Epidemiology Faculty Profiles

Along with providing education and training, Department of Epidemiology faculty and researchers have achieved national and international reputations for excellence in their respective fields of research and expertise. Short summaries of faculty are detailed below.

Core Faculty | Joint Appointment Faculty
Adjunct Faculty | LEO Instructors | Emeritus Faculty

Department Chair

Belinda Needham, PhD, MA 
Health Disparities; Aging and the Life Course; Biodemography.

Associate Chairs

Sara Dubowsky Adar, ScD, MHS 
Environmental epidemiology, exposure science for epidemiology, ambient air pollution, traffic-related pollutants, community noise, vulnerabilities, interventions.

Briana Mezuk, PhD
Psychiatric epidemiology; depression and anxiety; aging; life course; medical-psychiatric comorbidity; diabetes; frailty; suicide; social disparities in health.

Core Faculty

Sara Dubowsky Adar, ScD, MHS
Environmental epidemiology, exposure science for epidemiology, ambient air pollution, traffic-related pollutants, community noise, vulnerabilities, interventions.

Ella T. August, PhD, MA, MS
Strengthening research capacity across the globe, scientific communication, writing pedagogy.

Kevin M. Bakker, PhD, MSc
Mathematical modeling, vaccine preventable diseases, environmental and demographic drivers of infectious disease, immunological response to infection

Kelly M. Bakulski, PhD
Environmental and genetic etiology of neurological disorders.

Ana Baylin, MD, Dr.P.H.
Nutritional epidemiology, cardiovascular disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, global health.

Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH
Global health, infectious disease epidemiology, social determinants of childhood vaccination in low- and middle-income countries, vaccination equity, preventive medicine, scientific publishing.

Andrew Brouwer, PhD, MS, MA
Mathematical modeling; statistical modeling; infectious disease transmission modeling; cancer prevention, incidence, and survival; human papillomavirus (HPV); transition analysis; gender-minority health.

James Buszkiewicz, PhD, MPH
Social determinants of health, health inequities, policy, work, nutrition, food insecurity, obesity, health behavior, mental health, COVID-19, tobacco use.

Miatta Buxton, PhD, MPH
Maternal and child health, inflammation, cervico-vaginal and systemic cytokines, environmental epidemiology, maternal nutrition, maternal and child health disparities, global health and low resource settings.

Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, PhD, MPH
Infectious disease, transmission modeling, risk assessment, waterborne pathogens, vectorborne disease.

Marisa C. Eisenberg, PhD, MS
Mathematical modeling, parameter identifiability and estimation, infectious diseases, cholera and waterborne diseases, and cancer modeling.

Nancy L. Fleischer, PhD, MPH
Social epidemiology, health equity, social and policy determinants of health, tobacco control, COVID-19 recovery, and structural racism and health.

Betsy Foxman, PhD
Molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on the role of the microbiome.

Aubree Gordon, PhD
Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Influenza, Dengue, Global Health.

Alexis J. Handal, PhD, MPH
Environmental epidemiology; occupational epidemiology; worker health; labor exploitation; social epidemiology; social inequities in health; reproductive epidemiology; maternal and child health; child development; community-engaged research; CBPR; global  health 

Sioban D. Harlow, PhD
Womens health, occupational health, reproductive epidemiology, international health.

Jana L. Hirschtick, PhD, MPH
Social determinants of health, health inequities, community-driven research, urban health, criminal justice system, mental health, tobacco use.

 Jihyoun Jeon, PhD, MS
Risk prediction modeling, Mathematical/Statistical method development for cancer risk assessment, Smoking and lung cancer trend, Cancer screening, COPD.

Sharon L.R. Kardia, PhD
Genetic epidemiology with a focus on genetics of common chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez, PhD, MPH
Women's health; aging epidemiology; midlife health; obesity; chronic diseases including diabetes and musculoskeletal conditions.

Lindsay C. Kobayashi, PhD, M.Sc.
Aging; global health; epidemiology; social epidemiology; cognitive aging; health disparities.

Gwenyth O. Lee, PhD, M.H.S.
Global Health, Infant and child undernutrition, enteric disease.

Lynda D. Lisabeth, PhD, MPH
Stroke health disparities with a focus on understanding the excess burden in special populations, including Mexican Americans and women.

Emily Toth Martin, PhD, MPH
Clinical and molecular epidemiology of viral and bacterial diseases.

Daniel S. McConnell, PhD
Estrogen and androgen assays or pathways.

Carlos F. Mendes de Leon, PhD
Epidemiology of aging, life course epidemiology, health disparities, global social epidemiology, psychosocial risk factors for disability and cognitive decline in late life.

Rafael Meza, PhD
Cancer risk assessment, multistage carcinogenesis models, smoking and lung cancer risk, cancer epidemiology, public health policy modeling, mathematical modeling of chronic and infectious disease prevention, cancers with infectious disease etiology, HPV-related cancers.

Briana Mezuk, PhD
Psychiatric epidemiology; depression and anxiety; aging; life course; medical-psychiatric comorbidity; diabetes; frailty; suicide; social disparities in health.

Alison M. Mondul, PhD, MSPH
Molecular and nutritional epidemiology, modifiable risk factors and cancer etiology.

Arnold S. Monto, MD
Occurrence, etiology, and prevention of infectious diseases in industrialized and developing countries, frequency and cause of respiratory infections in families living in the community, Ebola.

Lewis B. Morgenstern, MD 
Race/ethnic and gender disparities in stroke, access to health care and acculturation of Hispanic Americans, community and professional education for acute stroke treatment and stroke prevention, social epidemiology.

Belinda L. Needham, PhD, MA
Health Disparities; Aging and the Life Course; Biodemography.

Marie S. O'Neill, PhD
Environmental epidemiology, air pollution, climate change, environmental equity, international health, cardiovascular mechanisms, and birth outcomes.

Sung Kyun Park, Sc.D., MPH
Environmental and occupational epidemiology, multi-pollutants and pollutant mixtures, exposome, with a focus on cardiometabolic and age-related diseases and women's health.

Celeste Leigh Pearce, PhD, MPH
Etiology and Prevention of Ovarian and Breast Cancers.

Joshua G. Petrie, PhD, MPH
Epidemiology and transmission of influenza and other respiratory viruses, influenza vaccine effectiveness, and serologic correlates of immunity.

Laura Power, MD, MPH
Preventive medicine, communicable disease epidemiology and prevention, vaccine-preventable diseases, interprofessional education, training physicians in public health and preventive medicine.

Alexander H. Rickard, PhD, MSc, BSc
How bacteria interact with one another in environmental or medically relevant situations and the resulting ramifications for human health.

Jennifer A. Smith, PhD, MPH 
Genetic epidemiology and social epigenomics of age-related chronic diseases and their risk factors, including cardiovascular disease and dementia.

Eduardo Villamor, MD, MPH, Dr.P.H.
Pediatric and perinatal epidemiology, nutritional epidemiology, nutrition and infection, life course epidemiology, developmental origins of health and disease, child development.

Abram L. Wagner, PhD, MPH
Vaccine hesitancy; epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases; China; global health

Xin Wang, PhD, MPH
Environmental epidemiology; environmental mixtures; risk prediction; obesity; diabetes; Alzheimer's Disease.

Zhenhua Yang, MD, PhD 
Epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S and globally, genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical strains and its clinical and epidemiological relevance and implications for the development of new TB vaccines and therapeutics.

Wei Zhao, PhD
Genetics epidemiology of human complex diseases, health disparity, social genomics, cardiovascular disease, cognition, and dementia.

Jon Zelner, PhD
Infectious diseases, social epidemiology, spatial epidemiology, mathematical modeling, network analysis, tuberculosis, diarrheal disease.

Joint Appointment Faculty

(Do not mentor doctoral students)

Amy Bohnert, PhD, MHS

Sarah A. Burgard, PhD, MS
Population health, racial ethnic and socioeconomic disparities, job strain and job insecurity, stratification of sleep.

Carol E. Chenoweth, MD, MS
Nosocomial infections and antibiotic resistance in nosocomial and community-acquired, antibiotic-resistant enterococci.

Philippa J. Clarke, PhD, MSc
Aging, disability, built environment, quantitative methods.

Joel J. Gagnier, PhD ND, MSc, BA
Clinical epidemiology, clinical research design, meta-analyses, musculoskeletal conditions.

William H. Herman, MD, MPH
Screening, diabetes, diabetes complications, diabetes and pregnancy, diabetes epidemiology, managed care, health economics.

Powel Kazanjian, MD, PhD
History of Bacteriology, History of Epidemics, History of Sexually Transmitted diseases.

Catherine Kim, MD, MPH
Women's health, diabetes, cardiovascular risk.

Sofia D. Merajver, MD, PhD

Lona Mody, MD, MSc
Translational epidemiology of multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) in vulnerable populations, develop and disseminate interventions to prevent infections in high-risk vulnerable populations

Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD
Studies of gene-environment interaction, Bayesian methods, statistical methods for case-control and other outcome dependent sampling schemes, applications in epidemiology.

David C. Musch, PhD, MPH
Clinical trials, glaucoma treatment, quality of life assessment.

Duane W. Newton, PhD
Clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics; development of molecular assays for the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases.

John F. Randolph, MD

Sarah Reeves, PhD, MPH
Pediatric health services research; health services utilization and preventive care among children with chronic conditions.

Rajiv Saran, MD, MBBS, MS

 Aruna V. Sarma, PhD, M.H.A.
Natural history of and racial differences in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer.

Howard Stein, Hon B.A., MA, PhD
Socio-economics of developing economies with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Lauren Wallner, PhD, MPH
Cancer care delivery and health services research; Quality, delivery and coordination of cancer care; Designing, evaluating and implementing interventions to improve cancer care.

Adjunct Faculty

(Do not mentor doctoral students)

Pamela Hackert, MD, JD, MPH

Christine L.M. Joseph, PhD, MPH, BSc
Racial/ethnic health disparities; racial differences in asthma incidence, prevalence, and severity/control; the role of IgE in asthma; factors related to asthma management and control in urban adolescents; medication adherence, school-based health.

 Mark Katz, MD
Influenza, respiratory infections, vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine effectiveness, cholera

Courtland Ketevian, MD, MBA, MPH

Juan Luis Marquez, MD, MPH

Eve D. Mokotoff, MPH
Efficiently collecting relevant surveillance data and making HIV/AIDS surveillance data useful.

LEO Instructors

(Do not mentor doctoral students)

Andrew Brouwer, PhD, MS, MA
Mathematical modeling; infectious disease, especially environmentally transmitted diseases; cancer, especially those related to HPV or other infectious etiologies; parameter identifiability.

Miatta Buxton, PhD, MPH
Maternal and child health, inflammation, cervico-vaginal and systemic cytokines, environmental epidemiology, maternal nutrition, maternal and child health disparities, global health and low resource settings.

Barbara Dunn

Jihyoun Jeon, PhD, MS
Risk prediction modeling, Mathematical/Statistical method development for cancer risk assessment, Smoking and lung cancer trend, Cancer screening, COPD.

Peter Larson

Gwenyth O. Lee, PhD, MHS
Global Health, Infant and child undernutrition, enteric disease.

Scott Ratliff, MS, B.S.
Linear and nonlinear modeling applied to epidemiologic research, genetic epidemiology

Aruna V. Sarma, PhD, M.H.A.
Natural history of and racial differences in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer.

Abram Wagner, PhD, MPH
vaccine hesitancy; epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases; China; global health

Emeritus Faculty

(Do not mentor doctoral students)

Lawrence F. Bielak, DDS, MPH
Epidemiology and genetics of atherosclerosis and its risk factors.

Stephen A. Eklund, DrPH, D.D.S., MHSA
Dental public health, health services research, assessment for treatment needs, outcomes of dental care, and international oral health.

Kathleen Ford, PhD
Social and behavioral aspects of the AIDS epidemic, sexual behavior, and sexually transmitted diseases (U.S. adolescents and international populations), cognitive and physical functioning in aging populations, migration, health and well being.

David H. Garabrant, MD, MPH
Occupational and environmental epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, neuroepidemiology and neurotoxic agents, colon cancer, pancreas cancer, environmental exposure to dioxins.

Janet R. Gilsdorf, MD
Haemophilis influenzae pathogenesis, epidemiology of respiratory pathogens in day care, antigenic diversity of H. influenzae.

Ernest Harburg, PhD, MA, BSS
Anger, anger-coping and its effects on medically morbid conditions, e.g., high blood pressure, resolution of such conflict.

Millicent W. Higgins, M.B., B.S., MD, DPH, FAACP.(Hon)
Epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular and chronic pulmonary diseases and obesity; familial and genetic factors influencing susceptibility to environmental exposures.

James S. House, PhD
Social psychology, political sociology, social structure and personality, psychosocial and socioeconomic factors in health, survey research methods.

George A. Kaplan, PhD
Role of behavioral, social, psychological, and socioeconomic factors in disease prevention and health promotion; role of "upstream" and "downstream" factors in maintaining health, delaying disease, and improving function.

James S. (Jim) Koopman, MD, MPH
Analysis and control of infection transmission systems, theoretical basis for epidemiological analysis, causal modeling of epidemiological processes, complex systems, networks, public health surveillance.

Carl F. Marrs, PhD
Molecular epidemiology of bacterial pathogens.

Hal Morgenstern, PhD
Kidney disease, musculoskeletal conditions, cancers, neuropsychiatric disorders, injuries, heart disease; clinical and outcomes research, occupational and environmental health, psychosocial aspects of disease, and epidemiologic methods.

Patricia A. Peyser, PhD 
Genetics and cardiovascular disease.

Friedrich K Port, MD, MS, FACP
Clinical outcomes studies for patients with chronic diseases.

Julia E. Richards, PhD
Mapping, cloning and characterizing genes involved in inherited eye diseases, including prevalent complex diseases such as glaucoma as well as some simple Mendelian disorders that affect the eye.

David Schottenfeld, MD, MS
Cancer epidemiology and prevention, with focus on prostate, breast, endometrial and colorectal cancers.

Mark L. Wilson, ScD
Ecology of infectious disease, spatial pattern analysis, global change and health.