Nicole Butera

Ph.D.

Assistant Research Professor

Full-time Faculty

School: Milken Institute School of Public Health

Department: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

Contact:

Email: Nicole Butera

Office Phone: 301-881-9260

Biostatistics Center 6110 Executive Blvd, Suite 750 Rockville MD 20852

Nicole Butera joined the GWU Biostatistics Center in August 2019 as a statistician for the Glycemic Reduction Approaches in Diabetes (GRADE) study, a clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of different glucose-lowering drugs among individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. In this role, she contributes to assuring the quality of study data, identifying statistical methods to address the unique features of the study data, and planning and conducting statistical analyses to address the scientific aims of the study. She is also working as a co-principal investigator of the Statistical Analysis Center for the REACT Study, a phase II clinical trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of microbiome therapy to treat multi-drug resistant organism colonization among patients admitted to long-term care facilities, providing leadership in designing the trial and planning the statistical analyses for the study. She has statistical expertise related to methods to accommodate “messy” data, such as missing data and measurement error, use of off-protocol treatments in clinical trials, and complex survey data. In particular, she is interested in applying her statistical expertise to research aimed at improving public health.

Prior to joining the GWU Biostatistics Center, Dr. Butera received her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation research focused on developing a doubly robust method for regression analysis using multilevel data (i.e., clustered data) where there are missing data on the outcome variable, as well as developing statistical methods to model longitudinal change in a biomarker (e.g., blood pressure) when a subset of the sample has initiated treatment (e.g., antihypertensive medication) mid-study. During her doctoral education, she also worked as a collaborative statistician on a multi-site, community-based cohort study, with a sample selected through a probability-based complex sampling design.

Expertise

EXPERTISE:

Biostatistics

Epidemiology

EDUCATION:

Doctor of Philosophy (Biostatistics), The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019

Bachelor of Science (Mathematics), The Pennsylvania State University, 2012

INSTITUTES AND CENTERS:

Biostatistics Center

Publications

PUBLICATIONS:

Butera N, Yu L, Herring AH. Understanding missing data: When and why are missing data a problem, and how one can avoid it? British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In press.
Butera N, Yu L, Herring AH. Analysis with missing data: Can one obtain valid results when data are missing? British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In press.
Gulanski BI, Butera NM, Krause-Steinrauf H, Lichtman JH, Harindhanavudhi T, Green JB, Suratt CE, AbouAssi H, DeSouza C, Ahmann AJ, Wexler DJ, Aroda VR, the GRADE Research Group. Higher burden of cardiometabolic and socioeconomic risk factors in women with type 2 diabetes: An analysis of the Glycemic Reduction Approaches in Diabetes (GRADE) baseline cohort. BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care. 2023;11:e003159. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-003159
Cai J, Zeng D, Li H, Butera NM, Baldoni P, Maitra P, Dong L. Comparisons of Statistical Methods for Handling Attrition in Longitudinal Studies with Complex Survey Sampling. Statistics in Medicine. 2023;42(11):1641-1668. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sim.9692
Butera NM, Zeng D, Heiss G, Cai J. Modeling Longitudinal Change in Biomarkers Using Data from a Complex Survey Sampling Design: An Application to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Statistics in Medicine.2023:42(5):632-655. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sim.9635
GRADE Study Research Group (writing group: Nathan DM, Lachin JM, Balasubramanyam A, Burch HB, Buse JB, Butera NM, Cohen RM, Crandall JP, Kahn SE, Krause-Steinrauf H, Larkin ME, Rasouli N, Tiktin M, Wexler DJ, Younes N). Glycemia Reduction in Type 2 Diabetes — Glycemic Outcomes. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2022;387(12):1063-1074. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2200433
Vladutiu CJ, Butera NM, Sotres-Alvarez D, Stuebe AM, Aviles-Santa ML, Daviglus M, Gellman MD, Isasi CR, Cordero C, Talavera GA, Van Horn L, Siega-Riz AM. Preconception cardiometabolic markers and birth outcomes among women in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Journal of Women’s Health. 2022;31(12):1727-1735. http://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2021.0474
Dallman AR, Perry C, Goldblum JE, Butera NM, Boyd BA, Harrop C. Occupational Disruption Leading to Occupational Changes: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Autistic Children and Their Families. Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2022;10(3): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1953
Butera NM, Zeng D, Howard AG, Gordon-Larsen P, Cai J. A Doubly-Robust Method to Handle Missing Multilevel Outcome Data with Application to the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Statistics in Medicine. 2021;41(4):769-785.
Schilsky S, Sotres-Alvarez D, Rosamond W, Heiss G, Stevens J, Butera N, Cai J, Carlson J, Cuthbertson C, Daviglus M, LeCroy M, Pirzada A, Evenson K. The association of step-based metrics and adiposity in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Preventive Medicine Reports. 2021;24(101655). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101655
Fernandez-Rhodes L, Butera NM, Lodge EK, Franceschini N, Llabre MM, Arredondo EM, Gallo LC, Arguelles W, Daviglus ML, Isasi CR, Smokowski P, Gordon-Larsen P, Aiello AE, Perreira K, Sotres-Alvarez D, North KE. Demographic and Sociocultural Drivers of Adulthood Weight Gain in Diverse Hispanic/Latinos: Results from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). BMC Public Health. 2021;21(2064). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11848-9
Siega-Riz AM, Vladutiu CJ, Butera NM, Daviglus M, Gellman M, Isasi CR, Stuebe AM, Talavera GA, Van Horn L, Sotres-Alvarez D. Preconception Diet Quality is Associated with Birth Weight for Gestational Age Among Women in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2021;121(3):458-466.
Sivitz WI, Phillips LS, Wexler DJ, Fortmann SP, Camp AW, Titkin M, Perez M, Craig J, Hollander PA, Cherrington A, Aroda VR, Tan MH, Krakoff J, Rasouli N, Butera NM, Younes N, the GRADE Research Group. Optimization of metformin in the GRADE cohort: Effect on glycemia and body weight. Diabetes Care. 2020;43:940-947.
Butera NM, Li S, Evenson KR, Di C, Buchner DM, LaMonte MJ, LaCroix A, Herring A. Hot deck multiple imputation for handling missing accelerometer data. Statistics in Biosciences. 2019;11(2):422-448.
Siega-Riz AM, Pace ND, Butera NM, Van Horn L, Daviglus M, Harnack L, Mossavar-Rahmani Y, Rock CL, Pereira RI, Sotres-Alvarez D. How well do U.S. Hispanics adhere to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans? Results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Health Equity. 2019;3(1):319-327.
Islam JY, Hoyt AM, Ramos S, Morgan K, Kim CJ, de Sanjosé S, Butera N, Senkomago V, Richter KL, McDonald MA, Vielot NA, Smith JS. Acceptability of two- versus three-dose human papillomavirus vaccination schedule among providers and mothers of adolescent girls: A mixed-methods study in five countries. Cancer Causes & Control. 2018;29(11):1115-1130.
Meyer A, Powell P, Butera N, Klinger M, Klinger L. Brief report: Developmental trajectories of adaptive behavior in children and adolescents with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2018;48(8):2870-2878.
Corsino L, Sotres-Alvarez D, Butera NM, Siega-Riz AM, Palacios C, Pérez CM, Albrecht SS, Espinoza Giacinto RA, Perera MJ, Van Horn L, Avilés-Santa ML. Association of the DASH dietary pattern with insulin resistance and diabetes in U.S. Hispanic/Latino adults: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. 2017;5(1):e000402. doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2017-000402.
Kugler KC, Vasilenko SA, Butera NM, Coffman DL. Long-term consequences of early sexual initiation on young adult health: a causal inference approach. Journal of Early Adolescence. 2017;37(5):662-676.
Lanza ST, Vasilenko SA, Dziak JJ, Butera NM. Trends among US high school seniors in recent marijuana use and associations with other substances: 1976 to 2013. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2015;57:198-204.
Vasilenko SA, Kugler KC, Butera NM, Lanza ST. Patterns of adolescent sexual behavior predicting young adult sexually transmitted infections: A latent class analysis approach. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2015;44:705-715.
Butera NM, Lanza ST, Coffman DL. A framework for estimating causal effects in latent class analysis: Is there a causal link between early sex and subsequent profiles of delinquency? Prevention Science. 2014;15:397-407.
Lanza ST, Moore JE, Butera NM. Drawing causal inferences using propensity scores: A practical guide for community psychologists. American Journal of Community Psychology. 2013;52:380-392.