The Development Council

Kimberly Scott, DrPH, MPH, CHES
Assistant Health Director, Population Health at Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, NC
Chair

Kimberly received a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Biology from Albany State University. She is also a 2009 Georgia Southern University MPH graduate concentrating in Community Health Education. In December 2021 she received her DrPH from University of South Florida.

Kimberly leads ‘Live Well Wake’, a Wake County, NC Human Services initiative dedicated to building a community that supports good health and quality of life for all residents without regard to race, age, gender, location, or other circumstances. In this role, she oversees more than 100 community partners to advance community health by addressing the social determinants of health and related disparities influencing population health outcomes. Prior to this role, she served as Horizons Community Solution’s Vice President of Community Health. 

Dedicated to community service, she currently serves as a Board Member for Ladies of Favor Dream Academy. She also serves on the South Atlanta High School HOSA Advisory Board, where she guides the design and implementation of their high school public health curriculum. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Kelley Chester, DrPH
Co-Founder and Principal at Thought Bridge, LLC

Dr. Kelley Chester is a scientist, informatician, educator, wife, and mother. She is an experienced informatics professional with more than 25 years experience in the healthcare and public health informatics fields. 

Dr. Chester received a Juris Master degree in the area of Healthcare Regulation in 2021. She received a Doctor of Public Health degree concentrating in Public Health Leadership in 2010, Master of Public Health degree concentrating in Biostatistics in 2007, and Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance in 1993. All three degrees were earned at Georgia Southern University. Dr. Chester also holds a professional certificate in Public Health Informatics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Women in Leadership certificate from Cornell University. 

She is the Co-Founder and Principal at Thought Bridge LLC which provides scientific and technical consulting for domestic and global public health organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kelley lives in the north-metro Atlanta area with her husband and her teenage son.  

Randall Ford, DDS
JPHCOPH DrPH Student

Dr. Randall (Randy) Ford is a graduate student at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health with a concentration in leadership. He is a retired dentist. He has a master’s degree in conflict management and is an entrepreneur and Healthcare administrator.

For the past thirty years he has practiced in and owned multiple dental facilities and two dental assisting schools. He is also executive director of the Tennessee Dental Society of Anesthesiology.

Sara Plaspohl, DrPH
Retired

Dr. Sara S. Plaspohl has had a career in public health spanning more than forty years, providing a combination of clinical, regulatory, administrative, and academic services. She received her A.S. in Dental Hygiene in 1978 and her B.S. in Dental Hygiene Education in 1989 from Armstrong State College. She completed her MHS in 1992 and her DrPH in Community Health Behavior and Education in 2010 from Georgia Southern University. She earned distinction as the first DrPH graduate of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health.

Dr. Plaspohl worked at Memorial Health University Medical Center from 1994 to 2010, mostly as a Research Ethics Officer overseeing human subject protections in 350+ clinical trials. She taught part-time at Armstrong for 17 years, before joining Armstrong’s Department of Health Sciences full-time in 2010. She served as the MPH program coordinator for 5 years, and has recently retired from the Waters College of Health Professions as the Associate Dean. She served as a board member for the Chatham County Board of Health and the Georgia Southern University Alumni Association. She now consults as a public health academic accreditation specialist, and serves as Vice Chair of the Executive Board of Directors for Hospice Savannah, Inc.  

Chris Rustin, DrPH, MS, REHS
Deputy Commissioner for the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Public Health Administrator for the Chatham County Health Department

As Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Rustin assists the Commissioner of Public Health with the direction and oversight of DPH and its 159 County Health Departments. He previously served as the Director of Health Protection overseeing DPHs largest division with oversight of numerous public health programs.

Dr. Rustin holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology, Master of Science in Safety and Environmental Compliance, and a Doctor of Public Health with an emphasis on Community Health from both Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University, respectively. He has taught Environmental Health Science at Georgia Southern and holds adjunct faculty appointments at several universities in Georgia. He is a Registered Environmental Health Specialist with the Georgia Board of Registered Environmental Health Professionals, and a Fellow with the CDC Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute.

Andreas Sashegyi, PhD
Senior Director of Statistics, Oncology Business Unit, Eli Lilly and Company

Andreas Sashegyi is the Senior Director of Statistics within the Oncology Business Unit at Eli Lilly and Company. He obtained a PhD in biostatistics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 1998, and joined Lilly later that year. Over his career at the company he has supported the late-stage clinical and life-cycle development of compounds in numerous therapeutic areas, including endocrine, cardiovascular, critical care, immunology and, since 2013, oncology.  He also spent 6 years in a portfolio management role, delivering insights through portfolio analytics and advising management on key investment decisions for compounds moving to registration phase development. His areas of interest include trial design and clinical plan optimization, benefit-risk assessment, and decision analysis in pharmaceutical R&D.

Stephen Holland
Director of Development, Georgia Southern University
Ex-officio member

Stephen was raised in Savannah, and is proud to call Savannah home.  He is also a double-eagle, graduating from Armstrong, and then to Georgia Southern for his graduate degree.  Stephen also played baseball as a pitcher his first two years at Armstrong.

Upon graduation, Stephen moved to Atlanta, and lived there 19 years.  He also lived in Myrtle Beach for 2 and a half years before moving back to Savannah in 2021.  Stephen has worked in the nonprofit sector for the last 13 years, with tenure in organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association, the American Red Cross, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank, before moving into higher education advancement.

In his spare time, Stephen enjoys reading and writing, loves music, and playing acoustic blues guitar.  Stephen also treasures the time he is able to spend with friends and loved ones.