Peggy Hannon

My research focuses on risk perception, communication, and management. More specifically, I study mental models of hazardous processes and their role in decision-making under uncertainty in environmental, health and technology policy contexts.

I am a pediatrician and researcher with a goal of advancing children’s health and well-being on a population level by promoting healthy behaviors and reducing disparities. My current projects focus on studying and promoting the connection between physical activity, outdoor play and various health and learning outcomes in preschool age children, particularly in early childhood education settings.

Ali Shojaie is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Adjunct Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Washington.

Originally trained in Industrial and Systems Engineering, he obtained his PhD in Statistics from the University of Michigan, while completing Masters degrees in Applied Mathematics and Human Genetics. Dr. Shojaie’s research lies in the intersection of machine learning for high-dimensional data, statistical network analysis and applications in biology and social sciences. Dr. Shojaie’s team has developed methods and publicly available software for network-based analysis of various types of “omics” data, as well as high-dimensional time course data from molecular biology and neuroscience.

Dr. Shojaie is a PI of the Statistical Learning Applied to Biostatistics Lab (SLAB LAB) and is co-Director of the Summer Institute in Statistics for Big Data (SISBID).

I am an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and an adjunct Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. I have expertise in family planning. My research interests include clinical trials to enhance contraceptive use, patient engagement to improve reproductive health among women with cystic fibrosis, and community engagement with adolescents.

I am a member of the expert committee on the CDC Division of Reproductive Health Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive use and Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, and a member of the World Health Organization guideline development group for sexuality-related communication.

I am a health services researcher focused on the implementation of team based care for chronic illness with a particular focus on common mental disorders such as depression. My expertise lies in the use of implementation science to understand the process of what is often called practice transformation. This work is underway in the US and in low and middle incoem countries.

I am a member of the UW Biostatistics department and the Fred Hutch Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division with an interest in the design and analysis of studies of infectious diseases. I am particularly interested in studies of HIV and STI prevention in international settings.

Susanne is the Director of the UW Clinical Trials Center. She also leads the data coordination center for a number trials. Her current areas of focus include Resuscitation Sciences and infectious diseases (including pneumonia and HIV/AIDS). Her biostatistical interests include clinical trials methodology and survival analysis.

As part of the Virology Research Clinic at the UW, I help conduct observational and clinical research in virology, particularly on herpesviruses. Statistical methods work includes clinical trial design, assay validation techniques, and regression methods for evaluating viral detection.

I work on research in cardiovascular diseases in populations, identifying novel risk factors and using these to better understand the etiology of disease and devise new forms of treatment. Much of this work takes place through the Cardiovascular Health Research Unit and multi-center consortia such as CHARGE, TOPMed and the International Consortium for Blood Pressure. I am a biostatistician and lead design and analysis activities in these projects; I also lead the data-coordinating center for TOPMed.

Design and analysis of observational and randomized trials.
Data coordinating center leadership for studies in neonatology, radiology, orthopedics, and psychiatry.

Dr. Van Galen’s research focuses on social class and social mobility through education. Most recently, she has focused on ways in which new forms of participatory digital media enable the inclusion of more voices in deliberations about civic and cultural life.

She is currently guest editing a special issue of the journal Excellence and Equity in Education on bridging new digital divides in uses of social media as a means of supporting civic engagement and agency.

Dr. Naranjo’s broad areas of academic interest include, school to community transition for youth with high-incidence disabilities, the structure of educational opportunity and social opportunity within society, and teacher development.

His current research is focused on examining the factors and processes that promote positive postschool engagement for youth with disabilities.

Dr. Victoria Breckwich Vásquez is an Assistant Professor at UW Bothell School of Nursing & Health Studies. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Formerly at the City of Berkeley Public Health Division, Dr. Breckwich Vásquez led community assessment, evaluation, strategic planning and prevention programs and services. From 2006-2013 she founded and led a non-profit organization, SALUD Peru, to provide sustainable funding and technical expertise for villager-led community development projects. Dr. Breckwich Vásquez has over 25 years of experience in the health promotion field as a public health administrator and community health advocate.

Dr. Breckwich Vásquez focuses on Latin@ community health research using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and other engagement frameworks. Her research focuses on efforts that build community resilience in Latin@ communities, and sexual violence prevention and other occupational and environmental health issues in agricultural communities. She works closely with the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center to conduct community engaged research and translation with agricultural workers in Washington and Oregon. She is interested in community-engaged partnership evaluation, and community engagement methods that utilize qualitative research methods including case studies. She has particular research interest in place-based interventions, and health and other policies that promote health equity through inter-sectoral strategies. Dr. Breckwich Vásquez has authored various peer-reviewed publications on community engagement and CBPR to promote community health. Teaching and mentoring students are among her favorite parts of her professional career.

My scholarship focuses on strengthening the lives of vulnerable women and families, particularly by identifying modifiable policies and behaviors within medical and legal systems. I situate my scholarship at the theoretical juncture between patterns of risk (particularly for women and children), and the ways in which human service institutions contribute to or ameliorate that risk. I have co-authored two books, 45 peer-reviewed articles, six book chapters and numerous reports addressing these concerns.

I recently accepted position as Chief Medical Officer for the Seattle Children’s Care Network (SCCN) and Medical Director for Seattle Children’s Hospital Accountable Care Network. The Seattle Children’s Care Network is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) working toward becoming a Clinically Integrated Network focused on improving patient care, decreasing cost and improving patient experience (‘the triple aim’).

We are focused on building the foundation for value-based care; five essential capability sets 1. advanced IT and communications systems 2. governance, leadership and culture 3. patient-centered care 4. integration and joint contracting and 5. comprehensive financial accountability.

My primary research interest is in understanding and preventing adverse health effects that arise from a combination of ambient environmental exposures present in the work environment and other factors specific to the workplace. In particular, I am interested in the effects of heat stress, which includes exposure to high ambient temperatures, humidity, and internal heat generated from heavy physical work, on health in vulnerable working populations, including Latino outdoor agricultural workers.

The overarching goal of my work is to prevent adverse health effects and improve biological adaptation to heat and to reduce disparities in the prevention and management of heat health effects. Although my work focuses on current heat exposures and health, this topic is relevant to climate change, as heat event frequency and intensity is projected to increase in the future. I additionally conduct research in the areas of work-related musculoskeletal disorder and work disability prevention.

I am also a physician trained in internal medicine and occupational medicine, and I see patients at the UW occupational and environmental medicine clinic at Harborview Medical Center. In my clinical practice, I strive to use the most up-to-date, evidenced-based information to inform patients about occupational and environmental exposures, how they might relate to health concerns and options for management. Our clinic aims to help facilitate a safe and successful return to work and life activities after an environmental or work-related injury or illness.

Our work on population health, funded by the National Institute of Aging, applies a process point-of-view to model effects of health behavior and the environment on mortality patterns. The approach mathematically describes mortality in terms of time and age varying interactions of intrinsic physiological and extrinsic environmental processes. Mortality is the result of random extrinsic environmental challenges to the age-declining vitality, an abstract measure with foundations in cellular aging processes.

A recent analysis identified a longevity advantage of identical twins compared to the general population in terms of the effects of twinhood in providing stress-reducing emotional support and buffering against risky behavior. A second analysis of world mortality patterns indicates that most of the historical improvement in longevity in countries involved the reduction of extrinsic environmental and event-based challenges. Future longevity increases in developed countries will likely be controlled by the gradual decrease in the rate of senescence associated with improving health behavior. Current work is seeking to identify the combined effects of health behavior and environmental stress on state-level patterns of mortality in the U.S.

My research interests relate to population health through the notion of “Total Worker Health”, i.e. how to promote an individual’s health and wellbeing through the work environment and interventions. United States has approximately 4% of its working population in construction, an occupation known for its stress, strains, and occupational hazards. Overtime hours, extreme working environments and chronic health conditions such as obesity, hypertension and hearing losses are also challenges construction workers face.

Being affiliated with the College of Built Environments, Department of Construction Management, and the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety (NWCOHS, a NIOSH funded Education and Research Center) at the University of Washington, I am in a unique position to leverage a wealth of resources, talents, and contacts in my agenda of population health. One of my recent successes is the establishment of a new Master degree track, Construction Management Occupational Safety and Health, in 2015.

My overarching approach to support population health is by: (1) identifying and characterizing how the work environment in construction contributes to the personal-level health factors, (2) developing work-related technological, managerial and physical interventions to address the identified health factors, and (3) enabling the practical adoption of developed interventions through partnership, outreach, training and education. I am highly interested in the use of wearable technologies at the personal level and collaborate with industry practitioners as well as colleagues from the School of Public Health in the applications of sensing technologies for health studies in construction.

Elizabeth Dawson-Hahn, MD, MPH, is an Acting Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington in the Division of General Pediatrics and Hospital Medicine, and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute in the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development (CHBD). Her primary goal is to improve the health, growth and development outcomes of vulnerable children and families, with a focus on refugee and immigrant populations.

Her research and community engagement primarily focuses on refugee children across the migration continuum. She leads studies in partnership with public health organizations, with other academic institutions and community health centers, and with community partners. She has also conducted research in partnership with Group Health Research Institute evaluating the influence of early childhood antibiotic exposure on child growth, and has an interest in the use of antibiotics in the primary care setting. She has provided technical support to the CDC and the International Organization for Migration on refugee health, and to the AAP Section on International Child Health in response to the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.

Clinically, she practices at the UW Harborview Pediatrics clinic with a particular interest in refugee, asylee, and new immigrant families and children in families with limited English proficiency. She is an inpatient attending at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Providence Medical Center in Everett. She volunteers as a pediatric provider for asylum medical evaluations in partnership with the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project.

I have worked in population health since 1987, first in the National Institute of Public Health-Mexico, and since 2011 at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. My work has concentrated in the areas of maternal and child health, obesity and physical activity, and program evaluation. In this area, I contributed to the evaluation of the anti-poverty program Progresa/Oportunidades in Mexico, and at present in the evaluation of the Mesoamerican Health Initiative, a result-based finance project aiming to improve maternal and child health in poor population in Mesoamerica.

Mary Kay Gugerty is the Nancy Bell Evans Professor in Nonprofit Management and the Faculty Director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits & Philanthropy at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington.

Her research examines evaluation and impact measurement in the social sector; advocacy, accountability and voluntary regulation programs among nonprofit and NGOs; and community-based organizations and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Current work examines agricultural household decision-making, women’s participation in agricultural supply chains, and the determinants of smallholder agricultural productivity in Tanzania. Earlier work examines the impact of NGO funding on indigenous self-help groups, the impact of ethnic diversity on collective action, and the role of rotating savings and credit associations (roscas) in promoting rural savings.

Gugerty is co-author of the forthcoming book, The Goldilocks Challenge: Right-Sized Monitoring and Evaluation for NGOs and Nonprofits, Oxford University Press and the co-editor of Voluntary Regulation of Nonprofits and NGOs: An Accountability Club Perspective, Cambridge University Press.

My overall research program is focused on the epidemiological, ethical, and decision-making domains of parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccines. I have NIH and foundation-sponsored grants to address existing provider- and parent-level barriers to optimal provider-parent vaccine communication as well as to develop a decision-making approach in vaccine practice and policy that is ethically defensible, preserves parental trust in vaccines, and protects public health.

My work primarily focuses on the role and drivers of spatio-temporal variation in infectious disease transmission dynamics. This has lead me to a relatively divers set of pathogens that I study. For the past 5 years I have focused on mosquito-borne pathogens transmission dynamics at relatively small scales (specifically, malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, and more recently Zika). Since joining IHME, I have expanded this focus to incorporate global variation in incidence and prevalence of lower respitory infections and diarrhea as part of the ‘Geospatial’ and the Global Burden of Disease teams.

Linda’s research focus is on examining the causes of urban neighborhood decline and the ineffectiveness of national and local revitalization policies. Linda is exploring alternative models and theoretical frameworks for neighborhood change and the creation of physically and mentally healthy African American, urban communities. Resident mobilization, economic stimulation, and strategic partnerships with universities are among the specific strategies Linda is exploring. Other interests include examining the relationship between researchers and the communities under study, as well as the academy’s responsibility to ensure mutually beneficial relationships with “subject” communities.

Bonnie Duran Dr.PH (mixed race Opelousas/Coushatta descendent) is an associate professor in the Schools of Social Work and School of Public Health at the University of Washington, and is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (http://health.iwri.org ). She has worked in public health research, evaluation and education among Native Americans and other communities of color for over 35 years.

Dr. Duran is currently the Principal Investigator of 2 NIH funded research projects in “Indian Country”. Working with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and 25 Tribal Colleges, she is conducting 2 studies; (a) a psychiatric epidemiology prevalence and correlates study (N=3,200, and (b) a TCU-cultural adaptation of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS). Dr. Duran is also Co-PI of an NIMH funded R25 HIV and mental health research training program. Her past work includes partnering with the Navajo Nation, Indian Health Service and Indigenous Community Based Organizations on frontier rural projects aimed at improving health services, and developing culture-centered health promotion.

The overall aims of Dr. Duran’s research are to work in partnership with communities to design public health treatment and prevention efforts that are empowering, culture-centered, accessible and sustainable and that have maximum public health impact. She has many publications including articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and books.

Dr. Duran is on the editorial board of Health Education & Behavior and the Progress in Community Health Partnerships. She is an Advisory Board Member of RISE for Boys and Men of Color, Foundation Executive Alliance.

Bonnie Duran is also a Buddhist mindfulness practitioner and teacher. She teaches long and short mindfulness retreats at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS dharma.org) in Massachusetts and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (SRMC Spiritrock.org) in California.