I am a demographer, epidemiologist, and data scientist who develops new methods and investigates population dynamics and epidemiology, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus in Africa. I work as a professor in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University (OSU), and I am a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Population Research and the Translational Data Analytics Institute, both at OSU. I am affiliated with the Department of Statistics at the University of Washington and the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand.
During 2020 I worked on a survey to estimate the prevalence of the coronavirus and an excess deaths study to characterize the total burden of mortality associated with the COVID-19 epidemic. Both projects are in the state of Ohio, USA and were conducted in coordination with the Ohio State Department of Health.
On an ongoing basis I work to improve: 1) verbal autopsy as a tool to measure the burden of disease, 2) mathematical models of human mortality, 3) indirect estimates of child mortality, and 4) small-area estimates of mortality. I also coordinate a small team developing software to implement new methods - mostly for verbal autopsy and mathematical models of human mortality.