Research & Projects

Dissertation Research

Aim 1 — COVID-19 Mortality Disparities and Vaccine Availability Among People with HIV in Florida

Survival Analysis Subdistribution Cox Hazard Multilevel Analysis 2M+ EHR Records Revise & Resubmit — PLoS ONE

Evaluated COVID-19 mortality disparities before and after vaccine availability among people with HIV in Florida using a 2M+ record EHR-linked statewide administrative registry. Applied subdistribution Cox hazard models and multilevel analysis to characterize mortality disparities across demographic and clinical subgroups before and after vaccine availability.

Aim 2 — Spatial Co-Occurrence of HIV and COVID-19 Hotspots in Florida

Spatial Epidemiology Getis-Ord Gi* Firth Logistic Regression ArcGIS Pro Under Review — Health and Place

Identified geographic co-occurrence of HIV and COVID-19 hotspots across Florida ZIP codes using Getis-Ord Gi* hotspot analysis. Applied Firth logistic regression for rare-event outcomes to examine individual and community-level determinants of hotspot co-occurrence. Produced ZIP code-level maps using ArcGIS Pro.

Aim 3 — County-Level COVID-19 Prevention Policies and Incidence Among People With and Without HIV

Policy Analysis Longitudinal Trend Analysis Panel Data County/Day Structure In Preparation

Examined associations between county-level COVID-19 prevention strategies and COVID-19 incidence trends among people with and without HIV, using a county-by-day panel data structure with policy indicator variables. Integrated surveillance data, ACS demographic variables, Social Vulnerability Index, RUCA codes, and vaccination coverage into a comprehensive analytic dataset.

Collaborative Research

Project D.A.I.L.Y. — Daily Adherence in Latino Youth Living with HIV

Behavioral Epidemiology EMA SEM Causal Bayesian Networks

Coded and analyzed the Phase 2 baseline questionnaire for Project D.A.I.L.Y., a behavioral epidemiology study of ART adherence among Latino sexual minority men with HIV. The survey instrument incorporated ten validated PRO measures including the TSRQ, HIV-ASES, Brief COPE, CES-D, GAD-7, and HIV Stigma scales. Applied Ecological Momentary Assessment methodology and Structural Equation Modeling to characterize psychosocial barriers to adherence. Co-authored two peer-reviewed publications.

Patient-Provider Relationships and HIV Viral Suppression

Causal Bayesian Networks DAGs EHR Cohort

Co-analyzed data using Causal Bayesian Networks and directed acyclic graphs to assess the effect of patient-provider relationship quality on HIV viral suppression in EHR-linked cohorts in Miami-Dade County. Published in AIDS and Behavior (2024).

Nonfatal Opioid Overdose Surveillance — Florida COVID-19 Context

Surveillance Analytics Trend Analysis Florida Registry

Analyzed trends in nonfatal opioid-related overdoses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida using statewide surveillance data. Published in Preventive Medicine Reports (2023).

Data Science Projects

Brain Tumor Detection in MRI Images Using Deep Learning

TensorFlow Keras CNN Anvil Dashboard DS4A 2021 Cohort

Team 47 project developing a convolutional neural network using TensorFlow and Keras to classify brain MRI images as tumor or no tumor, trained on 6,123 standardized images from Kaggle, achieving 97.79% accuracy after 10 training epochs. Built and deployed a live interactive dashboard using the Anvil platform enabling remote MRI image upload with real-time tumor probability output.

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Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure Predictors in the US (1999-2020)

LASSO Regression Python NHANES DS4W 2022 Cohort

Team 29 project analyzing NHANES federal health survey data (~60,000 individuals, 1999-2020) to identify variables associated with organophosphate pesticide exposure. Applied LASSO regression to combined demographic, dietary, and laboratory data across approximately 60,000 individuals. Found urine creatinine and blood lipid values as key predictors. Proposed use of these biomarkers for continuous monitoring in agricultural populations.

Open-Source Technical Projects

Fisher's Exact Test — Interactive Tutorial

R Quarto Statistical Education

A published Quarto tutorial demonstrating Fisher's Exact Test for small sample contingency table analysis, with annotated R code, worked examples, and interpretation guidance.

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Two-Sample T-Test — Interactive Tutorial

R Quarto Statistical Education

A published Quarto tutorial covering two-sample t-test methodology, assumptions, implementation in R, and interpretation for public health applications.

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Random Intercept Model — Collaborative Tutorial

R Quarto Multilevel Modeling

Contributed to a collaborative open-source tutorial series covering multilevel modeling with random intercept models in R for health science researchers.

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Generalized Linear Model: Using Count Data

R Data Visualization GLM

An interactive tutorial and dashboard demonstrating Generalized Linear Models for count data analysis, including Poisson and negative binomial regression, deployed via Netlify.

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