Meet our Panelists
Melissa Begg, PhD
Dean; Professor of Social Work and Biostatistics, Colubmia School of Social Work
Melissa Begg is Dean of the Columbia School of Social Work and Professor of Social Work and Biostatistics. As a population health scientist, her scholarship has focused on developing the strongest possible evidence base for human health and well-being. She formerly served as Vice Provost for Academic Programs for Columbia University and Co-Director of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Throughout her career, she has focused on convening interdisciplinary scientific teams, developing innovative curricula, creating mentorship programs, and enhancing diversity in the research workforce. In 2006, Dean Begg received the University-wide Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Fairfield University and a Doctor of Science in Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Jennifer Hill, PhD
Professor of Applied Statistics; Co-Department Chair; Co-Director of PRIISM, Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities; NYU Steinhardt School.
Jennifer Hill develops and evaluates methods to help answer causal questions that are vital to policy research and scientific development. She focuses on situations in which it is difficult or impossible to perform traditional randomized experiments, or when even seemingly pristine study designs are complicated by missing data or hierarchically structured data. Most recently Hill has been pursuing three intersecting strands of research. The first focuses on Bayesian nonparametric methods that allow for flexible estimation of causal models and are less time-consuming and more precise than competing methods (e.g. propensity score approaches). The second pursues strategies for exploring the impact of violations of typical causal inference assumptions such as ignorability (all confounders measured) and common support (overlap). The third investigates how statistical methods are used and interpreted in practice. Hill has published in a variety of leading journals including Journal of the American Statistical Association, Statistical Science, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Public Health, and Developmental Psychology. Hill earned her PhD in Statistics at Harvard University in 2000 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Child and Family Policy at Columbia University's School of Social Work in 2002.
Hua "Judy" Zhong, PhD
Chief; Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine
Dr. Hua "Judy" Zhong is an esteemed biostatistician and researcher currently serving as the Chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. In this role, she also directs the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, where she leads the institution’s efforts in pioneering innovations that leverage cutting-edge biostatistical methods to support clinical, translational, and basic science research. Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Zhong was a professor at NYU Langone Health and co-director of the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Her research, which is continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on investigating cardiovascular disease risk and disability outcomes in older adults, with a specialized emphasis on data science and electronic health records. An accomplished scholar, Dr. Zhong has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles and holds three patents for methods involving cancer therapy personalization and melanoma metastasis prediction. She serves on numerous high-level advisory boards, including the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy workgroup and the data and safety monitoring committee at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She is also a member of the statistical reviewer boards for prestigious journals such as The Lancet, Nature Medicine, and Cell. Dr. Zhong earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
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