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Jessica Lavery
Education
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Doctoral Candidate, Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Biostatistics
New York, NY
Present - 2019
Relevant Biostatistics Coursework: Data Science I & II, Advanced Statistical and Computational Methods in Genetics and Genomics, Clinical Trial Methodology, Relational Databases and SQL Programming, Causal Inference
Relevant Management and Leadership Coursework: Managerial and Organizational Behavior, Strategic Management, Essentials of Teaching and Communication, Public Health Practice and Leadership, Statistical Collaboration for Interdisciplinary Reesarch
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.S. in Biostatistics
Chapel Hill, NC
2014
Thesis: A simulation study comparing different methods of handling missing data in the context of type I diabetes clinical trials.
Relevant Biostatistics Coursework: Probability and Statistical Inference, Longitudinal Data Analysis, Categorical Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, General Linear Models, Design of Public Health Studies, Epidemiology, Survival Analysis, Statistical Consulting
Loyola University Maryland
Bachelor of Science in Statistics, cum laude
Baltimore, MD
2012
Professional Experience
Senior Research Biostatistician
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Present - 2023
- Collaborate with the Exercise Oncology and Orthopaedic Surgery services on study design and analysis of prospective and retrospective research studies
- Member of statistical core for the American Association of Cancer Research Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) biopharmaceutical collaborative. Responsibilities include deriving variables for analysis, reviewing data prior to public release, preparing Analytic Data Guide to accompany public data releases, and maintaining {genieBPC} R package to facilitate researchers in using these complex data.
Research Biostatistician II
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
N/A
2023 - 2020
- Collaborate with clinical investigators on study design and analysis of prospective and retrospective research protocols.
- Member of statistical core for the American Association of Cancer Research Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) biopharmaceutical collaborative. Involved in writing standard operating procedures for quality assurance, maintaining a quality assurance dashboard, deriving variables for analysis and performing statistical analyses. Develop and maintain the {genieBPC} R package, available on CRAN and GitHub, to facilitate a reproducible data processing pipeline for AACR Project GENIE BPC data. The package was included on the RStudio blog August 2022 list of the Top 40 New CRAN Packages, out of approximately 200 packages released to CRAN that month.
Research Biostatistician I
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
N/A
2020 - 2018
- Authored two manuscripts validating the feasibility of using Medicare claims for cancer-specific analyses.
- Built a project management tool through the R Shiny Application package to easily view the status of past, current and upcoming projects across multiple statisticians.
Assistant Research Biostatistician
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
N/A
2018 - 2017
- Collaborate with clinicians and health services researchers to answer questions related to healthcare utilization and outcomes for patients with cancer using retrospective institutional data in addition to large population-based administrative databases (e.g. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked data, Medicare claims).
- Developed a repository of SAS macros for routine tasks (e.g. pulling claims from SEER-Medicare data) to improve efficiency and reproducibility.
Biostatistician
NYU Langone Medical Center
New York, NY
2016 - 2017
- Analyzed orthopedic health outcomes utilizing large administrative databases (Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey).
- Consulted with faculty, residents, fellows and musculoskeletal research staff in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery to design studies, manage and analyze data, present results, and write methods and results sections of manuscripts.
Biostatistician
Columbia University Medical Center
New York, NY
2016 - 2014
- Provided data management, programming and biostatistics support for the Safe Motherhood Initiative (Merck for Mothers), examining the impact of developing standard approaches to treat obstetric emergencies.
- Utilized large administrative claims databases (National Hospital Discharge Survey, National Vital Statistics System, Premier Perspectives) to explore maternal-fetal outcomes via hierarchical models, age-period-cohort models, and meta-analyses, among other methods.
- Served as a teaching assistant for Applied Methods in Health Services and Outcomes Research (Spring 2015 and 2016).
Graduate Research Assistant
Rho, Inc
Chapel Hill, NC
2014 - 2013
- Provided programming support to the federally funded autoimmune disease team by creating and modifying analysis datasets, tables, listings and figures.
Biostatistics Intern
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Chapel Hill, NC
2014 - 2013
- Created an experiential learning internship to gain exposure to the field of biostatistics by volunteering to assist a Master’s level statistician with cancer studies by collaborating with investigators, programming analysis datasets, conducting analyses, and assisting with organizational tasks.
Statistical Programmer I / Clinical Data Associate I
Stat-Tech Services, LLC
Chapel Hill, NC
2013 - 2012
- Provided programming support as specified in analysis plans for tables, graphs and listings. Validated statistical output and perform quality control as required.
- Provided data entry and quality control support of statistical packages. Documented data management and validation tasks per standard operating procedures. Responsible for creating, organizing and checking project file content.
Leadership & Service
Memorial Sloan Kettering Bridge to Biostats Committee
Secretary
N/A
Present - 2020
Mission: Foster a more inclusive biostats community by creating programs to increase awareness of and interest in the field of Biostatistics among New York City public high school students.
- Participated in an 8th grade Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics career day (July 2020)
- Co-led 8th grade and high school “Biostats Days” to introduce students to biostatistics (December 2020, March 2021, April 2022, July 2022)
- Mentor for high school student as part of the 2021 Summer Exposure Program in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Office of Diversity Programs
- Initiated the Bridge to Biostats Twitter account to share opportunities for historically underrepresented groups in STEM
Twitter: @Bridge2Biostats
Caucus for Women in Statistics
Various roles for the Caucus for Women in Statistics, which seeks to foster opportunities for the education, employment and advancement of women in statistics.
N/A
2022 - 2019
- Twitter Social Media Officer (2020 - 2022)
- Promoting Positive Professional Environments for Everyone committee member (2020-2021)
- Professional Development Committee Member (2020-2021)
- Volunteer Coordinator (appointed position, 2019 - 2020). Authored the Volunteer Spotlight series
Twitter: @cwstat
Mentor
1000 Girls, 1000 Futures, New York Academy of Sciences
N/A
2020 - 2018
Share experiences, advice, and resources throughout the course of a year-long mentoring program focused on leadership, critical thinking, communication and academic preparedness.
Corresponding publication: 1000 girls, 1000 futures: The New York Academy of Sciences Mentoring Initiative
Volunteer Reviewer
DataKind
N/A
2020 - 2019
- Review applications for Google.org’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Challenge on the criteria of impact, feasibility, use of AI, scalability and responsibility in order to help identify the most promising ideas that aim to apply artificial intelligence to achieve positive social impact
- Review applications for data.org’s Inclusive Growth & Recovery Challenge, which allocated funds for ideas that leverage data science to aid communities following COVID-19’s negative impact on the economy.
Honors & Awards
Travel award recipient
Women in Statistics and Data Science
La Jolla, CA
2017
Travel award recipient
Women in Statistics and Data Science
Charlotte, NC
2016
Pi Mu Epsilon
National Mathematical and Statistics Honor Society
N/A
2012
Boston University Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics
Recipient of a full scholarship to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute-funded Boston University Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics. The program modules were in biostatistics, epidemiology, clinical trials, statistical genetics and training in SAS.
Boston, MA
2011
Invited Presentations
Career Paths in Biostatistics
Opportunities in STEM Seminar for CPaMS Scholars students at Loyola University Maryland
Virtual
2023, 2022
Oh The Places You Could Go: Surprising Careers in Statistics and Data Science
Panelist at the ENAR Spring Meeting.
Virtual
2021
Project GENIE BPC Quarterly Subcommittee Meetings
N/A
N/A
2020
Data Driven: The Role of Biostatistics in Cancer Research and Health Policy
Invited seminar for the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Wake Forest University.
Wake Forest, NC
2019
Plurality and perinatal mortality: preterm delivery as a mediating effect.
Invited presentation at the Perinatal Epidemiology scientific forum at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine’s 36th Annual Pregnancy Meeting.
Atlanta, Georgia
2016
Contributed Presentations
Assessing Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Time-to-Event Outcomes
Columbia Biostatistics Annual Research Symposium
N/A
2023
Analyzing Clinical and Genomic Oncological Data with {genieBPC} and {gnomeR}
Co-presented with Samantha Brown, Karissa Whiting, Hannah Fuchs R/Medicine Conference Demo Day presentation
N/A
N/A
Writing functions with the {tidyverse}
Co-presented with Daniel Sjoberg for Memorial Sloan Kettering Open Study Group Seminar Series
N/A
2022
Corresponding presentation:Writing Functions with the {tidyverse}
Pan-cancer evaluation of homologous repair deficiency somatic mutations and response to first-line anti-neoplastic therapy
Poster presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting
N/A
2021
Defining Real-World Recurrence in the AACR Project GENIE BPC Data
Contributed oral presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
N/A
2021
AACR Meeting News Blog Post
Skills and Strategies for Successful Negotiation
Women in Statistics and Data Science. Session organizer and moderator for contributed panel discussion with Dr. Emma Benn, Professor Lori Evarts, Dr. Shanthi Sethuraman, and Dr. Kelly Zou.
N/A
2020
Corresponding publication: Skills and Strategies for Successful Negotiation
A Statistician’s Role in a Quality Assurance of a Multi-Institution Electronic Health Record Curation Project
Women in Statistics and Data Science. Contributed oral presentation.
N/A
N/A
Go with the Flow: Data Visualization Using Sankey Bar Charts
Women in Statistics and Data Science. Contributed poster presentation.
N/A
N/A
It’s Time to Shine with the timetrackR App
Presented at RLadies NYC meeting
New York, NY
N/A
Links to timetrackR app, GitHub repository and blog post
It’s getting hot in here: A novel application of heatmaps to health outcomes research
International Conference for Health Policy Statistics. In collaboration with Bach PB, Panageas KS.
San Diego, CA
N/A
A Comparison of Provider Profiling Approaches with Respect to Low-Volume Providers
Joint Statistical Meetings. In collaboration with Lipitz-Snyderman A, Li DG, Bach PB, Panageas KS.
Denver, CO
2019
Real World Evidence to Profile Hospitals’ Quality of Surgical Cancer Care
Academy Health Datapalooza
Washington, D.C.
N/A
Language and tools for establishing influence as an early-career statistician
Women in Statistics and Data Science
La Jolla, California
2017
Corresponding publication: Early-Career Statistician Offers Language, Tools for Establishing Influence
Biostatistics Coordinating Center Safe Motherhood Initiative Quarterly Updates
Present at the quarterly meetings of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (April 2015, July 2015, January 2016). In collaboration with Cande Ananth, PhD.
N/A
2016 - 2015
Other Professional Experience
Using Unique Associations to Address Health Policy Questions
Session chair, Joint Statistical Meetings
Denver, CO
2019
Invited participant, Women’s Leadership Conference
N/A
Baltimore, MD
2012
Publications
Please see Google Scholar for a complete list of publications.