Our Team
The Clemson University Center for Public Health Modeling and Response team comprises dedicated Clemson University faculty, affiliated faculty, and graduate researchers, all committed to leveraging data-driven methodologies to enhance public health outcomes. Our collective expertise spans a broad spectrum of disciplines, enabling us to tackle complex public health challenges with innovative solutions. We pride ourselves on our collaborative approach, integrating the knowledge and skills of our diverse team to drive impactful research and deliver actionable insights for health organizations and communities.
Lior Rennert, Ph.D.
Lior Rennert, Ph.D., is associate dean for health sciences in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences; associate professor of biostatistics in the Department of Public Health Sciences; and founding director of the Clemson Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. He received his Ph.D. degree in biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Pearlman School of Medicine, M.S. degree in statistics from the University of Chicago, and B.S. in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rennert led Clemson’s public health strategy team to provide data analytics and help guide University policy. His current work focuses on the development of data-driven approaches to guide health-related decision making. His research has led to high-impact publications in the top scientific, medical and health journals. He has procured approximately $30 million in funding as principal investigator from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His projects aim to develop a statewide network for real-time opioid and infectious disease outbreak detection, forecasting and coordinating emergency health response. In these efforts, Rennert has helped build statewide and national collaborations between state health departments, health systems, community partners and academic institutions in order to integrate Center research into practice and ultimately improve health outcomes across the state of South Carolina and the nation.
Research and Administrative Personnel
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Kerry A. Howard, Ph.D., Research Manager
Kerry Howard, Ph.D., is the research manager at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. She received her Ph.D. degree from Clemson University in applied health research and evaluation and a M.S. degree from Seton Hall University in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Her research focuses on the elimination of health disparities through data-driven examinations of delivery of care in disadvantaged populations, as well as methodology that impacts decision-making in the prevention and treatment of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease, opioid use disorder, Hepatitis C and community child safety. Howard has performed research in the fields of health and psychology over the course of her career, accumulating extensive experience with research design, data maintenance and analysis, and scientific writing, as well as an understanding of how these areas can be applied to improve real-world outcomes and disseminate findings to the community. -
Jiande Wu, Ph.D., Data Manager/Data Scientist
Jiande Wu, Ph.D., is the data manager/data scientist at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. He received his Ph.D. degree and M.S. from the University of New Orleans in electrical engineering. He also holds M.S. and B.S. degrees from North China Electric Power University in computer science and engineering. Wu possesses extensive training and expertise in the field of computational genomics and data analysis. His research primarily focuses on the development and application of advanced big data analysis techniques and computational genomic methods. Wu currently serves as the Center’s data manager and is responsible for data extraction and management of electronic health records (EHR) data. He is also responsible for overseeing the application of machine learning techniques for prediction, including the development of early warning systems for infectious disease outbreaks based on digital trace data. -
Emily Serman, Ph.D., Research Associate
Emily Serman, Ph.D., is a Research Associate at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. She received her PhD in Population, Health, and Place from the University of Southern California and her MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Rhode Island. Her research focuses on the intersection of climate and infectious disease dynamics, leveraging large-scale data assets and geospatial analysis. She is also broadly interested in infectious disease epidemiology, the social determinants of health, and advancing health equity. -
Grace Austen, Research Associate
Grace Austen is a Research Associate with the School of Computing at Clemson University. She received her MS degree in Computer Science from Clemson. Her MS concentration was in data science and informatics; however, she also took an interest in visualization. She worked on several research projects as a student at Clemson and is now collaborating with the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response on creating visualizations for infectious diseases that will support public health organizations and decision makers.
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Karen Atkinson, Administrative Coordinator
Karen Atkinson is the Administrative Coordinator for the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response and Research Program Manager within the Department of Public Health Sciences. She received her MS from Furman University in Exercise Physiology. She has contributed to various projects for the CDC, DoD, USAID, NIH, AHA, and many others, as well as managed budgets of a combined total of $30 million. She has performed research in the fields of high obesity prevention, mobile health, remote patient monitoring, diabetes prevention, and rural health. -
Iromi Jayawardena, Ph.D., Research Associate
Iromi Jayawardena, Ph.D., is a Research Associate at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. She received her PhD in Applied Health Research and Evaluation at Clemson University and her MS degree from Sam Houston State University in Statistics. Her primary research projects focus on COVID-19 vaccination and the use of data-driven approaches for vaccination uptake in communities in South Carolina through mobile health clinics.
Core Faculty
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Christopher McMahan, Ph.D., Professor, Associate Director for Graduate Studies
Christopher McMahan, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Associate Director for Graduate Studies in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Clemson University. He received his PhD from the University of South Carolina in Statistics and a MS degree from Western Kentucky University in Mathematics. Dr. McMahan has extensive expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, COVID-19 modeling, and disease mapping and forecasting. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Dr. McMahan was a member of the public health strategy team which provided public health guidance to Clemson University amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, Dr. McMahan was named an American Statistical Association Fellow, one of the highest honors for statisticians, due to his exceptional contributions to statistical science, collaboration with researchers internationally, and promotion of scientific discovery across disciplines. -
Federico Iuricich, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Federico Iuricich, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. and MS degrees in Computer Science from the University of Genova in Italy. Dr. Iuricich has specialized training in spatial data analysis and data visualization, including development of open-source products for large-scale 3D visualization, educational material using visualization to disseminate advanced concepts in mathematics, and lightweight visualization toolkits. Dr. Iuricich has collaborated with Dr. Rennert on numerous projects, as lead in the development of visual interfaces for mobile health clinic resource allocation toolkits. -
Md Sakhawat Hossain, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Md Sakhawat Hossain, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. He received his PhD from Texas Tech University in Statistics and MS degree from Clemson University in Mathematics. His expertise is in development of predictive modeling frameworks, parameter identification, and numerical optimization. His role in the Center focuses on development, optimization, and calibration of predictive modeling frameworks for infectious diseases. -
Aakash Pandey, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Aakash Pandey, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. He received his PhD from Kansas State University in Biology. Before joining the Center, he was a modeling fellow at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His expertise lies in infectious disease modeling, outbreak analytics, and disease ecology and evolution. His research focuses on two main areas: identifying intervention strategies to control infectious disease dynamics in human and animal populations, and developing tools to assess the risk of potential outbreaks in different populations. -
Lu Zhong, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Lu Zhong, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center of Public Health Modeling and Response at Clemson University. She earned her PhD in Data Science from the City University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining Clemson, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Her research expertise includes computational epidemiology, network epidemiology, machine learning, and complex systems. Currently, her work focuses on computational epidemiology and enhancing healthcare resilience for crisis preparedness and response. -
MinJae Woo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
MinJae Woo, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics in the Department of Public Health Sciences. He received his PhD from the Clemson University - Medical University of South Carolina (joint) program in Biomedical Data Science and Informatics. Dr. Woo is a multidisciplinary researcher whose research interests lie in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, focusing on its application in predictive analytics and public health intelligence. He has led a multi-institutional team of health scientists and computer scientists with one shared goal of revolutionizing health interventions through technology. -
Brian Witrick, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Brian Witrick, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at Clemson University. He received his PhD from Clemson University in Applied Health Research and Evaluation and a Master of Public Health from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Epidemiology. Dr. Witrick has expertise in spatial epidemiological methods, including small area estimation and spatio-temporal modeling. He has experience in research working to provide clinicians with the best evidence to support the care of patients with cardiovascular disease and in investigating racial disparities in maternal and infant health. His current research focuses on cardiovascular epidemiology and the use of spatial analysis to understand disparities, compare outcomes, and improve clinical practice in South Carolina. Dr. Witrick is an incoming Embedded Scholar with the South Carolina Department of Public Health. -
Sarah F. Griffin, Ph.D., Professor
Sarah Griffin, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. She received her PhD in Public Health and Master of Public Health in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior degrees from the University of South Carolina. She is a health researcher with extensive community-based research experience and expertise in implementation research. Dr. Griffin's research is focused on eliminating health disparities by researching the efficacy and effectiveness of complex interventions to improve health. She often uses mixed-method approaches to assess the effectiveness of community, clinical, and school based interventions addressing health equity in South Carolina. Currently, Dr. Griffin serves as Co-PI for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention obesity prevention initiative with rural health extension. -
Md Tareq Khan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Md Tareq Ferdous Khan is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. He earned his PhD in Biostatistics (Big Data Track) from the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Khan began his career as a researcher in Bangladesh after completing his first MS in Statistics. He also earned a second MS in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Khan’s research interests focus on developing statistical methodologies and applications of statistical modeling in health outcomes and risk factors, aiming to understand better the health outcomes, their significant associated factors, and the disparity between sub-cohorts of the population.
Affiliated Faculty
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Dr. Erin Ash
Dr. Erin Ash is an Associate Professor of Communication at Clemson University. She received her MA in Media Studies and PhD in Mass Communications from Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the role of media in public perceptions of social issues, including attitudes towards health-related behaviors and policies. She is an incoming Embedded Scholar with the South Carolina Department of Public Health, where she will collaborate with the agency to support state goals related to family planning and reproductive health. -
Dr. Brandon Boatwright, Director, Social Media Listening Center
Dr. Brandon Boatwright is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and is the Director of the Social Media Listening Center. He received his PhD in Communication & Information from the University of Tennessee and his MS in Communication, Technology, & Society from Clemson University. Dr. Boatwright has expertise in the collection and analysis of digital media content. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he provided location-based social media analysis to provide insight into outbreaks in the Clemson area. -
Dr. Kathleen Cartmell, Research Faculty
Dr. Kathleen Cartmell is Research Faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. She received her PhD from the Medical University of South Carolina in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and a Master of Public Health degree from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She is a health services researcher with a focus on dissemination and implementation of evidence-based strategies for disease prevention and control, including interventions to optimize vaccination at the health system and community levels. She now leads a statewide multi-level intervention designed to increase HPV vaccination in South Carolina. -
Dr. Delphine Dean, Professor
Dr. Delphine Dean is a Ron and Jane Lindsay Family Innovation Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Clemson University. She received her PhD and Master of Engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is the director and founder of the Clemson Center for Innovative Medical Devices and Sensors and the Research Education in Disease Diagnosis and Intervention (REDDI) Lab, which includes Clemson's only CLIA certified diagnostic laboratory, and is key in surveillance of COVID-19. She recently served as Project Lead for an NIH award aimed at sequencing all the positive samples from the REDDI Lab for surveillance of emerging strains. -
Dr. David Freedman, Department Chair, Professor
Dr. David Freedman is a Professor and the Chair in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University. He received his PhD and MS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and the University of Cincinnati, respectively. His research focuses on hazardous waste management, water and wastewater treatment, and methodology for biodegrading hazardous organic contaminants. Dr. Freedman lent his expertise to Clemson University’s response to COVID-19, in which wastewater-based epidemiology was used to predict and model infection rates in the community. Such methodology can be expanded to detect communities at high risk of other diseases, with wastewater research as a source for active prediction and surveillance of disease. -
Dr. Fatih Gezer, Lecturer
Dr. Fatih Gezer is a former Research Associate at the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response, and currently works as a Lecturer at the Department of Economics at Social Sciences University of Ankara. He received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and his MS degree in Statistics from the University of Delaware. His areas of expertise include spatial and spatio-temporal statistics, biostatistics, computational statistics, and data visualization. His collaborative work with the CPHMR focuses on statistical modeling of healthcare data obtained from health systems and mobile health clinics. His research aims improving public health by identifying communities and geographic areas vulnerable to diseases such as opioid misuse, HCV, HIV, COVID-19, and vector-borne diseases; understanding and forecasting disease spread; and providing interactive toolkits. -
Dr. Ron Gimbel, Director of Clemson Rural Health, Professor
Dr. Ronald Gimbel is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University and Director of Clemson Rural Health. He received his PhD from the State University of New York at Albany in Public Administration and Policy and a Master of Arts degree from Webster University in Management. The Clemson Rural Health organization operates rural health clinics, a fleet of mobile health units, telehealth services, and other technologies to enhance overall wellness in South Carolina communities. Dr. Gimbel’s research focuses on improving health equity and outcomes in rural and underserved communities within an effort to bridge biomedical research with communities. -
Dr. Alain Litwin, Professor
Dr. Alain Litwin is a Professor of Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, a Professor at Clemson University School of Health Research, executive director of the Addiction Medicine Center at Prisma Health, and co-chair of the Prisma Health Opioid Stewardship Council. He received his MD from Tulane University School of Medicine and specializes in internal and addiction medicine. His research is focused on developing and studying models of Hepatitis C care for drug users and advocating for increasing access to effective care for patients. Through his roles, Dr. Litwin has helped shape public policy through collaboration with community and government organizations to develop clinical guidelines and expand access to treatments. -
Dr. Gary Machlis, Professor
Dr. Gary Machlis is a Professor of Environmental Sustainability in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University. He received his PhD from Yale University in Human Ecology and his MS from the University of Washington in Forestry. His research interests are disaster response, science during crisis, conservation science and politics, and sustainability. Dr. Machlis has lent his expertise to multiple roles serving communities during crises, including Science Advisor to the Director of the U.S. National Park Service, co-Leader of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Strategic Sciences Group, and an executive councilman of the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Response and Resilient Recovery Strategic Science Initiative. He has created an international presence, conducting research and promoting science capacity in China, the Galapagos Islands, Haiti, Kenya, and Eastern Europe. -
Dr. Natasha Malmin, Assistant Professor
Dr. Natasha Malmin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. She received a joint PhD in Public Policy from Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University and an MPH from Emory University. Prior to her career in academia, she served as a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for seven years. Areas of specialization include public health emergency response, school recovery after disasters, administrative burden and federal disaster recovery, participatory geographic information systems mapping, and community resilience. -
Dr. Rachel Mayo, Professor
Dr. Rachel Mayo is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her recent research focuses on delivery of care to Latino patients, experiences with cancer among African Americans, and promotion of participation in breast and cervical cancer screenings among minority populations. Dr. Mayo’s research and evaluation of treatment for newborns with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome has transformed healthcare research in communities across South Carolina. Her participation on state and national boards, such as the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina’s Health Disparities Task Force, and Academy Health’s Health Disparities Interest group, have led to a shaping of community and public policy. -
Dr. David White, Research Professor
Dr. David White is a Research Professor in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University and an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with over 25 years of experience in spatial data science and environmental data collection and management. He has served as an academic professor for under ten years, following a career in the federal government, private sector, and in cyberinfrastructure roles within Clemson University’s computing division. Dr. White’s current work focuses on using GIS, machine learning, and data analytics to support park management, including research on park location optimization. His recent efforts apply mobility data to analyze visitation trends and examine differences across demographic and socio-economic segments of the population. Previously, he led GIS-based conservation planning initiatives in East Africa, including the development of strategic GIS plans for protected areas. He has authored or co-authored over 60 publications on topics including water quality, ecology, real-time data processing, and park management. In 2023, he was awarded an NSF Trusted CI Fellowship. Dr. White holds a PhD in Marine Science.
Postdoctoral Fellows
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Dr. Amanda Bleichrodt, Postdoctoral Fellow, Data Science and Forecasting
Dr. Amanda Bleichrodt is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response, specializing in infectious disease modeling and forecasting. She received her MPH from The Ohio State University, and a PhD from Georgia State University in Population Health Sciences with a concentration in epidemiology. Her research interests include refining and applying various statistical and mathematical modeling toolkits for forecasting disease outbreaks and developing user-friendly forecasting tools. -
Dr. Nusrat Tabassum, Postdoctoral Fellow, Modeling
Dr. Nusrat Tabassum is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response with a focus on modeling. Dr. Tabassum received an MS from University of Dhaka in Mathematics and a PhD from Texas Tech University in Applied Mathematics. Her research interests include utilizing mathematical models for infectious and vector-borne diseases to effectively mitigate their impact on public health through management strategies and developing mathematical models to forecast the effects of climate change on population dynamics. -
Dr. Shakhawat H. Tanim, Postdoctoral Fellow, GIS and Data Visualization
Dr. Shakhawat Tanim is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response, specializing in GIS and data visualization. He earned his PhD in Environmental Sciences with a concentration in GIS from the University of South Florida and his MS in Emergency Management from the University of Dhaka. His research focuses on developing geospatial and quantitative methods to explore human-environment interactions, emergency management, human decision-making, transportation planning, and resilience development. At the Center, Dr. Tanim develops and implements GIS and data visualization methodologies to detect disease hotspots and inform the strategic delivery of mobile health clinics for infectious disease testing, treatment, and vaccination. -
Dr. Mohammad Mihrab Chowdhury, Postdoctoral Fellow, Modeling
Dr. Mihrab Chowdhury is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response with a focus on modeling. Dr. Chowdhury received an MS from University of Dhaka in Mathematics and a PhD from Texas Tech University in Applied Mathematics. He has extensive experience in developing mathematical models and applying dynamical systems theory. His research interests include developing infectious disease models and employing machine learning for early detection of risk factors and preventive measures.
Graduate Researchers
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Tanvir Ahammed, Graduate Research Assistant
Tanvir Ahammed is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. He received his MS degree in Statistics from Shahjalal University of Science & Technology in Bangladesh and is currently a PhD student in the Applied Health Research and Evaluation program at Clemson University. His primary research focuses on the application of statistical methodology to public health, including estimation of infectious disease epidemiology. -
Ramya Pucha, Graduate Research Assistant
Ramya Pucha is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. She received her MA in Mass Communications with a specialization in Strategic Communications from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Health Research and Evaluation at Clemson University. Ramya has experience implementing COVID-19 vaccine uptake strategies to combat vaccine hesitancy among Black and Brown communities in South Florida. She is broadly interested in studying sexual, reproductive, and maternal health, the impact of structural violence on marginalized communities in low to middle-income countries, and the design of effective health messages tailored to these communities.
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Carolina Liskey, Graduate Research Assistant
Carolina Liskey is a Graduate Research Assistant for the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response at Clemson University. She received her MS degree in Statistics from Texas A&M University and is currently a PhD student in the joint Biomedical Data Science and Informatics program at Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina. Her primary research projects focus on disease modeling and analytics to support public health initiatives. -
Jovana Mitic, Graduate Research Assistant
Jovana Mitic is a PhD candidate and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Clemson University. She received a BS in Mathematics with double minors in Computer Science and Data Science from Converse University, where she also served as a lead facilitator and coordinator for the Girls Who Code Club. Her research interests lie in applied statistics and operations research, with a focus on measuring cluster stability as a measure of a model’s goodness of fit.
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Aniqua Anjum, Graduate Research Assistant
Aniqua Anjum is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. She received her MS degree in Statistics from Shahjalal University of Science & Technology in Bangladesh and is currently a PhD student in the Applied Health Research and Evaluation program at Clemson University. She has extensive experience in various research roles, including contribution to several federally funded projects. Her primary research focuses on applying statistical methods to public health challenges, such as mental health and quality of life among vulnerable populations.
