Archives: Affiliates

Dr. Holt’s primary research interests are in the areas of reproductive epidemiology and intimate partner violence. Reproductive epidemiology research projects include an analysis of recent trends in US ectopic pregnancy incidence, studies on the epidemiology of adenomyosis and endometriosis (with emphasis on reproductive and contraceptive risk factors and environmental chemical exposures), and risk factors for oral contraceptive failure, including obesity. Dr. Holt has participated in several research projects concerning intimate partner violence through the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. Recent violence-related projects concern the effect of protection orders on future intimate partner violence, and the impact of the justice system response to partner violence on the risk of subsequent violence and injury.

Patrick Heagerty’s research interests include regression techniques for dependent data including marginal models and random effects models for longitudinal data, methods for categorical time series, and hierarchical models for categorical spatial data, as well as statistical computing and applications in epidemiology and ecology.

Dr. Hawes’s primary research interests are in human papillomavirus (HPV) and other STDs, cervical cancer, and HIV and he has more than 20 years of research experience conducting cohort studies in Senegal, West Africa as well as in Seattle. He also studies biomarkers for various cancers including cancer of the cervix, anus, lung, breast, ovary, and skin. Dr. Hawes is Associate Director of the UW Strategic Analysis, Research and Training (START) Center and is a faculty member in the UW Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program.

David Grembowski serves as the Interim Director of the Center for Health Innovation and Policy Sciences in the Department of Health Services. Professor Grembowski’s research interests are the social determinants of health and health inequities; prevention; the design and performance of health care systems, particularly access to health care and the cost, quality, outcomes and equity of care; technology diffusion; and the health care workforce. He was a member of the study team evaluating Washington’s $65 million State Innovation Models Test Award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. His other studies have examined health care for adults with chronic conditions; efforts to improve quality by increasing access to care in integrated delivery systems; managed care and physician referrals; managed care and patient-physician relationships; cost-effectiveness of preventive services for older adults; fluoridation effects on oral health and dental demand; financial incentives and dentist adoption of preventive technologies; effects of dental insurance on dental demand; and the link between mother and child access to dental care.

Amanda Fretts is most interested in observational and interventional research aimed at improving the cardio-metabolic health of American Indians. To date, her research efforts have primarily focused on the association of physical activity, diet, a healthy lifestyle, or gene*diet interactions with diabetes-related phenotypes. She has been actively involved with the Strong Heart Study (SHS) and Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS), a longitudinal study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in 12 American Indian communities, for the past twelve years. She is currently the site Principal Investigator of the SHS/SHFS Dakota Center, and the Principal Investigator of a community-based diet and cooking skills intervention (randomized trial) for American Indians with diabetes who reside in a rural reservation community.

She is also actively involved in several on-going projects related to fatty acids, sphingolipids, and cardio-metabolic outcomes in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), the Fatty Acids and Outcomes Research Consortium (FORCE), and CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology).

Joseph Delaney has a strong background in cardiovascular epidemiology, observational HIV work, pharmacoepidemiology, and epidemiological methods.  He has worked extensively looking at cardiovascular complications due to HIV infection and is a co-author of a chapter for the AHRQ user’s guide for developing comparative effectiveness research.  He has published on cutting edge epidemiological methods that are widely applicable to models in HIV-infected populations in both epidemiology and statistics journals. His expertise includes with-in person designs, generalized estimating equations, Bayesian model averaging, linear mixed models, and marginal structural models.  He also does work on substance use as part of a NIDA funded harmonization effort across a range of small clinical trials in HIV-infected participants.  He has extensive experience with using study designs and statistical methods to improve the inference and analysis of observational medical research.  He has successfully graduated four master’s level students (two in pharmaceutical policies and outcomes, two in nutritional sciences) and one PhD student (pharmaceutical outcomes and policy).  He current supervises three master’s level students (two in nutritional sciences, one in epidemiology) and a PhD candidate (epidemiology).  This diverse background in student supervision makes him extremely well suited to be a part of a multi-disciplinary institute like the CSDE and to be highly involved in working with students, both formally and as a part of student committees.  To date, his graduates have typical entered government service (three placed in the Food and Drug Administration) or clinical practice as registered dieticians.