Lens 1 of 4: Epidemiology

Epidemiologist

Six-plus years across infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, and epidemiologic analysis, including four-plus years as a CDC contractor supporting infectious disease surveillance and real-world evidence research. I build and manage case-based surveillance systems, clean and analyze surveillance data to detect cases and clusters, and translate the 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
1
first-author publication on surveillance case definitions

Core expertise

  • 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
  • Support case-based infectious disease surveillance and real-world evidence studies, cleaning and analyzing large surveillance and administrative datasets to identify cases, clusters, and trends.
  • Design and manage databases and reproducible analytic pipelines for epidemiology projects, performing data validation and quality assurance across claims (MarketScan, CMS) and multi-platform EHR data (Truveta, PointClickCare, Premier/PHD).
  • Program statistical analyses in SAS and R, including propensity score methods, survival analysis, longitudinal cohorts, and test-negative design.
  • First author of a JAMDA (2024) publication validating diagnosis codes for nursing home infection surveillance; co-author of a Vaccine (2024) publication on real-world 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.
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

Epidemiologic methods

case-based surveillance outbreak / cluster detection logistic regression generalized linear models Cox proportional hazards Kaplan–Meier propensity score matching test-negative design longitudinal analysis

Data sources

case surveillance systems immunization registries laboratory surveillance MarketScan CMS claims Truveta PointClickCare Premier/PHD Epic Cerner

Programming & platforms

SAS R SQL Python Stata 1CDP / DCIPHER SAS Enterprise Guide RStudio Databricks Git/GitHub

Regulatory & governance

HIPAA IRB protocols Data Use Agreements CMS ResDAC ICH-GCP CDISC (SDTM, ADaM)

First author of a JAMDA (2024) publication validating COVID-19 diagnosis codes for nursing home infection surveillance.

Read the publication details