The mission of the SER-Student & Post-Doc Committee (SER-SPC) is to facilitate the educational experiences and professional development of students in epidemiology-related disciplines by providing information, resources, and networking opportunities; facilitating student exchange of research ideas; and providing service to the SER and advancing and promoting the SER-SPC.
Dana Pasquale
President
Dana recently completed her doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Duke University Department of Sociology where she is studying social networks and health. Dana’s main research focus is understanding where to intervene in sexual networks to prevent HIV and syphilis transmission. Most of her work is within the domain of applied epidemiology and uses methods which are not traditional in epidemiology. She has an MPH in health behavior and a BA in anthropology.
Contact
Duke University
Department of Sociology
dkp20@duke.edu
Catherine Lerro
President-Elect
Catherine is an epidemiologist studying occupational and environmental exposures and cancer risk. She is currently a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, where her research evaluates the effects of pesticides and persistent chemical exposures on cancer risk and relevant biomarker endpoints. She received her PhD in environmental epidemiology and her MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health. She earned her BA in Public Health Studies from the Johns Hopkins University, and previously worked at the American Cancer Society.
Contact
National Cancer Institute
Division of Cancer Epidemiology
and Genetics
catherine.lerro@nih.gov
Yeyi Zhu
Past-President
Yeyi Zhu is an Epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. She obtained her postdoctoral training on nutritional and environmental epidemiology at Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Her research has been focusing on the impact of intrauterine environment on women’s and children’s cardiometabolic health using a life course approach. She earned her BS in Biological Sciences from Fudan University in Shanghai, China and her MS in Statistics and PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology from The University of Texas at Austin.
Contact
Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Division of Research
yeyi.zhu@kp.org
Kendra Sims
Education Co-Chair
Kendra Sims is a current PhD candidate in Epidemiology at Oregon State University. Previously, she earned her MPH at Boston University School of Public Health. Broadly, her research concerns how interrelated societal stressors contribute to disproportionately poor cardiovascular health. For her dissertation on perceived discrimination’s association with adverse blood pressure outcomes, she is applying machine learning methodologies to optimize model fit and instrumental variable selection.
Contact
Oregon State University
College of Health and Human Sciences
simske@oregonstate.edu
Ana Florea
Internal Affairs Chair
Ana is an Epidemiology doctoral student (hopefully, soon to be candidate end of July) at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Previously, she received an MPH in Epidemiology from Boston University and a BS in Physiological Science from UCLA. Her dissertation work will be focusing on chronic kidney disease and both people’s awareness of and adherence to treatment of the disease. In addition, Ana is also working as a clinical research coordinator for nephrology clinical trials. Her other research interests lie in clinical trials, drug development, and reproductive epidemiology/health.
Contact
University of Arizona – Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
aflorea@email.arizona.edu
Lindsey Duca
Media Chair
Lindsey is a PhD candidate in the field of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her research interests are in the area of public health surveillance. In particular, methods used to estimate bias due to incomplete case ascertainment in surveillance of congenital heart defects across the lifespan. She received an MS in Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and a BS in Biology at the University of Colorado.
Contact
Colorado School of Public Health
Paige Wartko
Program Co-Chair
Paige Wartko is a PhD candidate in epidemiology at the University of Washington, where she previously earned an MPH. Prior to that, she completed her BS in Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. Her research interests include perinatal epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, diabetes, and women’s health. For her dissertation, she is collaborating with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute to investigate the association between antidepressant use in pregnancy and maternal gestational weight gain, gestational diabetes, and infant birthweight.
Contact
University of Washington
pwartko@uw.edu
John Pamplin
Program Co-Chair
John Pamplin is a pre-doctoral fellow in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training program and is a current doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, where he previously earned his MPH. John’s research interests lie at the nexus of social epidemiology and psychiatric epidemiology; he is interested in the mental health consequences of societal structures in the U.S., with a primary focus on the relationship between structural racism and mental health among people of color.
Contact
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
jrp2166@cumc.columbia.edu