Working with me
Research advising for PhD students in Old Dominion University's Health Services Research program, and for graduate students across the Joint School of Public Health.
What I'm looking for
Students who bring a question, not a method.
The strongest projects I’ve advised started with a problem in public health the student cared about — late-stage colorectal-cancer diagnosis in underserved populations, acculturative stress among farmworkers, barriers to comprehensive HIV care — and then asked what methods will let us say something defensible about this? Methods follow questions, not the other way around. That’s the work I’d like to do with you.
Practically: my advising sits at the intersection of biostatistics methodology and applied public-health research. Projects I’m best suited to mentor:
- Cancer-disparities research with an emphasis on structural and neighborhood factors — colorectal, breast, and increasingly other sites where disparities in stage-at-diagnosis and treatment pattern matter
- Machine learning in health-outcomes research — not ML for its own sake, but as a tool when classical regression struggles with high-dimensional predictors, complex interactions, or messy registry-based data
- Propensity-score methods and causal inference from observational data, particularly where diagnostic-accuracy or risk-prediction is the target
- Complex-survey analysis for population-level public-health research (PRAMS, BRFSS, NHIS, NSDUH)
If your question is closer to the methodology end — a simulation study, a new estimator, methods for small samples — I’m interested. If your question is closer to the application end — using existing methods well on a specific public-health problem — I’m also interested. The combination matters less than the clarity of the question.
Who I advise
Active & recent dissertation chairs.
- Rexford Anson-Dwamena — PhD candidate, Health Services Research. (2023 – present)
- Mya Achike — Occupational Stress and Coping During a Public Health Emergency. (2021–2024, defended Summer 2024)
- Anne Dumadag — Mental Health Among the Asian American Population. (2022–2024)
- Brenda Berumen-Flucker — Acculturative Stressors and Cultural Factors in Health and Safety of Hispanic/Latino Farmworkers. (2020–2022, defended Summer 2022)
I’ve also served on 7 dissertation committees as a member, supervised 11 MPH and PhD research projects, and been the practicum preceptor for 11 MPH students. A full mentoring summary is on the CV.
How to reach out
Email me — but write it well.
Before emailing, please check that the Health Services Research PhD program at ODU is a fit for your goals; this is the program I advise in. If the program fit is right, an initial email from you should include:
- What public-health problem interests you — 2–3 sentences in your own words. Not a method, not a dataset — a problem you want to understand.
- Why you're writing to me specifically — one or two sentences. If you've read a paper of mine that resonated, name it. If you haven't yet, that's fine — tell me what about my research program matches what you want to do.
- Your current stage and timeline — are you applying for Fall 2026 / 2027 / etc.? Are you already at ODU on a different funding line? Are you exploring multiple PIs?
- Your CV or a short background paragraph — prior training, relevant skills (statistical programming in R / SAS / Python; any biostats or epidemiology coursework), and anything else that would give me a sense of where you're starting.
Send the email to [email protected]. Please put “PhD advising inquiry” in the subject line so I can prioritize response — I try to reply to these within a week during the academic year, longer in summer.