New Faculty Bring Expertise, Enthusiasm
Over the last twelve months, thirteen new full-time faculty have joined Columbia Mailman, bringing diverse experience and expertise to solving public health challenges, improving population health, and reducing disparities, from environmental toxins and climate change to substance use, healthy longevity, cancer, HIV, and more. Collaborating with colleagues across the School is one of their top goals.
Nuannuan Xiang, an assistant professor of health policy and management working on a project aiming a sharp uptick in maternal morbidity in the United States, is impressed by just how interdisciplinary the School is. “So far, I have met political scientists, sociologists, economists, demographers, statisticians, and historians to name a few. It’s very cool that people from so many different disciplines work together,” she says.
Tian Gu, assistant professor of biostatistics, is excited to be part of multi-disciplinary collaborations, partnering “with pulmonologists on a comprehensive, multi-center study; teaming up with epidemiologists to address cancer disparities; and working alongside neurologists to enhance risk prediction for brain-related diseases in underrepresented communities.”
John Beard
Professor of Health Policy and Management and Epidemiology (in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center)
John Beard is the Irene Diamond Professor and Director of the International Longevity Center-USA. He works globally with academia, policymakers and the private sector to reimagine the second half of life. Previously, he was director of Aging and Life Course with the World Health Organization, and chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Population Aging, and commissioner of the National Academy of Medicine Commission on Healthy Longevity.
“I am just so excited to join the outstanding team of innovative researchers that has been brought together in the Columbia Aging Center. The group extends across the full span of cell to society, and I think it will be quickly recognized as a global leader.”
Ronald A. Glabonja
Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Ronald A. Glabonja applies advanced analytical methods to assess the health risks of environmental chemicals—particularly, metals and their manifold chemical forms—including their toxicity, exposure sources, and metabolic pathways. He focuses on disproportionally affected communities to reduce environmental health disparities in underserved populations.
“I’m excited about reporting the first results on genetic associations with the way we metabolize the micronutrient selenium and look forward to further explore the health implications of this finding this coming fall.”
Dana Goin
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Dana Goin is a reproductive epidemiologist focused on the joint impact of environmental and social stressors on adverse pregnancy outcomes, including the society-level factors that shape disparities and the mechanisms that underlie them. She also identifies and evaluates analytic approaches to better understand and prevent threats to causal inference, which is notoriously challenging when studying the pregnancy period.
“The people at Columbia Mailman seem engaged, thoughtful, and supportive. I’m excited to learn from them!”
Tian Gu
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
Tian Gu completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University following her PhD studies at the University of Michigan. She currently specializes in advanced data integration methods for precision health research. Her work also extends to COVID-19 and health disparities, with a particular emphasis on utilizing multi-center and EHR-linked biobank data to enhance risk prediction for complex diseases in underrepresented populations.
“The atmosphere here is incredibly supportive, and we have exceptional researchers engaged in impactful projects that span various facets of public health.”
Teresa Janevic
Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Teresa Janevic is a perinatal epidemiologist who studies the influence of social and structural determinants on maternal, infant, and reproductive health equity. Her current research investigates Medicaid policy, neighborhood environment, racism, and migration, with a unique focus on the intersection between social and structural determinants of health and health care quality. Janevic is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of leaders in epidemiology and health equity.
“I’ve always admired Columbia Mailman’s commitment to excellence and to health equity. I am impressed with the fresh approaches to meet this mission.”
Xin Ma
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
Xin Ma is focused on statistical and deep learning methods for high dimensional and complex-structured data. Potential applications include neuroimaging, cancer imaging and spatial omics. She is affiliated with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Biostatistics Shared Resource where she provides statistical support to cancer investigators.
“I am eagerly anticipating the opportunity to lead my first full-semester course this upcoming fall, while also establishing partnerships with investigators in breast cancer epidemiology and pediatric brain imaging techniques.”
Zachary Mannes
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (in Emergency Medicine)
Zachary Mannes is a clinical psychologist and epidemiologist who examines rates, risks, and modifiable correlates of substance use and psychiatric disorders among adults with chronic pain. His research aims to inform clinical care, identify gaps in the provision of health care services, and to increase the uptake and effectiveness of behavioral treatments for adults with chronic pain.
“Columbia Mailman is well situated to carry out research that has implications to improve population health and inform health care services in the local community.”
Robbie M. Parks
Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Robbie M. Parks is an environmental epidemiologist with experience in research on climate change, pollution, public health, and equity. He has published on the health impacts of hurricanes, temperature, wildfires, and pollution. He is lead instructor of a course on Bayesian modeling for the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Senior Fellow.
“I am surrounded with amazing people with all sorts of complementary talents, academic specialisms and backgrounds, and have amazing support for my ideas and research goals.”
Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz is an environmental and occupational epidemiologist focused on maternal-child health effects, in particular, bone health and body composition, associated with environmental, occupational, and psychosocial exposures. Her research on lead concentrations in candy and lead-glazed pottery has had an important impact on public awareness of this exposure in Mexico. She is collaborating to create a researchers network from Latin America and the Caribbean.
“I’m looking forward to support and carry-out research with CCCEH [Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health].”
Haotian (Howie) Wu
Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Haotian Wu studies reproductive, pulmonary, and neuropsychological health. His research spans benchwork to computational studies and focuses on identifying harmful environmental exposures and understanding the molecular targets that connect these environmental hazards with adverse health effects across the lifespan.
“I look forward to developing collaborative research with the climate health section and developing exposomics as a platform for examining environmental determinants of reproductive health.”
Xiao Wu
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
Xiao Wu pursues the development of methods to handle complex large spatio-temporal data and their applications to broad areas of climate science and environmental health. He has a PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.
“I am excited about using data science to build a healthier, environmentally sustainable world!"
Nuannuan Xiang
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management
Nuannuan Xiang conducts research at the intersection of public health, the welfare state, and state building. She studies how modern states controlled diseases and improved population health, and how the public health interventions, in turn, reshaped social welfare and state power.
“Mailman is very interdisciplinary. So far, I have met political scientists, sociologists, economists, demographers, statisticians, and historians to name a few. It’s very cool that people from so many different disciplines work together.”
Yuan Zhang
Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences (in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center)
Yuan Zhang’s research examines how social factors across different life stages influence aging-related outcomes, with an emphasis on populations in less economically developed countries. She also studies population health trends to uncover how disease burden, dementia, and mortality are unfolding in the population, and how they are linked to other structural changes such as increasing education.
“This fall semester, I look forward to meeting my colleagues to learn more about them and their work! I'm teaching in the Public Health Core and am excited about the opportunity to connect with students.”