Division of Epidemiology Faculty, Fellows & Staff
Faculty, staff and postdoctoral fellows in the Division of Epidemiology conduct research at the forefront of the discipline. Our research tackles the social, policy, and environmental drivers of major public health problems across the world. Faculty research focuses primarily on substance use and psychiatric disorders, cancer epidemiology and biomarkers, cardiovascular disease, reproductive and lifecourse epidemiology, the human microbiome, population health surveillance, occupational health, and causal inference methods, among other topics.
Division Director
Magdalena Cerda, DrPH
Division Director
Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH, MPH
Director, Division of Epidemiology
Director, Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: opioid use disorder; violence prevention; firearms; prescription drugs; heroin; drug overdose; social determinants of injury; marijuana; homicide; suicide
Dr. Cerdá is a Professor and Director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health. Her work integrates approaches from social and psychiatric epidemiology to examine how social contexts and drug and health policies shape drug use and urban violence. Current funded research focuses on state and community-level policy and social drivers of opioid-related harms, including work on the impact of municipal harm reduction laws on overdose, and an evaluation of the first sanctioned overdose prevention centers in the United States. Dr. Cerdá has also published extensively on the application of novel methods, including machine learning and agent-based modeling, to the prediction of overdose risk and the evaluation of social and policy drivers of overdose. She is evaluating the potential use of machine learning approaches to forecast overdose hotspots, and the impact of targeting overdose prevention interventions to future hotspots. By conducting work in these areas, she hopes her research can inform evidence-based policies to improve population health.
Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Core Faculty
Jiyoung Ahn, PhD
Professor, Departments of Population Health and Medicine
Research interests: Cancer epidemiology; microbiome; diet; environmental carcinogens; biomarkers
Yu Chen, PhD, MPH
Professor, Department of Population Health
Program Director, Epidemiology PhD Training Program, Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Research interests: Chronic disease epidemiology, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and aging-related disease, with a focus on biomarkers and environmental exposures
Richard B. Hayes, DDS, PhD, MPH
Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Cancer epidemiology; oral microbiome; genetic and environmental determinants of colon and head and neck cancer; air pollution and cardiovascular disease
Tomas Kirchhoff, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Cancer genetics/genomics; immunotherapy; cancer biomarkers; cancer immunology; host immunity; multi-omics
Karen L. Koenig, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Coronary heart disease in women
Lorna E. Thorpe, PhD, MPH
Professor, Division of Epidemiology
Chair, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Chronic disease epidemiology; public health surveillance; evaluation of policy on health
Andrea Titus, PhD, MPP
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Social and environmental determinants of disparities in chronic disease outcomes; tobacco control; climate change; causal inference methods
Anne Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, MD, MS
Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Hormones; sex hormones; exogenous hormonal exposures; women’s health; breast cancer; endometrial cancer; colorectal cancer
Affiliated Faculty
Alan A. Arslan, MD
Associate Professor, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Population Health
Research interests: Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers of ovarian cancer, relationships between reproductive events and cancer
Sunjae Bae, MD, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Kidney disease, kidney transplantation
Shoshana Ballew, PhD
Member of the Faculty, Departments of Population Health and Medicine
Research interests: Aging, caregiving, cardiovascular health, chronic kidney disease
Josef Coresh, MD, PhD
Terry and Mel Karmazin Professor, Department of Population Health; Professor, Department of Medicine; Founding Director, Optimal Aging Institute
Research interests: Aging, cardiovascular health, dementia, chronic kidney disease, hearing loss
Whitney Cowell, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health
Research interests: Environmental health, molecular epidemiology, perinatal epidemiology, placenta, pregnancy
Andrea Deierlein, PhD
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Population Health; Associate Professor and Director of Public Health Nutrition, New York University
Research interests: Nutrition, perinatal health, disability, cardiometabolic health
Sommer E. Gentry, PhD
Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Liver transplantation
Linda G. Kahn, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health
Research interests: Life course, pregnancy, fecundity, maternal health, perimenopause, reproductive health policy, semen quality, environmental chemicals, endocrine disruption
Bonnie Kerker, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Departments of Population Health and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Research interests: Perinatal mental health, postpartum depression, maternal support, early childhood development, immigrant health, health equity
Madison N. LeCroy, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Racial/ethnic disparities, Latinx communities, nutrition, family, childhood obesity, social determinants of health
Macey L. Levan, JD, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Organ transplantation, qualitative research, health policy, implementation science
Allan B. Massie, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Kidney transplantation
Michael Marmor, PhD
Research Professor, Departments of Population Health and Medicine
Research interests: Epidemiology of pulmonary diseases and HIV/AIDS, ocular epidemiology, World Trade disaster epidemiology
Mara A. McAdams DeMarco, PhD
Member of the Faculty, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Frailty, aging, cognitive function, kidney transplantation dialysis
Niyati Parekh, PhD
Professor, Department of Population Health and Public Health Nutrition; Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Initiatives and Global Engagement, New York University
Research interests: Nutritional epidemiology, cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysregulation, diet assessment, global nutrition
Pasquale E. Rummo, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Nutrition, obesity, food policy
Dorry L. Segev, MD, PhD
Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Kidney transplantation
Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology
Core Faculty
Alexander Azan, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health and Family Health Centers
Research interests: Environmental justice; climate adaptation; environmental exposure science; policy-oriented, translational research; natural experiments; health-related social needs; community-clinic linkage programming; implementation science; healthcare systems research
Yu Chen, PhD, MPH
Professor, Department of Population Health
Program Director, Epidemiology PhD Training Program, Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Research interests: Chronic disease epidemiology, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and aging-related disease, with a focus on biomarkers and environmental exposures
George Friedman-Jimenez, MD
Assistant Research Professor, Departments of Population Health and Medicine
Research interests: Occupational epidemiology; clinical epidemiology
Affiliated Faculty
Akhgar Ghassabian, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health
Research interests: Child mental health, environmental exposures
Roy E. Shore
Adjunct Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Environmental and occupational epidemiology; nutrition and cancer; radiation epidemiology; epidemiologic methods
Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP
The Jim G. Hendrick, MD Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics; Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: The role of environmental exposures in childhood obesity and cardiovascular risks
Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiologic Methods
Sarah Conderino, DrPH, MPH
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Epidemiology; public health surveillance; electronic health records; chronic disease
Ellicott C. Matthay, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Alcohol and drug control policies; substance use; firearm violence; causal inference methods
Audrey Renson, PhD, MPH
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Social policies and health inequities; causal inference methods
Andrea Titus, PhD, MPP
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Social and environmental determinants of disparities in chronic disease outcomes; tobacco control; climate change; causal inference methods
Substance Use and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Core Faculty
Bennett Allen, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Substance use; mental health; public health practice; criminal legal system
Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH, MPH
Professor, Department of Population Health
Director, Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
Research interests: Opioid use disorder; violence prevention; firearms; prescription drugs; heroin; drug overdose; social determinants of injury; marijuana; homicide; suicide
Samuel R. Friedman, PhD
Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Big events; overdose; infectious disease (HIV/AIDs, COVID-19); social dialectics of health, disease and pandemics; social and risk networks; people who use drugs
Noa Krawczyk, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Associate Director, Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
Research interests: Barriers to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorders; and improving quality and effectiveness of care; policy translation
Ellicott C. Matthay, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Alcohol and drug control policies; substance use; firearm violence; causal inference methods
Suzan M. Walters, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Social and structural determinants of health; intersectional stigma and discrimination; social networks; drug use; HIV; overdose; rurality
Affiliated Faculty
Corey Davis, JD
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: health policy, drug policy, harm reduction
Charles J. DiMaggio, PhD
Professor, Departments of Surgery and Population Health
Research interests: Pediatric pedestrian injuries; behavioral health effects of terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; developmental and behavioral effects of anesthesia on young children
Maria R. Khan, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: Criminal legal system involvement, addictions, STI/HIV, childhood trauma, health services research, secondary data analysis studies, evaluations
Postdoctoral Fellows
Vishwali Mhasawade, PhD, MS
Research interests: Health disparities; evaluating the heterogeneity in opioid policies across states; algorithmic fairness and health equity
Hanxue Wei, PhD, MS
Research interests: Environmental determinants of health; environmental planning; causal inference; GIS
Division Operations
Elizabeth Clancy, MS
Division Administrator
Elizabeth.Clancy@NYULangone.org
212-263-0333
Gabriella Macias
Senior Administrative Coordinator
Gabriella.Macias@NYULangone.org
646-501-3656