Healthy Start MomCare Network Staff and Board Members

Judi Vitucci has forty-five years of diverse experience in health care and public health. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner who has taught nursing at universities, managed multiple hospital departments, and an early intervention program for children with developmental delays. Her strengths include new program planning and implementation, community collaboration, use of quality improvement techniques and program evaluation.

Judi has a systems perspective which has helped her be a successful grant writer with over 46 million dollars secured from federal, state and local resources for maternal child services since 1982. She wrote the first MIECHV grant application for the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions.

Judi was the Executive Director of the Pinellas Healthy Start Coalition Pinellas from 2005 to 2014 and the President of the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions in 2011.

Judi is a maternal child health advocate who has served on multiple advisory boards, project teams and committees at the local, state and national level. She has an advanced CQI training certificate from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) which helped prepare her for her current CQI consultant role for the FAHSC MIECHV grant since 2015.

Vanessa Rowland-Mishkit is the former Clinical Director of the Central Hillsborough Healthy Start Project, a program of REACHUP, Inc. As Clinical Director, she acted as the professional liaison between the Federal Healthy Start Project, State Healthy Start, Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County and providers in the community. She has vast experience working with the Healthy Start System of Care, developing policies and procedures for Perinatal staff including risk assessment, quality improvement, clinical oversight, technical assistance, educating nursing/medical staff and paraprofessionals. In addition to her 39 years nursing experience in high-risk obstetrics, she also has experience with medically fragile pediatric clients. Vanessa received her BSN from Columbia University School of Nursing and obtained a Graduate Certificate in Leadership from the University of South Florida. Ms. Rowland-Mishkit is also licensed as a Health Care Risk Manager. She is currently semi-retired and enjoying her time with her grandchildren.

Ms. Szorcsik is the Executive Director for Capital Area Healthy Start Coalition.  She accepted the position in July of 2019 and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Coalition, staff, programs, sustainability, and execution of its mission.  Chris has worked with the Capital Area Healthy Start Coalition for 4 years and has more than 15 years of experience in operations.

Before becoming the Executive Director, Chris served as the Director of Operations.  She was responsible for overseeing the daily operations for the Coalition including accounting, human resources, and office administration.

She grew up in the Midwest before moving to Tallahassee with her husband, Joe, and children, Tyler and Alyssa.  Chris holds a bachelor’s degree from Crown College in Early Childhood Education and has her Human Resources certification from the University of Minnesota.

Ms. Trainor is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native and attend The University of Bridgeport, Connecticut before moving south to Florida to later graduate with a Bachelor of Science from Florida State University.  Sharon began her journey as an advocate for those less fortunate by “doing the most good” for The Salvation Army as the Social Services Director and led in their development of their Transitional Housing Shelter that provided 12 apartments for homeless families in need. Sharon was then asked to spearhead the initiation of a brand-new home visiting program to the Bay County area in the late 90’s called Early Head Start Home Based Services.  Sharon then became pregnant and had a challenging pregnancy that led her to the Healthy Start Program and all the enhanced services they had to offer. 

Sharon began advocating within the Maternal and Child Health Community over 20 years ago and continues to support the challenges faced by this population daily as the director of The Bay, Franklin, Gulf, Healthy Start Coalition for over 17 years.  Sharon has served as the local Homeless Coalition chair, the chair of the Panama City Kiwanis, an Alignment Bay County organization newborn to 5 youth chairperson, Healthy Families Board member and a lifelong Salvation Army Board member. Sharon has also served several terms as an executive committee member for the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, Inc. 

Sharon is constantly humbled by the challenges the families face in her area and whenever she able to help she jumps in feet first!  If its writing a grant for thousands of dollars or just giving a family in need of food all the cash in her wallet at the time just to feel that she is making a difference no matter how small. 

Ms. Moderie has twenty years of experience in public health with a focus in maternal child health. She has been the Chief Operations Officer for the WellFlorida Council since 2013, and the Director for two Healthy Start Coalitions, covering 16 north central Florida counties, since 2007.

In addition, Ms. Moderie has been an adjunct lecturer since 2011 at the College of Public Health and Health Professions teaching a course on public health issues in maternal and child health.

Prior to joining WellFlorida, Ms. Moderie was a research coordinator the Maternal Child Health and Education Research and Data Center at the University of Florida.

Ms. Moderie earned her bachelor’s in psychology and master’s in public health both at the University of Florida.

Under her leadership, the Healthy Start coalition has expanded its services to include MIECHV – Parents as Teachers, CAPTA Nurse-Family Partnership, NewboRN Home Visiting Program, and two Safe Kids Coalition covering 12 North Central Florida

Shannon Rosier has over 20 years’ experience in fiscal and financial management.  Shannon’s career started in Florida working in government and political accounting.  She has operated a Certified Public Accounting Firm in Tallahassee, FL since 2004.  Shannon became a Florida Notary in 2002 and remains current.  While attending classes at Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University, she became a Certified Bookkeeper, then successfully passed the IRS Enrolled Agents exam (tax expert) before finishing her required courses for the CPA exam through The University of Phoenix.  In 2014 she became a Certified Forensic Accountant and works with all Law Enforcement agencies and circuit courts pertaining to financial crimes and civil issues. 

Shannon spent 4 years working with the National Republican Party, working on the Campaigns of Bush & Chaney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and the Bush Law Library.  She has worked with many Non-Profits as the Project Manager and Fiscal Administrator, starting Coalitions and preforming Grant Management services.  Shannon was inducted as an honorary member of the FAMU Gamma Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the FSU Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity (Fiji) for her years of dedicated service to both organizations.  She led multiple fund-raising events that provided scholarships to thousands of low-income students, working through the Alpha Educational and Leadership Foundation, Inc.  She has served as the CFO of a local group home provider and assisted DCF/DJJ with internal financial audits.

Shannon grew up in Sarasota, FL before moving to Tallahassee in 1992 to attend college where she met her husband of 28 years.  She is devoted to community service and had been a year-round volunteer Head Coach for the YMCA and the City of Tallahassee youth sports programs for over 13 years.  Three of her of four children have graduated college on full athletic scholarships, and the last will graduate high school in 2021 then go off to college.

Fran T. Close, Ph.D., is full Professor of Behavioral Science and Health Education in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences/Institute of Public Health at Florida A&M University (FAMU).  Though trained as a pharmacologist, Dr. Close’s interest in women’s health research came during her postdoctoral training where she was involved in a basic science study that had implications for female infertility.  These published studies ignited her passion, and she began to work on public health related research studies.  Dr. Close has spent over 20 years focusing much of her research on community-based participatory research in underserved communities.  Her research interests are in the area of racial disparity issues in Women’s Health and Maternal, Child and Infant Health. Her research involves working with various communities across the state of Florida to address black infant mortality issues.  Dr. Close has been the Principal Investigator for a research project sponsored by the Florida Department of Health where she conducted focus groups across the State to investigate infant sleep practices and to introduce the concept of the purpose-built box for infants.

Because of your outstanding work, Dr. Close was appointed by the State Surgeon General to the Intra-Agency Workgroup on Infant Mortality Prevention External Review Workgroup.  Dr. Close has served as the President of the Board of Directors for the Capital Area Healthy Start Coalition, twice.  Through her leadership on the Racial Disparity Taskforce for Infant Health, Dr. Close implemented a research component on pregnancy related issues that targets African American women of childbearing age.

Dr. Close has served two terms on the United Way of the Big Bend’s Board of Directors. In addition, she was the Chair of the United Way’s Health Council, where they explored mental health in the Tallahassee community as well as dental programs for school age children in Leon and Gadsden Counties. As the Chair of the United Way Health Council, she was instrumental in conducting research on “Perception of Stress and Health-related burdens among Leon County Residents”. Dr. Close is a member of the Mental Health Council of the Big Bend, where she serves as the Chair of the ENGAGE committee focusing on stigma of mental health in the African American community.

Dr. Close holds a doctorate degree in Pharmacology/Toxicology from Florida A&M University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Florida State University.  Out of all of this, Dr. Close considers the title of “Mommy” her greatest accomplishment…She is the mother of three beautiful girls, Nia, Nataki and Nyla.