Data-Driven Solutions

MPH faculty focus on data-driven solutions to a variety of public health and community challenges.

Dr. Heather Zelle has several research collaborations investigating the intersection of mental health and law, including with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, and Virginia non-profits such as Honoring Choices and Vocal Virginia. Dr. Zelle incorporates examples and case studies based on policy development projects into her courses PHS 7051: Policy Development, Analysis, and Advocacy and PHS 7411: Health Policy Analysis with Secondary Data, providing students with data relevant to local communities.

Dr. Kristen Wells is active in various local swim-related organizations. For example, she serves on the Board of Directors for Ben Hair Just Swim for Life Foundation; as the Meet Director and Travel Coordinator for the Cavalier Aquatics swim team, writing team protocols for safe swimming practices; and sits on the Safety Committee for Virginia Swimming. Dr. Wells directly draws on her experiences with these organizations to oversee the AP Experience placement at the Ben Hair Just Swim for Life Foundation.

Dr. Shaeffer Somers has extensive experience conducting health impact assessments, both in the field of public health and in architecture. Professor Somers is currently conducting two community projects, one of design development for historically marginalized neighborhoods, and the other for community health and climate resiliency in refugee, immigrant, or historically marginalized populations. Using these two community projects and previous community project experience, Professor Somers creates community-engaged, project-, and group-based learning opportunities in the PHS 5621 Health Impact Assessment course. Completed HIA projects are used as case studies.

Dr. Wen You integrates previous and existing clinical trial experiences as examples for multi-arm optimization of stroke thrombolysis (MOST) and sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMART) clinical trial designs. Additionally, Dr. You utilizes her research on claims data as examples for policy evaluation in PHS 7202: Economic Policy, Analysis, & Strategic Planning.

Dr. Aaron Pannone is involved with the MAPP2Health Strategic Process in collaboration with the BRHD, Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, and the University of Virginia. Dr. Pannone integrates real-world examples using data from the MAPP2Health Program into the PHS 7060 Program Planning and Evaluation course to inform students on stakeholder engagement, goal setting, and program design. In addition, he also integrates data analysis, study design, and program evaluation research from his published work in the fields of infection control and endocrinology into his courses.

Dr. Pavel Chernyavskiy is leading an industry-funded research project to understand barriers to proper seat belt use/positioning among pregnant women. Dr. Chernyavskiy integrates this data into PHS 7000 Biostatistics I and PHS 7001 Biostatistics II.

Dr. Tanya Wanchek conducts cost-effectiveness studies in collaboration with faculty in the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and the Weldon Cooper Center. Dr. Wanchek creates cost-effectiveness labs using real-world data for PHS 7090 Health Care Economics.