See also: Analytics Team, OVIHD Team, Research Team
Akosua K. Adu, DrPH, MSc, Program Coordinator I Akosua joined the Center in October 2017. Prior to working for the CHSR, she served as an Epidemiologist with the Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Prevention Program at the Kentucky Department of Public Health. Akosua received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Ghana, and both her MSc in Nutritional Sciences and DrPH in Epidemiology from the University of Kentucky. |
DhiShankar Bhattacharya, MS, Data Management Analyst Senior DhiShankar joined the Center as a Data Management Analyst Senior in August 2017. He graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science from India and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a Programmer Analyst for Cognizant Technology Solutions from 2011 to 2014. |
Dan Cleland, MS, Data, CHSR Analytics Director Dan Cleland manages the Data, Analytics, and Statistical Core in the Center for Health Services Research. He joined UK in 2012 and was hired into CHSR in 2014. Dan graduated with his BA in Computer Information Systems Management from Midway College and MS in Computer Science from Kentucky State University. |
 Jessica Clouser, MPH, CHSR Research Director Jessica has worked in research project management for over ten years. Prior to her tenure at CHSR, she served as the co-principal investigator and project manager for a five-year, CDC-funded study looking at the occupational safety and health of Lation Thoroughbred farmworkers. She is interested in community-based research, research to practice, health disparities, and social determinants of health. She received her MPH in Health Behavior from the University of Kentucky where she also obtained a BA in English and Spanish with a minor in Anthropology. |
Jon Colquitt, BS, Data Research Analyst Jon joined the CHSR as a Data Research Analyst in October 2017. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a Programmer Analyst at Baptist Health Plan for 11 years. Jon earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Central State University. |
 Chris Cook, MS, Program Coordinator II Chris joined the Center in October 2017. Prior to working for the CHSR, they served as a research coordinator in the Department of Behavioral science on a project regarding buprenorphine treatment and healthcare reform. Chris received their BA in Psychology from Baylor University and MS in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kentucky. |
Amy Mitchell Cowley, MA, Research Program Manager Amy joined the Center in January 2018. She earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Transylvania University in 2012 and an MA in Sociology with a concentration in Medical Sociology from the University of Kentucky in 2015. Prior to joining the Center, she worked at the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) headquarters as a Research Coordinator.
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Gaixin Du, MS, Statistician Gaixin received her Masters degree in Applied Statistics from Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis. She joined CHSR as a statistician in January 2017. Prior to joining the Center, she worked as a statistician at Dartmouth College. Her areas of expertise are intensive statistical analysis and study design.
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Shaunescia began her career with the University of Kentucky Volunteer Services at UK Chandler Hospital in 1999 and joined the Center for Health Services Research in 2015. Shaunescia graduated with her BS in Family and Consumer Sciences from the University of Kentucky School of Human Environmental Services. |
Lorie joined CHSR in September 2018. She earned her undergraduate degree in Environmental Health Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to joining CHSR she worked as a Safety Specialist for UKHC Safety and Emergency Management and UK Occupational Health and Safety. |
Chris Evans, Community Alignment Specialist Chris joined CHSR in June 2018 as a Community Alignment Specialist. Prior to joining the Center, he worked for the Kentucky Office of Education and Training in Frankfort as a Federal and Military Unemployment Claims Specialist. He is currently attending Blue Grass Technical College seeking a degree in Biotechnology |
Anna L. Fugazzi, BS, Administrative Services Assistant Anna has been with UK Healthcare since 2010, beginning as Administrative Support in the Department of General Surgery at the Surgical Specialties Clinic and then joining the OVIHD in 2015. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the UK College of Human Environmental Science in 2003. |
 Debra Graham, Process Improvement Education Trainer Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining OVIHD, she was a member of the University of Kentucky Human Resources Training and Development department as a senior training specialist/performance consultant with a focus on leadership, interpersonal skills, organizational development and performance improvement. Debra retired as a lieutenant colonel from the United States Army Reserve after a career in military intelligence and command/staff officer education. |
 Richard Herndon, MA, Project Manager II Richard joined the CHSR team in June 2018 as a project manager on the Kentucky Consortium for Accountable Health Communities project. Prior to employment at CHSR, he worked as a principle investigator and project manager for large-scale federally funded cultural resource research projects in Kentucky and throughout the Midwest. He received his BA in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina and his MA in Anthropology from the University of Southern Mississippi. |
Prior to joining the CHSR, Bob was employed by the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics where he utilized the State Longitudinal Data System to analyze K12, Higher Education and Workforce outcomes. Bob embraces the idea of evaluation as a necessary tool for continuous quality improvement and has nearly 20 years of experience in analysis. He received his MA from the University of Albany. |
Bhavya Kothari is an SAS programmer and healthcare professional. She joined UK in July 2017 at the Center for Health Services Research. Bhavya completed her undergraduate degree from Rajasthan University, India with a Bachelors of dental surgery and received her Master's degree in data science and business analytics from University of North Carolina at Charlotte. |
Andy is a Data Research Analyst at the CHSR. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a higher education data analyst at Penn State University, and as an actuarial analyst for Charles Schwab. Andy completed his undergraduate degree at Gannon University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and received Masters degrees from Penn State University in Rural Sociology, Demography, and Applied Statistics. |
Barbara Latham, MSN, BSN, Process Improvement Specialist Barbara earned her Bachelors and Masters in Nursing from the UK College of Nursing. Before working in quality improvement, she spent 13 years as a bedside staff nurse at UK Hospital. |
 Nikita Lewis, Instructional Designer Nikita joined the CHSR as an Instructional Designer in November 2018. She completed a B.S. in Technology from Bowling Green State University and a M.S. in Education from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining CHSR, Nikita worked as a Teaching Assistant for the University of Kentucky, College of Education. |
Xiaoshu joined CHSR as research associate in August 2017. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics and a MS in Statistics from Virginia Tech University. Prior to joining CHSR, she worked on research projects of environmental economics as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky. Her areas of expertise are economic evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, and applied econometrics. |
 Alisha Mays, Research Assistant Alisha Mays joined the Center as a Research Assistant in October 2018. She earned her BA in Cultural Anthropology from EKU and her MA in Sociology from WKU. Alisha has done extensive research on food sovereignty and local food efforts with EKU, WKU, and The Kentucky Association of Food Banks. |
Megan began her career with the University of Kentucky, Office of Patient Experience at UK Chandler Hospital in 2011 and joined the Center in 2015. She serves on the UK HealthCare Recognition Committee and Partner Advisory Council. Megan graduated with her BA in Health Communication from the College of Communication and Information Studies at the University of Kentucky. |
Donna Meyers, Data Management Donna joined the center for Health Services Research in June, 2018 to begin working on the Kentucky Consortium for Accountable Health Communities (KC-AHC) project. Prior to working for Kentucky Clinic, she worked as a Cash Application Associate for Kentucky Medical Services Foundation, and as a Health Care Insurance Associate for Humana. Donna earned her Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree from Rhode Island College. |
 Sethabhisha Nerusu, MS, Data Research Analyst Sethabhisha Nerusu joined the CHSR team in October 2017. She completed her Bachelor of Technology degree in India and her Master's degree from the University of Louisville. Before joining the Center, she did data analysis in telecommunication and clinical domains for various clients over 5 years. She used SAS and SQL in her previous experience. |
Ann joined the OVIHD in September 2018. Prior to working for the OVIHD, she served as Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Project Manager with the Global Services Operations at the Lexmark International and with the Space Shuttle Flights Operations at the United Space Alliance. Ann received her MS in Technical Management from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautic University and BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. |
 Janet K. Otachi, MA, Program Coordinator I Janet joined the CHSR in September 2016. She has a BA in Social Work and an MA in Medicial Sociology. Prior to joining the Center, she worked with vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa in HIV prevention and research, Gender Based Violence Prevention, and in Tracking and Evaluation of public health programs. Her research interest is in Evidence Based Tobacco Treatment and in working with vulnerable populations. |
 Prarthana Padbidri Chavan, Data Reporting Specialist Prarthana joined CHSR in May 2017. She completed her undergraduate degree from University of Pune, India with a Bachelors in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and received her Master’s degree in Telecommunications Management from the Oklahoma State University at Stillwater, OK. Prior to joining CHSR she worked with an entrepreneurial organization in Triangle Park, NC. Prarthana has over 7 years of experience in SQL and Oracle and adds a diverse skill set, including client relationship management, application development and project planning to the Data Analytics and Statistical Core team. |
 Jeremy Deryl Riser, Data Management Analyst Jeremy joined the Center in January 2018. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University. He is also concurrently completing a Master of Public Health in epidemiology at the Texas A&M Science Center while working as a Data Management Analyst for the CHSR. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a graduate assistant for Dr. Jennifer Horney and as a computer technician. As a graduate assistant, he focused on database management, and helped develop and design a web-based disaster recover tracking tool. |
 John Ryles, Data Management Analyst John Ryles is a Data Management Analyst at the CHSR and joined in January 2018. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the CHSR he worked as a Claims Adjuster at Xerox for the Tricare Dental Program for 4 years. |
 Jeremy Sams, Server Administrator/Programmer Jeremy M. Sams is an information technology professional and computer programming instructor. He joined the University of Kentucky in 2016 with the acceptance of the Server Administrator/Programmer position at the Center for Health Services Research. His areas of expertise are Systems Design and Implementation, Process and Workflow Automation, and Data Management. |
Matthew joined the Center as a Research Assistant in October 2018. Matthew earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Kentucky in the Spring of 2018, where he developed a passion for helping conduct research through his time in UK’s Belief and Morality (BAM) Lab. Prior to his addition onto the team, Matthew’s research focused on potential causes for differences in life satisfaction found between theists and atheists. Now, Matthew works under Dr. Li Jing and Dr. Brittany Smalls at the Center for Health Services Research, where he hopes to help make the world a little bit better of a place. |
 Amanda Trent, Research Administrative Coordinator Amanda joined the Center in August 2017 after working in the research field for nearly 10 years. Prior to joining the CHSR, she worked at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and the University of Missouri, conducting MRI studies that looked at the human brain and how it functions. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Psychology in 2009. |
 Cheryl Songer, Administrative Support Associate Cheryl joined the Center for Health Services Research in April of 2018. Prior to joining the Center she worked the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Dean’s office for 9 years. |
 Angela Traugott, Administrative Staff Officer I Angela started at the University of Kentucky in 2008. Prior to joining the Center, she worked as a College Financial Specialist in the College of Arts and Science for the Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy departments. Angela recently received her multi-business procedures certification for student life cycle management, human resource and finance. |
 Haley Vaigneur, MS, Health Systems Engineering Analyst Haley joined OVIHD in 2016. She earned her Bachelors and Masters in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University with an emphasis in human factors in healthcare, followed by a fellowship in patient safety with the Veterans Affairs' National Center for Patient Safety. |
Nikita has a BA in Biology from Berea College and an MPH in Community Health Education from Eastern Kentucky University. Currently she is seeking a DrPH in Epidemiology from the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health. Nikita has previously worked as a Regional Epidemiologist for the Big Sandy region of Kentucky. She joined the Center in December 2016. |
 Aiko Weverka, MS, Data Research Analyst Aiko joined the CHSR as a Data Research Analyst in August 2017. Prior to joining the center, she worked supporting public health and environmental research at San Francisco State University, with a particular emphasis on analysis of spatial data. Aiko completed her bachelor's degree in Biology from Middlebury College and a master's degree in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. |
 Audrey Yates, MS, Clinical Analyst Principal Audrey is an Expert in Quality Improvement and Process Engineering for OVIHD. She began her career at UK HealthCare in 2002 and joined the OVIHD in 2015. Audrey graduated with her MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Michigan. |
Shaunescia Davis, BS, Associate Administrator and Budget Officer
Lorie Jayne Ernest, MPH, REHS-RS Process Improvement Coordinator
Ann Nguyen, MS, LSS BB PMP, Health Systems Engineer Analyst Principle
Matthew Sirrine, Research Assistant
Nikita L. Vundi