Essentia Institute of Rural Health Researchers

Thomas E. Elliott, MD, FACP

Senior Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Elliott is the past executive director of the EIRH and has a successful record in community-based research projects, leading research teams, and building research programs, such as EIRH. He served as chief of education and research at SMDC Health System for 20 years. Some of his most pertinent research experiences and studies in rural health research and dissemination include the Lake Superior Rural Cancer Care Project, a cluster randomized trial of communities conducted across rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan testing interventions to improve rural providers' cancer care knowledge, competencies, and practice behaviors, and their cancer patients' outcomes; and Minnesota Cancer Pain Project, a cluster randomized trial of communities conducted across Minnesota testing interventions to improve providers' knowledge, competencies and practice behaviors, and their cancer patients' pain outcomes. Dr. Elliott has served on many NCI study sections, both as member and chair. He has published more than 135 scholarly works. In addition to research activities, Dr. Elliott practiced medical oncology/hematology for 30 years and served as medical director of the SMDC Hospice and Palliative Care Program and medical director of the SMDC Pain Management Program.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-3755
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: TElliott@eirh.org

Charles E. Gessert, MD, MPH

Senior Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Gessert is a senior research scientist at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health. His principal research interests include end-of-life decision-making, with a special interest in rural-urban differences in end-of-life care; the use of feeding tubes in advanced dementia; and improving our understanding of the normal lifespan. His current research includes an examination of family decisions to forego dialysis in end-stage renal disease, and an examination of regional differences in dialysis decision-making. Dr. Gessert teaches bioethics to medical students at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Prior to coming to Duluth in 2000, Dr. Gessert served as the president of the Kansas Health Institute, which studies the social determinants of health, and as vice chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he developed and directed the Wisconsin Area Health Education Center System. Dr. Gessert also serves on the Board of the Duluth Clinic Foundation in Duluth, and chairs the Essentia Health Institutional Review Board.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-8176
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: cgessert@eirh.org

Pat Conway, PhD, LSCW

Senior Research Scientist

Pat Conway, PhD, LCSW, Senior Research Scientist, conducts research and program evaluation with health and behavioral health related programs, including: The Ely Community Care Team; The North Dakota Department of Health Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Program and enhanced evaluation projects with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Men’s and Women’s Health Screening Days and the Barnes County ON THE MOVE Chronic Disease Prevention Program (OTM); The North Dakota IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (NDINBRE), including tracking outcomes of students at the four primarily undergraduate institutions in North Dakota, research projects with two tribal colleges, the Summer Research Program, and community projects; The Wiconi Ohitika (Strong Life) Youth Suicide Prevention Project with Candeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) and the Spirit Lake Suicide Prevention Coalition; The North Dakota Rural Behavioral Health Network (RBHN), with Mental Health America of North Dakota, North Dakota Federation of Families, the Coal Country Community Health Center, and the Mandan, Hidatsu, and Arikara Nation.

Dr. Conway has published and presented in the areas of behavioral health, especially with Native Americans; pregnancy prevention; grandparent caregivers; rural health; orphan train riders; and health and behavioral health prevention. Dr. Conway is the editor of the Journal of Family Social Work. She has worked as a social worker in the fields of child welfare, family violence, mental health, AIDS, health, gerontology, loss and grief, and disabilities. She has been a social work educator since the mid 1980's and has conducted training, research, and program evaluations for private non-profit and public agencies throughout that period. Dr. Conway has a BA in Social Work and a Master of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She enjoys her family, pets, gardening, reading, knitting, and traveling.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-2149
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: Pat.Conway@eirh.org

Irina V. Haller, PhD, MS

Senior Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Haller is a senior research scientist at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine - Duluth Campus. Her background is in physiology and analytical methodology in biomedical research including design, conduct, monitoring and analysis of clinical trials; population-based studies; utilization of large data sets (such as CMS administrative data) and electronic health records for health services research. Dr. Haller’s primary research interests are in rural and minority health with emphasis on assessment of vitamin D status and its relation to chronic diseases; and health issues in older adults. Currently she investigates the relationships between age and ethnicity and a response to vitamin D supplementation by food, documentation of vitamin D status in rural and American Indian populations, as well as effects of vitamin D status on cardiovascular health and diabetes in American Indian postmenopausal women. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth and EIRH, she was a research associate in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Thermoreception and Heat Exchange and the Department of Physiology at the Petrozavodsk State University Faculty of Medicine, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation. Dr. Haller serves on the Board of the Duluth Sister Cities International and the Scientific Review Committee for the Duluth Medical Research Institute.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-8185
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: ihaller@eirh.org

Sara J. Hendrickson, ScD

Community Health Specialist

Dr. Hendrickson became the Community Health Specialist at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health in September 2012. She works on community health assessments and interventions in communities Essentia Health serves. Prior to joining the Essentia Institute of Rural Health, Dr. Hendrickson trained as a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health where she earned a Doctor of Science in Epidemiology and Nutrition. Her research focused on carotenoids – genetic variation in metabolism, relation to breast cancer risk, and assessment of dietary intake. Prior to her doctoral work, she earned a Master of Science in Foods and Nutrition from Purdue University and a Bachelor of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering from the University of Minnesota. After several years out-of-state, Dr. Hendrickson is happy to be back home in Minnesota working on a project directly aimed at improving population health.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-1718
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: SHendrickson@eirh.org

Andrine M. Lemieux, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Lemieux is a neuropsychologist with experience in both general clinic and forensic settings. After completing her doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin Madison in behavioral neuroscience and counseling psychology, she completed two postdoctoral training fellowships in developmental psychobiology and clinical neuropsychology. Her research has examined aging, stress physiology, psychoneuroimmunology and neuroimmunology in a variety of human and non-human primate models. More recently her work has focused on the biological basis of cognition. Projects have included investigating stress-induced cognitive fatigue in young adults who carry the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 gene and comparing the role of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone- sulfate (DHEA-S) and interleukin-6 in learning and memory in SLE patients.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-1753
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: Andrine.Lemieux@Eirh.org

M. Nawal Lutfiyya, PhD

Senior Research Scientist

M. Nawal Lutfiyya is a Chronic Disease Epidemiologist and a Senior Research Scientist at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health; she is also the Director of Research for the Education Division at EIRH. Dr. Lutfiyya is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health as well as the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Science. Previously she held appoints with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority as a Senior Epidemiologist and the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine at Rockford where she was the Director of Research for the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Nawal trained at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She took her undergraduate training in sociology and social psychology at the University of Manitoba. In addition, Nawal has completed both post-doctoral and fellowship training. Dr. Lutfiyya has taught clinical epidemiology, preventive medicine, health communication and chronic disease management to medical students and analytic methods and bio-statistics to both medical and graduate students. Dr. Lutfiyya is well published and her work can be found in a wide variety of journals such as the International Journal of Health Care Quality, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Rural and Remote Health, the Journal of Asthma, BMC Public Health and the Journal of Women’s Health.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-8118
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: mLutfiyya@eirh.org

Catherine A. McCarty, PhD, MPH

Principal Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Catherine A. McCarty, PhD, MPH, RD, was born and raised in Duluth. She received her BS and MPH degrees in nutrition from the University of Minnesota and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. After completing her PhD, she was the Head of the Epidemiology Research Unit in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, Australia for eight years. During that time, she directed a population-based study of eye disease in Victoria, Australia and collaborated on similar projects in Hyderabad and Chennai, India. Dr. McCarty returned to the US in 2001 as a Senior Research Scientist at Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation where she was the Principal Investigator for the Personalized Medicine Research Project, a population-based biobank with more than 20,000 adult participants and 20 active research projects. Dr. McCarty's awards include the Gwen Sebold research award at Marshfield Clinic, Alumni of the Year from her undergraduate college at the University of Minnesota and Silver Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. She has published more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, earned more than $9 million in research grants, been invited to give many scientific talks, and mentored many students. She is on the VA Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee, the Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has served as a consultant to several organizations seeking to start biobanks. She continues vision research at EIRH and is collaborating on translational research projects in different areas to improve rural health care delivery.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-2128
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: CMcCarty@eirh.org

Daniel M. Saman, DrPH, MPH, CPH

Associate Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Daniel M. Saman joined the Essentia Institute of Rural Health as an associate research scientist in September 2012. He received his master of public health and doctor of public health degrees in epidemiology in May 2008 and December 2011, respectively, from the University of Kentucky College of Public Health in Lexington, Ky. He received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology and philosophy from Centre College in Danville, Ky. During his time at the University of Kentucky he was involved in diverse and multidisciplinary epidemiological research, and collaborated with investigators from the College of Dentistry, the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, the Department of Kentucky Geological Survey, the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, and the Kentucky Violent Death Reporting System.

His interest for research developed during his undergraduate years, when he coauthored a book chapter on mapping Guinea savannah ecology in Sierra Leone utilizing geographic information systems. Since then, Dr. Saman has authored eleven peer-reviewed publications ranging from topics including the illustration of oral health disparities in Kentucky using cartograms, a study on the dental workforce misdistribution in Appalachian Kentucky, to occupational exposure to trichloethylene and more recently on healthcare acquired infections, suicide clusters, and tractor overturns. His most recent publication, A Perspective on the Evidence Regarding Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Surveillance, was published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Patient Safety. He has also been active in writing editorials for the Centers for Disease Dynamics, Economics, & Policy (CDDEP), the Lexington Herald Leader, and The Louisville Courier Journal. In a recent editorial for the CDDEP, Dr. Saman along with Dr. Kevin Kavanagh of Health Watch USA discussed the need for a healthcare acquired infection map by juxtaposing the presence of a beef cow density map to the absence of a healthcare acquired infection map.

Dr. Saman has also championed the implementation of standards and protocols for MRSA surveillance, the creation of a mid-level dental provider, reduced sugar consumption, and the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. In 2008 he was awarded by APHA the Anthony Westwater Jong Community Dental Public Health Post-Professional Award for his work on the application of geographic information systems in assessing the dental workforce distribution across rural, urban, and Appalachian Kentucky. More recently he was awarded as the 2012 author of the best paper on the subject of head and neck oncology published in the journal Head & Neck Oncology for his review of the epidemiology of oral and pharyngeal cancers.

Dr. Saman also serves voluntarily as chief epidemiologist at Health Watch USA, a nonprofit organization that promotes healthcare transparency and patient advocacy. His future research goals at the EIRH involve continued multidisciplinary collaboration on projects ranging from the effect of dietary factors on the development of Alzheimer’s to the role that sugar intake plays in increasing the risk of cancer.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-1754
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: DSaman@EIRH.org

Stephen C. Waring, DVM, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Waring is an Epidemiologist and Senior Research Scientist with the Essentia Institute of Rural Health in Duluth, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Science in Zoology, Master of Science in Epidemiology and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Texas A&M University and his PhD in Epidemiology with a concentration in Neuroscience and Biostatistics from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. He has conducted numerous population-based epidemiologic studies in Guam, Olmsted County (Minnesota), Texas, and Central Wisconsin on a broad range of topics. He has also taught basic, clinical, and advanced epidemiologic methods at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX), Texas A&M University (College Station, TX), and the University of Texas Health Science Center and School of Public Health (Houston, TX). His research interests include healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease, rural health, comparative effectiveness research to inform efficient and effective health care delivery, and translational research that utilizes the wealth of information from genomics and other basic sciences, clinical practice, and community studies to improve population health. He is currently involved in the Prepare Minnesota for Alzheimer’s 2020 Leadership Group, a statewide initiative of all stakeholders to improve early identification and quality of health care for Alzheimer’s disease. His current research includes investigations into healthy aging and cognitive health in rural elderly and agriculture worker health and safety with the University of Minnesota Center for Agricultural Health Injury and Illness Surveillance Study. His work appears in a number of peer-reviewed journals and published abstracts at national and international meetings. Dr. Waring is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Agromedicine and recently elected a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology in recognition of significant and sustained contributions to epidemiology.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-1280
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: Stephen.Waring@eirh.org

Colleen Marie Renier, BS

Biostatistician
Curriculum Vitae

Colleen Renier is a Biostatistician with the Essentia Institute of Rural Health. She joined our research division in 1998 after 17 years as the statistical analyst for the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine - Duluth Campus.

Principal research interests include etiology and consequences of injuries sustained by members of agricultural households. Since 1988, Ms. Renier has been a member of the research consortium, headed by University of Minnesota Professor Susan Goodwin Gerberich, Ph.D., which conducted the groundbreaking Olmsted Agricultural Trauma Study, followed by the Regional Rural Injury Study-I, the model upon which CDC/NIOSH's own surveillance efforts are based, the Regional Rural Injury Study-II, phases I and II, and their current effort, the Regional Rural Injury Study-III: Consequences of Agricultural Injuries. Results from these studies have been published extensively. Ms. Renier maintains a Twin Cities office at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

A Scientific Reviewer for Quality of Life Research, Ms. Renier is also a member of the International Society for Quality of Life Research. She has extensive experience in analysis and interpretation of patient reported outcomes (PROs), with a personal focus on health-related quality of life, and has both presented and published in this area.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-3834; Toll-Free: 800-342-1388, ext. 63834; Mobile: 218-310-6613
Fax: 218-727-8159
Email: crenier@eirh.org

Brian Johnson, MPH

Biostatistician
Curriculum Vitae

Brian Johnson joined the Essentia Institute of Rural Health as a Biostatistician in February 2010. He had served as a Biostatistician at Boston Scientific and Medtronic, working in the areas of endoscopy and endosurgery, peripheral vascular interventions, cardiac stenting, and cardiac rhythm management. Mr. Johnson's research interests include design and analysis of clinical trials, adaptive design and analysis, group sequential analysis, noninferiority testing, repeated measures analysis, and confidence intervals for proportions and their differences.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-8856
Fax: 218-786-8159
Email: BJohnson3@eirh.org

Daniel A. Nikcevich, MD, PhD

Physician Scientist
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Daniel A. Nikcevich, MD, is the current President & Chief Medical Officer of Essentia Health's East Region and has been the principal investigator of the Duluth Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) since 2005. During this time, CCOP funding has grown, adding components and increasing overall accrual. At the same time, it has sustained a strong culture of cancer care that emphasizes the availability of clinical trials as an important standard of care. Dr. Nikcevich's own clinical and scientific interests include the care and management of patients with hematologic malignancies, breast cancer, sarcoma, renal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. He has also served as the Vice Chair of the Executive Committee (as well as Chair of the Membership Committee) of the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG), a national clinical research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He presently serves as the Chair of the Membership Committee for the Alliance, which is the large oncology cooperative group that resulted from a merger between ACOSOG, CALGB, and NCCTG.

Contact Information:
Phone: 218-786-2628
Email: Daniel.Nikcevich@EssentiaHealth.org