CAREER STATEMENT
Career Development Plan Background
Briefly, I am interested in understanding the impact of environmental exposures on health through the use of epidemiological exposure assessment methods that emphasize the significance of place. I already have a firm understanding of the experimental design and statistical methodology necessary to successfully accomplish much of my research objectives. Nonetheless, I have identified two important areas of opportunities for growth: enhancing my research work with advanced geostatistical methods and incorporating air pollution exposure assessment into my built environment research agenda. My main approach for developing these areas is by actively pursuing opportunities to collaborate with other expert researchers and laboratories. Toward moving my career forward in these areas, and in the short-term (i.e., over the next year), I will work with Dr. Wenyaw Chan (see advisory team below) and his biostatistics team on advanced statistical approaches for processing and analyzing environmental data that are collected over place and time (spatiotemporal). There are several datasets that we could use for such analyses. For air pollution modeling, I will work with Dr. Yunsoo Choi and his team at the University of Houston Air Quality and Forecasting and Modeling Lab to incorporate modeled air pollution data into datasets from recent EHS asthma projects where indoor air quality were measured at different times of the year. The air pollution expertise of Dr. Michael Jerrett and a member of my advisory team (see below) is particularly useful in this regard. Also, when it is valuable to my research focus, I will test (through research collaborations) the relative addition of gene-environment interaction and microbiome research to my line of work. Currently, I am in groups with several individuals with whom I could collaborate.
Career Development Advisory Team
I have formed a strong advisory team for my career plan. The team includes Drs. Winifred Hamilton, Melissa Bondy, Wenyaw Chan, and Michael Jerrett. This team provides a diversity of expertise that complements my research focus areas, and is therefore appropriately sized. Dr. Hamilton, my immediate supervisor, is the director of the Environmental Health Service (EHS) at BCM. Dr. Bondy is the associate director for Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences and section chair for Epidemiology and Population Sciences at BCM. She brings a rich research portfolio that includes genetic and population-based studies on cancer. Dr. Chan is a professor of biostatistics with extensive experience on NIH-funded projects and brings statistical consideration support. Dr. Jerrett is an internationally recognized expert in GIS for Exposure Assessment and Spatial Epidemiology. He is professor and chair of the Environmental Health Sciences in the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. He brings mentorship on most aspects of my research focus areas, which are closely aligned with his research areas. Dr. Hamilton and I meet several times each week to discuss EHS activities, including research projects and administration tasks. We also discuss various career development activities in real time. In general, networking is one aspect of my career development where I believe mentors and sponsors could be of significant help.