Public Health Data Challenge: Meet the Judges
November 1, 2018
ASA’s Public Health Data Challenge asks students to use their analytical and data visualization skills to create ideas that could help take steps toward resolving or reducing the national opioid crisis.
As we inch closer to the November 12 submission deadline, we’d like to introduce the contest judges. Using the criteria described here, these public health statisticians will evaluate your entries, including your assessment of the data and any implicit biases.
Meet the Public Health Data Challenge judges:
Amy Wahlquist
Biostatistician, Medical University of South Carolina
Amy Wahlquist’s research activities include working with the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute and the Hollings Cancer Center, providing guidance in study design and conduct, sample size estimation/power calculations as well as reviewing protocols, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. Much of her time is spent collaborating with investigators at MUSC in a variety of disciplines including tobacco cessation, cancer, autism, emergency medicine, and addiction sciences.
Beatrice Setnik
Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs, Syneos Health
Dr. Beatrice Setnik has been working in the area of CNS research and clinical drug development for over 16 years and is an expert in the area of abuse and dependence potential evaluation of drugs. Beatrice is currently the Vice President of Clinical Pharmacology at INC Early Phase and oversees scientific affairs and clinical research. Beatrice earned her doctorate degree in Pharmacology and the Collaborative Program in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto.
Holly Hedegaard
Injury Epidemiologist, National Center for Health Statistics
Dr. Holly Hedegaard is an injury epidemiologist and public health physician at the National Center for Health Statistics. Holly has nearly 20 years of experience in injury epidemiology, surveillance methodology, and evaluation of emergency medical services and trauma systems. She has worked extensively with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Violent Death Reporting System, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Emergency Medical Services Information System and the National Trauma Data Bank. These collaborations have led to the development and enhancement of surveillance systems for traumatic brain injury, motor vehicle traffic safety, child abuse, homicides, suicides and the delivery of emergency and trauma care in the U.S.
Sally Curtin
Statistician, National Center for Health Statistics
Sally Curtin has been working as a statistician and researcher for 30 years since she started at the U.S. Census Bureau in 1986. Sally’s work has been primarily in the area of demographic and health research—the intersection of demography and epidemiology. She has vast experience working with vital statistics data—marriage, divorce, birth, and death. Her most recent work has been concentrated in mortality, analyzing trends in suicide and in drug overdose deaths to teens aged 15-19 in the US. Sally is particularly interested in health outcomes and mortality for children and adolescents.
Learn more about the Public Health Data Challenge here.






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