Education

  • Ph.D., Public Health (Epidemiology)
    Florida International University

    • C.V. Starr Scholarship Reciepient - 2020-2024

  • Master of Public Health (MPH), Epidemiology
    Florida International University

  • Bachelor of Science in Public Health
    University of South Florida

Experience

Assistant Professor — Morehouse School of Medicine

Department of Public Health Education · Atlanta, GA · July 2024 – Present

  • Lead applied research and graduate education at the intersection of epidemiology, data science, and health equity.
  • Teach graduate courses in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Research Methods, and Applied R Programming (MPH 716), and develop a new Advanced Data Visualization course.
  • Design and lead the Epidemiology and Health Data Science concentration curriculum.
  • Conduct observational studies using BRFSS, NHANES, and clinical data to evaluate cancer screening disparities and health outcomes.
  • Build reproducible analytic pipelines in R, Quarto, and GitHub; mentor MPH students in data analysis and manuscript development.
  • Recipient of the AUC Data Science Initiative Summer Curriculum Development Award (2024).

Key areas: R · Quarto · GitHub · BRFSS/NHANES · Regression modeling · Curriculum design · Health disparities

AHA Diversity in Clinical Trials Postdoctoral Fellow

Stanford University & Morehouse School of Medicine · Atlanta, GA · Jan 2024 – Jul 2024

  • Applied machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to analyze health datasets in collaboration with cardiologists and cancer epidemiologists.
  • Co-authored publications on LLM evaluation for cancer communication and ML-based recruitment analysis, including work published in JMIR Cancer and JMIR Formative Research.
  • Contributed to the TOTAL clinical trials diversity protocol, now published in Contemporary Clinical Trials (2026).
  • Mentored junior researchers in data science methods and contributed to grant writing and conference presentations.

Key areas: Python · NLP/LLMs · Machine learning · Clinical trials · Health equity

National Teaching Fellow in Data Science

NIMHD/RCMI-funded · Morehouse School of Medicine & Florida International University · Sep 2022 – Present

  • Funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) through the RCMI network to advance data science education in minority-serving institutions.
  • Designed and taught a national R programming curriculum.
  • Led Software Carpentry workshops at the University of Miami and a 10-week national RCMI course.
  • Presented on R for data science in public health at the International Data Science Conference Europe 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Key areas: R programming education · NIMHD · RCMI · Workforce development

COVID-19 Data Analyst — Florida International University

Department of Epidemiology · Miami, FL · Aug 2021 – Dec 2023

  • Analyzed large-scale surveillance data from the Florida Department of Health and CDC across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
  • Built an interactive R Shiny dashboard to visualize real-time COVID-19 trends for municipal and county officials; the dashboard was published as a citable output (Rodriguez et al., 2022).
  • Developed reproducible data workflows for continuous monitoring and reporting.
  • Contributed to the FIU 3MT Top 10 Finalist presentation (2023).

Key areas: R/Shiny · CDC/FLDOH data · Surveillance · Dashboard design

Clinical Research Coordinator — University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

Department of Neurology · Miami, FL · Jun 2019 – Aug 2020

  • Coordinated NIH- and industry-sponsored stroke clinical trials involving more than 100 participants, including recruitment, screening, and follow-up.
  • Worked with EHR data (Epic, Cerner) to support patient-level outcome analyses.
  • Oversaw IRB submissions, regulatory compliance, and protocol documentation.

Key areas: EHR (Epic/Cerner) · REDCap · Clinical trials · IRB/Compliance

Research Support Specialist — University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

Department of Neurology · Miami, FL · Aug 2018 – Jun 2019

  • Conducted statistical analyses using SAS and SPSS on stroke and registry datasets.
  • Designed and managed REDCap databases for clinical data collection workflows.
  • Coordinated multi-site data sharing with hospitals statewide.
  • Organized the Florida Stroke Registry Annual Meeting.

Key areas: SAS · SPSS · REDCap · Multi-site coordination

Research Analyst — Bascom Palmer Eye Institute

Department of Biostatistics · Miami, FL · Aug 2016 – Aug 2018

  • Performed statistical analyses for more than 20 NIH- and NEI-funded ophthalmic studies using SPSS and REDCap.
  • Co-authored peer-reviewed publications, including work published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (2018).
  • Maintained IRB compliance documentation and contributed to conference abstracts and manuscripts.