PhD Epidemiology Alumni

Colleen Maccallum-Bridges, PhD Epidemiology 2022 

I received my PhD in Epidemiology from MSU in Spring of 2022, and I cannot say enough good things about my experience in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics! The support that I received – from faculty mentors, other students, and administrative and IT staff – was incredible. I found the faculty, students, and staff to be very warm and supportive, creating an atmosphere of collegiality. Additionally, the Department is uniquely situated as a small department within a BIG10 research university, so students have the benefit of frequent and informal encounters with accomplished senior Department members who hold expertise in range of topic areas (e.g., epidemiology, biostatistics, statistics, economics, medicine, psychology, biological anthropology) and are happy to talk with students and provide guidance.

This program equipped me with a strong set of epidemiologic tools that I can use to investigate issues pertaining to population health and health equity (including tools for critical appraisal of methods and methodologies, and tools for causal inference). Further, during the program, I had opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary work with students and faculty outside of the Department and I gained invaluable grant-writing experience that led to my being awarded an NIH F31 predoctoral training grant (both of which can largely be attributed to the excellent mentorship I received from my primary advisor, Dr. Claire Margerison). Altogether, I think these tools and experiences made me a strong candidate for employment after graduation. 

Currently, I am working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study (MI CReSS) at the University of Michigan. The MI CReSS project is being conducted in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among MI residents, as well as its implications for health equity.