Stanford University
Showing 101-150 of 199 Results
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Stephanie A. Leonard
Assistant Professor (Research) of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Maternal Fetal Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine, and of Epidemiology and Population Health
BioStephanie Leonard, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Dunlevie Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center for Discovery, Innovation, and Clinical Impact (https://dunleviemfm.stanford.edu/) and holds courtesy appointments in Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and in Epidemiology and Population Health.
The goal of Dr. Leonard’s research is to advance positive health outcomes and experiences for pregnant individuals and newborns. She is interested in applying transdisciplinary methods to perinatal health research, with a focus on studying pregnancy-related morbidities in large data sources. Currently, her primary research interests are in utilizing large electronic health record datasets to conduct multi-site studies on chronic health condition treatments during pregnancy. To this end, she co-launched the OHDSI Pregnancy and Reproductive Health Work Group (https://www.ohdsi.org/workgroups/) and collaborates closely with the Harvard Program on Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacoepidemiology (http://www.harvardpreg.org/). She also serves as a collaborator and mentor on a variety of obstetrics studies, including clinical trials, prospective and retrospective observational studies, and qualitative studies. Dr. Leonard's research program is currently funded by NHLBI (K01) and NICHD (U54).
Dr. Leonard trained in epidemiology at UCLA (MS) and UC Berkeley (PhD), where her research focused on nutrition in pregnancy. She completed a postdoc in Neonatal and Developmental Medicine at Stanford as part of the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences. -
Zongbo Li
Postdoctoral Scholar, Health Policy
BioZongbo Li, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford Health Policy. His research focuses on applying simulation modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis to inform policy decisions related to substance use and infectious diseases. He evaluates overdose prevention interventions, including naloxone distribution and medications for opioid use disorder, with particular attention to vulnerable populations such as people who are incarcerated. His work also encompasses modeling infectious diseases and evaluating interventions for COVID-19, HIV, and HCV. Zongbo earned his PhD in Health Services Research, Policy & Administration from the University of Minnesota.
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Richard Liang
MD Student with Scholarly Concentration in Health Services & Policy Research / Global Health, expected graduation Spring 2027
Ph.D. Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research with Scholarly Concentration in Health Services & Policy Research / Global Health, admitted Autumn 2022
MSTP Student
Master of Arts Student in East Asian Studies, admitted Spring 2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPrimary research interests include:
- applications of advanced epidemiological methods
- life course health and social epidemiology
- bridging population health and basic science research
Clinical & health services research topics have included:
- maternal/child health
- geriatrics/aging
- dermatology, particularly inflammatory skin diseases
Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WtCbIZAAAAAJ -
Eleni Linos, MD, MPH, DrPH
Ben Davenport and Lucy Zhang Professor of Medicine, Professor, of Medicine (Center for Digital Health) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
BioEleni Linos MD, MPH, DrPH, is the Director of the Stanford Center for Digital Health. Dr. Linos serves as Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology at Stanford Medicine.
Dr. Linos' research focuses on the use of technology in health, dermatology, public health, cancer prevention and the care of older adults. She is dually trained in epidemiology and dermatology and is the principal investigator of several NIH funded studies aimed at improving the lives of patients worldwide. She received her undergraduate degree from Trinity College, Cambridge and medical degree from Christ Church College, Oxford University in the UK. She then received a master’s and doctoral degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and completed her residency in Dermatology at Stanford University.
Linos has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2016, as principal investigator of several studies on technology, aging and dermatology. Her scholarly output includes over 200 peer-reviewed publications, an h-index of 51, and more than 10,000 citations across disciplines. Linos was awarded the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and received the Paul Beeson Emerging Leaders Award in Aging.
As the Director of the Stanford Center for Digital Health, she has built and led infrastructure bringing together scientists and industry leaders across all Stanford schools to catalyze research across the fields of medicine, computer science, engineering, robotics, policy and public health.
Dr. Linos is committed to mentorship and training of the next generation of scientists in translational research. She has personally mentored over 60 physician-scientists, many of whom are now independently-funded investigators and leaders in academic medicine. She also serves as the co-PI of Stanford CTSA’s K12 Program, responsible for mentorship and training of 10 translational science faculty each year. Over the last seven years, she is funded by an NIH K24 mentorship grant award to mentor the next generation of physician-scientists in dermatology. In addition, Linos is committed to mentorship and supporting students across all levels of education to pursue their passions including students in high school and undergraduates.
Clinically, Dr. Linos is a Board Certified Dermatologist and cares for patients with skin disease in the Stanford Dermatology teaching clinics. -
Jonathan Samuel Litt
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatal and Developmental Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research program has two distinct though closely related areas of focus. The first concerns understanding pathways through which chronic health problems impact behavioral development and functional outcomes among preterm infants. I am particularly interested in how neonatal multimorbidity and associated markers of epigenetic aging can help improve risk-prediction for long-term functional outcomes. My second area of academic focus is bringing health services research and improvement science approaches to studying the delivery of high-risk infant follow-up and developing innovative models of post-discharge care. This work includes a focus on population health management, value-based care, and equity-focused quality improvement.
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Lili Liu
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioLili (Larry) Liu, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. Dr. Liu is an integrative epidemiologist whose research is unified by a consistent methodological approach rather than a single disease area. Across his master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral training, he has repeatedly developed or operationalized epidemiologic frameworks and analytic programs and applied them to important public health questions spanning rare diseases, chronic disease, cancer, mortality, microbiome, and women’s health. His work brings together molecular biomarkers, large-scale population cohorts, and real-world health data to generate coherent, hypothesis-driven research on how genetic variation, lifestyle, pharmacologic factors, and early-life exposures shape inflammation, biological aging, and chronic disease risk across the life course.
During his master’s training at Peking University, Dr. Liu developed expertise in literature synthesis, national claims-based study, rare disease burden estimation, patient-centered health information research, cohort-based analysis, and vaccine effectiveness evaluation. He helped build and apply claims-based analytic algorithms to estimate incidence and prevalence for multiple rare diseases in China, led first-author studies on online health information and patient information needs in rare disease populations, and established an analytic framework for CHARLS-based cohort studies that supported multiple downstream projects. During his PhD training at Vanderbilt University, he expanded into population genetics, molecular and cancer epidemiology, mortality and health disparities research, gut microbiome, and pooled multi-study analyses. His doctoral work included a multi-ancestry GWAS of urinary prostaglandin E2 metabolite (PGE-M), development of PGE-M-derived dietary and lifestyle scores, and Mendelian randomization analyses linking lipid-related pathways to colorectal cancer risk. He also led several first-author studies in the Southern Community Cohort Study on poverty, sitting time, physical activity, walking and mortality, and alcohol intake and the gut microbiome, several of which received substantial public health and media attention.
At Stanford, Dr. Liu has developed an independent research program centered on women’s health and life-course epidemiology using U.S. national claims data. He has built large nationwide pregnancy and mother-baby cohorts from MarketScan to study adverse obstetric outcomes, long-term cardiometabolic and hepatic outcomes, and early-onset cancer risk. His first corresponding-author paper at Stanford examined gestational diabetes in relation to subsequent type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and his ongoing work extends this framework to cardiovascular, kidney, metabolic, and reproductive health outcomes, including PCOS and endometriosis. He also received a Stanford MCHRI fellowship grant to study prenatal and early-life antibiotic exposure in relation to pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. In parallel, his collaborative work includes placental and maternal-fetal research on extracellular vesicles and angiogenic signaling.
Methodologically, Dr. Liu works at the interface of causal inference, pharmacoepidemiology, molecular epidemiology, and scalable real-world data science, using reproducible analytic pipelines in R, Python, SQL, and high-performance computing environments. Across all stages of his training, the central theme of his work has been to build scalable analytic infrastructure and apply it to high-impact epidemiologic questions with broad public health relevance, with the overarching goal of translating rigorous population science into actionable strategies for chronic disease prevention in diverse populations. -
Nathan Lo
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research group is interested in studying the transmission of infectious diseases and impact of public health interventions with an ultimate goal of informing public health policy. We study a diverse set of pathogens, both domestically and internationally, including vaccine-preventable infections (including COVID-19) and neglected parasitic diseases (such as schistosomiasis). Our group applies diverse computational methodologies, including tools from fields of epidemiology, mathematical and statistical modeling, simulation, and policy analysis.
A large emphasis of our work is translating scientific evidence into public health policy. Our track record includes multiple studies that have changed policy in the fields of neglected parasitic diseases and COVID-19. We work closely with policy organizations like the World Health Organization and the California Department of Public Health. Nathan was the lead writer of the World Health Organization guidelines on schistosomiasis (2022) and strongyloidiasis (2024).
Our current research focuses on the following areas:
(1) Vaccine-preventable infectious diseases (including measles and COVID-19) in the United States, with a focus on studying vaccines, transmission dynamics, and re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated diseases (emphasis on measles)
(2) Public health strategies for control and elimination of globally important neglected infectious diseases, such as helminths infections (schistosomiasis, strongyloidiasis) and typhoid fever
Our current NIH funded projects include:
(1) Real-time predictive modeling for public health departments to control infectious diseases (DP2 AI170485, PI: Lo)
(2) Precision mapping of Schistosoma mansoni risk for targeted public health control and elimination (R01 AI179771, PI: Lo)
Hiring
We are seeking to fill multiple research positions at all levels. Candidates interested in working on computational public health research related to infectious diseases with a strong quantitative background are highly encouraged to apply. If you an interested, please submit a cover letter, CV, and names of two references to Nathan.Lo@stanford.edu. -
Junjie Lu
Ph.D. Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, admitted Autumn 2023
BioJunjie's research is centered on the social determinants of minority health, epidemiological methods, and clinical effectiveness. He is deeply committed to understanding the health disparities faced by minority populations. His clinical background helps bridge the gap between research and practical application, aiming to improve healthcare outcomes in real-world settings.
Junjie Lu earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he concentrated on Health and Social Behavior. He also holds an MBBS and an MS from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Junjie gained practical experience as an intern doctor at a university hospital for two years, during which he led a pilot randomized controlled trial on the effects of acupuncture on depressive symptoms. -
Ying Lu
Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiostatistics, clinical trials, statistical evaluation of medical diagnostic tests, radiology, osteoporosis, meta-analysis, medical decision making
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Stephen Luby
Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Luby’s research interests include identifying and interrupting environmental pathways of disease in low- and middle-income countries.
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Mitchell R. Lunn
Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLGBTQIA+ health
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David Maahs
Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
BioDr David M. Maahs is the Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics, Division Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology, and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in Pediatrics at Stanford University and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He earned his MD followed by Pediatric Residency at the University of New Mexico. After 3 years on New Mexico’s faculty, Dr. Maahs completed a Pediatric Endocrinology fellowship and a concurrent PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Colorado. He remained on Colorado’s faculty for 10 years, advancing to Professor of Pediatrics before moving to Stanford. Prior to his medical career, Dr. Maahs received a BA and MA in English from the University of Kansas and was inspired to pursue a medical career after serving in the Peace Corps with assignments in Tunisia and the Central African Republic.
Dr. Maahs’ leadership experiences include being a past co-Chair (2013-16) for Protocols and Publications with the Type 1 Diabetes Exchange for which he continues as Director of International Collaborations. This complements his role as President-elect for the International Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD, 2021-25) and Editor-in-Chief for the 2018 ISPAD Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines. He served on the Professional Practice Committee for the American Diabetes Association (ADA, 2016-18), which writes the annual ADA Standards of Care. Previously, he served on the ADA Scientific Sessions committee representing the Council on Youth. He has also served on national committees for the American Heart Association, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and multiple journal editorial boards and review committees.
His scholarly interest is improving care and preventing complications in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Along with Dr Peter Chase, he is author of the 12th and 13th editions of Understanding Diabetes, or ‘Pink Panther,’ which are the most widely used educational books for children newly diagnosed with T1D, distributed internationally by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF). More specifically, he has conducted epidemiologic studies that help generate hypotheses for clinical studies, including trials to develop artificial pancreas systems to improve glucose control, lower disease burden, prevent the complications of diabetes, and reduce disparities in diabetes care. He is author or co-author of over 350 research publications. His multi-disciplinary research has been funded by the JDRF, the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Dr Maahs is Associate Director for the recently formed and NIDDK P30 funded Stanford University Diabetes Research Center (https://sdrc.stanford.edu). His collaborations extend to his role as Principal Investigator (PI) or steering committee member for NIH funded multi-center clinical trials including the FLEX, PERL, and ACTION studies as well as multiple Artificial Pancreas clinical trials. Education, mentorship, and training leadership includes being Program Director with Dr. Georgeanna Klingensmith on the Barbara Davis Center T32 and K12 training grants in Pediatric Endocrinology while at the University of Colorado. He is the PI on the Stanford NIH funded K12 "Training Research Leaders in Type 1 Diabetes.' Dr Maahs is also the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Pediatrics.
While in the Peace Corps, David met his wife, Christine Walravens, who is also a Pediatrician at Stanford. They enjoy outdoor activities and traveling with their adult children. -
Yvonne Maldonado
Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Taube Professor of Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on epidemiologic aspects of viral vaccines and perinatal HIV infection. This includes the molecular epidemiology of factors affecting the immunogenicity of oral polio vaccine (OPV) in developing areas of the world, and now the epidemiology of transmission and circulation of vaccine derived polioviruses in order to assist in global eradication of polio. I also work in development of methods to prevent breastfeeding transmission of HIV in Africa.
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Mario Malički
Social Science Research Scholar, Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Role at StanfordAssociate Director of Stanford Program of Research Rigor and Reproducibility (SPORR)
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Maya Mathur
Associate Professor (Research) of Pediatrics, of Medicine (Computational Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSynthesizing evidence across studies while accounting for biases
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Mohammad Saeed Munim
Affiliate, Epidemiology and Population Health
BioMohammad Saeed Munim works at the Health Systems and Population Studies Division of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Trained as an anthropologist, he holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Anthropology and has more than eight years of experience conducting public health research in Bangladesh.
His research focuses on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), environmental health, climate change and health, air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, behavioral health, and health systems. He has extensive experience working with vulnerable and underserved populations, including residents of urban and rural communities, informal settlements, remote and climate-vulnerable regions, and Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Munim specializes in qualitative and mixed-methods research, community-based participatory approaches, implementation research, and behavioral interventions. His work examines how social, environmental, and structural factors shape health outcomes and access to services among marginalized populations. Drawing on anthropological perspectives, he seeks to understand the lived experiences of communities and translate research findings into evidence-informed public health action.
He has contributed to the development and implementation of numerous national and international research projects along with Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, USA. In addition to academic publications, he has produced documentary and visual communication materials to disseminate public health research findings to diverse audiences.
His current interests lie at the intersection of anthropology, environmental and climate health, WASH, infectious diseases, and community engagement, with a particular focus on advancing health equity in low-resource settings. -
Himaja Nagireddy
Ph.D. Student in Health Policy, admitted Autumn 2025
BioHimaja Nagireddy (she/her) is a PhD student in Health Policy at Stanford. She previously served as a Program Manager at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in Baltimore, MD.
Prior to this, Himaja served as the Deputy Associate Policy Director for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at the White House, Briefings Manager for the Harris-Walz campaign, and Research Fellow at the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). She also served as the 11th Youth Observer to the UN from 2022-23. Himaja graduated with an MS in Environmental Epidemiology and a concentration in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2022, and her bachelor’s degrees in Physiology and Neurobiology, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Sociology from the University of Connecticut in 2020. -
Lorene Nelson, PhD, MS
Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPrimary research interests:
- genetic, environmental and lifestyle determinants of neurodegenerative disorders
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, migraine)
- innovative study design and data ecosystems in clinical and public health
Primary educational interests:
- Training of next generation scientists in advanced data science and analytic methods
in population, social, and behavioral health sciences. -
Mindie H. Nguyen, MD, MAS, AGAF, FAASLD
Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe conduct clinical trials and epidemiological, translational, and real-world studies of liver cancer, fatty liver (NASH, NAFLD), viral hepatitis B and C, liver cirrhosis, and liver transplant. We focus on risk identification for disease prevention and treatment for improvement of survival. We focus on sex, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities. We specialize in clinical trials, large international real-world consortium registry data, and large public/semi-public databases.
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Chloe Nobuhara
Masters Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, admitted Autumn 2025
BioChloe Nobuhara is a fourth year general surgery resident at Stanford University, currently doing two years of research in the application of artificial intelligence in the operating room. Her projects include computer vision pipelines for automated performance assessment, the use of ambient intelligence for operational efficiency, and the use of automated documentation for burnout reduction. She completed her undergraduate studies at Northeastern University and her MD at Duke University School of Medicine. She is also concurrently in a Masters in Epidemiology with a focus in informatics.
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Juno Obedin-Maliver
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Gynecology & Gynecologic Specialties/Generalist) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
BioJuno Obedin-Maliver, MD, MPH, MAS, FACOG (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who provides excellent clinical care, while advancing scientific knowledge through her research, and supporting personal and professional development as a physician coach.
She practices full-spectrum gynecology including outpatient, in-patient, operative, and emergency care services. This specifically includes collaborative management of cervical dysplasia and abnormal pap smears, abnormal uterine bleeding, contraception and family planning, pelvic pain, abnormal discharge, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and more. She specializes in the gynecological and reproductive health care needs of sexual and gender minority people which include but are not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) people. This interest and experience drives her research interests towards promoting the health and well-being and equity of LGBTQ people.
Dr. Obedin-Maliver, is the Co-Director of The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org), a multi-site online prospective longitudinal cohort of sexual and gender minority individuals based at Stanford. She also serves on the medical advisory board of the University of California San Francisco Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and is helping to author the next version of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care. Dr. Obedin-Maliver has also been active in health policy, including involvement in helping to legally redefine consideration of sexually intimate partner status and to remove the Medicare Non-Coverage Determination ruling on gender -affirming surgeries.
Additionally, Dr. Obedin-Maliver continues her long-standing commitment to growth, healing, and empowerment as a Master Certified Physician Development Coach (Physician Coaching Institute, ICF Level I). In her coaching, Dr. Obedin-Maliver uses personal and professional development tools, mindfulness, and somatic frameworks to enhance health, agency, and creativity in partnering with individuals to help them achieve their professional goals and design their personal lives. She rejoices in partnering with diverse healthcare providers to use her broad skills to supercharge their authentic learning and growth, especially in times of challenge and resistance.
For more information about her research and career, please see: pridestudy.org and http://med.stanford.edu/obedin-maliver.html -
Michelle Odden
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMultilevel - from cells to society - epidemiologic study of healthy aging
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Lesley Park
Senior Research Scientist, Epidemiology and Population Health
BioStanford Advancing Health Equity and Diversity (AHEaD)
ahead.stanford.edu
Founding Co-Director (2020-present)
Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS)
Executive Director (2022-present)
Cancer Core Co-Director (2016-present)
International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD)
iwhod.org
Chair, Scientific Secretariat (2024-present)
Dr. Lesley Park is a co-founding director of the Stanford AHEaD summer research program for college students from underrepresented and historically excluded groups in the health sciences. She is also the Executive Director of the VACS consortium, an international collaboration of methodologists, clinicians, and trainees who utilize the rich and valuable data from the Veterans Health Administration to do impactful research. VACS has been at the forefront of research to understand aging with HIV to improve patient care, particularly with respect to alcohol and other substance use, physiologic frailty, and polypharmacy. In recent years, the VACS mission has expanded to encompass other foci, including genomic research and most recently COVID-19.
Within the VACS, Dr. Park oversees cancer and COVID-19 outcomes research in persons with HIV/AIDS (PWH). Her research experience has focused on the intersection of cancer and HIV, examining epidemiologic methods for cancer research, cancer incidence trends, and cancer (particularly hepatocellular carcinoma) prevention in PWH. Dr. Park is an experienced epidemiologist, skilled in "big data" observational research, survival analysis, and SAS programming. She teaches courses in computing, data management, and epidemiologic analysis methods. Her prior experience includes research at the Yale School of Medicine and at the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research (CBAR) at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD) is an established scientific forum for the appropriate application of real-world data to emerging issues in infectious disease. Dr. Park leads the IWHOD scientific committee of internationally reknowned experts in infectious disease and is responsible for administrative and scientific coordination of IWHOD.
Previously, Dr. Park was one of the leaders of the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences (PHS). PHS aims to improve the health of populations by bringing together diverse disciplines and data to understand and address social, environmental, behavioral, and biological factors. She oversaw all of the educational and training initiatives at PHS and was one of the founding directors of the PHS Data Center and PHS Postdoctoral Fellowship program. -
Anisha I Patel
Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Patel is a physician-scientist with a focus on community-engaged research (CEnR). She works to translate evidence to impact policies that can benefit children facing inequities due to their racial/ethnic background, poverty, and/or geography.
She leads the independently-funded research program, Partnerships for Research in Child Health, which collaborates with community partners to co-develop, implement, and evaluate innovative interventions aimed at preventing obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in low-income, minoritized populations. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Patel has led numerous studies to encourage healthy beverage intake among children and adolescents. These studies include analyses of large national data sets, conduct of randomized controlled trials in schools, child care, and community settings to examine how interventions to increase children’s intake of water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages impact child health, and the evaluation of policy efforts to improve the healthfulness of beverages offered in schools and community settings.
Long before the Flint water crisis, Dr. Patel was working with partners to address nitrate and arsenic contamination in drinking water supplies in California’s San Joaquin Valley, a rural region home to many low-income Latinx farm-working families. She secured funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to collaborate with researchers, nonprofits, water utilities, families, and advocates to develop innovative solutions to drinking water contamination in the region, helping to lead to the Agua4All program. The Agua4All initiative increased access to safe drinking water by installing filtered water stations in schools and community sites. The program’s success led to its national expansion and informed a $16.3 million-dollar water in schools grant program as well as California legislation to improve safe water access in public schools. Dr. Patel’s work with collaborators and communities was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Drink Up campaign and featured in Stanford Medicine’s award-winning magazine.
As an expert in CEnR, Dr. Patel leads initiatives at Stanford. She is Director of the Office of Community-Engaged Research at Stanford's Maternal and Child Health Research Institute. In this role, she is helping to lead several initiatives, including expanding grant funding for CEnR and implementing capacity-building training programs for both community partners and the Stanford community. She also serves as Associate Dean of Research in Stanford’s School of Medicine, where she works to enhance community engagement across the university. Dr. Patel is a Co-Investigator on Stanford’s Clinical Translational Sciences Award. She also helps lead mentoring of fellows and junior faculty in CEnR.
Dr. Patel has a diverse funding portfolio ranging from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Patel has presented her research to local, national and international audiences. She has also been recognized for her research with awards from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Public Health. -
Javier Perez-Garcia
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioJavier Perez-Garcia is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. His research has been focused on the integration of multi-omic data (e.g., genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, and microbiome) to identify potential biomarkers of treatment response for complex diseases like asthma. His research background includes experience both in molecular biology techniques (e.g., DNA extraction and sequencing libraries preparation) and bioinformatic analyses (e.g., processing of raw omic data, association studies at genomic scale, or multi-omic integration through machine learning and quantitative trait loci analyses). He holds a Ph.D. in Health Sciences and a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of La Laguna (Spain).
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Rachel Pham
Educational Program Manager, Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Role at StanfordEducational Program Manager
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Rita Popat
Associate Professor (Teaching) of Epidemiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interest focuses on the epidemiology of Parkinsons disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, specifically evaluating the genetic and environmental contributions to these neurodegenerative disorders. I am also interested in studying the relation of cognition, estradiol exposure (endogenous and exogenous), and genetic factors.
