

John S. Preisser, PhD

John S. Preisser, PhD
John Preisser, PhD, is a research professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and deputy director of the biostatistics service with the North Carolina Translational & Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS) where he directs biostatistics collaboration. He is a research fellow in the program on Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Care in the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research where he collaborates with experts in the field to conduct research that improves the care of the elderly in nursing homes and residential care facilities. Dr. Preisser is also deeply engaged in oral health research in the UNC School of Dentistry. These vibrant, multi-disciplinary, collaborative research environments motivate him to develop new statistical models and methods, and to promote state-of-art statistical analysis techniques that improve human health and welfare.
Honors and Awards
Elected Fellow2010, American Statistical Association
Elected Member2006, International Statistical Institute
Research Fellow of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research2006-Present, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
James E. Grizzle Distinguished Alumnus Award2001, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Representative Courses
Models and Methodology in Categorical Data (BIOS 765), 2006-2018 (even years)
Research Activities
Finally, Dr. Preisser is interested in marginalized two-part models for semi-continuous and count outcomes with excess zeros. The general approach is to model the marginal mean of the outcome (i.e., of all the data) instead of the mean of an unobservable subset (latent class) of individuals. Applications include the estimation of overall effects in marginalized models for dental caries counts and medical costs where the two parts correspond to models for the marginal mean and the excess zeros. While interpretations are similar to those of traditional one-part generalized linear models, simulations show that “two parts are better than one” when zeros comprise greater than twenty percent of the data.
Service Activities
2018-present Team Science Promotions and Tenure Committee, North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (TraCS) Institute
2018-present Serve on Data Safety and Monitoring Board for an NIDCR-funded study
2014-2017 Ad-hoc reviewer for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
2011-present Chair, Pranab K. Sen Visiting Professorship Committee, Department of Biostatistics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Key Publications
Optimal allocation of clusters in cohort stepped wedge designs. Fan Li, Elizabeth Turner, John Preisser (2018). Statistics & Probability Letters, 137(2018), 257-263.
Two parts are better than one: modeling marginal means of semi-continuous data. Valerie Smith, Brian Neelon, Matthew Maciejewski, John Preisser (2017). Health Services Outcomes and Research Methodology, 17(3-4), 198-218.
Matching the statistical model to the research question for dental caries indices with many zero counts. John Preisser, D. Leann Long, John Stamm (2017). Caries Research, 51(3), 198-208.
A new way to estimate disease prevalence from random partial-mouth samples. John Preisser, Sarah Marks, Anne Sanders, Aderonke Akinkugbe, James Beck (2017). Journal of Clinical Periodontology, 44(3), 283-289.
Education
PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995
MA, Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, 1988
BS, Statistics, Virginia Tech, 1986