Epidemiology & Biostatistics PhD Program Graduates

Wyatt Peter Bensken, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Siran Koroukian, PhD

Dissertation: Disparities and Inequities in Health, HealthCare, and Outcomes for People Living with Epilepsy

: Research Investigator at OCHIN, Inc. and Adjunct Faculty here in PQHS. Link to Dr. Bensken's website .

Benjamin Booker, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Jennifer Cullen, PhD, MPH

Dissertation: The Impact of Insomnia among Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer

PhD conferred May 2024

: Data Scientist at University Hospitals

Zuxi Cui, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Fredrick R. Schumacher, PhD, MPH

Dissertation: Assessing Genetic Imputation Quality and its Application in Rare Variant Analysis for Genome-Wide Association Studies: A Simulation-Powered Approach

PhD conferred 08/16/2024

: Research Scientist 2 at New York State Department of Health

Gwendolyn Ann Roberdeau Donley, PhD

Program: Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Dissertation: The Role of Perception and Crisis in Food Environments, Vaccine Acceptance, and Financial Stress

: Director of Analytics and Reporting at CHN Housing Partners

Daoyu Duan, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Hao Harry Feng, PhD

Dissertation: New Analytical Methods in Study Design and Differential Analysis for Epigenomics Research

PhD conferred 05/16/2025

: Principal Biostatistician at Regeneron

Shuo Fang, PhD

Program: Epidemiology and Biostatistics

PhD conferred 01/15/2021

India Jarita Gill, PhD, MPH

Program: Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Dissertation: Investigating the Neighborhood Context of Racial Inequities in Child Ashtm Emergency Healthcare

: Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network, University of California San Francisco

Jesus Gutierrez, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Catherine M. Stein, PhD

Dissertation: Epidemiological Factors Associated with Acute Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection and Active Disease

PhD conferred 08/16/2024

Emily Hannon, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisors: Diane Dowd, PhD, Alex Yee-Chen Huang, MD, PHD, James Kazura, MD, and Scott Williams, PhD

Dissertation: Assessing Heterogeneity of the Immune Response to Malaria in African Children

Degree conferred January 2025

: Emily is working on the MD component of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) - an MD/PhD combined degree program.

Karen Yingyi He, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Degree conferred 01/17/2020

Kakul Joshi, PhD, MPH

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Erika Trapl, PhD

Dissertation: Food Banking during COVID-19: Understanding Food Sourcing, Quality, and Factors Influencing Healthier Food Inventory

: Senior Evaluator, Professional Data Analysts

Youjun Li, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Jeffrey M. Albert, PhD

Dissertation: Semiparametric and Nonparametric Model Approaches to Causal Mediation Analysis for Longitudinal Data

PhD conferred 01/19/2024

: Postdoctoral Scholar. ��ϳԹ��, Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences

Shiying Liu, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Dana Crawford, PhD

Dissertation - Genomic and Immunological Determinants in Neurodegenerative Disease: Investigation of Parkinson's Disease Severity and Alzheimer's Disease Status in Multiple Populations

PhD conferred 05/16/2025

Currently: Dr. Shiying Liu is a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and is affiliated with the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology.

Yiying Liu, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

PhD conferred 05/17/2020

Noah Jeffery Lorincz-Comi, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD

Dissertation: Developing and Applying New Tools to Study Complex Disease Risk

PhD conferred May 2024

Michael Lyon McHenry, PhD

Program: Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Dissertation: Genomic and Co-Evolutionary Determinants of Clinical Severity in Active Tuberculosis Patients

: Housestaff, Division of Medicine Administration, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Leslie (Guanqun) Meng, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Advisor: Harry Hao Feng, PhD and Scott Matthew Williams, PhD

Dissertation: Statistical Considerations in Cell Type Deconvolution and Cell-Type-Specific Differential Expression Analysis

PhD conferred 01/17/2025

: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ��ϳԹ�� School of Medicine

Elina Misicka, PhD

Program: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Dissertation: Understanding Genetic Drivers of Age at Onset and Risk Conferred by Obesity in Multiple Sclerosis

: Postdoctoral Fellow, Neuroimmunological Disorders Gene-Environment Epidemiology Lab, Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences, ��ϳԹ��.