Linelle  Blais

Linelle is the Executive Director of the Emory Centers for Training and Technical Assistance, and Associate Research Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.  She is also Associate Director, Executive MPH Program, Prevention Science Track for the Executive MPH program. As a health psychologist and certified professional facilitator, Linelle’s professional goals are to translate science into practice that works through professional development of people, programs and practices. 

Linelle and her nationwide team of staff and consultants provide services to health professionals, organizations and communities that build professional competencies and capabilities. This includes community coalition building and strategic planning, program development and evaluation, training institutes, leadership academies, and workshop development both virtual and online, curriculum development and toolkits, communication and sustainability planning, and group facilitation, e-coaching, and specialized assessments. Emory Center’s is adept at developing behaviorally sound learning technologies for health, including collaborative network communities, mhealth text messaging, and learning management systems. 

Emory Centers has two dedicated Centers, the Diabetes Training and Technical Assistance Center and the Tobacco Training and Technical Assistance Consortium, as well as services that span across multiple other public health issues (currently Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive health, oral health, substance abuse, rural health, and Ebola). Emory Centers is a CDC recognized training site for the delivery of CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program’s lifestyle change program. To date, Emory Centers – DTTAC has trained almost 2000 lifestyle coaches representing over 750 organizations in over 45 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico over the last 3 years. In partnership with Arogya World and its Clinton Initiative partners, Emory Centers led the development of theory based mhealth text messages for diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease, physical activity and nutrition, which reached over one million people in India, with a specific emphasis on rural populations.  Emory Centers currently leads several peer learning and resource networks; DTTAC Common Ground™ for diabetes prevention lifestyle coaches, a CDC Surveillance and Evaluation Network for the Office of Smoking and Health, and the In the Know Learning™ knowledge management system developed for the Public Health Academy of Oklahoma to integrate efforts across 3 different health organizations for collective impact.  Linelle and her team are also proud of the recent college curriculum on Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive health developed in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association and CDC for undergraduate students of public health.

Prior to joining Emory, Linelle worked as a National Executive at the American Cancer Society’s National Home Office in Atlanta where she directed applied community research and program evaluation projects in health education, designed a strategic approach to voluntarism and community partnerships, and led nationwide organizational engagement initiatives as a National Vice President in Field Operations, Voluntarism, and Talent Strategy. With the Cancer Prevention Research Center at the University of Rhode Island, she conducted health behavior change research and theory testing. Linelle also worked at Brown University’s Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research addressing cancer patient and caregiver unmet needs.

Linelle currently teaches BSHE 500 and BSHE 504D which address social behavior and public health.