About the lab

Current lab members

Photo of Avi Kenny

Avi Kenny, Ph.D.

Principal InvestigatorAssistant Professor, Duke University

Avi Kenny is an Assistant Professor at Duke University, with appointments in the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics and the Duke Global Health Institute. He completed his PhD in biostatistics at the University of Washington and previously served as the Director of Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation at Last Mile Health in Liberia.

Research interests

  • Design and analysis of global health program evaluations
  • Statistical methodology for stepped wedge cluster randomized trials and interrupted time series analysis
  • Studying the use of psychedelic medicine for treating mental health conditions
  • Implementation science around community health programs
  • Statistical computation and simulation methodology
  • Photo of Qi Wang

    Qi Wang

    PhD student, Biostatistics

    Qi studied at the University of Washington and Tsinghua University before coming to Duke. Qi's research interests include statistical methods for cluster-randomized trials, stepped-wedge designs, and HIV studies.

  • Photo of Jianxuan Zang

    Jianxuan Zang

    PhD student, Biostatistics

    Jianxuan earned a master's degree in Statistics from the University of Washington before joining Duke. His research focuses on the design and analysis of cluster-randomized trials and on methods for survival analysis.

  • Photo of Anand Panigrahy

    Anand Panigrahy

    Master's student, Biostatistics

    Anand earned bachelor's degrees in Biochemistry and Kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and spent about four years working in Boston in biomedical and clinical research settings, where he did a mix of wet lab and dry lab work before coming to Duke. His research focuses on the analysis of clinical trials in Niger and Kenya, with an emphasis on survival analysis and longitudinal modeling.

  • Photo of JT Rapp

    JT Rapp

    Master's student, Biostatistics

    JT studied mathematics at Wabash College before beginning his master's in biostatistics at Duke. His research leverages machine learning to develop a bedside comorbidity index that predicts 90-day mortality risk for hospitalized adults across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Former lab members

  • Gehui Zhou

    Master's student, Biostatistics

    Gehui developed a survival model to study the question of whether the effects of mass drug administration of azithromycin fade with time using clinical trial data from Niger.

  • Andrew Johnson

    Master's student, Biostatistics

    Andrew Johnson developed a new mixed effects model for the analysis of binary data for cluster randomized trials using a blended logit-log link function. This model allows for parameters to be interpreted on the relative risk scale and the use of a model-based variance estimator, while avoiding convergence issues associated with the use of a log link function.