Who We Are

Jess Edwards is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an infectious disease epidemiologist who focuses on developing and refining quantitative methods to inform public health decisions using imperfect data sources, particularly those prone to missing information and measurement error. Her work focuses on improving the response to HIV and other infectious disease outbreaks in the US, Dominican Republic, and East Africa.

Michael Hudgens is a professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics at UNC-Chapel Hill and is director of the Biostatistics Core of the UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He has interest in the development and application of causal inference methods for studies of infectious diseases.

Mark is an Epidemiology PhD Student working with Steve Cole on optimal treatment timing for pregnancy and labor-related conditions, reframing statistical measures with a causal lens, and computationally assessing the causal identification conditions. Mark was an instructor for EPID700: SAS and Data Management in Fall 2023. Prior to UNC, Mark graduated from NC State with two degrees in Computer Science and Science, Technology, and Society.

Katie Mollan is a Principal Biostatistician and Assistant Director of the Biostatistics Core at the UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Mollan works on the design and analysis of RCTs, longitudinal cohorts, and implementation studies. Her research background spans HIV, emerging infectious diseases (e.g., Lassa virus, Covid-19, Ebola), malaria, mental health, cervical cancer, and treatment efficacy, effectiveness, and safety.

Mollan earned her M.S. in Statistics at the Ohio State University and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at UNC-CH. She worked for Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2006-2012, CBAR, AIDS Clinical Trials Group) prior to joining the UNC-CH Center for AIDS Research from 2012-Present.

Bonnie Shook-Sa is an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at UNC. Her research focuses on the efficient design and causal analysis of observational studies and randomized trials. She is particularly interested in issues surrounding generalizability and in combining data from multiple studies. Dr. Shook-Sa’s collaborative public health research focuses on infectious diseases, with an emphasis on HIV research. She serves as the assistant director for the UNC Center for AIDS Research Biostatistics Core.