About Us
Katherine A. James, PhD, MSPH, MS
Kathy James is an epidemiologist and engineer who specializes in environmental and climate risk factors and health in vulnerable populations. She has experience in leading and conducting community-based research projects including NIEHS funded studies investigating exposure to metals (arsenic and cadmium) and cardiometabolic and kidney diseases. Her research was one of the first to show associations with low-level arsenic exposure (<50 µg/L) with direct relevance to the exposure range of the US population. Kathy has also completed a Faculty Development Investigator Award through the Denver Children’s Environmental Health Center at National Jewish Health investigating the association between air quality and respiratory burden in the San Luis Valley and recently led a CDC funded biomonitoring tracking grant in a pediatric population in the San Luis Valley measuring exposures to 17 metals, pyrethroids, phthalates, and other pesticides through urine and water samples. She is also the PI for The Attitudes and Behaviors Study a repeated population-based survey of tobacco and marijuana use and other public health issues.
Yaqiang Li, PhD, MPH
Yaqiang is a research instructor in the department of Environmental and Occupational Health. Previously, he was the principal statistical analyst for The Attitudes and Behaviors Survey (TABS) on Health, a population-based, repeat cross-sectional study for the State of Colorado tobacco control program. Yaqiang has a strong background in survey design and analysis: he has over 12 years of experience managing complex survey data and is a graduate of the Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques at the University of Michigan and a fellow in the Sampling Program for Survey Statisticians. His areas of expertise include categorical data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, population-level survey sampling and complex weighting, survival and event history analysis, statistical genetics, clinical trials, and complex survey sampling and survey design.
In addition to his key role on the TABS surveillance survey, Yaqiang was the primary statistician for CEPEG’s research and evaluation survey work including TABS-Influential Factors in Healthy Living, Colorado Health Exposures and Smoking Survey, Colorado Media and Marijuana Survey, and Boulder, CO Sugar Sweetened Beverage Policy Evaluation, and he works in close collaboration with the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey analytic team. He also oversees data management best practices for CEPEG’s survey research efforts.
Yaqiang has participated in the Improving Health Care Delivery Data Project—a data infrastructure development and comparative effectiveness research study of health care delivery systems for American Indian and Alaska Natives, and in the evaluation of the effect of the Allies Against Asthma intervention program. Yaqiang earned an MPH degree in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.
Francesca Macaluso, DrPH(c), MPH
Francesca is a research instructor in the Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Center for Health, Work, and Environment. She played a key role on many projects with Kathy James, investigating the role of climate and the environment on human health. Francesca is currently a candidate in the Doctorate of Public Health program at the Colorado School of Public Health, and is passionate about environmental science, health equity, and environmental policy.
Nicholas Stoll, MPH
Nick is a Sr. Professional Research Assistant for the Center for Health, Work & Environment and the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health. He currently supports overall project management for many of Kathy James’ research efforts.
With his undergraduate education in psychology and graduate education focusing on factors influencing employee health and wellbeing, he is passionate about using his skillset to support the coordination of research to benefit communities.
Alyssa Plaut, MPH
Alyssa graduated with her Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Global Maternal and Child Health from the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz and is now a Sr. Professional Research Assistant in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health. She assists with multiple public health research projects including tobacco and marijuana use surveillance, climate factors and health outcomes, and environmental exposures. She previously worked as a graduate research assistant at The Evaluation Center, where she assisted in data collection, grant monitoring, and other evaluation efforts of the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant.
Naomi Perlman, MPH(c)
Naomi is a first year MPH candidate in the Global Health Epidemiology concentration at the Colorado School of Public Health. Naomi’s undergraduate degree in Environmental Science introduced her to the intersection of human health and the environment, and she is excited to enter the field of environmental health as part of the Rural Air & Water Health Research Group.