NC Partnership for Excellence in Applied Epidemiology

The North Carolina Partnership for Excellence in Applied Epidemiology was established in 2018. This partnership is an applied public health research, educational and practice collaboration between the North Carolina Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease Branch and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (the Department of Epidemiology and the North Carolina Institute for Public Health in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the School of Medicine).

Our Mission

To develop an applied public health research, education and practice collaborative to promote best practices that improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and the global community.

For more information about our partnership, click HERE

Partnership Contact

Lorraine Alexander, DrPH   Partnership Coordinator  Lorraine_Alexander@unc.edu

Symposium 2022

Telling Your Story: Communicating Complex Health Data

November 4, 2022

• Agenda
• Presentation Slides (password is “symposium”)

PARTNERSHIP NEWS

Public health in practice: NC Partnership for Excellence in Applied Epidemiology

Partnership Student News:

Practicums

Through the partnership students are connected with practicum opportunities at the North Carolina Division of Public Health.  The following MPH and PhD students from the Department of Epidemiology in the Gillings School of Public Health completed their practicums at the Communicable Disease Branch:

2023

Audrey Allen (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Civil Surgeon Educational Survey and Evaluation on Latent TB Infection (LTBI) diagnosis and treatment. Preceptor: Daniela Ingram MSN, RN

Amanda Harris (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Ryan White Part B Program Manual and Drafting Grant Proposal.
Preceptor: Lola Houston-Hager, MPH, CHES CAREWare Supervisor/ Ryan White Program

Elise King (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Infectious Disease -STI Chlamydia COVID Impact. Using information collected as part of routine STD surveillance, the North Carolina Division of Public Health is interested in understanding where people recently diagnosed with Chlamydia were diagnosed and how that may have changed between 2019 and 2022. Preceptor: Anna Cope, PhD, MPH

Gayoung Lee (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Conducted data analysis on HIV/STD health services including STI screening, PrEP referrals, and diagnoses to understand changes in the services before, during, and after the pandemic (2020-2022). Preceptor: Anna Cope, PhD, MPH

Allison McElroy (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Write a SAS program to categorize partner-meeting websites and Apps and assess demographic and geographic differences in the use of specific websites and apps. Preceptor: Anna Cope, PhD, MPH

Emily Wichmann (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Analysis of data collected by the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health to better understand trends in rabies data in NC over time. Preceptor: Carl Williams, DVM

2022

Kano Amagai (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Using routine surveillance data to analyze STD trends: Automation of monthly STD reports and evaluation of the effect of COVID-19 on STD testing sites. Preceptor: Anna Cope, PhD, MPH

Sally Cabrera (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Rural and Urban Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes in North Carolina. Preceptor: Deborah Greene, MD, MPH

Katherine Lucas (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
TakeMeHome HIV Testing Program Assessment. Preceptor: Pete Moore, MPH

Mary Catharine McKeithen (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
COVID-19 Impact on STD testing and rates in North Carolina. Preceptor: Anna Cope, PhD, MPH

Nicole L. Snyder, PhD. (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Preliminary Examination of the Impact of Diabetes and COPD as Contributing Factors for COVID-19 Deaths among American Indian/Alaskan Natives (AIAN) in North Carolina from 2020-Present. Preceptor: Deborah Greene, MD, MPH

Mackenzie Vogan (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Observing SARS-CoV-2 Outbreaks and Clusters within Nursing facilities. Preceptor Emilya Huseynova, MD, MPH

Jennifer Wong (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Analysis of COVID-19 Clusters in North Carolina K-12 Schools. Preceptor Justin Albertson, MS

2021

Jaclyn Karasik (MPH,  Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Contributing to the Civil Surgeon Educational Survey and Evaluation on Latent TB Infection (LTBI) diagnosis and treatment project. Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease/TB.   Preceptor: Daniela Ingram MSN, RN

Olivia Williams (MPH,  Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Estimate Hepatitis C Prevalence in North Carolina.  North Carolina Division of Public Health, HIV/STD/Hepatitis Surveillance Branch; Viral Hepatitis Program. Preceptor:  Nicole Adams, MSc

Caitlin Edwards (MPH Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Tracking  and characterizing COVID-19 variant cases in North Carolina. NC Department of Health and Human Services. Preceptor: Aaron Fleischauer, PhD

2020

Thomas Portier (MPH,  Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Generating a surveillance-based region-specific HCV treatment cascade and data lab entry of HCV labs into North Carolina Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NC EDSS) Infectious Disease North Carolina Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease Branch. Preceptor: Nicole Adams, MSc

Peyton Pretsch  (MPH, Applied Epidemiology Concentration)
Generating a surveillance-based region-specific HCV treatment cascade and data lab entry of HCV labs into North Carolina Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NC EDSS) Infectious Disease North Carolina Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease Branch   . Preceptor:  Nicole Adams, MSc

Ginna Doss  (PhD, Epidemiology)
Analysis of STD/HIV in adolescents in North Carolina. North Carolina HIV/STD/Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Unit,  Preceptor: Erika Samoff MPH PhD

Research Assistantship

The partnership also sponsors the “Anne Hakenewerth Research Assistantship” which supports PhD epidemiology students in the Epidemiology Department in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Students who receive the research assistantship work on projects in the Communicable Disease Branch of the North Carolina Division of Public Health.

Nicholas Albaugh (PhD Epidemiology) 2021-
Assist with literature reviews, data cleaning, data analysis, and presentations/manuscripts related to HIV-focused research. Supervisors: Erika Samoff MPH PhD (NC DHHS) and Kimberly Powers, PhD (UNC CH)

Monica Jimenez (PhD Epidemiology) (2019-2021)
NC DOT collaboration on linkage and distance to HIV treatment.  North Carolina HIV/STD/Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Unit,  Supervisor: Erika Samoff MPH PhD (2019-21).