Executive Committee Leading with Purpose, Advancing Epidemiologic Excellence

The control and administration of SER is vested in an Executive Committee, which, as per SER bylaws, includes a President, Past-President, President-Elect, five Members At Large and an Executive Director. All positions, except for the Executive Director, are elected individually by majority vote of the members voting. For a full overview of the Executive Committee positions, click here.

PRESIDENT

Brian Whitcomb
Contact:
bwhitcom@umass.edu
Brian W. Whitcomb is Professor of Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. His research is in the areas of reproductive health, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and related women’s health outcomes, with a focus on molecular determinants, and epidemiologic methods for biomarkers and laboratory data.
Dr. Whitcomb received his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and completed postdoctoral training in reproductive epidemiology and epidemiologic methods research in the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NICHD.

PAST PRESIDENT

Wendy Nembhard
Contact:
wnnembhard@uams.edu
Dr. Wendy Nembhard is a tenured professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Fay W Boozman College of Public Health, and a tenured professor in the UAMS College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is also the director of the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention. She is the current chair of the Board of Directors for the National Birth Defects Prevention Network and serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the National Conquering Congenital Heart Defect Association.
Prior to joining the College of Public Health in 2017, Dr. Nembhard was section chief of the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Birth Defects Research, and scientific director of the Arkansas Reproductive Health Monitoring System, the statewide birth defects registry at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Nembhard completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social epidemiology and cardiovascular disease at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and earned her doctoral degree in Epidemiology and Master in Public Health degree in International and Family Health from the University of Texas Houston, School of Public Health. Dr. Nembhard is a 2014 Fulbright Senior Scholar, 2018 Fellow of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program at Drexel University, is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, and the Society for Pediatric Research, and a 2019 Fellow of the Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship

PRESIDENT ELECT

Magdalena Cerdá
Contact:
Magdalena.Cerda@nyulangone.org
Magdalena Cerdá is a Professor and Director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, at the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She obtained her doctorate from the Harvard University School of Public Health in 2006, and is a former Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. Her research focuses on the effects that state and national drug and health policies have on substance abuse trends, and on the ways the urban context shapes violence. Current funded research focuses on the impact that cannabis laws and opioid policies have on substance abuse, mental illness, and associated health problems in the United States and South America. In addition, she is evaluating the impact that firearm disqualifications based on mental illness and substance abuse criteria could have on population-level rates of firearm-related mortality.

Member At Large (Mentoring)

Milena Gianfrancesco
Contact:
Milena.Gianfrancesco@ucsf.edu
Milena Gianfrancesco is the Genetic Epidemiology Lead within the Global Medical Real-World Evidence & Epidemiology group at Pfizer, Inc. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Gianfrancesco’s research interests include identification of risk factors associated with disease onset and progression in chronic diseases, particularly inflammatory and immune-related conditions. Her work integrates genetic and observational data such as electronic health records with machine learning and causal inference methods.

Member At Large (Awards)

Nadia Abuelezam
Contact:
abueleza@msu.edu
Nadia Abuelezam, is an epidemiologist and the 1855 Associate Professor of Family Medicine at MSU’s College of Human Medicine. She serves as the Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Equity Research for Action Coordinating Center at MSU. She also leads the SAWA Center, an initiative which is developing a community-centered research agenda for Arab and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) American health in the U.S. She works alongside Arab/MENA American populations using community-centered approaches with a common goal of advancing health equity and wellness. Due to her extensive statistical and quantitative training, she is particularly interested in developing new methods to incorporate structural causes, like racism, into epidemiological analyses.

Member At Large (Awards)

Meredith Shiels
Contact:
shielsms@mail.nih.gov
Dr. Meredith Shiels earned her M.H.S. and Ph.D. in cancer epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch (IIB) as a Cancer Research Training Award postdoctoral fellow in 2009 and was promoted to research fellow in 2011. She became a tenure-track investigator in 2016 and was promoted to senior investigator and awarded NIH scientific tenure in 2021. Dr. Shiels’s has been recognized with may honors and awards including the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellowship for Women Scientists in Cancer Research in 2009, the DCEG Women Scientist Advisor’s Mentoring and Leadership Award in 2020 and the DCEG Outstanding Mentor Award in 2025. In 2024, she was elected to a three-year term as a DCEG Women Scientist Advisor.

Member At Large (Membership)

Brenda Heaton
Contact:
Brenda.heaton@hsc.utah.edu
Brenda Heaton, PhD, MPH is the Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Health Services Research at the University of Utah School of Dentistry. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences in the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Heaton’s primary research interests include the study of oral health equity through research that investigates the social, economic, and political drivers of dental care access, utilization, and quality. Her research utilizes observational epidemiology to investigate the relationship between oral health and overall health and well-being and applies complex systems science approaches to investigate the causal mechanisms responsible for the emergence of oral health disparities.

Member At Large (Communication)

Peter Tennant

SPC President

Anthony J. Nixon, Jr.
Contact:
nixonanthonyj@wustl.edu
Anthony J. Nixon, Jr. is a doctoral student in the PhD Public Health Sciences program at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a perinatal epidemiologist who focuses on family health and well-being. His research interests focus on fatherhood and complex social issues during the perinatal period, with a particular emphasis on understanding the impact of fathers’ contribution to maternal, infant, and family health outcomes. He is also interested in exploring the intersection of race, gender, and socioeconomic status in shaping fatherhood experiences and health disparities. His work has included exploratory and descriptive studies in maternal and infant mortality, spatial epidemiology, social epidemiology, social networks, public health surveillance, and access to perinatal & healthcare services.
His dedication to public health has been acknowledged through several awards and honors. These include the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship with the Office of the Provost and the Race & Ethnicity Scholars program with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University in St. Louis. He is committed to advancing research in health equity and social justice with a focus on improving health outcomes for Black communities.