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.
Department Chair
Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, PhD, MPH
Infectious disease, transmission modeling, risk assessment, waterborne pathogens,
vectorborne disease.
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
Public health capacity building, scientific development, science writing and critical
thinking.
Kelly M. Bakulski, PhD
Environmental and genetic etiology of neurological disorders.
Ana Baylin, MD, Dr.P.H.
Nutritional epidemiology, cardiovascular disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, genetic
epidemiology, global health.
Lawrence F. Bielak, DDS, MPH
Epidemiology of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis and coronary artery calcification.
Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH
Global health, infectious diseases, especially vaccine preventable, childhood immunizations,
preventive medicine, health workforce & capacity building, scientific publication
and journal editing.
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.
Liming Dong, PhD
Neuropsychiatric epidemiology, aging, health disparities.
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 disparities, social determinants of health, non-communicable
disease risk, global health, immigration, and health.
Betsy Foxman, PhD
Molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases and 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.
Ryan E. Malosh, PhD, MPH
Epidemiology of respiratory virus infections, influenza vaccine effectiveness, test-negative
and cohort study designs, infectious disease transmission modeling.
Carl F. Marrs, PhD
Molecular epidemiology of bacterial pathogens.
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.
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, gene-environment and nutrient-environment
interactions, multi-pollutants and pollutant mixtures, with a focus on cardiometabolic
and age-related diseases.
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.
Patricia A. Peyser, PhD
Genetics and cardiovascular disease.
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, ischemic brain injury, and cognition.
Eduardo Villamor, MD, MPH, Dr.P.H.
Pediatric and perinatal epidemiology, nutritional epidemiology, nutrition and infection,
nutritional intervention trials, developmental origins of health and disease, child
and maternal nutrition.
Abram Wagner, PhD, MPH
Vaccine hesitancy; epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases; China; global health
Zhenhua Yang, MD, PhD
Factors influencing the occurrence, distribution, transmission, and clinical presentation
of drug sensitive and resistant tuberculosis in different populations, biomarkers
for pediatric pulmonary TB diagnosis in HIV infected and non-infected children, and
Joint impact of host and pathogen genetic variations on the development of new TB
vaccine.
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.
Faculty with Joint Appointments
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.
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
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.
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.
Wei Perng, PhD
Use of epidemiologic methods to investigate relations of the perinatal period with
future obesity and related metabolic consequences; elucidating biological mechanisms
that underlie accrual of excess adiposity during early life.
Sarah Reeves, PhD, MPH
Pediatric health services research; health services utilization and preventive care
among children with chronic conditions.
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 epidemiology and health services research; Cancer care delivery research, including
survivorship and related quality of care and coordination issues. Designing and evaluating
interventions to improve breast and prostate cancer care.
Lecturers and Adjunct Faculty
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
Eve D. Mokotoff, MPH
Efficiently collecting relevant surveillance data and making HIV/AIDS surveillance
data useful.
Aimin Zhang, MD, MPH, MS
Environmental and occupational epidemiology; Metal metabolism and toxicity; Biomarker
development of lead (Pb) exposures; Medical management of radiation exposure.
LEO Instructors
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.
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
Abram Wagner, PhD, MPH
vaccine hesitancy; epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases; China; global health
Kate Wilhelmi, MA, BA
Professional Development Seminar and internship preparations
Emeritus Faculty
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.
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.
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.
