One Health Alaska - Keynote Speakers

Tom Hennessy, M.D., M.P.H.

Director, Arctic Investigations Program

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Tom Hennessy is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's field station for infectious diseases in Anchorage.  He is a graduate of Antioch College, the Mayo Medical School and Emory University’s School of Public Health.

Tom Hennessy is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s field station for infectious diseases in Anchorage. He is a graduate of Antioch College, the Mayo Medical School and Emory University’s School of Public Health.

He is trained in family medicine and preventive medicine and is a graduate of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service. Hennessy has served in the U.S. Public Health Service since 1990. He represents CDC on the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, which develops and implements the U.S. Arctic Research Plan.

He is the U.S. representative for the Arctic Human Health Experts Group, a multinational advisory group to the Arctic Council. Hennessy is an affiliate faculty member at University of Alaska Anchorage in the Department of Health Sciences.

Tina Woods, Ph.D.

Senior Director for Community Health Services

Tina Marie Woods is Aleut from St. Paul Island, Alaska, and Chamorro from the Island of Guam. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds a Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology with a rural Indigenous emphasis from the University of Alaska Anchorage and vlog.

She has worked within the Alaska tribal health system for over 17 years and is currently the senior director of community health services at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. She provides leadership for epidemiology, wellness and prevention, community environment and health, clinical and research services, and behavioral health/dental health/community health aide programs — achieving the goals of the organization and its vision that Alaska Native people are the healthiest in the world.

She respectfully blends both Western science and Indigenous practices based on teachings from elders. She has dedicated her academic training and career to working with Alaska Native people to provide quality, holistic and comprehensive health services.
Woods presents with “lived experience” and leverages such experience in combination with science for teaching others about trauma-informed care. She strongly believes in going upstream with prevention efforts in order to make a significant difference for future generations.

Woods sits on the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the Healing and Empowering Alaskan Lives Toward Healthy Hearts Project and on the UAA Psychology Department’s Community Advisory Board. She is a member of the Alaska Psychological Association and American Psychological Association.
She is a member of Alaska Pacific University's Board of Trustees, co-chair of the Alaska Area Specimen Bank Oversight Committee and a member of the Alaska Resilience Steering Committee.