Blog

Xiangyu Ji promoted to senior biostatistician

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Xiangyu Ji to senior biostatistician, effective January 3. Ji earned her Bachelor of Science degree in public health from California State University Los Angeles, with a data management internship at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine prior to graduation. As a student in our master's program, Ji wrote her thesis, "Evaluating uses of machine learning in propensity score estimation on time-to-event data: A simulation study," under the supervision of Amber Hackstadt. As a staff biostatistician, her primary collaboration is with the Vanderbilt Eye Institute / Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, where her activities have included planning and conducting process standardization for resident research projects, including drafting project roadmaps, creating administrative file templates, and developing data entry protocols. She has also provided biostatistical support to the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, in the Department of Medicine; the Department of Biomedical Informatics; and Vanderbilt Orthopaedics. She has co-authored peer-reviewed publications in BMC Ophthalmology, Journal of the Academy of Ophthalmology, Thyroid, Ophthalmology, OSLI (Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers and Imaging) Retina, and JAMA Ophthalmology, with five additional manuscripts under revision or review, all in collaboration with professor Cindy Chen. Ji's service includes volunteering for the 2024 International Chinese Statistical Association Applied Statistics Symposium

Xiangyu Ji

Lauren Samuels promoted to research associate professor

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Lauren "Laurie" Samuels to research associate professor, effective January 1. Dr. Samuels earned her bachelor's degree in religious studies at Yale University, enrolling at Vanderbilt after seven years in the workforce for an MEd in secondary education. After serving in Americorps, tutoring Bowie Reading and Learning Center students in math and science, and supporting Vanderbilt's Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement as a research assistant, data manager, and SAS programmer, Dr. Samuels joined our doctoral program and graduated with her PhD in 2017. 

Since her initial appointment as a research instructor in 2017 and subsequent promotion to research assistant professor in 2018, Dr. Samuels has proven herself to be a valuable, versatile, and highly engaged collaborator on both research investigations and pedagogical initiatives. She is co-investigator on two R01-funded projects led by Dr. Bill Heerman, "COACH: Competency Based Approaches for Community Health" and "The ADAPT Trial: Adapting Evidence-Based Obesity Interventions in Community Settings"; first author of papers in Statistics in Medicine and Observational Studies; and a current participant in the Fleming Society Academy for Excellence in Education Mentorship Program. As a passionate advocate for health equity, Dr. Samuels is a leader of the department's Ethical Responsibilities Regarding Race in Research working group and presented "Keeping up with changing understandings of sex, gender, race, and ethnicity" as an invited speaker at the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics.

 


 

Laurie Samuels

Caroline Birdrow promoted to senior biostatistician

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Caroline Birdrow to senior biostatistician, effective November 1. Originally from New Orleans, Birdrow earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Washington and Lee University, with a minor in poverty and human capability studies, and a term abroad in China on management accounting. For her MS in biostatistics from Vanderbilt, she completed her thesis, "Cumulative Probability Models for Semiparametric G-Computation," under the supervision of associate professor Andrew Spieker. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 2021, Birdrow has collaborated primarily with Vanderbilt's Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center; her duties as a biostatistician have included completing data safety monitoring board reports for randomized controlled trials, managing and analyzing observational study data, leading project meetings, and conducting a variety of ancillary analyses in relation to larger projects. She is a 2023 and 2024 winner of travel awards from Women in Statistics and Data Science, a graduate of the ISTAART (International Society to Advance Alzheimers Research and Treatment) Design and Data Analytics PIA (Professional Interest Area) Workshop on applying novel models for longitudinal continuous outcomes (including cognitive function), and a co-author of peer-reviewed papers in JAMA Network Open and Critical Care Medicine. As an ASA (American Statistical Association) GivesBack leader, she has judged the ASA's Fall Data Challenge and Virtual Science Fair, developed community impact projects for JSM 2023 and 2024, and actively contributed to other organizational and peer-review activities. Her service to the Department of Biostatistics includes participating on the hiring and staff onboarding committees, the causal inference working group, and the Ethical Responsibilities Regarding Race in Research group. Outside of biostatistics, Birdrow loves listening to podcasts and music, watching reality TV and documentaries, spending time with her dog, and going for long walks.

 

Caroline Birdrow

Aaron Lee promoted to senior biostatistician

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Aaron Lee to senior biostatistician, effective September 27. A 2021 graduate of our MS program, Lee is supervised by professor Tatsuki Koyama and supports investigators across the medical center and beyond by planning and conducting statistical analyses, plus preparing formal reports and presentations about those analyses using RStudio, LaTeX, and R Markdown. He has applied regression modeling and other biostatistical tools to studies of overactive bladder syndrome and other urinary conditions, COVID, cancer, kidney disease, HIV, liver disease, workplace violence, lung transplant outcomes, and more, with co-authorship of peer-reviewed papers in The American Surgeon, Clinical Neurophysiology, BMC Cancer, British Journal of Cancer, and Pan African Medical Journal. Click his name to view his staff profile.

 

 

 

Aaron Lee