served previously as Executive Director at M.A.S.H. Drop In Emergency Shelter. She holds a masters degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University. Ms. Hong's interests are tobacco prevention education to youth; utilizing community resources; policy development and advocacy. Stephanie served on the BREATHE board from 2016-2022.
Debbie Long is owner of Dudley’s on Short and its sister restaurant, Buddy’s. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky in Special Education (Speech and Hearing). Debbie serves on the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Lexington and Fayette Alliance boards, as well as others. Long has won numerous awards including 2001 Woman Business Owner of the Year; 2009 Smiley Pete Award; 1997 Kentucky Restaurant Association’s President Plate Award; 2006 Blue Plate Award-Restaurateur of the Year by Plate magazine; and South’s Best Restaurants By State by Southern Living magazine. Long is a member of the advisory boards of Ashland-The Henry Clay Estate and Sullivan College along with being a member of the Rural Land Management Board of Fayette County and serving as a member of the Board of Regents for Morehead State University.
Mark Neikirk is the executive director of the Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement at Northern Kentucky University. The center works to connect the campus and community by supporting service learning classes, a student philanthropy program, a community lecture series featuring NKU students and faculty, and community public affairs forum. Mark’s background includes 28 years as a journalist, lastly as managing editor of The Cincinnati Post. He is a member of the boards of the Friedell Committee for Healthcare Transformation, the Thomas D. Clark Foundation (University Press of Kentucky), the Behringer-Crawford Museum, and the Cincinnatus Association.
Carol Steltenkamp is the External Chief Medical Officer for the University of Kentucky. In this position she has the opportunity to share with providers across the Commonwealth the outstanding work being done by the clinicians, researchers, and educators at UK HealthCare as well as lending a clinical voice to strategic planning and other outreach activities. Prior to accepting the position as External Chief Medical Officer, Carol was the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Steltenkamp has been active in Health Information Technology at the state, national, and international levels, having served in multiple leadership positions including the chairmanship of the Health Information Systems Society International Board of Directors. Carol has secured over $11 million in grant funding to support research around and implementation of health information technology. Dr. Steltenkamp has proudly cared for the children of the Commonwealth for over 30 years. On a personal note, Carol has been happily married to Dr. Jack Jansen for over 30 years and is the mother of three and grandmother of three. She is an avid University of Kentucky Wildcats fan.
Lee T. Todd, Jr. was the 11th President of the University of Kentucky. Dr. Todd received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from UK. He pursued graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his master’s degree and a doctoral degree before returning to the University of Kentucky as faculty. Dr. Todd has founded two high-technology firms, DataBeam and Projectron. He has received numerous awards for his technical work including induction into the Telecon Magazine Hall of Fame, Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers, and Outstanding Business Leader of the Year to name a few. Dr. Todd was instrumental in providing leadership for UK’s campus to go tobacco-free in 2009. The Lee T. Todd Smoke-free Hero Award is given out annually at the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy’s Spring Conference in his honor. Dr. Todd served on the BREATHE board from 2016-2021.
Penny Warren received her Master of Business Administration from the University of Arkansas and her Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law. Penny was a partner at Wyatt, Tarrant, & Combs, LLP for 16 years before becoming the Director of Mediation and Family Courts Division for the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts. She then moved to an attorney position for the United States District Court for 8 years before starting her own practice. Penny is a passionate advocate for smoke-free environments.
Ellen Hahn, PhD, RN, FAAN is an Alumni Professor in the Colleges of Nursing and Public Health at UK. She holds the Marcia A. Dake Endowed Professorship in the College of Nursing. Dr. Hahn is Associate Director for the Center for Health Services Research, Faculty Associate at UK’s NCI-designated Markey Cancer Center, and facilitator for the Lung Cancer Translational Research Group. Dr. Hahn received her undergraduate degree in nursing from Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University. She earned a Master of Arts in Health Education from The Ohio State University and a Master of Science in community health nursing from Indiana University. In 1992, she completed a PhD in health policy/health of the community with a minor in substance abuse and the family at Indiana University School of Nursing. Dr. Hahn directs the BREATHE (Bridging Research Efforts and Advocacy Toward Healthy Environments) research team which includes the Tobacco Policy Research Program, the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy, and the Radon Policy Research Program. Through the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy, Dr. Hahn and her colleagues have assisted many of Kentucky’s 42 communities to go smoke-free. Hahn and colleagues have published multiple smoke-free workplace policy outcome studies showing positive health effects and no harm to business. In 2010, Dr. Hahn was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, and in 2011, she was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Hahn was named the 2012 UK Provost’s Public Scholar, is the Co-Chair of the UK Tobacco-free Campus Initiative, and is an Ambassador for Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research.
Janie Heath, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN was the Dean and Warwick Professor of Nursing at the University of Kentucky. She was formerly an endowed professor of nursing and the chief academic officer at the University of Virginia and Georgia Health Sciences University. Dr. Heath earned her Master of Science Degree, with a clinical nurse specialist focus, from the University of Oklahoma and her post-master’s certificate with an acute-adult nurse practitioner focus from the University of South Carolina. She completed her PhD in Nursing from George Mason University. She has more than 38 years of acute care nursing experience, has been awarded more than $12 million for academic and/or research initiatives, has generated more than 150 publications and abstracts, and served on numerous task forces for tobacco control.
Rosalie Mainous is a Lexington native and UK doctoral graduate, joined the UK CON as it’s sixth Dean on Nov 14, 2022. She was formerly a RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow; former dean and professor at Wright State University-Miami Valley CON and Health in Dayton, OH; and associate dean for graduate programs and research and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Louisville (U of L) School of Nursing. Mainous most recently served as dean of TWU with campuses in Denton, Dallas and Houston. Along with a PhD in nursing from UK, Mainous has a MSN in Nursing from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and a BSN in nursing from U of L. She is a Distinguished Scholar and Fellow of the National Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Mainous practiced as a neonatal nurse practitioner and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for research. She has worked diligently to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities in those most vulnerable among us – preterm infants. Her scholarship has scanned biobehavioral clinical research, work on incivility, readiness to practice in new BSN graduates, policy initiatives related to maternal access to care, curriculum design, support for new deans and academic rigor for practice doctorates.
Kerrie Moore is the Alumni and Philanthropy Director at the College of Nursing. She is member of the Dean’s senior leadership team, Kerrie directs activities of the College’s philanthropy and alumni office. She first worked for the College in the mid-1990’s as an assistant to Dr. Marcia Stanhope, returning in 2008 as the Recruiter, Graduation and Scholarship Coordinator. Most recently, she was the College’s Alumni and Annual Giving Coordinator. Kerrie graduated from UK with a B.A. in Psychology and WKU with an M.A. in Organizational Leadership and Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Administration. She is a past participant of the UK Humanity Academy, the UKadvance Leadership Development Institute and twice honored as the College’s Employee of the Year.