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Surveillance and Outbreak Response Team (SORT)

Our Team

Emily Gurley

Emily S. Gurley, PhD, MPH

Emily is Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Department of Epidemiology and leads multi-disciplinary studies on the transmission and prevention of emerging and vaccine preventable diseases, such as Nipah virus, hepatitis E virus, and arboviruses. She has worked in Bangladesh for more than a decade and her interests include improving the communication and collaboration between field epidemiologists and infectious disease modelers and development of novel surveillance strategies. Her research adopts a One Health approach to the study and prevention of infectious disease, taking into account the ecological context in which human disease occurs. Emily is the Co-Director for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) site in Bangladesh, aiming to determine the etiology of and prevent child deaths. She serves on the Lancet Commission for Preventing Viral Spillover and on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

Melissa Marx

Melissa A. Marx, PhD, MPH

Dr. Melissa A. Marx is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. She is an expert in epidemiology and evaluation who specializes in developing, disseminating and utilizing new metrics and methods to evaluate and improve international programs, focusing on maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition and HIV, TB and malaria in low and middle income settings. Dr. Marx is committed to building sustainable capacity in the analysis and use of routine data for program improvement and has developed and evaluated learner-focused training programs for students and public health practitioners to move that agenda forward. While at CDC as an EIS officer and in the Zambia field office, she developed, conducted, and oversaw outbreak investigations and epidemiologic studies on HIV, Ebola, zoonotic transmission of anthrax, typhoid fever, cholera, food-borne illness, Hepatitis B and C, STIs, and drug resistant organisms including MRSA, among others.

Portrait of Yvonne Allard

Yvonne Allard

Yvonne Allard is a PhD student in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Health and Public Policy track. Her research aims to inform policies and practices to advance worker health, safety, and wellbeing, especially in the context of injury prevention. Prior to coming to Hopkins, she earned her MPH in Environmental and Occupational Health from Drexel University. She worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research supporting US Army training development, implementation, and evaluation efforts related to resilience enhancement, suicide prevention, and acute stress reaction intervention.

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Austin Earley

Austin Earley is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology in the Infectious Disease track. He holds an MPH in Epidemiology and a BS in Microbiology, both from the University of Oklahoma. He is broadly interested in studying the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases, with plans to focus his dissertation on malaria surveillance, prevention, and control efforts in Zambia. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Austin participated in an ORISE fellowship at CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, where he worked predominantly on projects related to surveillance of Lyme disease, tularemia, and plague.

Katie Hogan

Katie Hogan

Katie is a PhD Student in the Department of International Health studying Global Disease Epidemiology and Control track. She is interested in infectious disease epidemiology, mortality surveillance, and increasing the use and integration of routinely collected data from human, animal, and environmental sectors to inform public health decision-making. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she received an MS in Global Health and an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her previous work at The MITRE Corporation and at USAID with the President’s Malaria Initiative focused on vector-borne diseases, case management, adolescent sexual health programs, and COVID-19 testing programs in the United States.

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Talia A. Loeb

Talia Loeb (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology in the Infectious Disease track and an HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Sciences Training Program T32 predoctoral fellow. She also completed her MHS in Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a research data analyst for studies aiming to improve HIV and Hepatitis C treatment outcomes among people who inject drugs and a respondent-driven sampling study. She also contributed to analyses about the use of routinely collected data to estimate population sizes of key populations in Namibia, longitudinal patterns of HIV viral suppression in India, and her master’s thesis focused on the effect of gender minority stress and resilience on access to healthcare among transgender women in the United States. She is broadly interested in the intersection of psychosocial and structural determinants and infectious disease epidemiology, particularly as it relates to improving health outcomes among marginalized and minoritized communities.

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Augustin Martin

Augustin is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, in the Health Security track. His research focuses on evaluating the value of surveillance systems for high-consequence pathogens at points of entry for public health response. Before beginning his doctoral studies, he worked as a research intern in the "Virus and Immunity" unit at Institut Pasteur on viral entry mechanisms. Previously, he worked at Imperial College London on SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and for the European Joint Action on Vaccination at the French Ministry of Health, a project aimed at strengthening tools and policies for the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases in Europe. He received MSc in Virology from Université Paris Cité, and a MPP in Global Health Policy from Sciences Po Paris.

Liz Martinez Ocasio

Liz Martinez Ocasio

Liz, a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology, holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Puerto Rico. Her professional journey has been marked by a multifaceted career, including roles as research coordinator, COVID-19 contact tracing city director, and quantitative analyst. Liz's research interests focus on the dynamics of social networks, particularly among people who inject drugs, and their impact on infectious disease transmission.

Headshot of Ashley Meehan

Ashley Meehan

Ashley is a PhD student in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society. Her work focuses on the health of people experiencing homelessness and public health governance. Prior to Hopkins, Ashley worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she led the Homelessness Unit in the agency’s COVID-19 Emergency Response. She led field deployments for COVID-19 outbreak investigations in homeless shelters and migrant decompression shelters and provided virtual support for mpox case investigation in correctional facilities. Ashley hopes to make social and behavioral sciences a core component of every outbreak response and integrate social conditions into public health surveillance. She received her MPH in Global Health and a Certificate in Religion and Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Candler School of Theology.

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Kimberly Mihayo

Kimberly is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. Her research interests lie in evaluating and improving the availability and quality of maternal and reproductive health services and interventions in resource-constrained settings. She applies mixed-methods research methods to enhance the understanding of 1) behavioral and psychosocial determinants of fertility and reproductive health outcomes among women and men, and 2) structural and health systems factors that shape access to and use of contraceptive services among adolescent girls and women. She is particularly interested in how trajectories of reproductive health evolve throughout the life course, from early adolescence through adulthood, and shape women’s and men’s overall health and psychosocial wellbeing. Currently, Kimberly is working on improving the measurement of women’s and men’s prospective pregnancy preferences by adapting the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale for applications in low-resource and high-fertility settings in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Shilpi Misra

Shilpi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering within the Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology track; and a trainee in the Occupational and Environmental Hygiene Program at the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health. Her research is focused on the use of low-cost instruments and novel measurement techniques to inform exposure assessment, and occupational and environmental public health practice and policy. Before coming to Johns Hopkins University, Shilpi was an ASPPH/CDC fellow and epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Spokane, Washington, within the Spokane Mining Research Division. While at NIOSH, Shilpi worked on a project focused on building an evidence-based framework that provides new knowledge of the patterns of hazard exposures for current miners and the burden of disease and adverse health conditions among current and retired metal and nonmetal miners. Shilpi analyzed large Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) exposure datasets in metal/nonmetal mines and disseminated findings in conference proceedings and peer-reviewed publications. Born and raised in Nashville, TN, Shilpi received her MPH from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, focusing on epidemiology in 2020. She earned her BS in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015. She has previously worked at the Milken Institute School of Public Health and RTI International. In her free time, Shilpi enjoys spending time with her friends and family, being in nature, and making pottery.

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Alexander Perez

Alex is a PhD student in the Global Disease Epidemiology and Control Program within the Department of International Health. His interests are in the development of One Health surveillance systems that enhance response to emerging diseases and other health security threats in the face of climate change, while prioritizing community leadership. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Alex spent several years supporting public health program implementation globally and domestically, including work on HIV, COVID-19, and global health security. Most recently, he worked at USAID supporting the COVID-19 response across Africa and developing novel global health security programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a Master of Public Health specializing in Epidemiology from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the University of Miami in Florida.

Becky Shade

Becky Shade

Becky is a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. She also completed her MHS in Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a focus on Environmental Epidemiology, and worked on several asthma, COPD, and COVID-19 studies as a research assistant in the clinic and in the field. She is broadly interested in quantifying the spatial epidemiology of climate change and public health outcomes such as heat-related illness and vector-borne diseases.

Zachary Smith

Zachary Smith

Zachary Smith (he/him) is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering on the Exposure Sciences and Environmental Epidemiology track, and a trainee in the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health. His research focuses on the health effects of climate change and using epidemiologic methods and exposure science to inform public health decision-making. Prior to starting doctoral studies, he was the Tuberculosis Controller and Epidemiologist for the State of Delaware Division of Public Health. He also worked at the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the American Institutes for Research. He received a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from American University.

Ha Truong

Ha Truong

Ha Truong is a PhD Epidemiology student studying infectious diseases at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. She is interested in HIV research, public health practice and infectious disease surveillance, mental health, and violence prevention. Prior to Hopkins, she earned her MPH in Global Epidemiology at Emory University, focusing on HIV prevention research for women at high risk for HIV in Zambia. As an epidemiologist, she supported community health programs for chronic disease prevention and HIV/STI surveillance for American Indian/Alaskan Native communities in the Great Lakes region. As a Global Health Fellow on the Clinical Surveillance and Epidemiology Team under the Division of Global HIV and TB in Atlanta, Georgia, Ha provided technical assistance to countries in the implementation of various clinical surveillance systems, primarily HIV recent infection surveillance, and deployed to the COVID-19 emergency task force.

Former Members

kyle aune

Lindsay avolio

Qifang bi

Kechna Cadet 

tom carpino

Lelia Chaisson

Pranab Chatterjee

CATELYN COYLE

mary de boer

Amy Dighe

dylan duchen

kyra grantz

brooke jarrett

Forrest Jones

banda khalifa

natalya kostandova

katie kurowski

Kyu Han Lee

gideon loevinsohn

Jowanna Malone

Annie Martin

emma moynihan

katie overbey

eshan patel 

Neia Prata Menezes

Katherine robsky

jean olivier twahirwa rwema

molly sauer

claire smith

steven sola

margaret tomann

connor volpi

patrick wedlock