Staff Bios

Terri D. Wright, Director

Terri D. Wright is the director of the newly established Center for School, Health & Education Division of Public Health Policy and Practice at the American Public Health Association. She will provide leadership to the strategic development and integration of public health in school-based health care and education.

She recently retired from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, MI where she served for 12 years as a program director for health policy. In that capacity Terri developed and reviewed the Foundation’s health programming priorities and initiatives, evaluated and recommended proposals for funding, and administered projects and initiatives. She also assisted in public policy analysis and related policy program development, as well as provided leadership to the Foundation’s school-based health care policy program.

Previously, Terri was maternal and child health director and bureau chief for Child and Family Services at the Michigan Department of Community Health in Lansing, Michigan. In that role, she managed policy, programs and resources with the goal of reducing preventable maternal, infant, and child morbidity and mortality through policy and programming.

She received her bachelor’s degree in community and school health, as well as her New York State certification in secondary school education from the City University of New York and her master’s of public health degree in health planning and administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is currently a doctoral candidate in public health at the University of Michigan.

Terri takes an active leadership role in several professional associations and community organizations including the American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities.

Leslie Parks, Deputy Director

Leslie Parks joined the Center for School, Health and Education at the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Washington, D.C., in June 2010. Parks is responsible for the programmatic, financial management, and administration of the Center in coordination with the Center’s director.

Prior to coming to APHA, Parks worked for Georgia State University in the Institute for Public Health’s National SafeCare Training and Research Center.  There she coordinated the state wide effort to train and implement SafeCare, an evidence based parent education model adopted by the Georgia Department of Human Services to prevent child maltreatment.

Ms. Parks has more than 30 years of professional experience and a diverse background in both private industry and non profit administration.  Her experience includes; project planning and management, grant writing, and leading a departmental self study for national accreditation. She has worked both in the United States and abroad.

Parks has an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and plans to complete a Master of Social Work.  She also has a keen interest in wellness and food as medicine.

Britta Mason, Marketing and Communications Assistant

Britta Mason has been the Marketing and Communications Assistant for the Center for School, Health and Education at the American Public Health Association since May 2011. Britta’s responsibilities include updating and maintaining the Center’s website, assisting with issue brief development, and researching related stories and news issues.

Britta is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in public health, with a focus on global health communication, at the George Washington University. Prior to joining the Center, Britta spent four months in Kenya as part of her Master’s program, designing occupational health interventions and volunteering at a children’s hospital. Britta has also spent time in Chile, where she taught English in a rural public high school.

After earning her Bachelors of Science in human biology from the University of California San Diego, Britta spent two years as a Reproductive Health Assistant with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, where she counseled women on contraceptive choices, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. Many of Britta’s past professional experiences have focused on reproductive health and minority populations, and she maintains a keen interest in both of these areas.