Staff
Aaron Wernham, project director
Aaron Wernham, M.D., is the director of the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) and support the growth of the field in the United States.
Dr. Wernham is an HIA expert who has led multiple HIAs at the state and federal levels. He sits on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on HIA, and has conducted HIA trainings for, collaborated with and advised numerous health and environmental regulatory agencies on integrating HIAs into their programs. Prior to joining Pew, Dr. Wernham was a senior policy analyst with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, where he led the first successful efforts in the United States to formally integrate HIAs into the federal environmental impact statement process. Dr. Wernham also directed a collaborative state-tribal-federal working group on HIAs that developed HIA guidance for federal and state environmental regulatory and permitting efforts.
Dr. Wernham received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and a master’s degree in health and medical sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Board certified in family medicine, he previously served as clinical faculty in the University of California, Davis, family medicine residency program at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.
Kara Vonasek, project manager
Kara Vonasek is the project manager of the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) and support the growth of the field in the United States.
Before joining Pew, Ms. Vonasek was a senior policy analyst at the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, where she specialized in childhood obesity and children’s health policy, and managed Healthy Kids, Healthy America, a 15-state grant program designed to prevent childhood obesity through policy and environmental change at the state level. She has held a number of positions in the public health field, serving as a communications associate for the public health and childhood obesity teams at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; a communications consultant for Hill & Knowlton’s Washington, D.C., health policy practice; and a medical writer in the clinical trial field.
Ms. Vonasek has a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in social and behavioral sciences. She earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
Saqi Maleque, senior associate
Saqi Maleque is the senior associate of the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) and support the growth of the field in the United States.
Before joining Pew, Ms. Maleque was a research associate at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in the Department of Health Policy. She developed research-based policy briefs and reports for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America, a national Commission focused on the social determinants of health and eliminating health disparities. She also conducted a program evaluation of a District of Columbia Department of the Environment low-income energy assistance "REACH" pilot program targeted to the medically vulnerable; served as an editorial assistant at the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved; and developed a website designed to present salient research on health care disparities in underserved communities. She spent many years working as a social worker, serving victims of intimate partner violence and children with mental health and substance abuse illnesses.
Ms. Maleque is a doctoral candidate in public health with a concentration in health policy at the George Washington University. She received her master of science in public health with a concentration in health services administration from Meharry Medical College and a bachelors of science in biology and psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Bethany Rogerson, associate
Bethany Rogerson is the associate for the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) and support the growth of the field in the United States.
Ms. Rogerson joined the Health Impact Project after completing her master’s degree. During graduate school, she worked with the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, where she developed policy briefs and examined studies on mental health bed capacity. Prior to that, she assisted the policy and development departments at the League of Conservation Voters in Washington, D.C., as well as the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.
Ms. Rogerson received a master’s degree in social policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of arts in environmental studies from the University of Michigan.
Malia Hayashida-Knight, administrative assistant
Malia Hayashida-Knight is the administrative assistant for the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) and support the growth of the field in the United States.
Prior to joining Pew, Ms. Hayashida-Knight was a program coordinator for the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, mentoring and supporting recent college graduates in year-long internships with nonprofit organizations. She was a case worker with Jubilee Jobs, Inc., providing counseling and referral services to job seekers. At the Center for Poverty Solutions, she offered administrative support to the public policy team addressing hunger and homelessness in the State of Maryland.
Ms. Hayashida-Knight has a bachelor of arts degree in international studies from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.
