Faculty & Staff

Dr. Li is interested in identifying racial and socioeconomic disparities in health and health behaviors, and helping public health agencies to prioritize their prevention or research efforts. His research focuses on assessing neighborhood environment and public policy influences on health and health behaviors. His current projects involve research into epidemiology, prevention and treatment of traumatic injuries, arthritis, elderly falls and bone fractures, adult and childhood obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity, nutrition, tobacco use, and HIV vaccine development. He also conducts methodological research on survey sampling, small area estimation, randomized clinical trials and analysis of BIG data.

Kevin is a biostatistician and is also the lab manager for the Health Statistics and Geography Lab with over 20 years of experience working as a clinical data manager and statistician in the fields of academic medicine and public health.   He has both BS and MA degrees in Mathematical Sciences.   He worked as a database manager and statistician for the Department of Neurology at UMass Chan Medical School from 1994-1999, and again from 2001-2010, supporting research in Alzheimer’s Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, as well as other neurological disorders.  From 1999-2001 he worked as a database manager for the transplantation division of the UMass Memorial Health Care Department of Surgery, assisting an outside vendor (Teleresults, Inc., San Francisco, CA) with the design and development of a liver transplant database designed to follow transplant patients from the time of initial referral to the transplant center, through the transplant event, and continuing through the post-transplant period.  The database was implemented at UMass Memorial in 2000 and is still in use.

 Since joining the Health Statistics and Geography Lab in 2010, he has worked on several public health projects, including analyzing temporal trends in nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products available in Massachusetts over the past 15 years, investigating disparities in trauma care pre- and post- health care reform, and studying the built environment of Mass in Motion and comparable communities.  He also provides demographics expertise, using US Census and American Community Survey databases as well as other publicly available datasets to derive socio-economic indicators at the state, county, town/city, and neighborhood (census tract, block group, block) levels.

Linda Churchill is a Senior Project Director in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine.  She manages and implements research projects focused on health behavior change (diet and physical activity), neighborhood-level changes that can have a positive influence on the health of community residents, and medical school education in tobacco dependence treatment and weight management counseling.

Linda received her bachelors’ degree in social work with a concentration in community organization and engagement, and her masters’ degree in non-profit management.  She has managed and implemented research projects for over 28 years.  Her expertise is in recruitment, engagement, and retention of study participants and collaborators.  Her experience includes the recruitment and retention of 4,000 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative and its’ 13 ancillary studies (1994-2010), and the integration of that experience into studies submitted and funded from 2010 to the present.

Elizabeth Procter-Gray, PhD, MPH, works in the HSGL as a biostatistician and especially enjoys translating statistical analysis results into understandable language for public consumption. Recent research projects have included surveys of healthy food in grocery stores and restaurants, an evaluation of factors that promote physical activity (walking) among elders, and several studies of the risk factors and consequences of falls in elders in the Mobilize Boston cohort.  Liz came to biostatistics via a PhD in animal behavior and ecology with field work in Australia radio-tagging and observing tree-kangaroos.  She is married to a Clark University professor and has two grown children.

William Rui is currently a database developer in the Health Statistics and Geography Lab at the UMass Chan Medical School, a position he has held since 2013.

He obtained his Master degrees in Computer Science and Physics at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He has more than 15 years of experience working as a Sr. Application Systems Analyst, Data Developer and leading Software Engineer in the fields of clinical research, academic medicine and translational science. Prior to working in the Health Statistics and Geography Lab, William was a Senior Applications Systems Analyst at the Tufts Medical Center Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies.  Before that, he worked as a senior software engineer at Kronos Incorporated, in Chelmsford, MA, then at Kinetic Incorporated in Billerica, MA.

Jie Cheng is a GIS Data Analyst in the Health Statistic and Geography lab. He obtained his Master degree at the Clark University in 2013, majoring in GIS for Development and Environment, and graduated with Bachelor science degree in Emergency Administration and Management at Arkansas Tech University in 2011.

He joined HSGL lab in summer of 2012 as intern and became full time employee at 2014. He has broad research interests that focus on application and development of GIS. His current position allows him to support projects to accomplish geographical analysis in Public Health area.  He works on larger number of medical record Geocoding and works with other professionals’ research project using geo-spatial analysis recently.

Anthony Clarke is a Research Technician in the Health Statistic and Geography Lab.  Anthony graduated Fitchburg State University May 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Earth System Science and joined the Health Statistics and Geography shortly after.

Anthony is the lead field technician responsible for gathering of information for the Older Pedestrian Environmental Survey that focuses on "Neighborhood risk factors for falls in the Elderly"  throughout Masscahsutts communties and neighborhoods.

Anthony also assists in gathering and processing informatoin gained from other field studies that include the Residential Environment and Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors [REACH] study, Community nutrition environment evaluation data systems [C-NEEDS], as well as the Multi-Unit Housing Smoking Cessation Study and Mass in Motion food environment study.

Before graduating Fitchburg State University and joining the Health Statistics and Geography Lab, Anthony served in the United States Army.