Departmental Affiliations
Contact Info
615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E7650
Baltimore
Maryland
21205
US
Research Interests
environmental epidemiology; Bayesian statistics; complex mixture methods; exposomics; study design; case control studies; neurodevelopment; autism spectrum disorders
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health
2011
MSPH
University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health
2007
BS
North Carolina State University
2003
Overview
I am an environmental and occupational health researcher. The ultimate goal of my work is to improve population health by identifying agents that cause disease and can be removed from our environment. I am particularly interested in studying exposures as complex mixtures. This is a result of the belief that most diseases are the result of a complex process that is influenced (both negatively and positively) by a wide range of environmental contaminants, social conditions, and even products we use in day to day life.
I employ Bayesian methods to achieve my research goals. Practically speaking, the machinery of Bayesian methods (Markov chain Monte Carlo) allows a great deal of flexibility in model specification and allows us to examine exposures as mixtures in ways that traditional statistical tools are simply incapable of handling. This comes with a computational cost (some models can take days to run), but one that can be well worth it.
I employ Bayesian methods to achieve my research goals. Practically speaking, the machinery of Bayesian methods (Markov chain Monte Carlo) allows a great deal of flexibility in model specification and allows us to examine exposures as mixtures in ways that traditional statistical tools are simply incapable of handling. This comes with a computational cost (some models can take days to run), but one that can be well worth it.