Lens 1 of 4: Epidemiology
Epidemiologist
Six-plus years in infectious disease epidemiology, including four-plus years as a CDC contractor in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion focused on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance. I work across surveillance systems (NHSN, the Emerging Infections Program), claims, and EHR data to identify infections, characterize risk, and translate findings into guidance federal, state, and local partners can use.
- 6+
- years in infectious disease epidemiology
- 150+
- weekly case investigations managed during COVID-19 response
- 2022
- joined CDC DHQP as a surveillance and RWE contractor
- 2016–22
- years of C. difficile surveillance linked to Medicare claims
Core expertise
- HAI and antimicrobial resistance epidemiology. C. difficile epidemiologic classification, NHSN Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) data, patient-level antibiotic use in EHR and claims, and AR laboratory and susceptibility data.
- Surveillance data management and analysis. Database design, data cleaning, and epidemiologic analysis of large public health datasets using SAS, R, and SQL, with reproducible, regulatory-quality statistical programming.
- Public health communication and technical assistance. Scientific reports and manuscripts, publication-quality tables and figures, training, and phone-duty technical assistance to clinicians, public health officials, and the public.
- Federal research operations. IRB protocols, Data Use Agreements, CMS/ResDAC data access, and federal data governance and privacy compliance.
- Case-based surveillance and outbreak detection. Cluster and transmission-pattern identification across case, laboratory, and immunization-registry systems.
Experience
2022–Present
Scientific Data Analyst
Chenega Professional Services SBU, supporting CDC DHQP (Epidemiology Research and Innovations Branch), Atlanta, GA
- Design and lead studies that fill knowledge gaps in HAI and antimicrobial resistance prevention across acute and non-acute care settings, as lead author of protocols and statistical analysis plans.
- Evaluate linkage of Emerging Infections Program C. difficile surveillance cases to Medicare claims (2016 to 2022) by state, year, and onset setting (community-associated, community-onset healthcare facility-associated, hospital-onset, long-term care facility-onset), applying CMS Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse cohort methods.
- Rebuilt a nursing home Infection Preventionist time-use analysis after finding records misassigned to calendar quarters, including GEE models of IP activity by facility size, ownership, outbreak status, and CMS star rating.
- Analyze antimicrobial use and resistance data, including the NHSN AUR Module, antibiotic use in EHR and claims, and AR laboratory data, alongside HAI surveillance from NHSN and EIP HAIC.
- Program statistical analyses in SAS and R, including propensity score methods, survival analysis, GEE, longitudinal cohorts, and test-negative design, across claims (MarketScan, CMS) and multi-platform EHR data (Truveta, PointClickCare, Premier/PHD).
- First author of a JAMDA publication validating COVID-19 diagnosis codes among 31,136 nursing home residents; co-author of a Vaccine (2024) study of bivalent vaccine effectiveness.
- Independently manage IRB protocols, Data Use Agreements, and CMS ResDAC data access to ensure compliance with federal research and privacy requirements.
2021–2022
Clinical Trials Data Manager & Epidemiologist
Emory University School of Medicine, Vaccine & Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU), Atlanta, GA
- Supported NIH/NIAID-funded COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials evaluating safety, immunogenicity, and effectiveness, including industry-sponsored Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine studies.
- Integrated clinical trial data with the Georgia immunization registry (GRITS) to evaluate vaccine uptake and real-world protection.
- Programmed SAS and R workflows for automated data quality checks and reconciliation.
2020–2021
COVID-19 Field Epidemiologist
Florida Department of Health, St. Petersburg, FL
- Conducted frontline COVID-19 surveillance and case investigations, managing 150+ weekly investigations to identify transmission risks and support outbreak control.
- Collected, validated, and maintained case-based surveillance data within state systems to support real-time public health decision-making.
- Provided phone-based public health guidance to cases, contacts, and clinicians, and performed contact tracing interviews.
- Built Tableau and Power BI dashboards tracking case counts and percent positivity for department leadership, and supported Pinellas County percent-positive and excess-death analyses.
2019–2020
Research Data Analyst, Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL
Conducted a retrospective observational study of 2,000+ patients using real-world EHR data to identify epidemiologic risk factors and transmission patterns associated with Hepatitis C infection; presented findings at the FCEP Annual Conference (2019).
Methods & data
Diagnosis codes identified true infections 92% of the time for residents continuously in the facility, and 24% of the time for those who were not.
Read the publication details