RESEARCH TEAM
OHSU Family Medicine
Biostatistics Core
I lead a team of talented passionate biostatisticians who are currently collaborating with investigators of our department to provide rigorous study design and statistical methods support. Here is a bit of information of who they are.
After 20 years of working in laboratory research I entered the Oregon Health & Science University M.P.H. program in Epidemiology and Biostatistics received my M.P.H. in 2005. I worked for several years for the OHSU Biostatistics and Design Program, providing statistical support to multiple diverse research projects, where my background in clinical research contributed greatly to understanding the research questions and the appropriate analysis approach. I then moved to the Department of Family Medicine, where my work has been focused on analysis of Electronic Health record and medical claims data to assess the effect of policy changes and social determinants of health on health care utilization and outcomes.
My bibliography can be accessed here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1-atreD2xoz5s/bibliography/48696047/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending
Jean P. O'Malley, MPH PStat® (ASA)
Rachel Springer is a biostatistician in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. Her interests include survey design, factor analysis and construct validity, predictive modeling, longitudinal analyses, and sampling techniques. She is a co-founder of the Poetry Data Project, an ongoing effort to catalogue books of poetry, mapping them in 3D space based on a statistical analysis of reader impressions, and she has taught college-level courses in both poetry and statistics.
Rachel Springer, MS
David Ezekiel-Herrera is a biostatistician at Oregon Health & Sciences University. He is broadly interested in the harnessing the power of data to address issues in health equity related to social determinants of health and healthcare access. David’s research background has spanned policy research, survey design, epidemiological methods, and cardiovascular risk-score validation and is enjoying seeing how they come together in his current work.
David Ezekiel-Herrera, MS
Steele H. Valenzuela is a biostatistician in the Dept. of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Sciences University where he is collaborating on projects related to health insurance (and lack thereof), medical school education, and "burnout" in primary care clinics. When he's not looking at electronic health record data, you can find Steele dabbling in data science projects using R/RStudio/Shiny by applying interactivity to statistical applications. He presented at the first ever Portland R Conference (2017) on the combination of interactive tables and visualizations using Shiny. Unrelated to work and programming, Steele loves ping pong, cooking and baking, the band Paramore, and riding his bike around Portland.
Steele Valenzuela, MS
Jorge Kaufmann is a biostatistician with the Department of Family Medicine research team at Oregon Health and Science University. Jorge’s data science focus is enriched by his history of teaching medical sciences, as well as clinical work in naturopathy and Chinese medicine. He is driven to impact person and population-level health and enjoys using electronic health record and survey data to identify and address the drivers of chronic disease.  Curiosity, methodology, and communication are the central tenets that define his approach in the workplace. Jorge has, without bias, robustly declared that the probability exists he will someday win a bicycle race, regardless of its significance*.
*His best friend growing up, Darryl Poisson agrees you can count on this being true.
Jorge Kaufmann, MS
Jenny Lucas began a postdoctoral research fellowship in the OHSU Department of Family Medicine in 2018 after earning a PhD in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics. Jenny’s work includes research methods and biostatistics, particularly longitudinal data analysis, methods to handle missing data, and data analysis for observational studies. Her doctoral research focused on childhood asthma and obesity, a topic which she is currently continuing to work on at OHSU.
Jennifer Lucas, PhD, MPH
Tahlia Hodes received her statistics degree from Mount Holyoke College and then her masters in biostatistics from UCLA. She currently works at OHSU in the Dep. of Family Medicine. She is interested in using appropriate statistical approaches to help identify and improve preventive care and equity for all. Her ultimate career goal is to make data backed discoveries that will help the populations she serves. When she’s not working with data, you can find her volunteering to provide healthy food to those in need, organizing Ultimate Frisbee leagues in her community, and working out.
Tahlia Hodes, MPH
Jun Hwang is a biostatistician with the Department of Family Medicine research team at the Oregon Health and Science University. He is interested in how machine learning and data-adaptive methods can be used responsibly to promote equity. Jun's previous work in Philadelphia and Seattle included research in education policy and clinical trials. He is excited by Portland's local food options, especially with respect to ice cream.
Jun Hwang, MS
Katie Fankhauser is a biostatistician with the Department of Family Medicine research team at Oregon Health and Science University. She takes an ecological approach to population health and likes leveraging seemingly disparate data sources – including electronic health records, social and neighborhood indicators, and localized environmental conditions – to inform her work. Prior to joining our team, Katie implemented public health programs in East Africa and conducted independent research in remote sensing and geospatial determinants of health. She is driven by research questions and interventions that address health disparities and inequities among vulnerable populations, locally and beyond.