Biostatistics Analysis Center Staff
The Biostatistics Analysis Center (BAC) employs 20 professionally trained staff biostatisticians, seven SAS programmers, and four additional data management and support staff. Individual staff profiles are provided below.
MS (Applied Statistics), West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2007
Ms. Appleby joined the Biostatistics Unit in January, 2008, after completing her master's degree. Prior to returning to graduate school, she accumulated 17 years of experience in programming, engineering, management, and consulting at companies including DuPont and Oracle. She is currently collaborating on several projects.
MS (Statistics), Ohio State University, 1997
Ms. Brensinger joined the Biostatistics Unit within the CCEB upon receiving her degree in July of 1997. Prior to graduate school, she worked for two years as a statistical analyst at the Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. Ms. Brensinger currently works on collaborative projects involving schizophrenia, interstitial cystitis, drug-induced sudden death, and predictors of over- and under-anticoagulation while on warfarin treatment. In addition, she serves as a statistical consultant to the Gastroenterology Division.
PhD (Psychology), University of Pennsylvania, 1975
Dr. Cary joined the Biostatistics Unit in February 2003 after 25 years of experience in academia (as faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN) and business settings (as Sr. Statistician at Chilton Research, Radnor, PA, and VP for Management Science at Research International USA). His current work is primarily in psychiatry, conjoint preference measurement, and databases.
MS (Biostatistics), State University of New York at Albany, 2003
Ms. Cen joined the Biostatistics Unit in April 2006. She is a biostatistician on health service research for the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, and was a data analyst working on healthcare outcome measures research for the Department of Health Policy, Management & Behavior at University at Albany, School of Public Health. She currently works on collaborative projects involving interstitial cystitis and cardiac arrest.
BS (Computer Science), La Salle University, 2002
Karl Dailey, Database Administrator and lead programmer, joined the Cartographic Modeling Lab 2007 and the Biostatistics Unit since their merge in July 2010. His project history spans various backgrounds and disciplines including public health, city planning, and research. Currently, he is working on a web based platform for stroke and trauma care coverage across the United States that will help health planners in locating locations for new trauma centers and manage where supply meets demand.
BS (Business Management), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2008
Mr. Fernandes joined the BAC in 2008. Prior to joining the BAC, he served as a Programmer Analyst in the CCEB for several years. During that time Mr. Fernandes collaborated on a wide array of projects which enabled him to develop an expertise in the areas of Database Design, Quality Control, and Patient Tracking. Mr. Fernandes is currently heading the expansion of BAC services to include a comprehensive and customized data management service fir research studies called the Data Management Unit (DMU).
MS (Statistics), University of Cincinnati, 2002
Ms. Han joined the Biostatistics Unit in January 2005 after serving two years as a biostatistician at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the VA in Pittsburgh, PA. She currently works on collaborative projects involving the Impact of Quinolone-resistant E. coli carriage study, the PRIME P1 medical errors project, Walking for wellness study, Drug-drug interction study, and the CARBS study.
MPH, University of Pittsburgh, 2006
Mr. Hanish joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in May 2007 after completing a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, Mr. Hanish is participating in two projects; the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) and the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network (UPPCRN).
BS (Mathematics) University of Pennsylvania, currently matriculating
Mr. Herlim joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in 2001. He is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in mathematics. Mr. Herlim currently works on collaborative projects involving schizophrenia, women's health, and several projects using the GPRD and CMS databases.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1998
Mr. Kallan joined the Biostatistics Unit upon receiving his degree in 1998. During his time in graduate school, he worked as a statistician for both the University of Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI) and the Ann Arbor Veterans' Administration. Mr. Kallan has worked on various collaborative projects during his time at Penn, including those in the fields of child passenger safety, geriatric psychiatry, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, lymphedema, and pneumonia. In addition to being a co-author on numerous papers in the peer-reviewed literature, he has presented research findings from the Partners for Child Passenger Safety project at both scientific and statistical conferences.
SAS Certificates, Philadelphia University, 2001;
BS (Medical Laboratory Technologist), Hunan Medical University, 1987, Changsha, Hunan, China
Ms. Liu joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in March 2002. Prior to coming to the CCEB, she worked at GEN Trak, Inc. Ms. Liu currently works on collaborative projects involving: lymphedema, psoriasis, sudden death, diet, and lung disease.
BS (Business Economics), Grove City College, 1999; B.A. (Mathematics) West Chester University, 2004; MS (Applied Sciences), West Chester University, 2006
Mr. Newcomb joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in 2004; he is now serving as a biostatistician. He currently works on collaborative projects involving predictors of over- and under-anticoagulation in warfarin treatment, drug-induced sudden death, irritable bowl syndrome, Crohn's disease, and several projects building and maintaining Access databases.
MS (Statistics), University of Washington, 1988
Ms. Praestgaard joined the BAC in January 2007, bringing with her more than sixteen years experience as a consulting statistician and manager. Her applied statistics experience is diverse, and her management experience includes leading the biostatistics group at the College of American Pathologists and managing a fraud analytics department at Citigroup. Ms. Praestgaard's pre-Penn accomplishments include developing a patented methodology to cluster pathology laboratories according to test volume and complexity and saving a credit card portfolio more than $10 million per year by implementing statistically derived fraud rules. Ms. Praestgaard now serves as Managing Director for the BAC, and, along with the BAC Faculty Director and Associate Director, is responsible for ensuring that the unit operates as efficiently as possible, consistently delivers high quality and timely results, and is strategically poised to meet the evolving demands of the research community.
PhD (Mechanical Engineering), Xian Jiaotong University, China, 1995
Dr. Sha joined the Biostatistics Unit as Biostatistician in July 2008. Before, he was a research associate scientist in biomechanics at Yale School of Medicine. His current projects involve BRFSS, CMS and THIN databases.
MA (Energy and Environmental Analysis), Boston University, 2000; BA (Environmental Science), Boston University, 2000
Ms. Tam has been with the Cartographic Modeling Lab since 2005 and the Biostatistics Unit since their merge in July 2010. She has over 10 years of GIS mapping and analysis experience. Prior to joining the CML, Ms. Tam worked with a private consulting firm that provides GIS services to Federal, State and local governments. She is currently collaborating on projects including Trauma Care and Access mapping and providing analysis for the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans.
MS (Statistics), University of Tennessee, 2007
Mr. Tao joined the Biostatistics Unit in May 2008 as a SAS programmer after completing his master’s degree in Statistics; he is now serving as a biostatistician. He is currently working on the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study.
PhD (Measurement, Evaluation and Techniques of Experimental Research), University of Pennsylvania, 1987;
MS (Measurement, Evaluation and Techniques of Experimental Research), University of Pennsylvania, 1981
Dr. Taylor joined the Biostatistics Unit in September 2000. She has over 15 years of experience in programming and data analysis, research design, and statistical consulting in psychometrics, program evaluation, and biostatistics. She is also the statistician and program evaluation specialist for the Center of Excellence on Minority Health at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, and was the senior data analyst for the Center of Health Behavior, Communications, and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communications.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Pennsylvania, 2006; MS (Materials Engineering), MIT, 1984
Ms. Teal joined the Biostatistics Unit in August 2006 after completing her degree. Prior to returning to graduate school, she accumulated over 15 years of experience as an engineer with Boeing, GMT Microelectronics, and Lucent. As a biostatistics grad student she worked on clinical trials. She is currently collaborating on several projects including the CRIC study (Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort), intervention studies, and working with NHANES III data.
MS (Applied Statistics), West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2008
Ms. Tierney joined the Biostatistics Unit in August 2010. After completing her master's degree she worked for two years in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to returning to graduate school she spent several years working in schizophrenia research. She is currently collaborating on two HIV studies and a study of prostate cancer.
MS (Applied Statistics), University of Vermont, 2001;
MS (Applied Math), University of Cincinnati, 2003
Mr. Wan joined the Biostatistics Unit in Aug 2006 and currently works on collaborative projects involving Medicare and statistical genetics.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 2004
Ms. Wang joined the BAC as a biostatistician in August 2004. She currently works on collaborative projects involving the GPRD database for psoriasis, and the hormonal prevention of CV disease. She uses various statistical techniques including survival analysis, conditional logistic regression, multiple imputation for missing data and propensity-matching. She is also involved in short-term consulting projects such as the economic impact on adherence in HIV/AIDS study.
PhD (Psychology), University of Pennsylvania, 1975
Dr. Weber joined the Biostatistics Unit in October 1998. Some highlights of her work include collaboration on case-control studies of cancer and its sequelae, with Drs. Brian Strom, Sandra Norman, and Timothy Rebbeck (CCEB); and a clinical trial of exercise in the frail elderly, with Drs. Neville Strump (School of Nursing, UPenn) and JA Grisso (formerly of the CCEB, now at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). She has used various statistical techniques including survival analysis, conditional logistic regression, and propensity-matching.
BS (Business Management), University of Phoenix, 2007
Mrs. Williams joined the BAC as a SAS Programmer Analyst in November 2007. Prior to joining the BAC, she worked in the Faculty Affairs and Professional Development Department in the School of Medicine, as an Office System Coordinator. There she analyzed faculty data using SQL and Crystal Reports reporting tools. Catherine has also worked at the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation as a Database Coordinator, maintaining Microsoft Access Databases to track and monitor job seeker data. Her knowledge of SQL has helped her transition to using SAS, since their languages are interchangeable in Proc SQL. In the BAC, Mrs. Williams is currently collaborating on the PAL, UPHS and PIPS projects.
MS (Computer Engineering), University of Maryland, 2007
Mr. Wu joined the CCEB in October 2008. He is working on collaborative projects involving Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder study and Antiepileptic research with Medicaid, Medicare and THIN data and other project for lung transplant outcomes. Prior to this, Mr. Wu worked part time at NIH for bioinformatics research project.
