Team

CENTER DIRECTOR

BakerKathleen Baker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography | View CV
Email: kathleen.baker@wmich.edu  Phone: (269) 387-3345

Dr. Kathleen M. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Western Michigan University and a certified GIS Professional (GISP). Dr. Baker is Director of WMU's Health Data Research, Analysis and Mapping (HDReAM) Center and also Director of the WMU W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of GIS and Geographical Change to promote interdisciplinary research in geomatics and spatial analysis. Her research combines geographic methods for spatial and temporal analysis with field-based research in physical sciences, as well as interdisciplinary health sciences and science education research. Dr. Baker has been awarded funding from the USDA (PI, $1.2 million) for applied and NSF (co-PI, collaborative, $900,000) for basic research and a number of smaller grants and contracts. The projects have involved high volumes of data, integration of data sources, scientific workflows and public access to information in real-time. Dr. Baker has also managed a variety of contracts for state agencies including the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and several local community foundations.  

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

onicescuGeorgiana Onicescu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, WMU Department of Statistics | View CV

My methodological research interests are in Bayesian spatial statistics, with an emphasis on spatial survival and spatio-temporal modeling. My research is also highly collaborative, and I am interested in working with investigators across a variety of disciplines. I earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and also completed postgraduate specialization studies in Computer Science at the University of Bucharest, Romania. I continued my education and work experiences in the United States, where I earned an MS degree in biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Ph.D. degree in biostatistics from the Medical University of South Carolina.

PUBLIC HEALTH COORDINATORS

Kim E. Kutzko, M.P.H.
Epidemiologist, Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department

Current STUDENT RESEARCHERS

  • Virginia Dicken (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences)
  • Cara Masselink (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences)
  • Nurjannah (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences)
  • Eugene Kojo Opare Ahwireng (Geography)
  • Bandhan Ayon (Geography)
  • Sam Roodbar (Geography)

GIS STAFF WITH THE W.E. UPJOHN CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGE

  • Greg Anderson

Greg is the Senior GIS Specialist at the W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of GIS and Geographical Change. Greg has been providing GIS technical solutions to a variety of grants and contracts for WMU since 1994 for agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The formation of the W.E. Upjohn Center in 2005 brought his focus to geometrically accurate imaging through the Center’s acquisition of multiple high-end scanners. He frequently acts as manager of GIS and IT for HDReAM projects.

  • Matthew Borr

ADMINISTRATOR

  • Amanda Hoger

FORMER RESEARCHERS AND AFFILIATES

  • Researchers
    • Amy Curtis, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Former Director
    • Rajib Paul, Statistics, Former Associate Director
  • Collaborators
    • Yasiman Back, Former Epidemiologist, Kalamazoo County
    • Annie Wendt, Former Epidemiologist, Kalamazoo County
    • Angelique Day, Wayne State University
  • Graduate Students
    • Lauryn Jianrattanasawat, Geography
    • Tyler Jennings, Geography
    • Libby MacQuillan, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
    • Brad Roberts, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
    • Heidi Alexander, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
    • Barbie Ann Bugna, Statistics
    • Raju Chowdhary, Statistics
    • Catherine Kothari, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
    • Libertie Mantilla, Statistics
    • Johnathon Kennedy, Geography
    • Alberta Stover, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
    • Virginia Vanderveen, Geography
    • Xiaojian Yang, Statistics