weight and obesity among adolescents and a study of the impact of a cancer risk assessment on perceived cancer risk. Ms. Ford has a B.A. in psychology from Seattle University and an M.S. in health and social behavior from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Susan R. McCutchen (research associate) has been on staff at the National Academies for 26 years and has worked in several institutional divisions and with many different boards, committees, and panels within those units. The studies in which she has participated have addressed a broad range of subjects and focused on a variety of issues related to science and technology for international development, technology transfer, aeronautics and the U.S. space program, natural disaster mitigation, U.S. education policy and science curricula, needle exchange for the prevention of HIV transmission, the scientific merit of the polygraph, human factors/engineering, research ethics, and disability compensation programs. She has assisted in the production of more than 50 publications. Ms. McCutchen has a B.A. in French, with a minor in Italian and Spanish, from Ohio’s Miami University, and an M.A. in French, with a minor in English, from Kent State University.

Reine Y. Homawoo (senior program assistant) is a staff member of IOM’s Board on Military and Veterans Health. She has an associate degree in computer programming from the National Center for Computer Studies (CENETI) in Togo. She plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in information systems management at University of Maryland University College starting in September 2007.

Frederick (Rick) Erdtmann, M.D., M.P.H., is director of IOM’s Board on Military and Veterans Health and its Medical Follow-up Agency. He attended medical school in Philadelphia where he earned his M.D. degree from the Temple University School of Medicine, and he also holds an M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed a residency program in general preventive medicine at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 1975 and is board certified in that specialty. Dr. Erdtmann’s assignments with the Army Medical Department included chief of the preventive medicine services at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Frankfurt Army Medical Center in Germany, and Madigan Army Medical Center. He also served as division surgeon for the Second Infantry Division in Tongduchon, Korea. He later served as deputy chief of staff for clinical operations within the Department of Defense’s TRICARE Region 1, prior to assuming hospital command at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in March 1998. Following that he was assigned to the Office of the Surgeon General as the deputy assistant surgeon general for force development. In 2001, following 30 years of commissioned military service, Dr. Erdtmann joined The National Academies and assumed his present responsibilities.