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
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; 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.
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.
Michael A.L. Hayashi
Mathematical and computational modeling, systems science, infectious disease, game
theory, public health technology.
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; 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.
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.
Laura Power, MD, MPH
Preventive medicine, communicable disease epidemiology and prevention, vaccine-preventable
diseases, interprofessional education, training physicians in public health and preventive
medicine.
Kathryn Ramirez- Hacker, PhD, MPH
Infectious Disease Ecology, Ecoepidemiology, Infectious Diseases in Urban Contexts,
Spatial Health, One Health, Geographic Information Science.
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.
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
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 Keteyian, MD, MBA, MPH
Eve D. Mokotoff, MPH
Efficiently collecting relevant surveillance data and making HIV/AIDS surveillance
data useful.
Aruna V. Sarma, PhD, M.H.A.
Natural history of and racial differences in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and
prostate cancer.
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 Robinson-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
Amanda M. Valyko, MPH, BS
Hospital Infection Prevention & Epidemiology
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.
Siobán D. Harlow, PhD
Womens health, occupational health, reproductive epidemiology, international health.
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.
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.
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.