Kate Vavra-Musser

Kate Vavra-Musser

PhD Candidate in Population, Health, and Place at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute

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Pages

About me

Posts

Appointed to the UCGIS Executive Board as the Communications Committee Co-Chair

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I’m so thankful to the University Consortium for GIS (UCGIS) for deciding to promote me to the UCGIS Executive Board as the Communications Co-Chair. Special thanks to Jennifer Bernstein, the other Co-Chair and my partner on the Communications Committee for recommending me for this promotion and for Diana Sinton the UCGIS Executive Director for her continued support of my involvement with UCGIS. I have been actively working on the UCGIS Communications Committee since December 2019 working to expand the UCGIS online presence and social media accounts. I am so excited for what we have already accomplished: the UCGIS Twitter account has expanded from 300 to 900 followers, we have launched a UCGIS LinkedIn account, and we are also working on a new Slack community coming soon. I’m very excited for this new role and my continued work with the UCGIS Communications Committee!

Coding it Forward Civic Digital Summer Fellowship

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Today I am so excited to report that I have been accepted as a member of the Coding it Forward Civic Digital Fellowship for the 2021 summer. The Coding it Forward Civic Digital Fellowship is a 10-week summer fellowship and each fellow is paired with a United States government with the goal of applying their technical skills to develop solutions that will serve everyday Americans. I am very excited to have been paired with the US Census Bureau on an amazing project working to restructure ambulatory health surveys using machine learning methods.

Data Science for All (DS4A) Empowerment Distinguished Scholar

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Thank you so much Correlation One for selecting me as a Distinguished Scholar for the 2020-2021 Data Science for All (DS4A) Empowerment program! As per Correlation One, this distinction is given to a subset of top-performing DS4A Fellows in recognition of outstanding personal qualities, professional promise, and demonstrated commitment to the Empowerment mission of equality in data. I am so honored and proud to be a part of this program and to be able to meet and get to know all my amazing classmates who have been with me on this journey.

Technology Education Grant Recepient

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Thank you so much to Serenze Global and Pluralsight for selecting me as one of the recipients of the 2021 Technology Education Grant! The grant incudes a year of free access to Pluralsight’s catalog of technology and data science courses as well as support, mentorship, and to the 2021 cohort community through Serenze Global. Serenze Global is an amazing organization whose mission is to promote diversity in the tech industry by providing free STEM education and support to under-represented groups within the tech industry. I am so excited to be a part of this community and to continue my data science and analysis skill development.

Accepted to Present at the Los Angeles Geospatial Summit

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I am excited to share that I will be presenting two of my current research projects at the upcoming Los Angeles Geospatial Summit on Friday, February 26, 2021. I will be giving a paper presentation of my work on extreme heat and aging populations in the United States with my co-author Emily Serman as well as presenting a post of my work on the drivers of soil lead contamination levels in an urban setting. I’m very much looking forward to the opportunity to share and receive feedback on these two projects!

Officially Admitted to the Data Science for All Empowerment Program!

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Today I am overjoyed and honored to share that I am one of only 6% of applicants selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of Correlation One’s new Data Science for All (DS4A) Empowerment program. This 13-week data science program is specifically designed to empower and support underrepresented groups in technology fields gain data science skills, project development experience, build their network, and create and support an inclusive community. Not only am I excited for the opportunity to push my data science skills to the next level, but I am so glad just to be a part of a program rooted in promoting diversity, inclusion, and representation in science and technology. Our first session is coming up on Saturday, October 24, 2020!

New York Times Article on Gas Flares and Birth Outcomes

less than 1 minute read

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I am excited to share that I will be presenting two of my current research projects at the upcoming Los Angeles Geospatial Summit on Friday, February 26, 2021. I will be giving a paper presentation of my work on extreme heat and aging populations in the United States with my co-author Emily Serman as well as presenting a post of my work on the drivers of soil lead contamination levels in an urban setting. I’m very much looking forward to the opportunity to share and receive feedback on these two projects!

portfolio

publications

Life Expectancy in Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Published in Lung Cancer International, 2017

Data on 10,258 pleural and 1,229 peritoneal patients from the SEER US national cancer database, 1973–2011, were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. The major factors related to survival were age, sex, stage, grade, histology, and treatment. Survival improved only modestly over the study period: 0.5% per year for pleural and 2% for peritoneal.

Recommended citation: R Shavelle, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2017). "Life Expectancy in Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma." Lung Cancer International. https://downloads.hindawi.com/archive/2017/2782590.pdf

Life Expectancy in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer

Published in Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology, 2019

Life expectancies of patients with PNETs may be markedly reduced from normal, but even in the worst cases their prognoses remain significantly better than that of patients with the more common pancreatic adenocarcinomas. In some very favorable cases, the life expectancy is near-normal, especially amongst 1- and 5-year survivors. This information can be used to counsel patients.

Recommended citation: J Brooks, R Shavelle, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2019). "Life Expectancy in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer." Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology. 43(1):88-97. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210740118301517

Effects of Exposure to Flaring from Unconventional Oil Wells on Adverse Birth Outcomes

Published in Environmental Epidemiology, 2019

Preliminary results suggest that compared to the unexposed, women in the third tertile of exposure to flaring within 5km of their residence have a 30% higher odds of preterm birth (OR= 1.3, p <0.05) and pregnancies that are on average 1 day shorter (p < 0.05).

Recommended citation: L Cushing, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2019). "Effects of Exposure to Flaring from Unconventional Oil Wells on Adverse Birth Outcomes." Environmental Epidemiology. 3(86). https://journals.lww.com/environepidem/Fulltext/2019/10001/Effects_of_exposure_to_flaring_from_unconventional.258.aspx

Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas

Published in Environmental Health Perspectives, 2020

Exposure to a high number of nightly flare events was associated with a 50% higher odds of preterm birth and shorter gestation compared with no exposure. Effect estimates were slightly reduced after adjustment for the number of wells within 5km. In stratified models these associations were present only among Hispanic women. Flaring and fetal growth outcomes were not significantly associated. Women exposed to a high number of wells vs. no wells within 5km had a higher odds of preterm birth, shorter gestation, and lower average birthweight.

Recommended citation: L Cushing, K Vavra-Musser, K Chau et al. (2020). "Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas." Environmental Health Perspectives. 128(7). https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP6394

talks

Geospatial Data: Introduction to Data Types, QGIS, and Exploring Census Data in R

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During the inaugural Los Angeles School of Data hosted by Data + Donuts LA I co-taught a ninety-minute introductory workshop on spatial data in R and QGIS with Andy Rutkowski, the visualization specialist with the University of Southern California libraries. The workshop, and School of Data as a whole, was geared toward Los Angeles civic employees with the goal of promoting data literacy and analysis skills.

Spatial Data Applications in Environmental Health

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As part of the opening presentations for the 2019 GIS Day celebrations and events held at the University of Southern California, I presented a talk on applications for spatial data in the environmental health sciences, with a focus on my ongoing work studying the spatial distribution of soil lead levels in urban environments.

Older Popluations and Increased Heat in the United States

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During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I gave a lightening talk with my co-author Emily Serman. Our talk focused on our recent work, carried out with Dr. Jennifer Ailshire of the University of Southern California, on the combined threat of both increasing heat days and increasing older population in the United States. As older populations tend to have a higher risk of adverse health impacts due to heat but also have a different spatial distribution compared to the general population, it is essential to characterize the risk of future extreme heat to this population. In addition, older populations in the United States tend to be clustered in regions associated with high heat and increasing heat.

Soil Lead Source Contribution in a Complex Urban Residential Area

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During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I also presented a poster on my ongoing work exploring the impact of multiple sources of potential lead contamination on soil lead in a complex urban residential area. This work comprised the first component of my doctoral dissertation research and was carried out under the guidance of my dissertation co-advisors Jill Johnston and Dr. An-Min Wu of the University of Southern California.

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.