Current Lab Members
Nandita Mitra, Phd
Dr. Mitra is Professor of Biostatistics at the Perelman School of Medicine and Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the co-director of the Penn Center for Causal Inference and former Vice Chair of Education, Vice Chair of Faculty Professional Development, and Chair of the Graduate Group in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Penn.
She received her BA in Mathematics from Brown University, MA in Biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley, PhD in Biostatistics from Columbia University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard.
Her primary research area is causal inference with a focus on developing semiparametric approaches for instrumental variable, difference-in-differences, and sensitivity analysis methods for observational data with applications in cancer, health policy, and health economics. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Observational Studies and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA).
Dr. Mitra has published over 325 manuscripts in statistical and clinical journals including Biometrics, Biostatistics, Annals of Applied Statistics, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society C, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, Statistics in Medicine, International Journal of Biostatistics, American Journal of Epidemiology, Health Economics, JAMA, Lancet, Nature Genetics, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Mitra has held several major elected leadership roles on national and international committees including being the current President of the Society for Causal Inference (SCI), and formerly SCI Secretary, ENAR Program Chair, International Biometric Society Budget & Finance Chair, and ASA Statistics in Epidemiology Section Chair.
DANE ISENBERg, MS, MA
Dane is a fifth year biostatistics PhD student. He is broadly interested in causal inference and looks forward to exploring its vast applications. Before arriving to Penn, Dane was a high school mathematics teacher and hopes to continue his work with students during his PhD education and future employment. Dane holds an MS in Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Mathematics from Brandeis University, and an MA in Statistics from Hunter College.
Jimmy Kelliher, MS, MA
Jimmy is a PhD candidate in Biostatistics interested in causal inference methodology. His current research foci include consistency violations, difference-in-differences estimation, and mediation analysis, especially as they pertain to policy evaluation. Prior to joining Penn, Jimmy received a BS in Mathematics and a BA in Economics from Brown University, an MA in Economics from the University of Rochester, and an MS in Biostatistics from Columbia University.
LUKE SteWart, MS
Luke is a third-year biostatistics PhD student interested in causal inference methodology, as well as clinical and policy applications. Prior to joining Penn, Luke received a BS in Economics from MIT and worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Jack Wolf, PhD
Jack is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Causal Inference. His current research focuses on developing statistical methods for just-in-time adaptive interventions that use mobile and wearable devices to provide support tailored to an individual’s changing needs over time. More broadly, his methodological interests include clinical trials, longitudinal causal inference, and semiparametric methods for efficient estimation motivated by collaborations across public health and medicine. Before joining Penn, Jack earned his PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Minnesota.
Xinran Miao, PhD
Xinran is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Causal Inference. Her research focus is causal inference with emphasis on transportability and generalizability, sensitivity analysis, partial identification, and robust statistics. Prior to joining Penn, Xinran received her PhD in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BS in Statistics from Nankai University.
Derek Lamb, MS
Derek is a second-year biostatistics PhD student whose primary research focuses on temporal trends in multiomics data. He is working with Dr. Mitra, Dr. Wolf, and Dr. Nicholas Seewald on methods for evaluating health policy outcomes. Before coming to Penn, Derek earned an MS in Biostatistics from Columbia University, a BS in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and he was also a research assistant at the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis.