Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Research Faculty

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Maurizio Macaluso, MD, DPH Director, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Maurizio Macaluso, MD, DPH, has researched topics including epidemiologic research methods; cancer epidemiology; occupational epidemiology; health effects of sexual, reproductive and contraceptive behavior; acceptability, efficacy and safety of contraceptive technology; efficacy and safety of assisted reproductive technology; infectious disease epidemiology; surveillance systems; and immunology.

513-636-2710 maurizio.macaluso@cchmc.org

FacultyShow

Mekbib Altaye, PhD Director, Data Management and Analysis Center

Mekibib Altaye, PhD, is a biostatistician interested in the design and analysis of correlated data focusing on high dimensional data obtained from neuroimaging studies including MRI, fMRI, DTI and MRS. He collaborated with investigators who incorporate neuroimaging to study outcomes such as language deficit, hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, environmental exposures, neurocognitive deficit and stroke recovery.

513-636-5849 mekibib.altaye@cchmc.org

Katherine A. Bowers, PhD, MPH

Katherine A. Bowers, PhD, MPH, is a perinatal epidemiologist interested in pre-conceptual and prenatal exposures in combination with genetic effects in relation to metabolic and neurodevelopmental consequences for the offspring.

513-803-9203 katherine.bowers@cchmc.org

Cole Brokamp, PhD

Cole Brokamp, PhD, works to evaluate the effects of community characteristics and environmental exposures on childhood health outcomes within the urban environment. He specializes in using geoinformatics and causal inference methods for machine learning algorithms within the field of precision public health and population health sciences.

513-517-0289 cole.brokamp@cchmc.org

Lili Ding, PhD

Lili Ding, PhD, is a biostatistician with research interest in Bayesian modeling and inference, and its applications in various fields of biomedical research, including statistical genetics, population pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, multivariate survival analysis, and multilevel latent variable modeling. Dr. Ding mentors junior faculty, fellows and students in DBE and several other divisions within the hospital.

513-803-0931 lili.ding@cchmc.org

Shelley R. Ehrlich, MD, ScD, MPH

513-803-9111 shelley.ehrlich@cchmc.org

Lin Fei, PhD

Lin Fei, PhD, is interested in probabilistic characteristics of ranking and selection and multiple comparison problem.

513-636-2947 lin.fei@cchmc.org

Alonzo T. Folger, PhD, MS Director of Evaluation and Epidemiologic Research, Every Child Succeeds

Dr. Folger’s research includes quasi-experimental evaluations studies and observational research to elucidate the intergenerational effects of interpersonal trauma. This includes research regarding the relationship between maternal adversity, epigenome-wide DNA methylation, and childhood behavior outcomes. His methodologic expertise include mediation analysis, latent class analysis, multi-level models and processing/analyses of methylation data.

513-803-9228 alonzo.folger@cchmc.org

Md Monir Hossain, MSc, PhD

Md Monir Hossain, PhD, MSc, is a biostatistician whose methodologic research interests include the development of statistical methods for modeling spatial-temporal disease clusters; spatial structure equation modeling; mixture models; inter-rater reliability; multi-level modeling; health services and patient outcomes; and clinical trials. Areas of application include perinatal health; access to primary health care; and childhood cancer incidences.

513-803-8051 md.hossain@cchmc.org

Bin Huang, PhD Biostatistician, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Bin Huang, PhD, investigates statistics analysis methods and study designs that can be used for better understanding of comparative effectiveness and health disparity research questions, using experimental and real world data such as that collected in electronic health records (EHR) and the patient network registry. The goal of her research is to provide better statistics methods for accurate, robust, meaningful and reproducible research.

513-636-7612 bin.huang@cchmc.org

Richard F. Ittenbach, PhD

Richard F. Ittenbach, PhD, PSTAT, is a biostatistician who specializes in the development, validation and analysis of measurement related issues in pediatric medicine. He mentors faculty, staff and students throughout the medical center and has contributed extensively to the training curricula of the Fellows Core Curriculum in biostatistics and data management.

513-803-0245 richard.ittenbach@cchmc.org

Jane C. Khoury, PhD

Jane C. Khoury, PhD, is a quantitative epidemiologist, professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology with a joint appointment in the Division of Endocrinology within the UC Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Khoury’s personal research passion lies within the area of diabetes in pregnancy. After working for 17 years on a study evaluating pregnancy outcome in women with pre-gestational diabetes she is now following up on the 24 to 40 year old offspring, this research is sponsored by a grant from NIDDK. Recruitment of this cohort is ongoing. She has also collaborated with the Cincinnati Stroke Team at the University of Cincinnati for over 25 years and is currently the senior biostatistician for the study of the epidemiology of stroke in Cincinnati. In the stroke research area Dr. Khoury also is personally involved with pursuing disparities in stroke incidence attributable to diabetes and women’s health. Dr. Khoury also collaborates with researchers in the HOME study, examining the effects of environmental exposures from gestation through 12 years of age on neurobehavior in the child, continuing her interest in intrauterine exposure. She works also with many of the faculty and fellows within the Division of Endocrinology on study design and statistical methods in development of their research studies. This collaboration also gives her reciprocal support for her diabetes research.

513-636-3690 jane.khoury@cchmc.org

Eileen C. King, PhD

Eileen C. King, PhD, has 24 years of experience in the design and analysis of clinical trials for health care and pharmaceutical research studies. She enjoys collaborative research and has research interests in nonparametric regression using smoothers, comparative effectiveness research using clinical data from large multi-site registries, and statistical quality control approaches for clustered data for quality improvement initiatives in health outcomes.

513-803-1819 eileen.king@cchmc.org

Jareen K. Meinzen-Derr, PhD, MPH, FACE Director, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, & Research Design Program; Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training

Dr. Meinzen-Derr's research interest is focused on understanding and improving the health and well-being of young children who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH). She leads a diverse inter-disciplinary research program focused on the mechanisms behind language and functional outcomes in children who are D/HH, including children who have co-existing developmental disabilities. She has conducted both observational studies to identify significant gaps in language development for this population as well as interventional studies to help enhance outcomes for children who are D/HH. She is also involved with the analysis of large datasets, including research registries, EHR data, and state birth screening and early intervention data.
Visit the More Than Hearing Loss web page.

513-636-7789 jareen.meinzen-derr@cchmc.org

Nicholas J. Ollberding, PhD

Dr. Ollberding is an epidemiologist interested in the role of diet in the etiology and progression of chronic disease and the impact of the developing infant intestinal microbiome on growth and early development. Areas of methodical interest include the application and development of analytical methods for microbial metagenomic next-generation sequence data, dietary assessment and analysis methodology, predictive modeling, and casual inference.

513-803-4432 nicholas.ollberding@cchmc.org

Patrick H. Ryan, PhD, MS

Dr. Ryan’s research program focuses on the role of indoor and outdoor environmental toxicants on pediatric health, with specific focus on the impact of air pollutants on respiratory and neurobehavioral development. In addition to the development and application of spatial models of air pollution to study pediatric allergic disease, respiratory development, and neurobehavioral outcomes, his research includes the use of personal air monitors and health sensors in epidemiologic studies. Additional research interests include the impact of naturally occurring elongated mineral fibers on respiratory and autoimmune disease in Libby, MT and other locations in the western US.

513-803-4704 patrick.ryan@cchmc.org

Heidi J. Sucharew, PhD Biostatistician, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Heidi J. Sucharew, PhD, is a biostatistician with research interests in structural equation modeling, latent profile analysis, and latent variable modeling. Her recent areas of application include infant neurobehavior, stroke severity, adolescent menstrual symptoms and depression, and glucose control during pregnancy.

513-803-1920 Heidi.Sucharew@cchmc.org

Rhonda D. Szczesniak, PhD

Rhonda D. Szczesniak, PhD, is interested in statistics and computing. Research areas are functional data analysis and longitudinal data analysis of medical monitoring data. She collaborates with pulmonary medicine researchers, bioinformaticians and other biostatisticians to develop prediction models for rapid disease progression and translate these models into clinical care.

513-803-0563 rhonda.szczesniak@cchmc.org

Jessica G. Woo, MHSA, PhD

Jessica Graus Woo, MHSA, PhD, is a molecular epidemiologist with particular research interest in the developmental pathways leading to pediatric obesity. She is specifically interested in how genetics and early life influences, especially early diet, may impact a child’s likelihood of developing obesity and specific metabolic complications of obesity, such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia.

513-636-9598 jessica.woo@cchmc.org

Bin Zhang, PhD

Bin Zhang, PhD, is a biostatistician with research interests in survival analysis, longitudinal data analysis, machine learning, meta-analysis and optimal designs. His applied interests include cancer, radiology, infectious disease, cardiovascular diseases, health behavior and environmental health.

513-803-8050 bin.zhang@cchmc.org

Nanhua Zhang, PhD

Nanhua Zhang, PhD, is a faculty biostatistician with research interests in developing new methods for handling missing data, comparative effectiveness research, clinical trial design, meta-analysis, scale development, and joint modeling. His applied interests include pediatric traumatic brain injury, environmental health, community-based intervention, health disparity, and health psychology.

513-803-9108 nanhua.zhang@cchmc.org

Joint FacultyShow

Melinda S. Butsch Kovacic, MPH, PhD

Melinda S. Butsch Kovacic, MPH, PhD, is an epidemiologist who has clinical, translational and community-based participatory research projects. Her research group studies the genetic/epigenetic, environmental and socioeconomic basis of chronic diseases such as cancer, asthma and obesity, with specific interest in understanding how environmental exposures modify risk in vulnerable families. Her research is highly interdisciplinary with collaborators across the academic health center and in the community.

Visit the Butsch Kovacic Lab.

513-803-0130 melinda.butsch.kovacic@cchmc.org

David M. Hartley, PhD, MPH

David M. Hartley, PhD, MPH, investigates the factors governing the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases by applying mathematical modeling and computer simulation methods. He is also interested in data analytic and information technology approaches for understanding and improving communications in healthcare settings and improving patient safety.

513-803-7278 david.hartley@cchmc.org

Adam Lane, PhD Member, Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immune Deficiency

Adam Lane, PhD, has methodological research interests in designs for phase I/II clinical trials, survival analysis and structural equation modeling. Dr. Lane is also a dedicated collaborator with both clinical and basic science researchers in bone marrow transplantation, hematology, oncology and cancer biology.

513-803-1828 adam.lane@cchmc.org

Lisa J. Martin, PhD

Lisa J. Martin, PhD, uses statistics to understand how in children outcomes, such as heart defects, allergic diseases, and response to medications, are influenced by genes. Her work incorporates interaction effects between genetic variants and either the environment or other genetic variants. This because most genetic variants do not act in isolation but are important only in the context of specific environments or other genetic variants.

513-636-1244 lisa.martin@cchmc.org

Jessica G. Woo, MHSA, PhD

513-636-9598 jessica.woo@cchmc.org

Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Research Faculty

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