Epidemiologist and Maryland Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals president Debra Perry is the newest member of the national FNHP program and policy council. Perry works for the Maryland health department's AIDS administration, where she investigates AIDS cases in an effort to identify modes of transmission so that prevention staff can devise strategies for affected populations or population subgroups. Her offices are located in Baltimore.

Perry began her employment with the Maryland health department in 1994, as coordinator of the AIDS administration's laboratory reporting system--a system using no names by which laboratory reports of positive HIV tests are given to the health department using numerical codes. Previously, Perry had worked for the Baltimore City health department from 1992-94 on a project to prevent HIV infection--a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention multi-site project that worked out of sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics to help clients learn behavior modification techniques to prevent further infection. From 1990-92, Perry worked as a disease intervention specialist for the commonwealth of Virginia.

Perry is a native of Washington, D.C., and received her B.S. in biology from Virginia State College and master's degree in health epidemiology from the University of Michigan. In addition to being president of the Maryland FNHP, a position to which she was elected in June, Perry is a member of the executive board of AFT-Maryland and of the AFT-Maryland State Teachers Association Joint Council.