PHDA 01 Working with Administrative Data
PHDA 02 Epidemiological Statistics
Alvin Li is currently a clinical epidemiologist for a real-world health data intelligence company. Prior to this role, he was a scientist at a provincial health organization focusing on applied research for cancer prevention. He has over 10 years of research experience and has conducted multiple projects using large health administrative datasets on various topics including kidney transplantation, immigrant health and the evaluation of health policies.
He completed his PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ottawa Health Research Institute. He has a strong interest in teaching and has also taught lessons on data analytics.
PHDA 03 Population Health and Geographical Information Systems
Lizz Piccoli is a data analyst at the Population and Public Health Observatory at Fraser Health where she works as part of several portfolios including non-communicable diseases, toxic drug poisoning and planetary health. She completed her MPH and MID at the University of Pittsburgh where she was a FLAS fellowship recipient and a graduate teaching assistant for upper-level undergraduate courses. Her primary research interests focus on the impact of natural disasters and migration on the continuation of care for ongoing health conditions. She is extremely passionate about the ways in which geospatial sciences can be used in partnership with epidemiological best practices to increase health equity by improving healthcare system planning and optimization. Lizz has over 5 years of geospatial mapping experience using R, ArcGIS and Geoda, and over 10 years of experience using a variety of statistical software including R, SAS, STATA, SPSS and Python. Her previous research has taken her all over the world, where she has had the unique opportunity to manage or assist with research in India, Namibia, South Africa, China and the United States.
PHDA 04 Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection
Michael Branion-Calles currently serves as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UBC. He obtained a PhD in health sciences from Simon Fraser University in 2020 and a master’s degree in geography at the University of Victoria in 2015. Michael has over a decade of experience in GIS, spatial analysis and epidemiological approaches to public health research. His research seeks to answer applied questions that lie at the nexus of transportation, health and safety.
PHDA 05 Longitudinal Analysis and Multi-level Modeling of Population Health Data
Over 24 years at UVic, her academic work foci has been in International Population Health Data Science, Research/Project Management and Psychometrics. Her research involves examination of meta-data systematics in longitudinal designs and methods such as, complex sampling, impacts of age-period-cohort effects, cognitive measurement and culturally relevant research tools. At UVic, she has taught learning/development theories, measurement/evaluation, psychological/educational diagnostics and statistics for statistically-anxious post-secondary students. She holds positions as research associate at UVic’s Institute of Lifelong Health & Aging and a as clinical psychometrician at Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health.
PHDA 06 Health Services Program Monitoring and Evaluation
Marla Steinberg has been a professional evaluator for over 25 years. She has conducted evaluations in a wide range of areas including early childhood development, health promotion, research capacity building, organizational development, leadership, partnerships and coalitions, health services, research impact, and knowledge transfer and exchange. Her work has examined strategies, policies and programs at the federal, provincial, and community levels. She has extensive experience in teaching and professional development that spans developing and delivering graduate level courses, in-service coaching support for health service professionals, in-person workshops, and e-learning courses. She brings to her work a passion for evaluation and a focus on engaging and experiential learning.
