Community Health Worker Certificate Program Instructors

Dr. Antonette Francis-Shearer

Dr. Antonette Francis-Shearer, PhD, CCHW, holds a PhD in Public Health with a specialization in Community Health while maintaining health allied certifications as a CCHW.  She is the Health Education Manager at the USA Health Center for Healthy Communities, where she acts as the project lead for the CHW clinical integration pilot.

Before joining USA, she honed her expertise in serving low-resource, historically marginalized populations, to achieve improved mental and physical health outcomes as the Community Prevention Manager attached to Newark, NJ, for the RWJBH system. Her public health career has seen her function as an E-facilitator in Science, Medicine, & Technology with the University of the West Indies in her native Rep. of Trinidad & Tobago, as well as participate in and complete primary care prevention and screening project initiatives for the European Union and the Pan American Health Organization. She is a member of the National Association of Community Health Workers, the Alabama Public Health Association, and also a member of the American Public Health Association.  There, she has acted as a reviewer for research papers at the national APHA annual conference for several years in the fields of CHW Integration, Community Health & Participatory Research, Community Health Development, Health Promotion, and Health Inequities Research. Her focus on community health promotion has fueled her efforts in advocacy for health equity and the importance of providing tools to empower the person on the street to understand the access and prevention paradigm.

Vanessa Hall

Vanessa Hall is the Executive Director of the Southern Alabama AHEC. She is an Air Force veteran, having served 15 years as an avionics technician, radiologic technologist, instructor/trainer, and manager. While serving, Vanessa achieved the rank of Master Sergeant (E-7) and was stationed in Mississippi, Japan (twice), California, Texas, and Florida. In 2002, she deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Southeast Asia. After her separation from the Air Force in 2013, she served as a Radiology Clinical Instructor at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida. Vanessa has a Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences/Radiologic Science, a Master’s Degree in Human Services Counseling, and a Certificate in Military Resilience. She holds a national certification from the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists and is a member of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. She currently serves on the Alabama Rural Health Association Board of Directors. Working with SAAHEC has allowed her opportunities to engage with healthcare professionals, students, fellow veterans, and other community-based organizations to make a difference in Southern Alabama.

Janel Lowman

Janel Lowman, MHA, Senior Manager of Community Outreach, University of South Alabama Health, Mitchell Cancer Institute

Janel Lowman, MHA has over a decade’s worth of experience in community outreach and education at the University of South Alabama. Ms. Lowman served as Assistant Director for several major grants totaling $7.3 million in external funding. The largest of these grants is the Community Health Workers Training Project funded by the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program as part of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Medical Settlement. This program is designed to enhance health care capacity and strengthen communities in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, by training Community Health Workers in areas affected by the spill.  Ms. Lowman received her certification to train Community Health Workers from Houston Community College in 2011.  Currently, Ms. Lowman’s current role is Senior Manager of Community Outreach with the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Cancer Institute. Her role encompasses developing and implementing cancer screening initiatives throughout the region, conducting training to volunteers and Community Health Workers throughout the region.     

Ms. Lowman regularly collaborates with community leaders and organizations to help identify and meet the needs of underserved communities. She has been extensively involved in developing training curricula, creating and organizing training materials, recruiting program participants, planning and facilitating training sessions.

Ms. Lowman maintains an active academic research agenda, presenting papers at conferences and publishing in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Social Science. She has served as co-chair of the American Public Health Association’s Community Health Workers Award Committee. Her professional memberships include the American Public Health Association and the Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition.  She has also completed the Dr. Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Training in New York, New York.