Poirier Appointed Senior Fellow

Nov. 12, 2009 - PRLog -- Jacksonville, FL —Rhonda Davis Poirier, Dr.P.H. of Jacksonville, Florida has been appointed a Senior Fellow at the Center for Infrastructure Protection (CIP) at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia where she will be involved in public health and community health care delivery issues. Over the years the Center has performed work for federal agencies, public and private partnerships, and academic institutions worldwide.

The Center is internationally recognized as a leading facilitator and provider of infrastructure protection programs that help secure and defend the United States and its allies. Its work integrates law, policy, and technology areas in order to conduct comprehensive infrastructure protection analysis and research, including resiliency studies, security assessments, educational initiatives, and recommendations relevant to improving U.S. homeland and international security. The Director of CIP, (ret.) Lieutenant General Claude “Mick” Kicklighter, has held a number of senior positions in the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and Veterans Affairs.

The CIP Fellows program was created to assemble the best subject-matter experts in various fields to assist the Center in its work. As a group, the Fellows include distinguished international representatives from academia, government, and the private sector who offer decades of expertise in numerous disciplines.  Dr. Poirier’s deep knowledge and experience with our country’s complex health care delivery system is particularly important to the CIP’s mission. She brings to the Center an extensive background in public health, community health care delivery and administration, health information exchange technology, and health care financing.   This has included roles as president of TREGA Partners International, LLC, a consulting firm serving the strategic and financing needs of health care related businesses. During her career, she has worked in the private sector, been a senior officer of a national health care association, worked in state and local government, been elected to public office, taught at the university graduate school level, and has been involved as a volunteer in numerous public service organizations.  

Locally, she was the founding president and chief executive officer of JaxCare, Inc., which became a nationally recognized Jacksonville-based nonprofit organization that provided a low cost health care plan for small businesses to offer their uninsured low-wage workforce.  In addition, under her direction JaxCare developed the Jacksonville Health Information Exchange Network for Medicaid and uninsured patient records.  For her work Dr. Poirier was recognized by the Jacksonville Business Journal and given their first “Health Care Hero Award” for community service.  

Dr. Poirier received her doctorate degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, School of Public Health and did postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.