Make Tobacco Cessation a Part of Your Wellness Culture

Kathleen McCabe, MPA Kathleen is the Managing Director of HRiA’s Policy and Practice Department. For over a decade, she has provided both strategic leadership and technical content expertise to HRiA clients. Kathleen has significant successes in policy and systems changes that reduce health inequities and improve health outcomes. Under her leadership in tobacco prevention, thousands of multi-unit housing units have adopted smoke-free housing policies; she has led strategic discussions in Massachusetts about policy levers that will increase the availability of smoke-free housing units and provides support to residents and landlords for successful implementation. From 2015-2018, Kathleen helped develop and manage the Massachusetts Working on Wellness program. She currently oversees HRiA’s Health in All Policies work, including facilitating the City of Boston’s Health Equity in All Policies Task. She is a regular lecturer at Boston University’s School of Public Health about using Health Impact Assessment as a tool for integrating health into public policy. Ms. McCabe earned a Master in Public Administration from Northeastern University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and human development from Boston College.

Nanette Vitali, MS Nanette Vitali, MS is a Program Manager with the Center for Tobacco Treatment Research and Training, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  In that role, Ms. Vitali manages a capacity-building contract with the MA Dept of Public Health to increase the availability of tobacco cessation resources, promote systems to address tobacco use in healthcare institutions and provide training for health professionals to address tobacco dependence with patients.  Ms. Vitali works on a variety of projects with the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program to support their ongoing cessation initiatives and strategic efforts to address populations with high rates of tobacco use.  Ms. Vitali received an MS in Health Care Management from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, and a BS in Public Health from UMass Amherst School of Public Health.  Prior to joining UMass Medical School, Ms. Vitali held various positions in health-related organizations including non-profit, health care, corporate and managed care settings.