ACA and CDC Town Hall for Camps and Out of School Time Professionals (May 11, 2022)

Watch the Town Hall

• Links shared during Town Hall
• FAQ's from Q&A prepared by ACH

We welcome camp directors and out-of-school time professionals to attend a free 75-min Town Hall style webinar to ask questions about the current state of the pandemic and the implications of the latest variant on camp operations. We will cover the latest information on the coronavirus, details regarding recent changes to CDC guidance, current information related to testing and vaccination.

Moderator: Henry DeHart, COO, ACA

Panelists:

• Tom Rosenberg, President and CEO, ACA
• Neha Kanade-Cramer, MPH COVID-19 Response Lead, Guidance and Technical Assistance | School Support Section STLT Support Task Force , CDC
• Vidur Sharma, Policy Advisor, White House COVID-19 Response Team
• Erin Hemlin, Partnerships Director, We Can Do This Campaign, HHS;  We Can Do This Summer Camp Toolkit
• Laura Blaisdell, MD, MPH, FAAP, MaineHealth, Blaisdell Consulting  
• Tracey Gaslin, PhD, CPNP, FNP-BC, CRNI, RN-BC, The Alliance for Camp Health

Panelist Bios

Tom Rosenberg is the President and CEO of the American Camp Association (ACA). He is a leading voice for young people today, advancing the public’s understanding of the value of camp for everyone as an essential developmental and educational experience. Through Tom’s leadership, ACA has adopted a bold and ambitious strategic plan to accelerate ACA’s organizational growth and sustainability.

Neha Kanade-Cramer, MPH is a Health Scientist, leading the Schools Unit within the Community Intervention and Critical Populations Task Force for CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response. She started at the CDC in 2012 primarily to develop and update technical guidance and to create communication, education, and training resources for pandemic flu community mitigation and nonpharmaceutical interventions. Neha co-led the development of the Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza – United States, 2017 published as an MMWR-RR in April 2017, which was used as the foundation for the COVID-19 response. She holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management from Emory University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Planning and Administration from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Laura Blaisdell, MD/MPH, FAAP, Dr. Blaisdell, MD/MPH, FAAP is a pediatrician, researcher and advocate.  For 20 years, she has consulted in camp medicine, while serving as Medical Director at Camp Winnebago. She currently is Vice President of Maine AAP and a founding member of Maine Families for Vaccines. Dr. Blaisdell researches parental vaccine hesitation with Maine Medical Center. Additionally, she served site director for the National Children’s Study, as Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at MMC, as Chief of Pediatrics at InterMed, and currently is Trustee to Mercy Hospital in Portland. She is an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She resides in South Portland, ME with her two sons and husband, Andy Lilienthal.

Tracey Gaslin, PhD, CPNP, FNP-BC, CRNI, RN-BC, is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Camp Health, Tracey is a professor and dual-certified nurse practitioner in pediatrics and adults.  She completed her PhD in Educational and Organizational Leadership and taught for 10 years specializing in camp nursing, service leadership, and hematology. Dr. Gaslin periodically works as a camp consultant and legal consultant and publishes the majority of her work in the areas of bleeding disorders, camp nursing, and leadership. Dr. Gaslin served as the medical director at a special needs camp for six years.  She currently serves as a hemophilia nurse practitioner and the executive director for the Alliance for Camp Health where she travels to different areas of the US and Canada educating healthcare providers about camp.

Erin Hemlin, Partnerships Director, We Can Do This Campaign, HHS, serves as a Strategic Partnerships Director for the COVID-19 Public Education Campaign within the office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. In her role, she works to amplify the campaign’s outreach through trusted messengers and community partners who can best reach underserved communities.

Prior to joining HHS, she served as the Director of Health Policy and Advocacy for Young Invincibles (YI), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for young adults. At YI, Erin oversaw health policy for the organization, and led YI’s public education campaign focused on helping young people access health coverage. She has authored reports focused on young adult health and was a contributing author to the textbook Navigating Health Insurance. Her work has been frequently cited in the media, including major publications like NPR, NBC News, and The New York Times. Erin has a Master’s in political science from George Mason University and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Edward’s University.