What brought you to the UAB School of Public Health?

In my experience, there are few schools of public health as interdisciplinary, scientifically rigorous, and welcoming as UAB. Also, Birmingham is my favorite place I've ever lived!

What is the broad focus of your research?

I am a geospatial epidemiologist with interests in neighborhood-level analyses of chronic diseases and conditions, including cancer, chronic kidney disease and kidney transplantation, and multiple sclerosis. Spatial accessibility to healthcare providers and medical infrastructure is another major focus of my work.

Where did you receive your training and degrees? 

I received my BS in Biology from the University of Alabama, my MPH in Epidemiology from the UAB SOPH, and my PhD in Epidemiology from Oregon State University. During my PhD, I also trained at Oregon Health and Science university as a predoctoral fellow in the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute's TL1 program. I was then a postdoctoral fellow at Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

What is the most exciting project you are currently working on?

I am most excited about a project examining neighborhood fast food, alcohol, and fruit/vegetable expenditures and associations with colorectal cancer in younger populations in Alabama.

What is your favorite self-authored manuscript?

My favorite manuscript thus far in my career is a recent publication entitled, “Disparities in multi-modal spatial access to primary and specialty care in U.S. neighborhoods: A cross-sectional and temporal analysis of health services,” where my co-authors and I produced national estimates of access to healthcare providers in U.S. neighborhoods for over 50 different types of providers. Uniquely, we were able to estimate how difficult it is for populations that use different travel modes (e.g., car, walking, transit) to travel to their providers. We found that non-metropolitan areas have poorer multi-modal spatial access to primary, specialty, pulmonology, nephrology, and cancer care than metropolitan areas both cross-sectionally and over time.

What professional accomplishment are you most proud of so far in your career?

I would say a Young Investigator Award I received at the 2022 American Transplant Congress (national transplantation conference) or more recently my selection as Early Career Investigator Editorial Fellow at the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

What is the coolest training or program you've been a part of, or your favorite conference you've attended?

I enjoyed being a postdoctoral fellow in the T32 program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. This opened new collaboration opportunities with some of the leading cancer epidemiologists.

What kind of research would you like to be doing that you haven't yet had the opportunity to do?

I would like to pursue projects using UAB health system data to examine patient difficulties in accessing their providers and how this may be related to poorer clinical outcomes.

If you had the funding to answer any one research question, what would that question be?

I am fascinated by using geospatial tools to improve access to cancer screening services and cancer care in cancer center catchment areas. I would examine how improving the geographic accessibility of screening would reduce cancer burden and how increasing access to cancer care would improve cancer outcomes nationally.

If you weren't in academia, what would your career be? 

Geospatial intelligence in a governmental agency.