Margaret Ulfers

I completed my PhD in epidemiology here at GWU through the Columbia College of Arts and Science and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2008. This was some time after earning a BS in microbiology with a minor in Chemistry at Va Tech (as in 25 years later). I came to epidemiology and academia somewhat "later in life" than many so my career path has not been traditional. I spent many years (happily)  "caregiving" for several family members, allowing only part-time work, so my professional life became focused on teaching as an adjunct, online teaching and a variety of smaller consulting projects. This was fortuitous as my interests have always been more broadly epidemiologic methods and provided me with many opportunities to think about the broader issues and a lot of variety. The personal side of life has given me a pretty extensive experience with MANY aspects of our health system from the receiving end.

  Both during and after earning my PhD I taught Introductory Biostatistics as an adjunct and my focus was more on the quantitative side of epidemiology. I also participated in the school's earliest foray into an online MPH program, covering both SAS and biostatistics. I was the course director for the study design course, 6247, from 2009 to 2011. After that I began teaching the introductory epidemiology (6003), both on campus and online, as well as Biostats whenever needed. Beginning in 2012 I added undergrad epidemiology (3131) and have continued to teach that every year. I had the opportunity to be a section leader in the online 6003 class when the current online MPH program got started and am now the primary course director for 6003 online. I enjoy the online teaching environment and working to continually improve the program.

 Not surprisingly, teaching has become more and more central to my focus. In 2016 the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics brought me on as full time teaching faculty. This has given me the opportunity to more formally explore better ways to teach the core principles of epidemiology and study design, and to mentor and advise MPH students as they complete their CEs. In addition I continue to explore ways, formal and informal to better prepare students who struggle with the quantitative aspects of epidemiology and preparation for biostatistics.