PE Fellows
Class of 2022
Soumava Basu, PhD, MA
Dr. Soumava Basu earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Utah and his MA in Economics from the University of Hyderabad, India. His dissertation investigated the importance of the dynamics of caste-based social and economic marginalization in India in implementing Tuberculosis control programs. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate for Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity at the University of Utah, Dr. Basu conducted surveys, data collection, analysis, reports, manuscripts for publications, and writing proposals for research project funding. Dr. Basu is assigned to the Center for Global Health – Division of Global Health Protection – Office of Global Noncommunicable Diseases. Here he will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of an initiative to integrate health services for noncommunicable diseases into an existing PEPFAR program. He will also conduct a literature review of the returns on investment in pandemic preparedness, with an emphasis on the evidence for primary care strengthening and integration of services. Dr. Basu’s goal is to integrate his research into improving people’s lives in communities.
James Henson, PhD, MA
Dr. James Henson earned his PhD and MA in Economics from Georgia State University. His dissertation focused on the relationship between rural hospital closures and consumer financial debt. As an Assistant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, he maintained and analyzed big data research projects involving the New York Federal Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax data. He also assisted in policy-related research papers on indoor smoking laws, air pollution, monetary policy, and financial distress. As Research Assistant for Georgia State University, he worked on creating health datasets from micro-level data to help create a novel overlapping generations model. Dr. Henson is assigned to the National Center for HIV, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention – Division of HIV Prevention. Here he will examine healthcare utilization and costs for pediatric HIV cases and estimate new lifetime HIV treatment costs for perinatally infected children. One of Dr. Henson’s goals is to focus on health policy topics and collaborate with people that are interested in health policy research.
Ramesh Lamsal, PhD, MSc
Dr. Ramesh Lamsal earned his PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Toronto, Canada and his MSc in Health Studies and Gerontolgy from the University of Waterloo, Canada. His experience as a Research Assistant with the Balsillie School of International Affairs included conducting a systematic review of literature, data cleaning and analysis, and writing manuscripts. At the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, he performed data extraction, data cleaning, and data analysis. He has also published several papers with topics including economic impact of neurodevelopmental disability and economic evaluation of interventions for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Lamsal is assigned to the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities- Office of the Director. Here he will use claims data to assess use of behavioral therapies and treatment costs for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental health diagnoses and services by parents of children with ASD and will conduct a synthetic review of estimates of lifetime societal costs associated with ASD. He will also lead a cost-effectiveness analysis of folic acid food fortification for the prevention of neural tube defects in a low- or middle-income country. His long-term goal is to become a public health researcher with a focus on evaluating interventions to improve the health of children and families.
Lara Marquez, PhD, MPH
Dr. Lara Marquez earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, San Diego and her MPH in Global Epidemiology from Emory University. Her dissertation used dynamic, compartmental modeling to inform Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) elimination programs among vulnerable populations, in low-middle income country (LMIC) settings, where the vast majority of HCV burden resides. As a NIH – Fogarty International Center UCGHI GloCal Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, she was involved in the development of a national hepatitis C (HCV) elimination model for Mexico, including key populations such as prisoners, people living with HIV, and people who inject drugs. Dr. Marquez is assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the Division of Public Health Services. ASPE is the principal advisory group to the United States Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on policy development. Here she will analyze the short-and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on people with HIV as well as the delivery of maternal healthcare services. Dr. Marquez’s primary goal is to become a leading expert in modeling infectious disease transmission and prevention, translating public health research to inform and improve programs and policy.
Haeyun (Dave) Noh, PhD, MA
Dr. Haeyun Noh earned his PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland and his MA in International Affairs from Columbia University. His dissertation was on the effects of classroom observation on students’ learning in sexual and reproductive health education. As a research consultant for Project Blindness Zero Movement at Yonsie University, Dr. Noh participated in a school-based comprehensive school health program supervising research activities, conducting analysis, and developing impact evaluation plans. He also participated in a cervical cancer screening program in Vietnam. As a Co-Principal Investigator for the World Bank, he contributed to research design. Dr. Noh is assigned to the Center for Global Health Global Immunization Division where he will participate in a school vaccination screen cost analysis, and a measles rapid point of care test cost and cost-effectiveness analysis. In addition, he will participate in the GID economics unit cost analysis sampling methods/tools. Dr. Noh’s belief in the importance of a robust public health system, coupled with a desire to prevent societal harm through well-designed health policies, has driven him to pursue a career in public health.
Muchin Isabel Ayen Bazan Ruiz, PhD, MS
Dr. Muchin Isabel Ayen Bazan Ruiz earned her PhD in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and her MS in Economics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Her dissertation studied the effects of exposure to role models on female preferences for STEM majors. As a graduate research assistant at the Center of Gerontology Virginia Tech, Dr. Ruiz studied the effect of caring for people with dementia on caregivers’ health outcomes using longitudinal datasets from a telephone survey. As a Consultant Intern with Inter-American Development Bank, she performed data analysis, statistical analysis, regression analysis, and data cleaning. Dr. Ruiz is assigned to the Center for Global Health Division of Global Health Protection – Workforce and Institute Development Branch where she will work with two groups within WIDB: the National Public Health Institute Program (NPHI) and the Evaluation, Policy, Innovation and Communications (EPIC) Team. Her responsibilities will include serving as the health economist for 3-4 countries (trainings are led jointly by an epidemiologist and health economist), leading training, and providing mentorship on data analysis, presentation of data, policy brief finalization, and readying the team to present the policy brief at a cross-sector government forum. Dr. Ruiz’s goal is to collaborate with national authorities in the US and abroad by recommending interventions and the implementation of policies to improve individual health outcomes, promote health security, and the prevention of malaria and dengue.
Enrique Saldarriaga, PhD, MS
Dr. Enrique Saldarriaga earned his PhD in Health Economics and Outcome Research from the University of Washington and his MS in Epidemiology from the University Cayetano Heredia, Peru. His dissertation was titled “The value of reducing uncertainty of HIV-prevalence estimates at the zip code level.” As a Research Assistant at The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute, Dr. Saldarriaga’s conducted preferences elicitation, economic evaluation, methods for uncertainty assessment, decision modeling, econometrics, and disease modeling. As an intern in Health Economics at the Institute for Disease Modeling, he conducted independent supervised research. Dr. Saldarriaga is assigned to the National Center for HIV, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Division of STD Prevention. Here he will assess the burden of antibiotic resistant gonorrhea and estimate the potential impact and cost-effectiveness of a range of efforts to combat the threat. In a second project, data from several U.S. clinics with varying organizational structures will be collected and analyzed to assess how these differences impact clinic operating cost and efficiency. Dr. Saldarriaga’s long-term career goal is to influence the decision-making processes for adoption of policy, centered in reducing healthcare access barriers.
Yixue Shao, PhD, MPH
Dr. Yixue Shao earned her PhD in Health Policy and Management and her MPH in Health Systems Management from Tulane University. Her dissertation focused on a comprehensive evaluation of telemedicine utilization and its impact in Louisiana. As a Research Assistant at Tulane University, she assisted in grant writing, managed multiple large datasets, and conducted systematic literature reviews. As a Practicum at the Louisiana Public Health Institute, she assisted in manuscript writing and report preparation. Dr. Shao is assigned to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion-Division of Diabetes Translation. Here she will apply the newly developed diabetes cost-effectiveness simulation models to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of interventions for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and diabetes-related complications. She will also apply the Microsimulation of Nutrition, Diabetes, And CVD (MONDAC) model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of food/nutritional policies for preventing type 2 diabetes. Dr. Shao desires a career that focuses on protecting the population and preventing health threats before they start.
Keshob Sharma, PhD, MS, MA
Dr. Keshob Sharma earned his PhD in Economics and MS in Statistics from the University of Georgia. He earned his MA in Economics from Eastern Illinois University. His dissertation focused on whether increased access to mental health care, following the passage of state-level Mental Health Parity Laws (MHPLs), affects crime. As a Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Georgia, he leveraged statistical, and causal inference econometric tools to quantify the impact of health care policy on health and spillover outcomes. Dr. Sharma is assigned to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion – Division of Reproductive Health where he will collaborate with subject matter experts on assessments of chronic condition care, cost, and associated outcomes in different health care settings before, during and after pregnancy. He will also work directly with state PQCs or use data sources that can do state level analysis to estimate the program impact of PQC initiatives on outcomes such as reduction in low-risk C section rates, preterm birth, opioid use disorders, and pregnancy complications associated with severe hypertension or maternal hypertension. Dr. Sharma’s goal is to become a well-rounded competent researcher capable of working with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from across various fields and carrying out projects in health economics and public health.
Lu Shi, PhD, MPH
Dr. Lu Shi earned her PhD in Health Management and Policy from Oregon State University and her MPH in Health Management and Policy from Tulane University. Her dissertation focused on the impact of commercial insurance on utilization and cost of health care services of patients with cirrhosis. As a graduate research assistant at Oregon State University, she analyzed survey data with econometric analysis models, coordinated the publishing process of certain studies, and published in the Journal of Asthma. As an Instructor at Oregon State University, she taught introduction to advanced courses. Dr. Shi is assigned to the Office of Genomics and Precision Public Health. Here she will assess the association of selected genetic conditions with cost and duration of inpatient care among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. She will also conduct a health technology assessment of genetic testing strategies to identify hereditary cancer and facilitate cascade testing on family members. Dr. Shi’s long-term research goal is to decrease health disparities, provide high-quality healthcare services while decreasing the cost of healthcare services, and promote prevention and management strategy for individuals with chronic diseases, especially individuals with cancer.
Yu Wang, PhD, MSPH
Dr. Yu Wang earned her PhD in Public Health Epidemiology from Georgia State University and her MSPH in Public Nutrition from Emory University. Her dissertation focused on the role of anti-tobacco campaigns and tobacco marketing in individuals’ tobacco use behaviors in the US. As a graduate research assistant at Georgia State University Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS), she worked on a NIH-funded TCORS grant that focused on tobacco economics, health disparities, and regulatory science. Her responsibilities include data compiling, management, and analysis. As a Research Assistant with Emory Children’s Center, she performed literature reviews, data analysis, and manuscript drafts. Dr. Wang is assigned to the American Heart Association. Here she will evaluate maternal health outcomes with Medicaid post-partum coverage and evaluate the impact of Medicaid coverage of self-measured blood pressure monitoring and validated devices. She will also evaluate the impact of E-cigarette only taxes vs tax increases on all products. Dr. Wang’s goal is to broaden her knowledge scope, build her capacity to investigate more economic issues in public health programs, and strengthen her research foundation by providing opportunities to practice analytic methods in field experience.
Alumni
Cinthya Alberto, PhD, MPH
Dr. Cinthya Alberto earned both an MPH and a PhD in Health Services Research from Drexel University. Her dissertation focused on health care access for Latino youth. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in health equity at the Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University. She has research experience with the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice and the Department of Health Management and Policy, both at Drexel University and at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Public Citizens for Children and Youth. Dr. Alberto has numerous publications focusing on health disparities and vulnerable populations. She is assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation where she will engage in research and data analyses to inform decisions on key issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Marketplace, as well as HP’s current priority areas of COVID-19, health coverage, and health equity. Dr. Alberto intends to use the concepts and skills learned in this Fellowship to improve population health and to instill trust in the science and evidence.
Stephan Brenner, PhD
Dr. Stephan Brenner earned his PhD in Medicine from Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany and his MPH in International Health from Harvard University. His dissertation was titled “Effects of placental Plasmodium falciparum infections of primigravid mothers on the development of an immune response in their newborns” His results found that Early infection was beneficial to pro-inflammatory immune responses (TH1). Late infections triggered incomplete TH1 response with higher likelihood of early postnatal malaria infections. Dr. Brenner’s work experience includes a position as a postdoctoral researcher for Heidelberg Institute of Global Health where he organized and supervised study design planning, data collection activities, data analysis, and results publication and dissemination. Dr. Brenner is assigned to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Office of Innovation and Analytics. Here, he will use one or more metrics to demonstrate the economic benefits of the ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) health registry. He will also examine and quantify the economic benefit of using the GRASP Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI) to prioritize the development and implementation of public health programs focused on reducing disease and promoting health. Dr. Brenner’s main goal is to further expand his expertise and skill at using additional novel concepts and methods of outcome research to further expand his competence in the evaluation of health interventions.
Duygu Islek Yaras, PhD, MPH, MD
Dr. Duygu Islek Yaras earned and MPH and her Medical Degree in Turkey and then a PhD in Epidemiology from Emory University. Her dissertation aims to examine the racial differences in out-of-hospital mortality from heart diseases and recurrent myocardial infarctions in a large US cohort population and was awarded the American Heart Association’s pre-doctoral fellowship. Dr. Islek Yaras also recently analyzed the cost-effectiveness of a diabetes prevention program in India using a 3-year randomized trial (in the process learning economic evaluation methods) and published this work in JAMA. Dr. Islek Yaras is assigned to the National Center for HIV, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Division of HIV and AIDS Prevention. There she will study the impact of third party payment on PrEP assistance programs, the cost-effectiveness of an HIV testing program using a clinical decision support tool, and time trends in the use of (and associated costs of) telemedicine services used among PrEP patients. Dr. Islek Yaras’ career goal is to will gain invaluable real-world experience in evaluating public health policies and intervention programs’ effectiveness in the PE fellowship and, ultimately, pursue a research career at the CDC, WHO, or academia, focusing on improving health both nationwide and on a global scale.
Ashutosh Kumar, PhD, MS
Dr. Ashutosh Kumar earned a MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in Economics from Washington State University. His dissertation examined Medicaid expansion policy and its welfare effect on low-income households and underserved communities. In fact, Dr. Kumar presented the first causal evidence of the impact of Medicaid expansion on homelessness in the United States (finding that Medicaid expansion increased homelessness by 10.3% due to migration of homeless individuals into expansion states). He is assigned to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity and will leverage his data and analysis skills to analyze; prevention and cost effectiveness of weight management and other related interventions, the costs of childhood obesity and its related comorbidities on the national level, and healthcare utilization and cost of obesity among commercially insured adult and pediatric patients using large electronic healthcare and insurance claims data.
Junsoo Lee, PhD, MS
Dr. Junsoo Lee earned his MS and PhD in Economics from the University at Albany, SUNY. He has performed research on topics ranging from prescription drug pricing and prescribing behaviors, diet and health, seasonality and birthweight, and the impact of weather conditions on pregnancy outcomes. In 2019 and 2020, Dr. Lee was an ORISE fellow with the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. As a PE Fellow with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, Dr. Lee will be conducting a literature review in the area of economic burden or cost-effectiveness of interventions in CVD or related risk factors, studying the economic burden of multiple CVD chronic conditions, and developing a range of behavioral economic tools to address patient choices in the field of hypertension and CVD control. Dr. Lee’s goal is to work in a public health field where he can interact with like-minded colleagues, apply his economics knowledge and skills to public health research, and incorporate economic analysis as part of the public health decision making process.
Mengyao Li, PhD, MS
Dr. Mengyao Li earned her MS in Statistics and PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics both from the University of Georgia. Her dissertation looked at the mental health impacts of environmental degradation and climate change. Dr. Li has been an ORISE fellow with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and continues with that Center in the Division of Injury Prevention as a PE Fellow. Dr. Li’s projects include; development of a Research Data Center proposal for access to state-level National Survey of Drug Use and Health data for research on two integrated studies examining regional and sub-regional disparities in substance use disorder and related suicidal behavior and interpersonal violence, identify state-level policies relevant to injury and violence prevention and conduct a rigorous evaluation of a specific policy implemented for effectiveness in reducing rates of injury and violence, and estimate the cost of implementation and cost effectiveness of the STEADI Algorithm for Fall Risk Screening, Assessment, and Intervention.
Muloongo Simuzingili, PhD, MA
Dr. Muloongo Simuzingili earned her MS in Economics from the University of Cape Town and her PhD in Healthcare Policy and Research from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her dissertation evaluated physician payments and cash transfer programs to improve women and children’s health in low-income populations. Dr. Simuzingili comes to the PE Fellowship from the World Bank where she is a WBG-Africa Fellow (Health, Nutrition, and Population Practice) working on the East Africa Region COVID-19 Response and Analysis Team. She has also recently performed health economics and outcomes research for a pharmaceutical firm. Dr. Simuzingili is assigned to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. There, she will evaluate policies (such as earned income tax credits, incarceration policies, and social service interventions) that address social and structural conditions to reduce the disproportionate burden of violence experienced by some groups and communities for the primary prevention of multiple forms of violence experienced by children, youth, and families. Dr. Simuzingili’s overarching goal is to provide evidence-based research and technical support to policy makers during decision-making processes.
Shyamkumar Sriram, PhD, MPH, MHS, MS
Dr. Sriram earned his PhD in Health Services Policy and Management from the University of South Carolina. He earned his MPH in Global Health Systems and Development from Tulane University and his MHS in Health Economics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Sriram also earned his MS in Global Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His dissertation addressed health insurance programs for the poor, out-of-pocket costs, and catastrophic health expenditures in India. Dr Sriram worked as a research assistant in the World Bank funded international health research projects and as a Graduate Teaching assistant at the University of South Carolina. In addition, he has several publications and posters. Dr. Sriram will bring his experience to the Utah Department of Health. There he will work on a range of projects related to opioids, hypertension and other chronic diseases, and reproductive health. Dr. Sriram’s career goal is to work in a research position in an international organization such as UNICEF, WHO, or World Bank.
Armen Ghazaryan, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In his fellowship assignment, Dr. Ghazaryan will work on projects such as the role of retail food and socioeconomic environment and the association between diet quality and chronic disease. Dr. Ghazaryan earned his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Colorado State University and his MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Missouri. His dissertation focused on analysis of the U.S. dairy and alternative milk markets and assessing the impact of a proposed policy change. Dr. Ghazaryan worked as a research assistant at Colorado State University, a visiting lecturer at the Armenian National Agrarian University, and a Muskie Fellow/Intern at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Hafizul Islam, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, CDC
In his fellowship assignment, Dr. Islam will work on projects such as a dynamic compartmental model of the US HIV epidemic; an agent-based model charactering sexual transmissions of HIV in the US, and an HIV disease progression mode. Dr. Islam earned his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. His dissertation focused on developing a flexible framework for the equitable, effective and efficient distribution of donated food by the food banks.
Xinyi Jiang, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC
In her fellowship assignment, Dr. Jiang will examine policies related to overdose prevention such as prescribing guidelines, prescribing duration/dosage restriction, continuing education requirements for prescribers, clinical decision support for prescribing (PDMP, clinical decision tool), expanding access to naloxone, etc. Dr. Jiang earned her PhD and MS in Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy from the University of Florida. Her dissertation focused on the cascade of hepatitis c virus (HCV) care in individuals with substance use disorders. Her goal is to work with the CDC and contribute to helping individuals with substance use disorders.
Szu-Yu (Zoe) Kao, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In her fellowship assignment, Dr. Kao will work on projects such as: modeling the effects of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program on Breast Cancer Mortality, evaluating the cost effectiveness of implementing evidence-based interventions in the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, and assessing the impact of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program on cervical cancer mortality among uninsured low-income women. Dr. Kao earned her PhD in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration from the University of Minnesota and her MA in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan. Her career plan is to pursue a career in academia or non-profit research organizations such as the CDC.
Kelly Kilburn, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, CDC
In her fellowship, Dr. Kilburn will conduct health systems research. Dr. Kilburn earned her PhD and MA in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina. Her dissertation focused on cash transfers in Malawi and she currently works for the Duke Global Innovation Center. Dr. Kilburn brings extensive research experience (Milken School of Public Health, UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, HHS Administration for Children and Families, and the EPA Office of Policy) and an impressive list of publications to the CDC and intends to pursue a career in the Federal government.
Greg Leung, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In his fellowship, Dr. Leung will work with the Division of Population Health, Alcohol Program. Dr. Leung earned his PhD and MS in Economics from the University of Kansas. His dissertation addressed the economics of marijuana liberalization and its public health concerns in the past two decades in the United States. First, he unfolded the potential substitutability and complementarity of tobacco and alcohol tax revenues post-policy changes. Second, he studied the prevalence of overall, alcohol, and drug-related traffic accidents and fatalities. Third, he revealed the behavioral changes among college students in regard to their medical and recreational drug use patterns as well as their mental health statuses. His career goal is to become a well-rounded researcher with the ability to carry out quality multidisciplinary research projects to enhance policy prevention effectiveness through quantitative analysis.
Lisa Pollack, PhD, MPH, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In her fellowship assignment, Dr. Pollack will work on projects such as determining the cost of neonatal abstinence syndrome, documenting the impact of Medicaid expansion on screening and treatment of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, evaluate the cost and economic impact at the state level of specific quality improvement (QI) activities delivered by State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives, and estimate perinatal mental health screening, diagnoses, and related healthcare utilization; and to evaluate the impact Medicaid expansion on perinatal depression screening and utilization of treatment. Dr. Pollack earned her PhD in Social Work and MPH from Washington University in St. Louis. Her dissertation examined surgical outcomes among women. Dr. Pollack has many publications and manuscripts under review from her post graduate work at Washington University as an NIH post-doctoral scholar. There, she will work Dr. Pollack’s career goal has been to do policy relevant research for CDC or a similar organization.
Shyamkumar Sriram, PhD, MPH, MHS, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Utah Department of Health
In his fellowship assignment, Dr. Sriram will work on a range of projects related to opioids, hypertension and other chronic diseases, and reproductive health. Dr. Sriram earned his PhD in Health Services Policy and Management from the University of South Carolina. He earned his MPH in Global Health Systems and Development from Tulane University and his MHS in Health Economics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Sriram also earned his MS in Global Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His dissertation addressed health insurance programs for the poor, out-of-pocket costs, and catastrophic health expenditures in India. Dr Sriram worked as a research assistant in the World Bank funded international health research projects and as a Graduate Teaching assistant at the University of South Carolina. In addition, he has several publications and posters. Dr. Sriram’s career goal is to work in a research position in an international organization such as UNICEF, WHO, or World Bank.
Jaesang Sung, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In his fellowship assignment, Dr. Sung will leverage his experience with health systems and claims data on projects such as examining the impact of T21 policy and flavor bans on tobacco use, health and health care spending, documenting the health and economic impact of second-hand smoking and implementation of smoke-free HUD rule, and updating the estimates of youth mortality due to cigarette smoking. Dr. Sung earned his PhD in Economics from Georgia State University and an MA in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany. His dissertation focused on the impact of economics on risky behaviors and health outcomes. Dr. Sung has experience working at the Georgia Health Policy Center. Dr. Sung’s goal is to apply his research skills to address real-world health issues and make a real impact on population health through work at CDC.
Mohammad Toseef, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: Denver Health Department
In his fellowship assignment, Dr. Toseef will work on evaluating the costs and cost-effectiveness of hub and spoke model for addiction services for opioid use disorder as well as determining the cost and cost-effectiveness of a residential treatment program as an alternative to hospitalization among persons with opioid use disorder and deep-tissue infections requiring intravenous antibiotics. Dr. Toseef will also evaluate costs of treatment and care for methamphetamines and use his understanding of healthcare utilization patterns and costs of patients experiencing homelessness and/or justice involvement in his assignment. Dr. Toseef earned his PhD and MA in Economics from Wayne State University. His dissertation compared the performance of Medicaid health maintenance organizations and fee-for service Medicaid regarding the prevalence of potentially preventable hospitalizations and emergency room visits. His goal is to do research that really makes an impact on people’s lives through informing decision-makers of their policies.
Adrienna Bingham, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, CDC
In her fellowship assignment, Dr. Bingham uses an agent-based HIV disease progression model to characterize the transmission of HIV in the US and updates the lifetime costs for persons living with HIV. Dr. Bingham earned her doctoral and master’s degrees in applied science from the College of William and Mary. Her dissertation encompassed dynamic systems and modeling the spread of infectious disease with a focus on implementing different forms of disease control measures.
Jiajia Chen, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In his fellowship, Dr. Chen will examine severe maternal morbidity around the time of childbirth, the effects of Medicaid expansion on postpartum care, as well as opioid misuse and maternal and child outcomes. He earned his doctoral degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he constructed a two‐sector model of physician behavior and used predictions from this model to guide his empirical analysis. His dissertation studied how local economic conditions and design of program features affect provider decisions and the wellbeing of Medicaid beneficiaries. His research examined policy-relevant issues using large claims data.
Yu Chen, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
In her fellowship, Dr. Chen will work on projects such as projecting future burden of diabetes and its complications, or geographical variation in medical expenditures and the use of health services and diabetes preventative care among older adults. She earned her doctoral degree in economics and her master’s degree in statistics from the University of Georgia. Her dissertation focused on the unifying theme of food choice, nutrition, and health and used advanced econometric tools to quantify associations and potential causal relations between food policies and consumer decisions in the United States and China.
Christopher Dunphy, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC
In his fellowship, Dr. Dunphy will work on projects such as opioid prescribing in the US, evaluating addiction severity, and state opioid support. Dr. Dunphy earned his PhD in Health Economics and his MS in Agricultural and Developmental Economics from Ohio State University. His dissertation examined the causes and public health consequences of increased firearm prevalence across the United States. His goal is to pursue a career as a health economist in the public sector, analyzing the effectiveness of public health policies.
Samuel Eppink, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, CDC
In his fellowship, Dr. Eppink will work on projects such as estimating the lifetime direct medical costs of HSV, conducting an economic analysis of Express STD clinics in the US, and identifying racial disparities in HIV diagnoses. Dr. Eppink earned his PhD and MA in Economics from Vanderbilt University. His dissertation focused on the socioeconomic and health profiles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, especially with respect to how they are affected by public policy. His goal is to spend his professional career in public service conducting research to provide information that is ultimately used to make lives better.
Kai Hong, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
During his fellowship, Dr. Hong will focus on the effects of non-health policies on health outcomes and econometrics. He earned his doctoral degree in economics from Vanderbilt University, his master’s degree in economics from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and his master’s degree in systems science from the Beijing Normal University.
Jingjing Li, PhD, MPH, MBBS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Li will evaluate the effectiveness of sexual health education, sexual health services, supportive and safe environment programs and activities in schools supported by DASH Cooperative Agreements using complex analytical tools such as difference-in-difference analysis, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, geo-special emerging hot-spot analysis, and cost analysis. She earned her medical and master’s degrees from Wuhan University in China and her doctoral degree in behavioral sciences and health education from Emory University. Her dissertation examined the causal pathways of the high prevalence of tobacco use among sexual minority populations– or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (LGBT) in the US and China.
Joohyun Park, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Dr. Park will work on projects such as applying the CDC/Research Triangle Institute Diabetes Cost-effectiveness model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of interventions for the prevention and control of diabetes, and estimating out-of-pocket health care costs burden among older adults with diabetes. She will apply the microsimulation of nutrition, diabetes, and CVD model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of food/nutritional policies for preventing type 2 diabetes. She earned her doctoral and master’s degrees social and administrative sciences in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation focused on evaluating the impact of closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap under the Affordable Care Act on the utilization of and expenditures for prescription drugs, and cost-related access problems for prescription drugs among Part D beneficiaries. She also conducted a study on estimating the financial burden of cancer patients and the association between high financial burden and the HRQOL and mental health of cancer patients.
Carlo Davila Payan, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health, CDC
During his fellowship, Dr. Payan will work on projects such as value of information analysis, disease impact modeling of country strategic investment plans, new vaccine introduction costing, and supplemental immunization activity efficiency analysis. He will also collaborate with the modeling teams for two emergency responses: Ebola and COVID. He earned his doctoral degree in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his master’s degree in industrial engineering from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico. His dissertation focused on cases of improvement to public health systems using mathematical modeling, building several mathematical modeling tools to address relevant questions of Public Health Systems.
Zhiqiu Ye, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Ye will focus on the economic burden and evaluation of innovative care models related to stroke and cardiovascular disease. She will work on projects such as literature review of economic burden of cardiovascular disease, economic burden of cardiovascular disease, development of cost collection tools and analytic methods for program cost studies, policy analysis regarding stoke systems of care and implementation studies of hypertension management in low-resource communities. She earned her doctoral degree in health services research and policy analysis from the University of Rochester.
Weiming Zhu, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, CDC
During his fellowship, Dr. Zhu will serve as a health service researcher, mastering quantitative methods to support public health initiatives and public policy. He earned his medical and master’s degrees from Fudan University in China and his doctoral degree in epidemiology from the University of California at Los Angeles. His dissertation described the malignant cancer spectrum among people living with HIV in China, revealing a heavy burden of cancer in this population.
Maria Aslam, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Aslan worked with a variety of CDC Centers/Institutes/Offices (CIOs), NCHHSTP divisions, and CDC-funded partners to select, design, and implement projects that met the latest demands in epidemiology and public health. She provided expert technical guidance to identify research methodologies and analytical techniques tailored to individual programs. She identified public health programs, policies, and settings that ensured the highest impact on every prevention/intervention dollar and applied quantitative methods to assess program effectiveness. This included linear and non-linear modeling, cross-section and panel data analysis, difference-in-differences, interrupted time series, bootstrap techniques, and small-area estimation. She also co-led routine coordination and management of the NCHHSTP Epidemiologic and Economic Modeling Agreements (NEEMA)—a cooperative agreement with the largest research budget in the NCHHSTP, Office of the Director. Maria earned her doctoral degree in economics from Emory University with a focus on health economics and applied microeconometrics.
Srimoyee (Sri) Bose, PhD, PhD, MA, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Utah Department of Health
During her fellowship, Dr. Bose worked on projects including Medicaid super utilizer integration, blood lead screening cost effective strategy, hypertension value based payment models and cost analysis, opioid overdose (fatal and non-fatal) economic analysis, tobacco racial disparity network cessation evaluation, medical cannabis requests for proposals, preterm birth return on investment analysis, and training material development. She earned a doctoral degree in public health from Georgia State University. She also earned a doctoral degree and master’s degree in economics from the University of West Virginia and a master’s degree in economics from Presidency College in India. Her public health dissertation focused on late stage breast cancer diagnosis and survival among younger women in the U.S. pre and post Affordable Care Act. Her economics dissertation focused on the effects of health care expenditure in the economic development of the U.S. from 2000-2009.
Mandar Bodas, PhD, MHA
Fellowship Assignment: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
During his fellowship, Dr. Bodas worked on a wide range of health policy topics such as the opioid misuse crisis, spending on Medicare beneficiaries with end stage renal disease, and value-based payments in Medicare and Medicaid. He also served as a project officer for several projects in the Office of the Secretary’s Patient Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund. He earned his doctoral degree in health policy and research from Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Bodas is also a trained physician and earned a master’s degree in health administration. His dissertation research focused on applying theoretical frameworks from health economics to evaluate socioeconomic determinants of maternal and child health.
Gloria Kang, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Kang developed various mathematical modeling tools for public health planning and response. During the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she contributed to the Ebola response efforts by providing frequent updates to case projections as part of the Ebola Modeling Team. She earned her doctoral degree in biomedical and veterinary sciences and her master’s degree in infectious disease from Virginia Tech. Her dissertation research focused on applications of computational epidemiology and infectious disease modeling for public health policy.
Lyudmyla (Lucy) Kompaniyets, PhD, MS, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Kompaniyets studied costs of childhood obesity and its related comorbidities on both the national level and the state-by-state level, estimated cost effectiveness of weight management programs children and adolescents, and estimated costs associated with obesity-related chronic diseases. Dr. Kompaniyets earned her doctoral degree in economics and master’s degree in statistics from Washington State University. She also earned her master’s degree in agricultural economics from University of Kentucky. She wrote her dissertation on the relationship between body mass index and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Lia Scott, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Scott evaluated the burden of cancer and cancer disparities. Dr. Scott also designed and implemented studies using advanced statistical modeling techniques, spatial analysis, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as part of the Program Evaluation team of the Program Services Branch within the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. She earned her doctoral degree and master’s degree in public health from Georgia State University. For her dissertation, she studied micro- and macro-level social and socio-economic factors that contribute to disparate rates of triple negative breast cancer diagnosis.
Raul Segura-Escano, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, CDC
During his fellowship, Dr. Segura-Escano conducted research projects involving population health, including the monetary valuation of health conditions using economic theory and statistical tools, and the impact of government policies on healthcare utilization and population outcomes using Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services data. He also provided service and technical assistance to several state health departments. Dr. Segura-Escano earned his doctoral degree in economics from the City University of New York, Graduate School & University Center, and his master’s degree in economics from Hunter College. His dissertation looked at the economic effects of unhealthy behaviors due to external shocks.
Rieza Soelaeman, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Environmental Health, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Soelaeman focused on evaluating the impact of an early intervention program to treat children with elevated blood lead on their subsequent blood lead test results, assessing the direct medical costs related to treating children with elevated blood lead levels, and updating the costs of childhood lead poisoning. She earned her doctoral degree in global health management and policy from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and her master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation focused on the economics of skilled birth attendance in Indonesia.
Andrea Strahan, PhD, MPP
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Strahan examined the impact of state policies and health system interventions on opioid prescribing and related health outcomes. She earned her doctoral degree in health services research from Emory University and her master’s degree from the University of Chicago. Her dissertation looked at various policies affecting women and infant health.
Shichao Tang, PhD, MPA, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC
During his fellowship, Dr. Tang used his strong econometric skills to help build and extend a division-level policy portfolio by identifying child abuse and neglect policies and data sources. He evaluated the impact of earned income tax credits, inclusionary zoning, and Medicaid expansion on violence, and the cost effectiveness of primary prevention programs implemented by Rape Prevention and Education Programs, Manhood 2.0, and Coaching Boys into Men to prevent the perpetration of sexual violence. He also led multiple projects focusing on preventing adverse childhood experiences and its intergenerational transmission. He earned his doctoral degree in economics from Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis and his master’s degree from O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs of Indiana University at Bloomington. He also earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from Renmin University of China. His dissertation applied various causal econometric models to understand the impact of substance abuse on employment.
Gina Turrini, PhD, MA, MPP
Fellowship Assigment: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
During her fellowship, Dr. Turrini worked in the Public Health Services Division where she used applied microeconomics to study health, human capital, and public policy around the world. She earned her doctoral degree and master’s degree in economics and her master’s degree from Duke University.
Mahlet A. Woldetsadik, PhD, MPHIL, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health, CDC
During her fellowship, Dr. Woldetsadik supported designing and implementing economic evaluations to understand and improve the impact of CDC’s global health security investments. Specific projects she led included assessing the impact of National Public Health Institutes supported by CDC in improving essential public health functions in seven countries, measuring the impact of the Global Rapid Response Team on CDC’s response to public health emergencies, evaluating the impact of the Field Epidemiology Training Program, and estimating the costs of investigating and responding to infectious disease outbreaks in CDC partner countries. Dr. Woldetsadik earned her doctoral degree and master’s degree in public policy analysis from the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School. She also earned a master’s degree in public health from École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique, the French School of Public Health in France.
Aziza Arifkhanova, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignement: Denver Health Deparment
During her fellowship, Aziza expanded her scope of practice to include opioids. She earned a doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School and a master’s degree in economics from Florida State University. Aziza wrote her dissertation on clinician scope of practice and how that has changed under the Affordable Care Act.
Biplab Datta, PhD, MA, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health, CDC
During his fellowship, Biplab performed sound research that informed health policy decision-making. He earned a doctoral degree in economics from Georgia State University, a master’s degree in economics from Simon Fraser University, and a master’s degree in applied economics from the University of Dhaka. His dissertation focused on three topics: the financing link between K-12 education and pollution; how public infrastructure stimulates private sector productivity; and the trade-offs between untangled subsidies and targeted social safety net programs in developing countries.
Yanyun (Julia) He, PhD, MA, MBA
Fellowship Assignment: California Department of Public Health
During her fellowship, Yanyun studied the impact of California’s new tobacco tax on various aspects of tobacco use; impact of the minimum age increase on tobacco uptake; impact of retail sales fee increase on sales to minors; and the cost effectiveness of a tobacco media campaign. She earned a doctoral and master’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her dissertation was on the influence of parents and peers on adolescent smoking. Yanyun studied a range of policies and their influence on smoking behaviors and became familiar with a number of smoking-related data sets. Yanyun also co-authored a publication in the International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health titled “The Association between Warning Label Requirements and Cigarette Smoking Prevalence by Education-Findings from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).”
Seonghye Jeon, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
During her fellowship, Seonghye investigated costs and efficiencies, compared to standard testing methodologies, of laboratory testing methods using the new genetic “deep sequencing” technologies; modeling the impact of Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) Core Action Packages on disease morbidity and mortality; and estimating the burden of brucellosis and the impact of cattle vaccination in Kenya. She earned a doctoral degree in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Xu Ji, PhD, MPH, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Xu estimated the impact of state policies on comprehensive smoking ban on the rate and cost of adverse infant health outcomes such as preterm birth using a nationwide database; estimated cost of hypertension in pregnant women; and study the economic impact of state perinatal quality collaborative. She earned a doctoral degree in health services research and policy and a master’s degree in public health from Emory University. Prior to that, she studied health administration and pharmacy science in China. Xu performed three studies on mental health implications of discontinuous insurance coverage and state Medicaid eligibility policies.
Jaya Khushalani, PhD, MHA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Jaya performed an economic evaluation of the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program modeling the future health burden and economic costs of cancer care and survivorship in the U.S., and economic evaluations of state breast and cervical cancer screening programs. She earned a doctoral degree in health services organization and research from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her dissertation was on decomposing racial and ethnic differences in receipt of immediate breast reconstruction surgery. During her time at VCU, Jaya developed analytic models for cancer screening and received a Susan G Komen fellowship to support her dissertation. She has 5 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Zihao Li, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC
During his fellowship, Zihao focused on development and optimization of a range of models including the HIV Optimization and Prevention Economics (HOPE) Model; an agent-based model characterizing sexual transmissions of HIV in the US, DHAP’s HIV disease progression model; and a model to optimize scarce resources to prevent the most new cases of HIV. He earned doctoral and master’s degrees in operations research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His dissertation applied computer algorithms to the problem of allocating limited resources to people with preferences.
Nisha Nataraj, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC
During her fellowship, Nisha focused on prescription drug overdose. Specific projects included cluster modeling of opioid prescribing practices; identification of comorbidities most associated with opioid overdose; simulation modeling of the chronic pain population on prescription opioids; and work directly with States to advance and evaluate comprehensive state-level interventions that address opioid overuse, misuse, abuse, and overdose. She earned a doctoral degree from North Carolina State University and a master’s of science degree from Rochester Institute of Technology, both in industrial and systems engineering. Her dissertation focused on modeling for the care of complex patients.
Qihua Qiu, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
During her fellowship, Qihua participated in the analyses of foodborne outbreaks and food recalls; evaluated the effects of socioeconomic status or regional economic conditions on foodborne illnesses; and applied economic models to estimate the cost and burden of foodborne outbreaks. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from Georgia State University. She developed a list of working papers out of her dissertation, which looked at the economics of health risky behaviors. One of the papers summarizes her work using Bayesian methods published in the Journal of Development Economics.
Hui Shao, PhD, MHA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During his fellowship, Hui applied CDC/Research Triangle Institute (RTI) Diabetes Cost-effectiveness Model (CDC/RTI DCEM) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of interventions for the prevention and control of diabetes; applied the new CDC/RTI Gestational Diabetes Cost-effectiveness Model (CDC/RTI GDCEM) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of screening for and managing gestational diabetes; and determined the geographical variation in medical expenditures and the use of health services and diabetes preventive care among older adults. He earned a doctoral degree in public health from Tulane University and a master’s degree in healthcare administration from Shandong University. His dissertation focused on updating the risk engine for diabetes progression and mortality in the US. He worked with very large data sets, and published 19 writings.
Austin Williams, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC
During his fellowship, Austin identified the optimal uses of rapid syphilis testing; analyzed the impact of public funding for STD prevention; and performed a cost-effectiveness analysis of interventions for chlamydia prevention. He earned his doctoral degree in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His dissertation focused on the health costs of environmental exposures.
Keith Branham, DrPH, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
During his fellowship, he focused on issues related to Medicaid, CHIP, individual market, and uninsured populations. He earned a doctoral degree in health management and policy and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Kentucky. His dissertation focused on prescription opioid policy and heroin use in the United States and his master’s thesis focused on health status and access to care among the uninsured in Kentucky.
Nelly Josefina Mejia Gonzalez, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health, CDC
During her fellowship, Nelly investigated the burden of enteric fever in Asia, program costs for influenza vaccine introduction; cost effectiveness of maternal influenza vaccine integration into antenatal care settings; and the economic benefit of 2nd year of life vaccination in Ghana. Her manuscript, “Neighborhood Food Environment, Diet, and Obesity Among LA County Adults,” recently won the Preventing Chronic Disease 2015 Annual Student Paper Contest. She earned a doctoral degree in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, CA. For her dissertation, she developed three essays on obesity and dietary habits focusing on empirical analyses of the effects of cash transfers and food environment.
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, PhD, MSPH
Fellowship Assignment: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Sarah earned a doctoral degree in health policy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in health services research from Emory University. Her dissertation focused on assessing quality of non-cancer chronic care and medication adherence for comorbidities among men with prostate cancer.
Boon Peng Ng, PhD, MS, MA
Fellowship Assignment: Division of Diabetes Translation
During his fellowship, Boon leveraged his knowledge of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrative data to assess health services usage, medical expenditures, and the health and economic impact of naturally occurring health policies and interventions, including public health policies, health insurance policies, and clinical-community partnerships on populations of interest. He earned doctoral and master’s degrees in health economics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He also earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and worked for Ford Motor Company as an engineer/technical instructor.
Chanhyun Park, PhD, MEd, MPharm, RPh
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Chanhyun reviewed cost-effectiveness analyses of antihypertensive drugs; estimated economic burden of hypertension by comorbidity status; and identified patterns of antihypertensive drug utilization and expenditures. Her goal was to contribute reliable evidence that allows healthcare professionals to make better clinical decisions, government agencies to create better healthcare policy, and even industry to develop better medications and medical devices. She earned a doctoral degree in health outcomes research from the University of Texas at Austin and two master’s degrees in quantitative methods and clinical pharmacy. Her dissertation focused on comorbidity measures to predict clinical and economic outcomes among elderly gynecologic cancer survivors. Chanhyun published 11 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Fatma Romeh M. Ali, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, she assessed the impacts of policies on tobacco use and smoking cessation; assessed the impact of electronic cigarettes advertising on adults demand for electronic cigarettes and transitions to and from other nicotine products; and assessed the impact of tobacco control funding on smoking-related medical care utilization and associated healthcare expenditures. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from Georgia State University. Her dissertation examined the effect of parental education on reproductive decision making and child health in developing countries. She used both econometric analysis and causal inference techniques such as regression discontinuity and difference in differences to extract exogenous variations and establish causal impacts. The first essay of her dissertation was published in the Review of Economics of the Household.
Krishna Prasad Sharma, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During his fellowship, Krishna investigated the effectiveness and cost of various strategies in National Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program and Colorectal Cancer Control Program. He earned doctoral and master’s degrees in health economics from Wayne State University. His dissertation focused on the effect of technological change on health care cost and expenditures. Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Medicare-linked data, he investigated how medical expenditures on cancer care evolved over time (1991-2005) and estimated the effect of technological change on cost attributed to cancer care.
Wafa Tarazi, PhD, MHA
Fellowship Assignment: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
During her fellowship, Wafa worked on several projects, including hospital financial performance; the association between social risk factors and performance on Medicare quality measures (IMPACT Act-Study B); and affordability of prescription drugs. She earned a doctoral degree in health policy and research from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a master’s degree in health administration from Washington State University. Her dissertation focused on the impact of public health insurance coverage and cancer care. Her master’s thesis focused on the impact of health reforms on the financial viability of California hospitals. While at VCU, Wafa held a Susan G. Komen Graduate Fellowship in health disparities.
Georgianne Fay Tiu, DrPH, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During her fellowship, Georgianne performed analytic studies on healthy eating, school nutrition, school-based physical activity and physical education, and management of chronic conditions in school settings in the United States. She earned a doctoral degree in health management and policy from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in leadership, management and policy from the University of Cincinnati. Linking 2013 data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials with the Area Health Resource Files, her dissertation investigated if a local health department choices in the provision of cancer and cardiovascular disease screening activities is contingent on the supply and availability of primary care providers in the community.
ThuyQuynh N. Do, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
During her fellowship, ThuyQuynh investigated the economic impact of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) in the U.S.; assessed the healthcare resource use and costs associated with spina bifida and Fragile X syndrome; and examined the impacts on caregivers of children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She earned a doctoral degree in socio-medical sciences from the University of Texas Medical Branch, a graduate certificate in geographic information science and technology from the University of Southern California, and a master’s degree in epidemiology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her dissertation focused on mammography disparities among Asian Americans using the Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use.
Nidhi Khurana, PhD, MPhil
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
During her fellowship, Nidhi investigated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions. She used mathematical models to study the impact of delivering Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in individuals at high risk of HIV in the United States. She also served as the inter-agency President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Expenditure Analysis advisor for Ghana. She advised PEPFAR Ghana on reporting requirements of PEPFAR expenditures and provided technical assistance to use that data for evidence-based budgeting. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in engineering and applied sciences from Yale University. Her dissertation focused on investigating motion and stability of particles in flows using numerical methods.
Kwame A. Nyarko, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
During his fellowship, Kwame conducted cost-of-illness analyses using claims data on children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He used claims data to model the effects of policies and interventions on use of healthcare services and costs for children with autism spectrum disorder. He also conducted cost-effectiveness analyses of food fortification, including the recent voluntary folic acid fortification of corn masa flour. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Iowa in health services and policy, with a concentration in health economics. His dissertation focused on the implications of the folic acid fortification mandate on infant and child health.
Jamison Pike, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
During her fellowship, Jamison examined the economic burden of preventable outbreaks and working on projects for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. As the CDC lead for the Joint Initiative on Vaccine Economics V, she evaluated the Healthy People 2020 objectives relating to vaccination and vaccination coverage. Specifically, she examined the financial, economic, and epidemiologic relationships between vaccine preventable infectious diseases and chronic disease, and quantifying reimbursement barriers to adult vaccination. She also worked on systematic reviews regarding the application of productivity costs to cost of illness and cost effectiveness. She was awarded the NCIRD Public Health Professional of the Future for her work. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Wyoming. Part of her dissertation used real options analysis to examine strategic implementation of appropriate emerging infectious diseases prevention and control policies. Her work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and cited in Time magazine.
Tao Ran, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
During her fellowship, Tao worked on projects such as the national disease burden of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; national cost related to cognitive development of children due to prenatal exposure to mercury; and the cost benefit study of installing carbon monoxide detectors in residential houses. Tao worked projects on water fluoridation, consumers’ willingness to pay for nutrition information, and school-based health centers. She earned a doctoral degree in environmental and natural resource economics and a master’s degree in applied statistics from Louisiana State University.
Kristi-Warren Scott, PhD, MBA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Environmental Health
During her fellowship, Kristi evaluated interventions to reduce rates of the ill working. This included on-call staffing plans, paid sick leave, and training on the importance of not working while ill. She assisted with the assessment of state and local implementation of food safety policies and practices associated with preventing restaurant staff working when ill; improving hand-washing practices; and minimizing bare hand contact with food. This assessment also reviewed requiring trained, certified kitchen managers to be present during all hours of operation. She earned a doctoral degree in consumer economics at the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from Benedictine University in Illinois. Her dissertation was titled “Overweight and Obesity: Do Subjective Measures of Food Access Matter?”
Samuel Shillcutt, Jr. PhD, MSc, MSc
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During his fellowship, Samuel focused on economic evaluations of tuberculosis (TB) interventions, developing projections of future cases of TB under a range of scenarios, and developing budget and regulatory impact analyses related to TB control. He worked internationally to understand and control infectious diseases and has written 15 peer-reviewed articles in various publications. He earned a doctoral degree in health systems from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, a master’s degree in human biology from Oxford University, and a master’s degree in economic evaluation in health care from City College of London. His dissertation focused on an economic evaluation of diarrhea alleviation in India.
Eduardo A. Undurraga, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
During his fellowship, Eduardo focused on understanding the effectiveness and costs of interventions to prevent and control infectious diseases, such as Ebola, rabies, and shigellosis. He earned a doctoral degree in social policy from the Heller School, Brandeis University, and received formal training in hydraulic engineering.
Hilary K. Whitham, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
During her fellowship, Hilary assisted with ongoing work on a dynamic compartmental model of the U.S. HIV epidemic. She worked on other projects such as assisting with micro-costing of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); examining men who have sex with men (MSM) behaviors across the HIV continuum of care; and updating health utility estimates for the HIV-positive population to inform cost-effectiveness analyses. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota. Her academic research focused on identifying optimal cervical cancer prevention strategies for HIV-positive women in sub-Saharan Africa using both epidemiology methods and Markov cohort cost-effectiveness modeling.
Xilin Zhou, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Xilin played a lead role in several projects. One of her projects aimed to understand the growth in spending on anti-diabetic drugs in the past three decades. In another project, she estimated the excess cost attributable to diabetes among patients with cardiovascular diseases. She also led a team of five colleagues reviewing the literature on the cost-effectiveness of interventions to diabetes. Her other projects included applying, validating, improving and expanding the CDC-Research Triangle Institute Diabetes Cost-effectiveness Model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of interventions for the prevention and control of diabetes. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from Georgia State University.
Caresse Campbell, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
During her fellowship, Caresse collaborated with international partners on topics such as the determination of national disease burdens and evaluating the cost-effectiveness of proposed anthrax and brucellosis interventions. She earned a doctoral degree in health services research at the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in global health from Emory University. Her doctoral research focused on addressing issues in health outcomes, disease management and health disparities.
Bradford Greening, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases
During his fellowship, Bradford contributed to a number of projects such as providing frequent updates to Ebola case projections; evaluating the cost-effectiveness of providing anti-malarial prophylaxis to contacts of Ebola cases; providing estimates of international and domestic Ebola treatment bed needs; and evaluating efficiency and effectiveness of contact tracing systems. These assignments allowed him to work not only domestically in the CDC Emergency Operations Center, but also internationally in both Sierra Leone and Senegal. Other non-Ebola project areas included capacity of public health laboratories; cost-effectiveness of vaccination strategies and drug administration campaigns; and mathematical modeling for emergency preparedness scenarios. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, he continued in a permanent position with the same center. He earned a doctoral degree in ecology and evolution from Rutgers University. His dissertation focused on the analysis of information capacity and learning potential in social animal groups using higher-order networks.
Mei-Chuan Hung, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Mei-Chuan ran projects to estimate the health benefits and lifetime treatment cost-savings of meeting the Healthy People 2020 objectives for reducing invasive colorectal cancer and late-stage breast cancer in the United States. She earned a doctoral degree in health services research and quantitative policy analysis from the National Taiwan University and a master’s degree in epidemiology from the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Her dissertation focused on epidemiology, quality of life, survival, and cost-effectiveness of patients under prolonged mechanical ventilation in Taiwan.
Lidia Kayembe, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health
During her fellowship, Lidia worked closely with the Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Dominican Republic country teams. She served as an expenditure analysis advisor for President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs, which allowed her to work in country offices and participate in various international strategic meetings held across Africa. She deployed to Guinea for several months as part of the CDC’s Ebola Response as a data manager on the Epidemiology team. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, Lidia accepted a permanent position in CGH on the Global Immunization Division (GID). She earned a doctoral degree in health economics at the University of Ottawa and a master’s degree in economics from Concordia University. Her dissertation focused on millennium development goals.
Gabrielle Ferro Miller, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Gabrielle led multiple research projects, including analyses of school district level policies and individual eating behaviors; evaluations of physical activity programs; and prevalence and cost of chronic diseases. She also worked on analyses related to school start time, injury behaviors, and trends in adolescents’ beverage consumption patterns using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. She developed a webpage and infographic on the dangers of energy drinks for adolescents, which can be found on CDC’s Healthy Schools web site. She served on the Health Economics Research Group steering committee, led workshops on CDC’s School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity, and participated in the Science Ambassadors and Disease Detectives programs. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, Gabrielle accepted a permanent position at CDC’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, Division of Analysis, Research, and Practice Integration. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in food and resource economics from the University of Florida. Her dissertation examined the impact of U.S. social welfare programs (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the National School Lunch Program) on individuals’ behavior.
María E. Negrón, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
During her fellowship, María worked on projects related to the economic burden of norovirus, cost-effectiveness of norovirus vaccine, and the impact of pharmacy vaccine administration policy on herpes zoster vaccine coverage. She was deployed twice to Sierra Leone as part of the data management team to assist in the CDC Ebola Response. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she accepted a position in CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. She earned a doctoral degree in veterinary epidemiology from the University of Calgary and a master’s degree in comparative epidemiology from Purdue University. Her dissertation focused on the role of bacteria in inflammatory bowel disease.
Ketra Rice, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Ketra conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of a patient navigation intervention to increase colonoscopy screening and an agent-based model of consumer decision making for colonoscopy screening. She worked on integrating disease burden in resource allocation models for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) and helped design a study to assess the impact of changes in health care coverage on women screened for breast and cervical cancer screening through the NBCCEDP. She delivered economic evaluation workshops to the Health Resources Services Administration and provided technical assistance on economic evaluation to the state of Alabama Department of Public Health. She also co-authored a paper on integrating measures of equity in public health funding strategies and co-authored a second paper assessing the primary care provider network of the NBCCEDP. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, Ketra accepted a position in CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. She earned a doctoral degree in public policy and management and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Ohio State University. Her dissertation examined the role of spatial factors in policy analysis and health disparities research.
Bisma Ali Sayed, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases
During her fellowship, Bisma evaluated the costs and benefits of expanding mandatory tuberculosis (TB) screening requirements to nonimmigrant long-term visa holders arriving in the United States from moderate to high incidence TB countries. She was actively involved in CDC’s Ebola Response; worked in the Emergency Operations Center; deployed to Sierra Leone; and conducted research to estimate the economic costs of implementing Ebola exit screening in West Africa. She also worked at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Innovation Center leading evaluations for new health care payment and service delivery models. She earned a doctoral degree in medical sociology with a specialization in statistics from the University of Miami.
Donglan Zhang, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Centers for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Donglan led several research projects updating the economic burden of hypertension and hyperlipidemia in the Unites States. She presented her research findings in scientific conferences such as the Academy Health annual meeting and the American Heart Association scientific sessions. She also synthesized economic evidence to support several national initiatives in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention including the Million Hearts and the Sodium Reduction Initiative. In addition, Donglan provided technical assistance for evaluation of the WISEWOMEN program and actively participated in research projects related to global CVD prevention and the Paul Coverdell National Stroke Registry. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she joined the University of Georgia as a tenure-track assistant professor in health policy and management. She earned a doctoral degree in health policy and management from the University of California–Los Angeles and a master’s degree in health economics from Fudan University. Her dissertation focused on an agent-based model to examine how upstream policies can change unhealthy dietary behaviors in an urban adult population.
Yuanhui Zhang, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Yuanhui led the project on estimating the health and economic benefits of implementing indoor tanning restrictions on melanoma prevention in the United States. She also worked on analyses related to the current breast cancer screening rate and the associated costs for commercially insured women. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, Yuanhui joined RTI International as a research scientist. She earned doctoral degree and master’s degrees in operations research from North Carolina State University. Her dissertation focused on robust optimal control, of treatment decisions for patients with type-2 diabetes.
Stephanie Chan, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During her fellowship, Stephanie conducted a literature review on costs, burden, and cost effectiveness of tuberculosis (TB) prevention, developed a cost calculator for the medical and programmatic costs of TB, and reviewed the policy implications to prevent or control tuberculosis. She also served as a subject matter expert for the PE Fellowship. She earned a doctoral degree in economics and policy analysis from the RAND Pardee Graduate School. Her dissertation focused on the effectiveness of U.S. environmental and social policies to reduce and prevent obesity.
Weiwei Chen, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
During her fellowship, Weiwei led projects in examining childhood vaccine price trends and collaborated with local partners on a project assessing the benefit of partial series vaccine administration in a mobile clinic setting. Her activities included other economic research related to young adults aging out of dependent coverage under the Affordable Care Act, human papillomavirus (HPV) coverage based on insurance claims database, and childhood immunization coverage based on a Socioeconomic Status Module of the National Immunization Survey. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she continued her research in health economics and public health at Florida International University. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Memphis. Her dissertation focused on health economics and applied microeconomics, with research topics such as health expenditure elasticity and the effects of insurance coverage on utilization.
Yao-Hsuan Chen, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During her fellowship, Yao-Hsuan investigated inverse optimization methodology applied in healthcare, conducted data mining in longitudinal risk transmission network data, developed a dynamic network growth model, conducted a modeling literature review summarizing school closure effectiveness in an influenza pandemic, redesigned the burial team’s route planning in West Africa, and identified international flights with a high risk of importing Ebola patients into the United States. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she continued on with NCHHSTP to further develop and refine various HIV models used in identifying optimal investment strategies for the prevention of new HIV infections. She earned a doctoral degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Muhammad Jami Husain, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During his fellowship, Muhammad provided research and consultation in applied public health economics. His projects focused on tobacco use, hunger, and economy-wide impact of tobacco use elimination in Bangladesh, Global Adult Tobacco Survey results in Thailand and Turkey, ‘Data to Action’ curriculum module on policy briefs, and the World Health Organization tax model for the 2015 Global Tobacco Report. He led and coordinated research for the Bill and Melinda Gates funded WHO-CDC-CDC Foundation project (2014-2018) in 23 African countries and provided supervision and input in building data analysis and research writing capacity in the region. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, Muhammad continued on with NCCDPHP, OSH as a senior service fellow. He earned a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Keele. His dissertation focused on population health and life expectancy implications on economic wellbeing from macro- and micro-level data. He authored several publications focusing on economic analysis of health outcomes.
Ji Lin, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During his fellowship, Ji worked on several projects, including projection of diabetes burden in the US adult population through 2060, cost-effective analysis of intensive glycemic control for older adults with diabetes, and cost-effectiveness of the new cholesterol guidelines on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, he continued with a permanent position with NCCDPHP. He earned a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from Purdue University.
Tweodaj Mengistu, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health
During her fellowship, Tweodaj conducted cost and cost-effectiveness analyses, primarily in the area of maternal and child health and Prevention of Maternal-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS. She played an active role in providing technical assistance on economic and financial issues to U.S. government teams administering the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in developing countries. She gained experience in economic policy research at both multinational and national research organizations. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she joined CGH as an economist. She earned a doctoral degree in policy analysis from Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her dissertation focused on the emerging infrastructure financing mechanisms in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Marco Mesa-Frias, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Office of the Associate Director for Policy
During his fellowship, Marco participated in research and analysis work to assess the economic impact of proposed health policies, programs, and budgets. He also provided technical consultation on economic methods, data, and evidence on the health and economic consequences of alternative policies, programs, and legislative proposals affecting public health and prevention. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, he continued on with OADP as a senior service Fellow. He earned his doctoral degree in public health and policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His dissertation focused on modeling complex interventions in environmental health impact assessments. He was the primary author for the article “Uncertainty in environmental health impact assessment: Quantitative methods and perspectives” in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research.
Joseph D. Njau, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health
During his fellowship, Joseph provided economic assessment of measles and rubella outbreak costs in Romania and trained field epidemiology students in Indonesia to conduct analysis of economic burden of sporadic measles and outbreak response costs. He assisted in developing a cost assessment tool to help World Health Organization (WHO) member countries switch from trivalent oral polio to bivalent oral polio. CGH awarded Joseph a competitive grant to conduct an economic evaluation of mobile phone short messages to improve measles immunization coverage during supplementary immunization activities in Zimbabwe. Joseph participated in collaborative projects with outside institutions including Sabin Vaccine Institute. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, he continued on with CGH as a senior service fellow. He earned his doctoral degree in economics and health policy from Emory University. His dissertation focused on the economic and social implications of large scale implementation of malaria control interventions.
Sarah Pallas, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health
During her fellowship, Sarah served as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) expenditure analysis advisor for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, conducted a cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of GeneXpert tuberculosis diagnosis for people living with HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, and designed a cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of using HIV viral load for initiation of antiretroviral therapy in Swaziland. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she continued working with CGH as a health economist. She earned her doctoral degree in health policy and management from Yale University. Her dissertation, “Effects of Donor Proliferation in Health Sector Aid on Health Program Performance in Low-and Middle-Income Countries,” used econometric methods to test whether increases in the number of development aid donors impacted population health outcomes from 1995-2010 in 155 countries, with in-depth case studies in Vietnam and Ghana.
Kristina Rabarison, DrPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Kristina conducted economic studies for the Prevention Research Centers, Workplace Health Promotion, and Health Aging programs. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she continued to work in NCCDPHP as a senior service Fellow. She earned her doctoral degree in health services management from the University of Kentucky. Her dissertation focused on the analysis of expenditure causes and consequences of Title V block grant investments on select maternal and child health outcomes. Her research experience includes projects funded by the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Xu Wang, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Xu calibrated the impact of price increases on tobacco use and smoking cessation, the use of price-related promotions, tax avoidance and evasion behaviors, and evaluated the effectiveness of various tobacco control policies, regulations, and interventions. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she continued her research at NCCDPHP as a health economist. She earned her doctoral degree in economics from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Her dissertation evaluated a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on birth outcomes and breastfeeding behaviors, with a special focus on identifying plausibly causal program effects and deriving implications for policy.
Jing Xu, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
During her fellowship, Jing developed a decision-analytic model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of seasonal inactivated influenza vaccination among pregnant women. This study reflected a significant addition to prevention effectiveness literature, as the influenza landscape in the United States greatly changed after 2009. She estimated vaccine needs of uninsured adults following Medicaid expansions under CDC. She also performed other economic research related to immunization services utilization among privately insured population using medical claim data. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, she joined the Office of Public Health Strategy and Analysis at the Food and Drug Administration. She earned her doctoral degree in economics from Emory University.
Kun Zhang, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Office of the Associate Director for Policy
During his fellowship, Kun analyzed the medical costs of obesity to large, self-insured employers in the United States. Later, he transferred to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control where he identified, developed, and evaluated public health strategies and interventions at health system or state-level and deemed promising by the CDC. Examples included enhanced Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, third-party payer strategies, and policy/legislative initiatives. He also oversaw multiple research projects funded by or through the CDC. After graduating from the PE Fellowship, he continued his work with NCIPC as a senior service fellow. He earned his doctoral degree in health services research from Emory University. His dissertation focused on the financial and health implications of Medicare home health care reimbursement policy change using the annual Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey.
Madeleine Baker-Goering, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Office of the Associate Director for Policy
During her fellowship, Madeleine focused on economic and policy research around hypertension management and control, which was largely performed using MarketScan datasets. She contributed to a multi-year CDC contract with Health Partners Institute for Education and Research that used microsimulation models to assess the health, economic, and budget impacts of interventions and policies to prevent cardiovascular disease. She earned her doctoral degree in economics from Duke University. Her dissertation focused on experimental approaches to analyzing the role of information in behavioral and environmental economics.
HeeKyoung Chun, ScD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health
During her fellowship, HeeKyoung performed a comprehensive economic and policy analysis of the Field Epidemiology Training Programs. In addition, she developed models to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of screening and treatment strategies for reducing mother–to–child transmission of HIV and Hepatitis B virus. Prior to her fellowship, she served as an Association for Prevention Teaching and Research fellow at CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. She earned her doctoral degree in work environment policy with minors in epidemiology and economics from the University of Massachusetts. She earned her master’s degree in economics from Boston University. Her dissertation examined the relationship between job insecurity and workers compensation filings.
Edward Coffield, PhD, MA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During his fellowship, Edward led or co-led research teams that: found an association between Shape Up Somerville—a child-focused community-wide obesity intervention—and reductions in parent body mass indexes; estimated the cost-savings associated with Shape Up Somerville; and, produced the first edition of CDC’s Physical Education Profiles. He also participated in a meta-analysis project which examined the relationship between school recess and student behaviors as well as an investigation into whether enjoyment of physical activity mediates physical activity participation. In addition to his research, Edward provided subject matter expertise to the School Health Branch’s external partners on conducting economic analyses of their programs and primed the School Health Branch to continue its economic-based research. Following his fellowship, Edward began working in a faculty position at Hofstra University in New York. He earned a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in economics from the University of New Hampshire.
Kara Contreary, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services
During her fellowship, Kara worked on a review of a forecast of the public health and economic impact of expanding Medicaid coverage of smoking cessation therapy; an evaluation of the U.S. infant rotavirus vaccine program; and a project identifying “outlier counties” which have better health than expected given the population’s socioeconomic status. She also performed economic reviews for the Guide to Community Preventive Services. She earned her doctoral degree in economics and her master’s degree in research economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her dissertation featured three examples of applied theoretical economics about incentives within organizations.
Lin Fan, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During his fellowship, Lin’s projects included a review of the literature describing the history of, and current indications for, screening pregnant women for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). He also performed a cost analysis of routine testing for hepatitis B viral load among HBsAg-positive pregnant women. He conducted a cost effectiveness evaluation of screening for hepatitis B viral load among pregnant women with chronic hepatitis B infection. In addition, Lin analyzed the antiviral treatment during pregnancy for women with hepatitis B using MarketScan data. He was also involved in the economic evaluation of a multistate hepatitis A outbreak. He earned a doctoral degree in health services research and policy from the University of Rochester. His dissertation examined rural-urban disparities in the use of preventive care.
Evin Uzun Jacobson, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response
During her fellowship, Evin worked on two primary projects: the development of a preparedness index and an assessment of the costs of preparedness in the United States. She earned a doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, both in industrial engineering. Her dissertation focused on resource allocation models in the aftermath of mass casualty events.
Hee Soo Joo, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Hee studied indirect costs of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and economic evaluations of CVD prevention or intervention programs. Her manuscript, “A literature review of indirect costs associated with stroke,” was published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from the State University of New York (SUNY), Albany. Her dissertation examined income and education related disparities in cardiovascular outcomes and diabetes.
Andrew J. Leidner, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During his fellowship, Andrew worked on projects related to hepatitis C disease progression and the economic evaluation of early diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C. He earned a doctoral degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University. His dissertation involved three economic essays on water resource management in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Brian Maskery, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
During his fellowship, Brian’s projects revolved around economic evaluations of tuberculosis screening protocols for U.S.-bound immigrants and presumptive treatment of U.S.-bound refugees against intestinal parasites, schistosomiasis, and malaria. He also assisted other center researchers on economic analyses of hepatitis B, C, and HIV screening programs for refugees. He earned a doctoral degree in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation examined various models to incorporate private demand and herd protection into vaccine policy models
Yu Teng, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
During his fellowship, Yu 1) refined the Progression and Transmission of HIV/AIDS model to understand and predict HIV transmission within U.S. communities, with a focus on examining the cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve retention in HIV care; and 2) derived annual HIV diagnostic probability from HIV surveillance data. He earned a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. His dissertation focused on optimal screening strategy design for chlamydia infection in young women.
La’Marcus T. Wingate, PharmD, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
During his fellowship, La’Marcus evaluated the cost-effectiveness of different strategies to screen for tuberculosis in populations migrating to the United States. He presented his preliminary findings at the Eastern Economics Association Conference. Upon completion of the fellowship, La’Marcus began an appointment as an assistant professor within the Department of Pharmacy Administration at the Howard University College of Pharmacy. He earned a doctoral degree in pharmacy and a doctoral degree in health outcomes and policy research from the University of Tennessee, Health Science Center. He was awarded one of six dissertation fellowships from the Boston College Center for Retirement Research for his dissertation which used conjoint analysis to evaluate senior citizens’ preferences for Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.
Ninee S. Yang, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
During her fellowship, Ninee performed research on the costs of teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy prevention, the impact of change in Medicaid reimbursement policy on long-acting reversible contraception, and the costs of preterm birth in the United States. She earned a doctoral degree in economics from Wayne State University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin. Her dissertation focused on the effect of changes in benefit drug design among individuals with diabetes in large employer-sponsored insurance plans.
Emine Yaylali, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STV, and TB Prevention
During her fellowship, Emine applied operations research and decision analytic methods to determine the most efficient allocation of HIV prevention resources and the cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions and programs among risk populations. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in operations research from North Carolina State University. Her dissertation focused on models for alerting decisions in public health.
Chun Hai (Isaac) Fung, PhD, MSc
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
During his fellowship, Isaac conducted studies related to the development of an economic model to determine the cost-effectiveness of an influenza vaccine in Bangladesh, providing economic evaluation support to the International Emerging Infections Programs, and supporting the division’s preparedness activities, responding to modeling and evaluation requests as needed. Following the PE Fellowship, Isaac accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, teaching infectious disease epidemiology and other epidemiology courses to masters of public health students. He earned a doctoral degree in infectious disease epidemiology from the Imperial College of London and a master’s degree in the control of infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His dissertation modeled the impact of an HIV intervention program among female sex workers in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Gery P. Guy, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC
During his fellowship, Gery focused on breast cancer screening among low-income or uninsured women, colorectal cancer test use in the United States, and estimating medical costs associated with cancer in the Medicaid population. Following the PE Fellowship, Gery accepted senior service Fellow position as a health economist in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. He earned a doctoral degree in health services research and health policy and a master’s degree in public health from Emory University. His dissertation examined the effect of health insurance expansions on insurance status, access to case, and labor market participation. He published an article, “The Effects of Cost Sharing on Access to Care among Childless Adults” in the Health Services Research journal.
Ya-Lin (Aileen) Huang, PhD, MS
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC
During her fellowship, Aileen worked on projects related to determining the costs and cost-effectiveness of HIV behavioral interventions as delivered in the field, identification of the costs and cost-effectiveness of new HIV screening technologies and strategies to diagnose HIV early in the course of infection and prevent transmission, and assessment of the costs and benefits of HIV infrastructure, including the HIV surveillance system. She earned a doctoral degree in health services research and health policy from Emory University. Her dissertation focused on the practice patterns and outcomes associated with vaginal births after caesarian section.
Lisa O’Brien, PhD, MSc
Fellowship Assignment: Center for Global Health, CDC
During her fellowship, Lisa determined the macroeconomic effects of HIV treatment programs in developing country settings, identified the optimal delivery of HIV counseling and testing services in outpatient clinics, and understood the external benefits of HIV programs in reducing “orphan-hood” in Ethiopia. She earned a doctoral degree in medical sciences and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation was a risk-benefit assessment of the use of antidepressants during pregnancy from an economic, safety, and pharmacokinetic perspective.
Samuel K. Peasah, PhD, MBA
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
During his fellowship, Samuel developed CDC’s official seasonal influenza estimates, direct and indirect costs associated with influenza infections and cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination among those recommended to receive annual vaccination, and costs of influenza-associated outcomes in developing countries. Following the PE Fellowship, Samuel accepted a position as Research Assistant Professor within the pharmacy practice in the School of Pharmacy at Mercer University (Atlanta Campus) conducting health outcomes research and teaching health policy related courses. He earned a doctoral degree in health services research and a master’s degree of business administration from the University of Florida. His dissertation studied the impact of Medicare’s nosocomial infections policy on patient outcomes and hospitals’ financial performance.
Cora K. Peterson, PhD, MSc
Fellowship Assignment: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC
During her fellowship, Cora made economic and comparative analyses of data on healthcare use and expenditures associated with birth defects using national and state-level datasets. She performed longitudinal cost analysis of Medicaid health service use for children with selected birth defects; cost-effectiveness analysis of newborn screening for the early identification of children with critical congenital heart defects; and pre-gestational diabetes screening for the prevention of birth defects. Following the PE Fellowship, she accepted a Senior Service Fellow position as a health economist in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Analysis, Research and Practice Integration. She earned doctoral and master’s degrees in social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her dissertation assessed the National School Lunch Program’s long-term health impact as well as the role of commodity foods in American schools.
Charles Stoecker, PhD
Fellowship Assignment: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
During his fellowship, Charles focused on an estimation of the incremental costs and benefits associated with changes in immunization policy, program, and practice in the United States and estimating the cost-effectiveness of using innovative vaccines and vaccine schedules. Following the PE Fellowship, he accepted an assistant professor position specializing in health economics at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Department of Global Health Systems and Development where he teaches health economics and econometric methods to master’s degree and doctoral students. He earned a doctoral degree in economics from the University of California, Davis. His dissertation examined the long-term impacts of early life events such as exposure to extreme temperature.
