Staff

Cheryl Moder
Senior Director, Collective Impact
San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
858.609.7961
email

Cheryl Moder is Director of the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative, a public/private partnership whose mission is to reduce and prevent childhood obesity in San Diego County by creating healthy environments for all children and families through advocacy, education, policy development, and environmental change. Working with Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP), Ms. Moder is responsible for mobilizing partnerships among multiple domains and coordinating countywide efforts to prevent and reduce childhood obesity. Prior to her work with the Initiative, Ms. Moder served as a consultant to many health and human service organizations in the field of health promotion, communications, grant writing and research as vice president of Moder Research & Communications, Inc. She also worked for Sharp HealthCare providing leadership in tobacco control and prevention.

JuliAnna Arnett
Senior Manager, Operations and Food Systems
San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
858.609.7962
email

JuliAnna Arnett is the Senior Manager, Operations and Food Systems, for the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (Initiative), a program facilitated by Community Health Improvement Partners. In her position, she has provided oversight to the Healthy Works^SM School and Community Gardens Program in the promotion of resident-friendly garden policies in San Diego County cities and school districts and the establishment of five regional garden education and training centers.  In her tenure with the Initiative, Ms. Arnett has served on a number of state and local committees related to gardens, farm to school, farmers' markets, food stamps, and hunger. She is a founding member of the San Diego Food System Work Group and Nutrition in Healthcare Food Service Committee. Ms. Arnett also helps facilitate the San Diego County Farm to School Taskforce. Prior to working with the Initiative, she served two years as an AmeriCorps Volunteer (i.e., domestic Peace Corps) advancing community, city, and state initiatives to eliminate poverty and improve health.

Melanie Briones, MPH, MBA
Sr. Project Manager
San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
858.609.7976 
email

Melanie Briones is the Sr. Project Manager for the Community Health Improvement Partners HEAL Zone project in Lemon Grove with the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative.  She has several years of public health community research, program evaluation, health policy research and analysis, and strategic planning experience.  Prior to her position at CHIP, Ms. Briones worked as the Sr. Health Policy Analyst for the Central Valley Health Policy Institute where she facilitated a regional collaborative effort between the eight San Joaquin Valley county Public Health Departments.  Prior to this, she provided data analysis and program evaluation expertise for the Stanislaus County Public Health Department, USCF-Fresno Latino Center for Medical Research, and California Public Health Department Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch.  Ms. Briones earned her BA in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPH from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology, and an MBA from St. Mary's College, Moraga.

Melanie Cohn
Manager
San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
858.609.7963
email

Melanie Cohn has been a Manager at the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative since August 2010. Melanie leads the COI Youth Engagement and Action for Health (YEAH!) program, COI government relations, and social media efforts. She is the co-chair of the San Diego Hunger Advocacy Network, and serves as the Secretary of the Mid-City CAN Coordinating Council. Prior to assuming these duties, Melanie worked on special projects at Price Charities, acting as a grant officer to organizations that applied for funding, performing community outreach, and providing support for educational, social services and community benefit programs. Melanie also worked for a State Assembly Member from 2005 until 2009, serving in all positions from Office Coordinator to Interim District Director. She has extensive knowledge of State and local legislative issues, and spends her free time volunteering for political campaigns. Melanie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, with minors in Art History and Sociology, from the University of California, San Diego.

Marie Lawrence
Coordinator
San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
858.609.7964
email

Marie Lawrence is the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI) Coordinator. In this role, Marie serves as the public's first point of contact with the COI, arranges and records COI meetings, and composes the monthly newsletter, among other responsibilities. Before she took on this role, Marie worked at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C., where she curated large-scale public events and conducted policy research on issues ranging from agroecology to economic policy to U.S.-Mexico relations, for a number of book authors. Prior to joining New America, Marie served as an Emerson National Hunger Fellow, performing research and writing on domestic food security and immigration for the Arizona Community Action Association in Phoenix, Ariz., and the National Conference of State Legislatures in D.C. Marie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy studies from Duke University. During her undergraduate career, she also completed internships at the United Way of New York City and in NYC Mayor Bloomberg's office under the city's first ever Food Policy Coordinator.