ColoradoSPH COVID-19 Modeling Group

The Colorado School of Public Health COVID-19 Modeling Group has been working together since March 2020, in response to the need for modeling of Colorado’s COVID-19 pandemic. The team includes researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Boulder, CU Denver and Colorado State University. The team is broad-based scientifically and includes epidemiologists, statistical modelers, social scientists, economists, and health policy experts. In the months since March, the epidemic models developed by the COVID-19 Modeling Group have proved valuable in guiding approaches for epidemic control in the state of Colorado.

Coordination, management, and communications

	Jonathan M. Samet, MD, MS Dean, Colorado School of Public Health. Dr. Samet, a pulmonary physician and epidemiologist, leads the team.
	Meghan Buran, MPH Senior Professional Research Assistant. Ms. Buran works with Dr. Samet in supporting the ColoradoSPH team.
	Neeloo Soleimanpour, MPH Professional Research Assistant. Ms. Soleimanpour works with Dr. Samet in supporting the ColoradoSPH team.
	Aki Suzuki, BA MPH Student, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Suzuki is trained in strategic marketing, social media management, and multimedia production and supports efforts in stakeholder engagement and outreach through communication of modeling results and a public-facing website.

Health Data and analytics

	Marcelo Perraillon, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Perraillon currently supports the team in the use of statistical methods and observational data to estimate the costs associated with long COVID in Colorado.
	Tatiane Santos, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; and Adjunct Faculty, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Santos, a population health scientist, leads the development of this website including data curation, visualization and analytics.
	Alex Storaci, MBA PhD Student, Department of Health Systems, Management, & Policy, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Storaci is trained in orthopedic and neural stem cell research and currently supports the team in estimating the costs associated with long COVID in Colorado.

Modeling team

	Jude Bayham, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, Colorado State University. Dr. Bayham’s research focuses on wildfire management in the wildland urban interface, the impact of human behavior on infectious disease management, and natural capital valuation.
	David Bortz, PhDs Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Bortz brings expertise in data-driven modeling, parameter estimation, and uncertainty quantification, including the mathematical modeling of epidemics.
	Andrea Buchwald, PhD Research Associate, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Buchwald is trained in infectious disease epidemiology and brings expertise in infectious disease modeling.
	Elizabeth Carlton, PhD, MPH Associate Professor, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Carlton is trained in environmental health sciences and epidemiology. She brings expertise in the use of diverse data to inform how we model infectious disease spread.
	Brittney Contreras, BS Professional Research Assistant, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Contreras is trained in data analysis and mathematical modeling and is currently supporting efforts in model fitting, projections, data visualization, and special analyses.
	Bailey Fosdick, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, Colorado State University; Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics & Informatics, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Fosdick is trained in the development of statistical methods to analyze network, array, and survey data with applications in the biomedical sciences.
	Debashis Ghosh, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics & Informatics, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Ghosh is a biostatistician who is interested in fusion of data from diverse sources, time series, and causal inference.
	Irina Kasarskis, MPH DrPH Student, Department of Epidemiology, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Kasarskis previously worked as an epidemiologist for the State of Oregon and currently supports efforts for the team in data acquisition, processing, and visualization.
	Talia Quandelacy, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Quandelacy is trained in quantifying transmission dynamics of respiratory and mosquito-borne viral diseases and is currently leading efforts in literature review and stakeholder engagement.
	Kaitie Whitney, BS MPH Student, Department of Epidemiology, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Whitney is currently assisting with literature review and stakeholder engagement.
	Emma Wu, MS Senior Professional Research Assistant, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, ColoradoSPH. Ms. Wu is trained in data manipulation and quantitative analysis and is currently supporting efforts in model fitting, projections, data visualization, and special analyses.

Alumni

	Jimi Adams, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Health Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Adams has expertise in social networks and mixing.
	Sabina Altus, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Altus is trained in mathematical biology, specifically in developing mathematical models that characterize the influence of population structure on growth dynamics.
	Katie Colborn, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Department of Biostatistics & Informatics, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Colborn is trained in biostatistics and infectious disease modeling.
	Alex Fout, PhD Consulting Statistician. Dr. Fout has experience with networks modeling, epidemiological simulations, and led efforts in model fitting, projection, and development.
	David Jacobson, BS Chief Data Scientist, Vanadata. Mr. Jacobson is trained in statistical analysis of big data in healthcare, dashboard generation, and mathematical modeling, and led efforts for the team in model fitting, projection, and development.
	Dave Johnson, BS MS Student, Department of Epidemiology, ColoradoSPH. Mr. Johnson is trained in finance, app development, and copywriting, and led efforts for the team in data acquisition, processing, and visualization.
	Richard Lindrooth, PhD Professor, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Lindrooth, a health economist brings deep understanding of the relevant health care databases in Colorado.
	Glen Mays, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, ColoradoSPH. Dr. Mays, who works on health policy, has particular expertise in emergency preparedness.
	Laura E Timm, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Auke Bay Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service. Dr. Timm is a computational biologist trained in population genetics and evolution.