Stakeholder Committee

Barbara “Basia” Andraka-Christou, JD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Health Management and Informatics
University of Central Florida College of Community Innovation and Education

Barbara “Basia” Andraka-Christou, JD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management & Informatics, with a Joint Secondary Appointment in the College of Medicine, at the University of Central Florida. Andraka-Christou’s research explores substance use disorder treatment from health services and health policy perspectives, including medication-assisted treatment barriers, person-centered care, and mobile health delivery. Additionally, she leads the University of Central Florida Court Health Services & Policy Workgroup. Andraka-Christou’s work has appeared in International Journal of Drug Policy, the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Drug & Alcohol Review, the American Journal of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Substance Abuse, and JAMA Network Open. She has appeared on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Andraka-Christou is the author of the book The Opioid Fix: America’s Addiction Crisis and the Solution They Don’t Want You to Have (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) about the legal, health service, and culture barriers to medications for opioid use disorder. She has also published an interactive electronic textbook, Health Law & Ethics, with Cognella Academic Press. Andraka-Christou received her J.D. and Ph.D. from Indiana University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship there. She received her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Florida. She is a licensed attorney in Florida.

Donald Burke, MD
Distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy, Epidemiology
Jonas Salk Chair in Population Health,
Member, Public Health Dynamics Lab
Dean Emeritus, Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

Donald S. Burke, MD is a Distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy, and former Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health, at the University of Pittsburgh. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Burke received his BA from Western Reserve University (’67) and his MD from Harvard Medical School (’71). He was an intern and resident in medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals and trained as a research fellow in infectious diseases at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Burke has studied prevention and control of infectious diseases of global concern, including HIV/AIDS, influenza, Japanese encephalitis, dengue, and emerging infectious diseases. Burke has lived six years in Thailand, worked extensively in Cameroon, and conducted collaborative vaccine and epidemiology studies in India, China, South Africa, and other countries. He served 23 years as an active duty officer at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, retiring at the rank of Colonel. He then served 9 years as a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Burke joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 where as Dean he founded the Pitt Public Health Dynamics Laboratory, an academic team that develops computational models and simulations of epidemic infectious diseases, substance use disorders, and other dynamic public health problems, and uses these simulations to evaluate prevention and control strategies. He has been on the Board of Health of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) for 11 years. Burke has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications on public health and medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a past-President of the American Society for Tropical Diseases and Hygiene, and an elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine. Burke is the founding President and Board Chairman of Epistemix, Inc., a start-up company that develops computational modeling software solutions for epidemic diseases and other complex social problems.

Ross Silverman, JD, MPH
Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
Temple University College of Public Health

Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH, is Professor of Health Services Administration and Policy and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Temple University College of Public Health, and a Professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He is a member of the Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research. Silverman’s work focuses on public health and medical law, policy, and ethics, with particular concentrations in vaccine law, policy, and ethics, and policy surveillance, the study of variations in, and the impact of, law, its interpretation, and its implementation and enforcement on health outcomes and vulnerable populations. His recent research has appeared in such peer-reviewed publications as the New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, JAMA-Pediatrics, Health Affairs, and the Hastings Center Report. Prior to his tenure at Temple University, Silverman was a Professor at Indiana University’s Fairbanks School of Public Health and McKinney School of Law, and Professor and Chair of Medical Humanities at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service.