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Lorena Baccaglini, DDS, PhD

Lorena Baccaglini, DDS, PhD
Lorena Baccaglini, DDS, PhD

Faculty Highlight – Dr. Lorena Baccaglini received her PhD in epidemiology with a minor in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also trained in dentistry, prosthodontics, and clinical research and oral medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She joined the College of Public Health (COPH) faculty in May 2012 as an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology.

Dr. Baccaglini is the Epidemiology Graduate Program chair for the doctoral program (PhD) in epidemiology. The department has four active instructional programs: the PhD and Master of Public Health in Epidemiology, the Professional Certificate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, and the Master of Science in Emergency Preparedness.

Dr. Baccaglini has developed and enjoys teaching a new four-credit course in Epidemiology Methods, Level II (EPI 845/CPH 628). The course covers advanced epidemiologic design and SAS analysis applications, including meta-analyses, clinical trials, stratified/matched analyses, logistic regression, survival analysis, and complex sampling. Additionally, she has developed guest lectures on study design and statistical pitfalls, and genetic epidemiology. Dr. Baccaglini is the academic advisor, research mentor, and dissertation and capstone committee member/chair for eight students in four departments. She plans to develop more epidemiology methods courses by next spring.

Dr. Baccaglini’s research focuses on systemic links, causes, and treatments of head and neck diseases. She is the principal investigator for the UNMC Wound Healing Bank, which links over 300 samples to 1,000 clinical and laboratory variables stored in REDCap. She recently completed an NIH-funded study of growth factors in wound healing using NHANES data. She has submitted new grant proposals in collaboration with UNMC and external co-investigators focusing on sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and cancer. She is currently developing a new patient-centered research proposal with co-investigators from UNMC, Creighton, and Ameritas.

Dr. Baccaglini’s interests also include clinical research/clinical trials, evidence–based medicine, systematic reviews, epidemiologic methods, genetic epidemiology, wound healing, and injuries.

Dr. Baccaglini is the Chair of the Epidemiology Graduate Program Committee and she is an active member of the UNMC Graduate Council, the COPH Doctoral Committee, the Epidemiology Doctoral Exam Committee, the Delta Omega Development Committee, the UNMC Graduate Studies Sub-committee on Mentor Pool, and the UNMC Graduate Studies Task Force. In March, she will begin her appointment as Chair of the 2013-2014 Ethics in Dental Research Committee for the American Association for Dental Research.

Dr. Baccaglini is currently the associate editor for Oral Diseases, the review editor for the Journal of Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Epidemiology, the statistical Editorial Board member for the Journal of Dental Research, and an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology. Since May 2012, she has also served on two NIH grant review panels.

Lorena Baccaglini, DDS, PhD, is an associate professor in the UNMC COPH Department of Epidemiology.

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