My research primarily uses network analysis, agent-based modeling and predictive analytics to inform initiatives to achieve health equity. I focus on incorporating psychosocial (e.g., substance use) and structural (e.g., incarceration) barriers to care. Much of this effort is currently directed towards designing interventions for the Getting to Zero HIV Elimination initiative in Illinois. I also partner on HIV elimination efforts with the health departments in Los Angeles and Houston. Outside of HIV/STIs, I am conducting agent-based network modeling on patient navigation interventions to increase breast cancer screening among Black and Latina women in Chicago.
I received my Ph.D. in Quantitative Ecology and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Washington. I completed my postdoctoral training in Global Health at the University of Washington and Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the University of Chicago. While an ecology background might seem surprising given the focus of my work, for me the connection was that fundamental epidemiological models were developed from the classical ecological modeling literature. I came to public health science as a modeler; my work considers behavioral dynamics, age stratification, network structures and migration processes, themes that are of interest in ecology and epidemiology. Over the past several years, my modeling work has gone deeper into incorporating specific public health equity issues: incarceration, addiction, and barriers that cause interruptions in care cascades.
