Research and Skill Highlights
Keen technical skills that include efficient data manipulation and cleaning, proficient in basic and advanced statistical analysis methods and knowledge of algorithms for machine learning techniques, such as neural networks and regression based on decision trees.
Analytical skills that make me comfortable for analyzing both structured and unstructured data. They also provide me with a strong mindset for solving issues related to datasets, such as outliers or transformations.
Knowledgeable on techniques, such as Agent Based Modeling (ABM)or Systems of Ordinary Different Equations (ODEs), for building complex mathematical model to represent and predict the the spread of infectious dieses in a variety of settings.
Proficient in mathematical and statistical programming languages, such as R, MATLAB, SAS, or SPSS, and Microsoft Office products, such as Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Excel.
Solid understanding of concepts found in mathematical statistics, linear algebra, calculus, measure theory, and probability that are essential for building robust techniques needed for effective machine learning and c mathematical model .
Possess a variety of soft skills that range from excellent oral and written communication, leadership, teamwork, project planning, time management, and maintaining empathy for others regardless of their background at all times.
Education
University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri
IPHD in Mathematics and Bioinformatics Fall 2023 - Present (Anticipated Completion Dec. 2025)
Dissertation Thesis Title: Advances in Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Modeling
Committee Supervisor : Dr. Majid Bani-Yaghoub
University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri
M.S. Statistics Fall 2022 - May 2024
GPA: 3.65
Kansas State University Manhattan, Kansas
B.S. in Mathematics Fall 2010 -Spring 2024
Professional and Teaching Experience
University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri
Graduate Teaching Assistant and Graduate Research Assistant Fall 2022- Spring 2024
Taught undergraduate courses that include Mathematics for Liberal Arts, and College Algebra, with Algebra utilizing Pearson’s MyMathLab program as part of the course curriculum. During this time I also served as a grader and exam proctor for
undergraduate courses that ranged from Calculus I, Calculus II, and Elementary Statistics between fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters.
Graduate Research Assistant Spring 2023 - Present
Doctoral fellow in the Midwest Virtual Laboratory, which was part of the CDC’s Pathway program. This program was created to train STEM students in the process of creating mathematical and computational models for use in the study of
infectious disease. First year primary’s research objective was to study the quantitative impact of networks created by caregivers who worked in multiple homes on the spread of infectious disease. While the second year’s primary research objective was to
find a computational model that combined statistical theory and machine learning for the purpose of finding transmission rates behind MRSA spread in a urban anchor hospital. Funding for this research ended in Spring 2024.
Part of the National Science Foundation's fellow program for national research trainee program. The project involved with Kiel's fellowship was called Mitigating Alcohol and Drug Abuse Using Artificial Intelligence and Secure Networked Sensing (MADA),
which dealt with finding new strategies for reducing illegal drug use that relied on the use AI toolsets.
Agg Guard LLC Kansas City, Missouri
Data Analytics Intern Fall 2019 to Spring 2020
Helped the Director of Enterprise, through basic AI training and model construction, to come up with daily risk management solutions arising from Agg Guard primary business model. This business model consisted of offering extended warranties to farmers
for their farming machinery.
Internal Revenue Service, Kansas City, Missouri
Tax Examining Technician and Tax Examiner Fall 2019 to Spring 2023
As a tax examiner technician, duties include handing public tax data and responding to taxpayer inquiries about outstanding tax debt. This might include creating payment plans to mitigate back taxes owed to the IRS for various reasons or processing
amendments to filled tax forms.
As a tax examiner, you processed submitted tax forms for processing and also checked for any errors within already processed taxpayer forms.
USD 383 Manhattan/Ogden School District Manhattan, Kansas
Special Services Para 2014-Spring 2015
Taught a variety of different high school levels courses that range in subjects from general biology, Geometry, Algebra, Pre-Calculus, American History, English, Basic Computer Programming, and others, to students who attended an alternative
high school program located in Manhattan, Kansas.
Interacted directly with students who suffer from drug and alcohol abuse as their students often come to the high school program because of previous abuse related to these substances. From this developed a sense of some of the factors associated with
causes behind substantial abuse.
Leadership Service
University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri
UMKC’s Graduate Student Council Fall 2022-Present
Student Council President
Central duties of the president was to create overall strategic goals for each academic year based on prior data generated by graduate students, ensure that strategic goals were met, and act as public figurehead for the council among the graduate student body.
As president, you were tasked with building professional connections and relationships with school deans, graduate coordinators, and other administrative staff at UMKC.
Minor duties included running the council’s day to day operations by directing working committees, facilitating monthly general assembly organizing council led activities and events, and acting as the central organizer for the annual graduate Community of
Scholars Research Conference.
University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Robotics Club Kansas City, Missouri
Club President Spring 2022-Fall 2023
Facilitate overall meeting of club, coordinate events between club and UMKC’s School of Engineering, and assisted club members with individual projects.
University of Missouri-Kansas City Student Fee Committee Kansas City, Missouri
School of Graduate Studies Representative for Student Fee Committee Spring 2022-Fall 2023
Overall duty as a representative includes approving or denying requests for use of student life fee funds based on a set of spending guidelines. These funds are generated by the student life fees all students at UMKC pay when registering for undergraduate,
graduate, professional classes.
University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Student Government Association Kansas City, Missouri
School of Graduate Studies Senator Spring 2022-Fall 2023
Main duty was to attend biweekly senate meetings for UMKC's Student Government Association (SGA) as one of two senators elected to represent the Graduate Student Council and School of Graduate Studies (SGS). During meeting, senators for responsible for voting any legislation brought fourth
by other senators from different schools within UMKC while also advocating for your school/council particular interest. Since Kiel, was a senator for SGS/GSC, he primary constituents were UMKC graduate students.
Honors and Awards
Graduate Teaching Assistant for College Algebra and Mathematics for Liberal Arts Kansas City, Missouri
Spring 2022-fall 2024
Centers for Disease Control's Midwest Virtual Laboratory Pathways Program Fellow Kansas City, Missouri
Spring 2022-fall 2024
National Science Foundation's Researcher Trainee Program Kansas City, Missouri
Spring 2025 - present
Recipient of free registration and dormitory stay at Stanford University for participation in the 2024 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) conference Stanford, California
June 2024
Discipline Distinction in Statistics Kansas City, Missouri
May 2024
Travel grant to Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM) 2024 provided by American Mathematical Society (AMS) San Francisco, California
January 2024
Recipient of travel grant by UMKC's School of Graduate Studies (SGS) to Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB) 2023 Annual Meeting Columbus, Ohio
Summer 2023
Winner of 2023 UMKC Mathematics and Statistics Research Day Presentations Kansas City, Missouri
April 2023
Other Activities
Student Judge for UMKC’s Undergraduate Research Day in April 2023.
Member of School of Medicine Equity and Inclusion Council from August 2024 to present.
Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study Annual Abstract Reviewer (MIDAS) for annual meetings in 2023 and 2024.
Statistical Services Director for student based research clinical lab called Multidisciplinary Research and Clinical Hub from August 2024 to present.
President of UMKC’s Graduate Student Mathematics/Statistics club starting in 2023 to present.
Central organizer of UMKC’s Graduate Student Council Community of Scholars 2024 and 2025 Conference.
Publications:
a) Articles in Preparation
[1] Arjmand, A. Bani-Yaghoub, M., Corkran, K. Pandit, P. and Aly, S.S. Using Bayesian-Stochastic Methods to Analyze Ecology and Evolution Enterbacteriaceae with Resistance Mechanisms at the Intersection of Environmental Boundaries.
[2] Bani-Yaghoub, M. Corkran, K. Arjmand, A., Advancing Mathematical Models of Healthcare-Associated Infections to Evaluate the Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship and Staffing Strategies on Health Equity.
b) Articles Submitted or Accepted for Publication
[1] Corkran, K. Gomez. J.P. Arjmand, A. Nuño, Bani-Yanghoub, M. (2024) An Agent-Based Modeling Framework to Analyze Spread of Infection in A Network of Nursing Homes, BMC Infectious Diseases, BMC Infectious Diseases(Submitted).
Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4774397
[2] Corkran, K, Bani-Yaghoub, M. Sutkin, G. Armand, A, and Paschal, S. (2024) Bayesian Inference of Nosocomial Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Transmission in an Urban Safety-Net Hospital, Plos One (Submitted).
Link: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.24319252v1
[3] Arjmand,A. Bani-Yaghoub, M. Corkran, K. Pandit, P. and Aly, S.S. (2024) Assessing the Impact of Biosecurity Compliance on Farmworker and Livestock Health with a One Health Modeling Framework, One Health (submitted).
Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4860998
[4] Arjmand, A. Bani-Yaghoub, M. Sutkin, G. Corkran, K, and Paschal, S. (2024) Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Predicting Hospital, Journal of Hospital Infection (submitted).
Presentations:
[1] Corkran, K. December 2024. Enhancing Agent-Based Models with Real-Time Movement Data to Understand Antimicrobial Resistance Dynamics in Healthcare Settings, CDC Healthcare Infectious Diseases (HIRe) Modeling Fellowship Winter Presentation.
[2] Mehta, R., Batrash F., Kosaraju, S., Khanna,P.,Kim.S,Corkran,K.Mohammed,.I. August 2024. Poster presentation: The Association Between Male and Female Populations on Crude Death Rates in Primary Biliary Cholangitis from 1999 to 2020: A Comparative Trend Analysis and Identification of Statistically Significant Shifts. American Association for the Study of LIver Diseases. San Diego, California.
[3] Corkran, K. October 2024. Utilizing Bayesian Inference to Understand the Evolution of MRSA Infection and Transmission in Urban Anchor Hospital Settings, 9th Annual Meeting of SIAM Central States Sectional, Advances in Mathematical and Computational Models in Biology, Health and Medicine Session.
[4] B.Park, S.Kim, R.Talluri, K.Corkran, Y. Mohamed, I.Mohamed, J.Kendall. 2024 October. Poster Presentation: The Role of Co-Morbidities on Acute Liver Failure Prognosis in the ICU: A Retrospective Review of a Single Institution, at American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting 2024, Philadelphia, PA.
[5] Corkran, K. July 2024. Modeling the Impact of Nurse Units, Shared Staffing, and Pathogen Transmission Dynamics on Quality of Care, CDC MIND and HIRe Global Communications Center (GCC), Roybal Campus.
[6] Corkran, K. June 2024. Poster Presentation: “Modeling Evolution of Healthcare-Associated Infections Caused by Antibiotic- Resident Bacteria Strains” at the 21st Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Conference, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
[7] B.Park, K.Corkran, S.Kim, R. Talluri, P.Khanna, Y.Mohamed, I. Mohamed, J. Kendall. March 2024. Poster Presentation: Cardiovascular Disease and Outcomes of Acute Liver Failure: A Retrospective Database Analysis of the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care Fourth Edition, at University of Missouri-Kansas City Health Science Student Research Summit, Kansas City,MO.
[8] Corkran, K. January 2024. The Mathematics Behind Infectious Disease Spread in Nursing Homes, Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM), San Francisco, CA.
Publication Link: https://meetings.ams.org/math/jmm2024/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/29263
[9] Parekh,K., Reddy,N., Mehta, R., Kim.S, Corkran, K., Khanna,P. Ashif, T. August 2024. Poster Presentation: The Analysis of Tumor Laterality Site in Heart SEER Patients and Patient Survival, at Missouri American College of Cardiologists 2024 Annual Meeting, Overland Park, Kansas.
[10] Corkran, K. October 2023. Estimating the Individual Reproduction Numbers for Staff and Residents of Nursing Homes Linked by a Shared Staff, 8th Annual Meeting of Society of Applied and Industrial Mathematics Central States Section, Lincoln, NE.
[11] Corkran, K. October 2023. Building An Agent-Based Model to Simulate the Prevalence of Epidemics in Nursing Homes with Shared Staff, American Mathematical Society (AMS) 2023 Fall Central Section Meeting. Omaha , NE.
[12] Corkran, K. November 2023. A Safe Threshold for the use of Shared Staff Between a Network of Nursing Homes, UMKC’s Graduate Student Council Community of Scholars Research Conference, University of Missouri-Kansas City.
[13] Corkran, K. September 2023. Using Model Simulations to Measure the Effects of Asymptotic Superspreaders in a Population, CDC MIND and HIRe Global Communications Center (GCC), Roybal Campus)
[14] Corkran, K. July 2023. An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Investigate Pandemic Preparedness of Nursing Home, Society for Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting, Ohio State University.
[15]S.Kim, K.Huntress,K.Corkran. March 2023. Poster Presentation: Understanding the Inner Workings of Aggression by Examining Indicators Found within Patients who Have Untreated ADHD at NextGenPATHWAYS Symposium, Columbia, MO.
[16] Corkran, K. December 2021. An Introduction to Actuarial Science and Profession. Kansas State’s Undergraduate Mathematics Seminar Series, Kansas State University.
Publication link: https://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement/?id=78227
Professional Societies Membership
American Mathematical Society (AMS) Spring 2022-Present
American Statistical Association (ASAA) Fall 2024-Present
MIDAS Network Fall 2022-Present
Society of Applied Math and Industry (SIAM) Fall 2022-Present
Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB) Spring 2023-Present