In Their Own Words: WVCTSI Research Scholars

What inspired you to pursue clinical and translational research? 

Ever since I started my career, I have been dedicated to bettering the world we live in through research. As a biostatistician, most of my research is collaborative where I help analyze data in active studies. This work is important because as a biostatistician, we act as detectives to identify true patterns within datasets that otherwise may be hard to see.  

I decided to pursue my own research as a principal investigator (PI) because I wanted to share solutions to identify these patterns in datasets. By creating new statistical methods, I can advance not just one project but many.  

Can you give a brief overview of your current project or area of investigation? 

My research project aims to develop statistical methods to better allow researchers to understand relationships between airborne chemical exposures and different respiratory health outcomes. Thus far, my research has primarily focused on occupational airborne chemical exposures, but I have recently expanded to other areas including environmental exposures.  

What did you find most helpful about the Research Scholar Program? 

I greatly appreciate the dedicated time to focus on my own research. As a faculty member who teaches and has many other commitments, it greatly helps to have the time to do my own research as PI.  

How has your background (clinical, academic, or personal) influenced your research approach? 

In my undergraduate, I was a psychology major. I later decided to pursue biostatistics. During my PhD, I performed research on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This work showed me the importance of occupational health.  

My psychology background has motivated me to develop methods in an accessible way for those with limited statistical knowledge. It also really focused my attention on applied applications. As a researcher, I focus on developing statistical methods to solve a problem presented in a real dataset or field. This is different than other researchers who are motivated to update methods based on pure mathematical interests. My motivation to solve problems present from science stems from seeing the problems in psychology and understanding the impact developing a solution could have in the field. 

What real-world impact do you hope your research will have? 

I hope that my research will help provide the statistical tools to create breakthrough discoveries that will save future lives.  

How has mentorship or collaboration influenced your growth? 

Collaboration has been at my core from the start of my PhD after working on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill exposure assessment team. I learned how important it is to have research be interdisciplinary and incorporate varying perspectives.  

This background allowed me to grow as a researcher and a Research Scholar because I realized how much I can learn from my mentoring team and other researchers/collaborators. Working with such an experienced mentoring team is truly a gift. By bringing together those from various areas, it will ultimately make the science stronger and allow me to develop better methods that address complex problems.  

What lessons would you share with others launching or growing their research careers? 

I would share a few different pieces of advice:  

1. Communication is one of the best skills you can have as a researcher. The ability to communicate with others in other fields will make your science stronger and foster collaborations that can last a lifetime. Don’t be afraid to reach out and communicate with new people as you never know where it may take you.  
2. Keep a positive attitude, have back up plans and multiple options. There will be setbacks in research. We almost never get a grant the first time, and there are many things that are out of our control as researchers. The best thing you can do if something is not working is identify alternative strategies or alternative areas to apply your research. Jumping to different research areas is not a bad thing! It is a strength that can help you be successful later on.  

If resources were unlimited, what big question would you want to answer? 

If I had unlimited resources, I would want to solve the mixed exposure problem. In real life, we are commonly exposed to many different things simultaneously, whether it be chemicals, stressors, or something else entirely. Unfortunately, since these exposures tend to co-occur, statistical models often fail at being able to determine ideas like (1) which exposure is responsible for the health outcome, (2) how exactly are exposures working together additively or synergistically to cause the health outcome, and (3) what is the effect of the mixture of exposures? 

These questions stem into so many areas, as we constantly want to know if something caused by genes, family history, or the environment.  If I had unlimited resources, I would want to develop statistical methods to allow us to answer these questions in health settings. This would really leave a lasting impact on health research.  

What do you enjoy doing outside of research?