Teaching

At UW I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in biostatics, and I mentor student projects and theses. I especially love helping students learn how to work with community research partners. Before coming to UW, I taught survey methods and a series of interdisciplinary seminars on human rights at Carnegie Mellon University, and I've also led trainings and workshops for academics and scientific writers.

In Spring 2026, I helped update the UW School of Public Health Academic Affairs Handbook to reflect the UW Faculty Code definition of effective teaching: teaching that is aligned, inclusive and equitable, active and engaged, growth-oriented, and relevant. I work towards each of those goals in all of my teaching.

Below are courses I've taught at the University of Washington.

UW Courses

BIOST 310: Biostatistics for the Health Sciences

Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Fall 2026

Course description: Introduction to statistical methods for students planning on majoring in public health and other health sciences. Uses case studies and examples from popular and scientific literature to introduce topics such as data description, study design, screening, estimation hypothesis testing, categorical data analysis, and regression. Emphasizes concepts and interpretation rather than computation or theory.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students should be able to read, understand, and critique health research, as well as compute and describe many key health measures. Specifically, students will be able to:

Use statistical information presented in tables, graphs, numerical summaries to explain the key results from health research
Identify a study design when reviewing research and evaluate its strengths and limitations in addressing the researchers' question
Explain random sampling and assess study results accounting for sampling variability
Choose appropriate statistical measures for a given study designs and calculate them
Evaluate whether conclusions from health studies are justified by the design, data, and statistical evidence

Students should expect readings, homeworks, in class activities, and in class exams.

PHI 512: Analytic Skills for Public Health 1

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Course description: Focuses on principles and methods of epidemiology and biostatistics, including: descriptive epidemiology, data summaries and presentation, study design, measures of excess risk, causal inference, screening, measurement error, misclassification, effect modification, confounding, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, p-values, sample size calculation, and linear regression analysis. Includes hands-on data analysis.

This course is part of the Online MPH and combines full introductory courses in epidemiology and biostatistics. With a co-instructor in epidemiology, I taught live online sessions, held office hours, and developed and graded exams and projects.

BIOST/STAT/CSSS 529: Sample Survey Techniques

Spring 2025

Course description: Design and implementation of selection and estimation procedures. Emphasis on human populations. Simple, stratified, and cluster sampling; multistage and two-phase procedures; optimal allocation of resources; estimation theory; replicated designs; variance estimation; national samples and census materials. Prerequisites: either STAT 421, STAT 423, STAT 504, QMETH 500, BIOST 511, or BIOST 517, or equivalent; or permission of instructor.

The course invloves lectures, active discussion of readings in seminar, homeworks, and a project. Students who are already working with survey data are encouraged to work with me to develop a project that relates to their research. I will help students not currently working with survey data to find a dataset that interests them. Projects focusing on simulation studies or methods development may also work.

BIOST 596: Biostatistics Capstone 1 - Project Planning

Fall 2025 and Fall 2026

Course description: Project sponsors introduce students to health data analytics challenges. Students form collaborative teams, each of which writes, presents and revises a project proposal that outlines the approach and methods the group plans to use. Prerequisites: BIOST 504; BIOST 514; BIOST 515; BIOST 522; BIOST 523; BIOST 561; and BIOST 579, or permission of instructor.

Biostat 596 is open to students in the MS Capstone program. At the beginning of the quarter students are introduced to researchers with scientific questions and data. Working in small teams, they develop a formal statistical analysis plan (SAP) and project management plan (PMP) that will enable them to complete the project by the end of winter quarter. To build the needed skills, students read about and evaluate SAPs, and develop communicate skills needed to work with a scientific collaborator, including formal presentation and professional writing skills.

BIOST 579: Data Analysis and Reporting

Spring 2026

Course description: Analysis of real data to answer scientific questions. Common data-analytic problems. Sensible approaches to complex data. Graphical and tabular presentation of results. Writing reports for scientific journals, research collaborators, consulting clients. Prerequisites: Graduate standing in statistics or biostatistics or permission of instructor.

Biostatistics students learn an array of important statistical methods during graduate school. In this class, they build the skills needed to put those methods to use: assessing a scientific question, and identifying and proposing methods to answer it; anticipating and addressing common data issues that arise in real life research; writing up methods and results in a format appropriate for a given audience, including for publication. Students are encouraged to take Data Analysis and Reporting before begining their capstone project or aplied requirement, or enrolling in consulting.

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