2022 Scholars
Liliana Wagner, PhD, BCBA
Project Title: Identifying and mitigating barriers to tele-assessment of autism spectrum disorder within rural communities
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 09/2022 – 09/2024
Dr. Liliana Wagner is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) for Research on Human Development and the Department of Pediatrics in the VUMC Division of Developmental Medicine. She completed her pre-doctoral internship in Behavioral Pediatrics at the Munroe-Meyer Institute and completed a clinical psychology postdoctoral fellowship in autism and related developmental disabilities at the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) at VUMC. Dr. Wagner provides diagnostic and behavioral health services within the context of ongoing research and clinical services. This includes providing in-person and telediagnostic services to young children suspected of ASD, working to develop novel tools and processes for the identification and treatment of ASD across the lifespan, and training providers in telemedicine-based assessment. Additional research interests include evaluating the uptake and sustainability of tele-assessment models within existing care systems and creating and evaluating novel training tools for medical providers and learners.
2021 Scholars
Edward G.A. Iglesia, MD, MPH
Project Title: Identifying Facilitators and Barriers to Food Allergy Prevention in the Vanderbilt Learning Health Community
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 9/2021 – 9/2023
Dr. Eddie Iglesia is an Instructor in Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Iglesia earned his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed a combined internal and medicine pediatrics residency at Vanderbilt. He subsequently completed an additional residency in preventive medicine at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, during which he earned his MPH at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. At UNC, he also completed a clinical fellowship in allergy/immunology and additional research training through the Duke-UNC T32 research training program in allergy and clinical immunology. Dr. Iglesia is broadly interested in applying health services research methods to improve population and public health in allergic conditions, with a particular focus on food allergy prevention.
Alumni
2018 Scholars
Jordan Everson, PhD, MPP
Project Title: Patient Perspectives and Outcomes on Different-Site Readmission for Heart Failure
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 12/2018 – 09/2020
Dr. Jordan Everson is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Everson has a doctorate in health services, organization and policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a Masters of Public Policy from Georgetown University. His research is focused on understanding and improving how information, technology practice, and patients move through the healthcare delivery system. Using survey and administrative data, he employs a range of methods to characterize the healthcare delivery system, including network analysis and item response theory.
Shailja Shah, MD, MPH
Project Title: Patient Experience Surrounding Helicobacter pylori and Associated Management
Health System: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Tennessee Valley Health System and Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 12/2018 – 03/2020
Dr. Shailja Shah is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and practicing gastroenterologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Nashville VA Medical Center. Dr. Shah completed an internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and gastroenterology fellowship and chief year at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She is the recipient of several awards and grants, is well-published, and has given many invited talks nationally. Her clinical and research interests include Helicobacter pylori epidemiology and associated diseases, inflammation-associated GI carcinogenesis, as well as implementation of gastric cancer prevention and early detection efforts.
2019 Scholars
Alvin Jeffery, PhD, RN-BC, CCRN-K, FNP-BC
Project Title: Developing Probability-Based Decision Support Tools for Acute Clinical Deterioration
Health System: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Tennessee Valley Health System
LHS K12 Training Period: 11/2019 – 10/2021
Dr. Alvin Jeffery is an Assistant Professor with the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Jeffery received his MSN from Northern Kentucky University, his PhD in Nursing Science & Health Services Research from Vanderbilt University, and is pursuing his MS in Biomedical Informatics from Vanderbilt University. He recently competed a Medical Informatics Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Nashville, TN. He has a background in pediatric critical care nursing and as a staff educator at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Jeffery focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of probability-based clinical decision support tools. He leverages machine learning and data science techniques for developing prediction models, and he incorporates qualitative methods for exploring how to implement CDS tools within nurses' cognitive and physical workflows.
Cosby Stone, Jr, MD, MPH
Project Title: Defining Host Predisposition and Risk-Based Testing Strategies for Beta-Lactam Allergy
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 10/2019 – 09/2021
Dr. Cosby A. Stone, Jr. is an Assistant Professor Medicine, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He completed medical school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, with an additional combined degree in public health/epidemiology. During this period, he also served as an NIH Fogarty Scholar, living abroad in Tanzania and doing research in nutrition, HIV, and health education. He completed residency and chief residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in the combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency program. Dr. Stone has expertise in epidemiology, clinical drug allergy, and translational mechanistic projects in drug and vaccine allergy. Dr. Stone is engaged in clinical/translational research specifically focused on beta lactam antibiotic allergies with a secondary interest in immediate excipient allergies to alpha-gal and polyethylene glycols/polysorbates.
2020 Scholars
Devika Nair, MD, MSCI
Project Title: Collaborative Care for Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 09/2020 – 09/2022
Dr. Devika Nair is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Vanderbilt Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. She completed residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Tulane University, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in Nephrology at VUMC, during which time she served as chief fellow. Dr. Nair cares deeply about improving the person centeredness of care for the aging chronic kidney disease (CKD) population and better engaging patients as partners in research. Her research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the clinical implications of poor self-efficacy and cognitive impairment in older adults with CKD. Her long-term goal is to implement an integrated model of collaborative care delivery to improve self-care and quality of life in this patient population. Dr. Nair also facilitates a serious illness communication skills elective for nephrology trainees in partnership with her palliative care colleagues. She is currently a Fellow of the National Kidney Foundation, a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Kevin Griffith, PhD, MPA
Project Title: Pragmatic Trial of a Nurse Manager-led Intervention to Reduce 30-day Readmissions
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 09/2020 – 09/2022
Dr. Kevin Griffith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and an Investigator at the Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System. He holds a PhD in Health Services Research with a concentration in health economics from Boston University, and received both a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and BS in Economics from The Ohio State University. Dr. Griffith is a former Presidential Management Fellow and behavioral research scientist at the U.S. Army and Department of Defense, where he evaluated the costs and outcomes of interventions to improve mental health & resilience in active duty soldiers. His research focuses on improving access to care especially for our nation’s veterans and vulnerable groups, risk prediction to target therapies and interventions towards those who are most likely to benefit, and the use of cost-effectiveness to improve value in health.
2021 Scholars
Megan E. Salwei, PhD
Project Title: COMputerized PAtient-centered Collaborative Technology (COMPACT) to support breast cancer shared decision making
Health System: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
LHS K12 Training Period: 09/2021 – 09/2023
Dr. Megan Salwei is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology within the Center for Research and Innovation in Systems Safety (CRISS). Dr. Salwei received her PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She recently completed the National Library of Medicine Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University. Using human factors engineering methods and principles, her research program focuses on the design and integration of information-rich technologies to support care processes and improve patient safety. She is interested in the design of health IT to support teamwork in healthcare, not just between clinicians, but between the entire healthcare team – clinicians, patients, and their family caregivers. She aims to design a team-based collaborative technology to improve personalized treatment decision making for breast cancer patients.