CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new UW Faculty Affiliates:

• Annie Chen– Assistant Professor, Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington. Chen integrates methods and approaches from multiple fields in her research, leveraging text mining, visualization, and statistical techniques to better understand people’s behavior and experience. A key area of her research expertise is text and visual analytics, particularly in the extraction and visualization of concepts relating to behavior, social and psychological processes, and contexts.
• Anirban Basu – Professor, Department of Pharmacy, University of Washington. Basu is a health economist and a statistician who specializes in research on comparative and cost effectiveness analyses, causal inference methods, program evaluation, and outcomes research. He directs The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the University of Washington, Seattle, with appointments in the departments of Pharmacy, Health Services, and Economics.
• Vanessa Oddo – Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Health Services, University of Washington. Oddo is an obesity epidemiologist whose research focuses on the social and economic determinants of nutrition-related health. Currently, she is leading a NIH-funded study that is investigating the extent to which precarious employment is related to obesity and cardiometabolic risk in the U.S. She also studies the impacts of nutrition policy and has expertise in investigating the diet quality of populations and determinants of obesity.
• Natasha Rivers – Rivers works at BECU as a social impact, sustainability, and data measurement professional. She is developing a strategic framework around social impact by measuring BECU’s commitment to philanthropy, financial health and education, member engagement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In her previous role as Demographer for the Seattle School District, Natasha provided data required for Facilities and Capital Levy planning. She conducted scientific research and evaluation studies to measure the impact of Seattle’s affordability crisis, including the rise of K-12 homeless youth.

These affiliates bring a wealth of knowledge and unique approaches that enhances our community of demographers and collectively advances population science. We look forward to supporting each of them as they pursue their research. You can learn more about their individual research interests by visiting their affiliate pages, linked above.

If you are interested in becoming an affiliate or you know of someone who should become one, you can invite them to do so by directing them to this page. Affiliate applications are reviewed quarterly, by CSDE’s Executive Committee.