Jenny J. Lee, Ph.D., MPH, CHES

Co-Founder & Vice President

Co-Director, The GoodNEWS Lifestyle Program, Texas Prevention Institute, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
School of Public Health
University of North Texas Health Science Center

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Health Science
College of Education and Health Professions
Columbus State University

Dr. Lee is a South Korean and came abroad to America to further cultivate her instinctively passionate interest in Health and Healthfully Living Way starting with a graduate program at Ohio State University, Columbus. Presently, Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, UNT Health Science Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Science, College of Education and Health Professions, Columbus State University (CSU). She was previously a full-time faculty member at CSU (tenure track) before relocating to Fort Worth, Texas in Summer 2010. Additionally, Dr. Lee is an affiliated faculty of the UNT Health Science Center Texas Prevention Institute, where she serves as Co-Director and Co-Investigator of the Genes, Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness and Spiritual Growth (GoodNEWS) Lifestyle Intervention Trial. The GoodNEWS Trial (RO1 HL087768) is a five-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). She is also Health and Wellness Program Director of Carpenters’ Point Senior Living Center, Dallas, Texas, and Co-Director of the GoodNEWS Wellness Partnership conducted in local United Methodist Church congregations located throughout the Central Texas Conference. Dr. Lee is a Certified Health Education Specialist (C.H.E.S.), designated by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.

During the past two decades, Dr. Lee has been developing and refining her approach to human health and wellness (including community health education and promotion) through broad-based training and working in academic and community settings. During this period, she has completed degree programs in public health education and wellness promotion science, taught and investigated the application of health education and wellness promotion science principles in academic and other settings, and developed practical community-based health and wellness education/promotion programs. After completing her B. A. degree in English Literature & Language and serving as a high school English teacher, Dr. Lee changed her education and career path by entering a field of health and healthful living. Her advanced degree training consists of Master’s degrees in Exercise Physiology and Therapeutic Recreation and two degrees in public health – a Doctorate in Exercise Science with strong interest in Neuro-Behavior Science and a post-doctorate MPH with a concentration in Heath Education and Promotion. Since completing her training, she has been employed professionally in the academic setting as an Assistant Professor of Health Education and Health Science (both tenure and non-tenure track); Wellness Lifestyle Educator and Senior Researcher; Director, Faith and Health Partnerships in a community-based Division of Health and Wellness; and Project Consultant and Program Developer in a Division of Community Medicine.

Dr. Lee is a well known lecturer in the areas of health education and promotion, life and gene sciences, epigenetic lifestyles, community health, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, mental health, and faith-health interactions and partnerships. She has developed workshops and seminars for public health agencies (North Carolina State Health Department and Cumberland County Health Department), community members (Faith-based Organizations and Parish Nurses), and medical students and senior faculty researchers (Division of Community Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Weimar Institute). In addition to lecturing, in 1999, she began developing community-based health intervention programs designed to improve community health through an emphasis on comprehensively healthful lifestyle enhancement. From 1999 – 2003, she developed and pilot tested a collaborative community-based health and wellness promotion program in African-American churches, utilizing a Lay Health Advisor (LHA) model. The Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness, and Smoking Cessation (GoodNEWS) program was designed to improve community health outcomes through strategic partnerships in the faith-based setting. The program was based on the principles of lifestyle enhancement and was designed to reduce risk factors for heart disease among underserved populations. The project was funded through a grant from the Cumberland County Community Foundation, and was the first of its kind in the County and community-academic collaboration.

Based on the results of the GoodNEWS pilot study, Dr. Lee was invited to Dallas, Texas to work as a community-based member of a team of investigators based in the Division of Community Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and devoted to improving community health through faith-health collaborative approaches. As a Director, Faith-Health Partnerships for CitySquare (a large non-profit organization addressing the root causes of poverty in Dallas, Texas), she refined the GoodNEWS (Gene, Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness, and Spiritual Growth) program, for promoting healthfulness and wellness in multiple living contexts (e.g. spiritually, mentally, intellectually, socially, physically, environmentally, and occupationally). Dr. Lee’s expanded program became part of a community disease prevention pilot program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Additionally, the GoodNEWS program has received RO1 funding (2007-2012) from the NIH, and is presently being conducted among 30 African-American congregations in South Dallas, Texas, to test its effectiveness in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In March, 2012, Dr. Lee and her GoodNEWS team will submit a competitive renewal to the NIH in which she will use the original name of the GoodNEWS (Gene, Nurturance, Expression, Wellness, Spirit of Life) program. The GoodNEWS program is also presently active in the Central Texas Conference (CTC) of the United Methodist Church (UMC), and is being pilot tested as the first comprehensive lifestyle enhancement program for low-income seniors at the Carpenter’s Point Senior Living Center in the Dolphin Heights section of South Dallas, Texas.

Most Importantly, Dr. Lee is a Born-Again Christian who, since 1994, has committed her life to living, loving, and serving God and His children. As a dedicated Christian, Health Scientist, and Health Reformer, she has sought and developed an approach to understanding Truth of God’s World including Life, Love, Healthfulness/Healing, and Living Way in the context of both Science and Scripture. For the past 17 years, she has dedicated her life to investigating how God created and guides the human genes and cells (Science) to function according to His character and way (Scripture), so that by living truthfully in the way intended by God, individuals can live loving, healthful, productive, and happy lives. She is one of the pioneers who has conceptualized and developed a full spectrum of God’s Spirit-mind-body-lifestyle-environment interactions based on the Bio-Theology concept where she illustrates a way Word, Chemical, and Energy Processes in the human genes/cells work together through God’s Spirit; and she has also disseminated and advocated her insight of and approach to faith (God)-based comprehensively loving and healthful lifestyles through academic and community settings. Her work and training initially derived from the philosophy she first learned from her mentor, Dr. Sang Lee, M.D., who is the founder of this discipline through his NEWSTART Center located in South Korea. She is also active in Korean-American faith communities, where she is a frequent lecturer on topics of God-based holistically loving and healthful lives. Recently, Dr. Lee co-founded the GoodNEWS Institute along with her partner Dr. Mark DeHaven, Ph.D., who is a dedicated Christian and a leading community medicine researcher, for the purpose of introducing her approach to a nationwide and worldwide audience. The GoodNEWS Institute will provide education, research, and community service designed to reform individuals’ and societies’ approach to loving and healthful living in a way that is more consistent with the original plan for life based on God’s loving principles.

Mark J. DeHaven, Ph.D.

Director, GoodNEWS Lifestyle Enhancement Program
Health Institutes of Texas Professor
Professor of Family Medicine
Research Director, Primary Care Research Institute (PCRI)
University of North Texas Health Science Center

Adjunct Professor and Chief
Division of Community Health Sciences
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Community Engagement Key Function Director
North and Central Texas Clinical and Translational Sciences Initiative (NCTCTSI)
Voting Member of the CTSA Community Engagement National Committee
National Institutes of Health

Dr. DeHaven has been involved in building community health improvement and community-based research capacity for nearly two decades. His contribution to building family medicine research capacity nationwide, earned him the President’s Award in 2006 from the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG), the world’s leading primary care research organization. Since 1994, he has been developing a comprehensive model of community medicine combining clinical science, epidemiology, and social sciences for reducing chronic disease in underserved communities. He is the founder of the UT Southwestern Divisions of Community Medicine and Community Health Sciences, founder of the Community Health Fellowship Program, and founder of the Community Action Research Track. He is currently principal investigator of a 5-year RO1 clinical trial known at The GoodNEWS (Genes, Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness, and Spiritual Growth) Trial, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), investigating community-based approaches for reducing risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the congregational setting. He is also co-investigator of the 5-year RO1 Cancer Risk Intake System (CRIS) trial from the National Cancer Institute (NCI); is community engagement key function director of the U54 Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (North and Central Texas Clinical and Translational Sciences Award) from the National Center for Research Resources of the NIH; and is principal investigator on a GoodNEWS NHLBI supplemental award through the NHLBI.

Dr. DeHaven is a community-based participatory researcher (CBPR), and in 2006 he completed a three-year study funded by the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designed to improve access to care and health outcomes among those without insurance; and he was co-investigator of “Community Leadership in Preventing (CLIP) Asthma,” funded by Exxon-Mobil, a project designed to reduce the risk of asthma in children by improving the home and school environment. Dr. DeHaven is presently developing the Healthy Harvest Community Gardening Initiative for increasing access to healthy and nutritious food choices in neighborhoods where fresh foods are not available. He has participated in more than 26 intramural and extramural grants totaling close to $30 million. Dr. DeHaven has received numerous awards including the Dallas Academy of Medicine Philanthropy Award and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Professional of The Year Award. He is a frequent speaker on sustainable models of urban community health improvement for reducing chronic disease and the contribution of faith – health collaborative approaches to reducing risk factors for disease. He has been a community medicine and health improvement research mentor for hundreds of primary care residents, medical students, research fellows, and faculty in specialties ranging from family medicine and internal medicine, to cardiology, public health, and endovascular surgery. During the past decade he has supervised and directed dozens of projects through global community health electives in 12 countries, and has been active in chronic disease reduction efforts in Mexico and Peru. Dr. DeHaven also developed the Program for the Development and Evaluation of Model Community Health Initiatives in Dallas (PDEMCHID), a program for supporting new innovative community-based care programs, established with a $5,000,000 endowment dedicated to community health improvement in underserved communities.

Anissa Carbajal-Diaz, MPH, CHES

Project Coordinator

Anissa Carbajal-Diaz is the current Project Coordinator with GoodNEWS, a clinical trial funded for the last 4 years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This trial was created through using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease among minority populations in South Dallas with lay health promoters in area church congregations.

Anissa learned about public health during her final year at Rice University in Houston, TX, without any notion this field would become her career passion. While pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic & Classical Studies (Latin American Studies concentration), she took a year-long course in Health Interpreting and Medical Spanish. Through the internship portion of the class, Anissa began an interpreting internship at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The experience was eye-opening and built the foundation for her next two career positions in social/health services and health education.

After graduating from Rice, Anissa spent four years with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) as a Health Care Service Coordinator. Her experience within the Texas Medical Center deepened, as she liaised at clinic visits for patients with neuromuscular disease at a number of different locations, providing education and patient services in Spanish & English on behalf of the MDA. M.D. Anderson beckoned yet again, and she joined the Office of Education in 2003 to educate the American public about every aspect of cancer through the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service call center. Here, she also assisted patrons in search of services and classes through the hospital’s patient information center/library.

A move to north Texas in 2005 led Anissa to the UNT Health Science Center (formerly University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth), where she coordinated a pilot project to break down language barriers in health/medical settings for Spanish-speakers in Tarrant County. Later that year she joined The Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas where she worked as a Bilingual Community Health Educator in the areas of physical activity and nutrition for communities in Dallas and Fort Worth. Through 2010 she held a number of roles at The Cooper Institute, including Development Associate and Research Associate. In these capacities she interacted with the Dallas philanthropic community to garner support for The Cooper Institute and fulfilled research duties for a five-year $3.5M study funded by the National Institutes of Health to examine injury rates in women.

Concurrently, Anissa fulfilled the requirements for a Master of Public Health degree in Community Health at UNT Health Science Center’s School of Public Health. Her area of interest led to a research thesis pilot examining motivational factors for physical activity for African American women in Dallas, TX. She completed her degree in 2008, and in 2011 obtained her CHES (Certified Health Education Specialist) credential, enhancing her training as a health educator and health promotion professional.

In 2011 Anissa began to work with the Texas Prevention Institute at UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, TX as a consultant. She was the co-developer of a 15-week curriculum piloting rhythmic movement, music and health education to improve physical activity and dietary outcomes for children ages 8-12.

The GoodNEWS project offers Anissa the opportunity to share her skill set on yet another large-scale study funded by the National Institutes of Health. She started her work with the GoodNEWS program in June of 2011, and is excited to be a part of a movement with local communities to increase health and wellness where they live, work and play.

Anissa lives in Fort Worth, TX, where she is happily married and mother to two sons. In addition to educating others about healthy living, she enjoys cooking, traveling, playing the guitar, and running trail races and the occasional half-marathon. She attends St. Patrick Cathedral and her last travel adventure took her to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park at the juncture of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers on the borders of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland.

Leilani Ogan, MPH, CHES

Health Education Coordinator

Leilani Ogan is the current Health Education Coordinator with GoodNEWS, a clinical trial funded for the last 4 years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This trial was created through using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease among minority populations in South Dallas with lay health promoters in area church congregations. She started her work with GoodNEWS in July of 2010, and is excited to be a part of a movement with local communities to increase health and wellness where they live, work and play.

Leilani has had an interest in health for as long as she can remember. She attended Texas A&M University with the intent to go to medical school but soon discovered public health and began her journey to studying how to improve the health of populations. During these years she developed a passion for community work through her role as one of the Children Directors for Save Our Streets Ministries. She graduated from A&M in 2005 with a Bachelors of Science in Health, and obtained her credentialing as a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) in 2006.

After college she worked for the national headquarters for Susan G. Komen for the Cure as a Community Health Specialist and took on the vision of the organization to end breast cancer forever. She counseled with individuals to provide education about breast cancer as well as information about diagnosis and treatment, and conducted programs and trainings ranging on topics from accessing breast health resources to building health education committees in Affiliates. She also created the Community Health Learning Collaborative with the goal to establish an ongoing process of learning that would strengthen the capacity of Affiliates to address breast health and breast cancer in their communities. This collaborative focused on developing skills and finding innovative methods in grant management, community mobilizing, cultural awareness and community assessment for the 30 Affiliates who were involved. The work from the collaborative was used as a pilot program that produced results that impacted all 122 Affiliates in the U.S.

In 2008, Leilani left Komen for the Cure to continue her education by pursuing a Masters of Public Health, in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC. There she focused her training in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and qualitative research methods through working on several projects with minority populations and aging adults to address health issues ranging from falling to cardiovascular disease and school dropout. She also worked as a Health Promotion Specialist for Counseling and Wellness Services at UNC’s Campus Health developing resources for student health education including podcasts and news articles. Leilani also collaborated with Student Affairs to develop social marketing materials to reduce college student alcohol use. In addition in her final year at UNC, she worked as a Graduate Assistant for Dr. Alexandra Lightfoot at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention collaborating on several CBPR projects including Project SOULS, a youth based Photovoice project examining barriers to health and academic achievement among African American youth. She worked with several community partners to develop projects that focus on school dropout as a public health issue, and served as the teaching assistant for Dr. Eugenia Eng and Dr. Lightfoot’s class: Community Capacity, Competence, and Power: Community-Based Participatory Research and Photovoice.

Leilani now lives in Dallas, Texas and attends The Village Church in Dallas. She is excited to be back in the Dallas area working to improve health with communities through the GoodNEWS Program.

Daniel Choi

Student Intern

Daniel Choi is currently serving as an intern for the GoodNEWS Project under the guidance of Dr. DeHaven and Dr. Lee. He is a junior undergraduate student at Dartmouth College pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and the Dickey Center Certificate in Global Health. After graduating from Dartmouth, he plans on continuing his education at the University of Texas at Dallas in the biomedical sciences prior to seeking a MD/MPH dual degree.

Daniel first recognized the importance of public health, health administration, and health education while volunteering as a field intern with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in the summer of 2010 in Bangalore, India. During his time in India, he came in contact with administrators at the Bangalore Baptist Hospital (BBH) and worked with the rural health and palliative care units. With the medical teams, he made trips to the Mother Theresa Hospital and nearby village clinics, oftentimes in areas that did not have reasonable access to or sufficient resources for basic healthcare. In collaboration with the Mobile Enrichment Ministries and the BBH doctors, he helped initiate a free medical camp at a local elementary school compound. In the midst of all of these experiences, Daniel began thinking seriously about how the issue of health in these rural, poverty-stricken areas could be bettered if not resolved and, successively, what paradigm shifts needed to be made in the current global and public health frameworks. Feeling hopeless that he could not make a direct impact then and there, he resolved to further his understanding of the fields and trends of public health upon return to the States.

Over the last two years, through coursework in healthcare policy and environmental sciences, volunteering and shadowing at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and extensive networking via the Dartmouth Medical School and the Texas Medical Centers, Daniel has been working towards building a critical knowledge base to serve the health community. The internship with the GoodNEWS Project offers him the chance to develop practical skill sets for this purpose. Though under a limited time constraint, he is excited to work with the rest of the GoodNEWS staff to promote and facilitate healthy living and wellness in the Dallas-Fort Worth community.

When: Thursday – June 16th, 2011 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: First CME Church / 7575 S. Hampton Rd. Dallas, TX 75232 (map here)
Topic: Writing grants to support your ministry with Dr. DeHaven

When: Thursday – May 19th, 2011 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: First CME Church / 7575 S. Hampton Rd. Dallas, TX 75232 (map here)
Topic: Connecting to the Truthful Way of Living Life with Dr. Jenny Lee

When: Thursday – April 21st, 2011 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: First CME Church / 7575 S. Hampton Rd. Dallas, TX 75232 (map here)
Topic: Developing community partnerships

Date: Saturday, April 9th

Time: TBA

Location: Carpenter’s Point Senior Living Center

4645 Dolphin Rd. Dallas, TX 75223

Date: Saturday, May 21st

Time: 9:00 am

Location: To be announced