Director
Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

In addition to serving as Director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE), Dr. Mugavero serves as Co-Director of the UAB Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and as Associate Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). Dr. Mugavero is an NIH, CDC, HRSA, AHRQ, and Foundation-funded investigator who has developed a dynamic health services research program at UAB, centered on engagement in care that has made seminal contributions to HIV prevention and treatment science. Dr. Mugavero serves as PI for the AHRQ T32 UAB Health Services Research Training Program and was a recipient of the 2020 John M. Eisenberg Excellence in Mentorship Award. He has published over 275 articles in peer-reviewed literature and has served as primary mentor for over 20 pre-doctoral students and 10 post-doctoral fellows and/or junior faculty, including current and past T32, TL1, KL2, K12, K23, R34, and R01 awardees from the UAB Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and Social Work. Dr. Mugavero was recently named the Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, MPH, Endowed Professor in Innovation and Advancement through Mentorship.

Deputy Director
Program Director II, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Madeline is the Deputy Director of the COERE, overseeing all administrative and scientific functions of the Center. She has extensive experience with NIH proposal development, research administration, intramural pilot program management, and the conduct of randomized controlled trials. Her Master of Public Health is in epidemiology..

Co-Director
Professor, Department of Health Services Administration
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Allyson Hall, PhD is a professor in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she serves as director of graduate programs in health care quality and safety. Dr. Hall’s research focuses on improving access to high quality health care among vulnerable populations including low-income individuals, and people living with a disability or a chronic health condition. She has a long-standing interest in Medicaid. For over 10 years she has investigated reforms and changes to Florida’s Medicaid program. Current research activities also focus on reducing care fragmentation and the use of health care technology to improve quality of care. Dr. Hall serves on the board of the Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) and is an Associate Editor for the Journal for Healthcare Quality. She has a PhD in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a MHA in health care administration from the University of Florida.

Director, DIISC
Associate Professor, Department of Health Services
Director, PhD Program, Administration-Health Services
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Larry R. Hearld, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Administration-Health Services. He is currently the co-editor of Health Care Management Review and serves on the editorial board of Medical Care Research and Review. His research focuses on the antecedents and consequences of organizational change in health care, with special emphasis on dissemination and implementation science in health care. He has been a PI and co-I on NIH-, AHRQ-, PCORI-, and foundation-funded studies that examine the dissemination and implementation of quality improvement processes and innovative care delivery models within hospitals, primary care organizations, and local communities. This research utilizes a range of methodological approaches, including effectiveness-implementation hybrid designs, mixed methods, and quasi-experimental designs. He currently teaches courses in research methods, organizational behavior, and dissemination and implementation science.

Director, DRIVEN
Associate Professor, School of Public Health
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Bertha Hidalgo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Associate Dean of Access and Engagement at the UAB School of Public Health. She holds degrees from Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research focuses on health inequities related to COVID-19 and cardiometabolic diseases, with a particular focus on Latino populations, genomics, and dissemination science. She is passionate about science communication and leads a dissemination science project funded by Research Goes Red and Verily to increase awareness and education about CVD and increase participation in Research Goes Red. She is the principal investigator of an NHLBI-funded R01 to explore the epigenome of women with preeclampsia.

Director, Office of Research Synthesis
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Kathryn Kaiser, Ph.D., earned a B.S. degree in microbiology from Texas A&M University and medical technology from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas. She started her professional career in medical laboratory science (clinical diagnostics) and, for 20 years, worked to train, support, install, and design/develop medical diagnostics instrumentation, data management systems, and sample handling processors. She then received her Ph.D. in Health Psychology from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth in 2009. She joined the Section on Statistical Genetics at the UAB School of Public Health in June of 2009 as a post-doctoral scholar and was a T32 Trainee in Vascular Biology and Hypertension. Dr. Kaiser is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and has focused on meta-research and race/sex disparities in obesity using human and animal models. She specializes in methods for conducting systematic reviews of scientific literature. More recently, she has broadened her professional networks to collaborate with organizations that support the scholarly communications infrastructure with the aim of speeding discoverability of scientific literature. In addition, she teaches graduate courses for the Health Behavior concentration, including Health Program Evaluation and Psychophysiology. She also teaches a PhD level course on Systematic Review Protocol Development.

Director, GRIT
Professor Emerita, School of Public Health
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Locher accepted a position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care within the Department of Medicine in 1992 as a Research Associate working on National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded projects with prominent aging researchers; earned her PhD in Medical Sociology from UAB in 1999; was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in 2000; earned an MSPH in Health Policy and Outcomes from UAB in 2005; and was promoted to a tenure-earning Assistant Professor position in 2005. In 2007, she was appointed Director of the Public Policy and Aging Program (dually supported by the UAB Center for Aging and the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy) and accepted a joint appointment with formal responsibilities in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the School of Public Health. In 2008, she was promoted to Associate Professor and was awarded tenure in 2009. In 2011, she was appointed Associate Director for Enrichment of the UAB Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) (funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases [NIDDK]). In 2013, Dr. Locher was promoted to Full Professor. In 2016, she was appointed to Professor Emerita.

Dr. Locher’s work in the area of nutrition and aging has been consistently supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) with five distinct grants awarded to her as Principal Investigator from 2001 through 2017. Additionally, she has received extramural support from other agencies where she served as Principal Investigator (PI) (American Cancer Society and the Lucille Beeson Trust Fund) and as Co-PI or Co-Investigator from multiple agencies to support research focused on nutrition and aging. She has published or has in press more than 100 peer-reviewed data-based manuscripts on translational nutrition and aging and related topics. Dr. Locher was fortunate to be the recipient of a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (MRSDA/K01) from the NIA that kick-started her career in the area of nutrition and aging. Receipt of the MRSDA enabled her to conduct a longitudinal observational study of nutritional behaviors and outcomes of older adults who had recently experienced an acute medical event or an exacerbation of a chronic condition that necessitated the use of home health services. Concomitant with that award, she received a smaller NIA R03 grant to study nutritional concerns of older adults diagnosed with cancer along with their caregivers and doctors using in-depth qualitative interviews. Based upon findings from the MRSDA, she was able to secure additional R21 funding from NIA to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating a Behavioral Nutrition Intervention in Community Elders (B-NICE) targeted at addressing heightened nutritional risk that occurs during a home health encounter (especially following a hospitalization) that may contribute to a downward spiral leading to frailty and poor health outcomes, including increased health services utilization and mortality. She was awarded a five-year R01 in 2009 to conduct another RCT examining the effects of a lifestyle intervention on multiple outcomes (disease risk, function, health service utilization, and quality of life) in obese community-dwelling older adults with co-morbid conditions. Beginning in August, 2012, Dr. Locher began work on a grant from the National Cancer Institute focused on Food and Eating Behaviors of Head and Neck Cancer Patients. From 2012 until 2017, Dr. Locher was the recipient of a Career Academic Leadership Award from NIA focused on Translational Nutrition and Aging that enabled her to mentor and support junior faculty and trainees.

Dr. Locher was honored by the UAB Commission on the Status of Women with the 2016 Becky Trigg Outstanding Woman UAB Faculty Member Award in recognition of her having made it easier for other women to succeed, overcome adversity to achieve goals, taken a courageous stance, and provided significant service to women. Her teaching and mentorship as well as in her community service has earned her the 2010 Champion for Change Award from AARP Alabama, the 2011 Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship, and the 2011 Faculty Service Award by the Comprehensive Center for Healthy Aging. In 2013, she was further honored with Fellow Status by the Gerontological Society of America. In 2016 she received the Gerontological Society of America M. Powell Lawton Award for her contributions in gerontology research.

Dr. Locher is currently devoting her efforts to ensuring the success of junior faculty in securing extramural support by working with the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education on the Grant Writing and Intensive Training (GRIT) initiative.

Director of Finance

Program Coordinator
Training Programs Lead

Program Manager
Professional Development Programs Lead

Program Manager
Learning Health System and D&I Science Lead

Program Director
Facilities, Communications and Event Planning Lead

Associate Director
Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Greer A. Burkholder, MD, MSPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the UAB Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Her research is focused on prevention and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors among people with HIV (PWH). She is PI of an NHLBI K23 award focused on conducting novel studies on antihypertensive medication adherence among PLWH. She serves as the UAB site lead for myocardial infarction and stroke adjudication studies within the Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) and as Co-Chair of the CVD Workgroup for the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD). She is UAB site PI for the Antiretroviral Cohort Collaboration (ART-CC) and for Practice Transformation in the Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center (SE AETC). Dr. Burkholder has been the Database and Informatics Component Leader for the UAB CFAR Clinical Core since 2012. In this role, she provides scientific oversight for the UAB HIV Cohort database and oversees the production of datasets for investigators within the UAB CFAR, as well as for multiple national (CNICS, WIHS) and international (ART-CC, NA-ACCORD) multisite HIV research collaborations. She is co-leader of the data transformation team for the COVID Core.

Associate Director
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Chapman Lambert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family, Community & Health Systems at the UAB School of Nursing. She is a certified family nurse practitioner who is recognized as a specialist in HIV management. Her research focuses on integrating, implementing, and evaluating behavioral interventions with the goal of reducing disparities and improving clinical outcomes among marginalized populations, with a current focus on African American (AA) women living with HIV (WLWH). She has conducted several studies to understand and address multi-level factors as they related to health outcome such as HIV medication and medical visit adherence among gender and racial minorities. She is the PI of a NIH NCCIH K23 to culturally tailor a mindfulness intervention for AA WLWH aimed to reduce stress and improve health and clinic outcomes. In addition, she serves on the board of directors for the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) and she is President-elect for the HIV/AIDS Nurses Certification Board (HANCB).

Associate Director
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Ronnie "Matt" Gravett, MD, MSPH is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. He focuses his research on HIV prevention and the intersection of HIV and STIs among sexual minority persons in the Deep South. Dr. Gravett. At UAB, he completed his clinical fellowship in Infectious Diseases as well as the AHRQ NRSA T32 Postdoctoral fellowship in Health Services, Outcomes, and Effectiveness Research in 2020. His research and educational work focus on improving sexual health outcomes in the Deep South, with a particular focus on HIV prevention among sexual and gender minority persons. His K23 research focuses on PrEP promotional messaging among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in the Deep South. In addition, he also works to understand participatory methods utilizing crowdsourcing to engage the community through designathons and open calls. He also works in clinical trials exploring new PrEP modalities as well as early-phase HIV vaccine trials. He is an Associate Director for the Center for Outcomes Education and Research Education (COERE), where he leads Gathering to Enrich and Advance Research (GEARs). As a clinician and educator, he leads the 1917 PrEP Clinic at UAB, sees patients living with HIV at 1917 Clinic, and leads the HIV curriculum for the Southeast STD/HIV Prevention Training Center. Recognizing affirmation as a remedy for stigma, he fervently believes and advocates for affirming and inclusive sexual health care for LGBTQ+ persons.

Associate Director
Associate Professor, Department of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care
University of Alabama at Alabama, UAB

Richard Kennedy, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. He has been actively involved in aging and outcomes research for over 25 years when he began assisting with drafts of an Outcomes Module for Dementia (OMD) through the nationally-recognized Center for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He then began a career in delirium research under the mentorship of Paula Trzepacz, MD, an internationally recognized leader in the field. His work focuses on the intersection of medical illness and cognition in aging-related disorders including delirium, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, and mobility as well as normal cognitive aging. He serves as Associate Director for the Data Core of the UAB Alzheimer's Disease Center and as the primary biostatistician for the UAB Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Center and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. He is PI on multiple NIH-funded methodological grants for the modeling of Alzheimer's disease clinical trials and for utilizing electronic health record (EHR) data to identify predictors of delirium. He is active in the training of new investigators, having served as a research mentor for more than 20 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty members spanning the fields of psychiatry, psychology, biostatistics, health behavior, nursing, emergency medicine, and neuroscience. He has also co-directed the Introduction to Biostatistics core class for Graduate Biomedical Sciences for the past 5 years and developed and taught a core curriculum on consultation/liaison psychiatry (including delirium and dementia) for medical students.

Associate Director
Assistant Dean, Clinical Innovation for Quality Improvement
UAB Nursing Partnership, UAB School of Nursing and UAB Hospital

Shea Polancich has been practicing in quality and patient safety for two decades. She is currently an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing with a primary practice at the UAB Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama as a director specializing in nursing improvement, innovation, and analytics. Formerly, her roles included the Director for Quality and Patient Safety at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Director of Data Analysis and Measurement at Texas Health Resources, NIH/NINR research intern, and health policy fellow at George Mason University. She currently serves on a technical expert panel for the NQF, and is a column editor for the Journal for Healthcare Quality. 

Associate Director
Associate Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Gabriel Tajeu received a Doctorate of Public Health in Health Care Organization and Policy with a concentration in outcomes and econometrics research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiology at UAB. He was a COERE T32 trainee for his doctoral degree. His research focuses on lowering the risk of CVD through appropriate diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. As part of this research, he investigates racial disparities in hypertension and CVD outcomes and quality of care at the population and health systems level. Dr. Tajeu also conducts research into the cost-effectiveness of medications and interventions and has conducted research on antihypertensive medication adherence. Dr. Tajeu utilizes administrative data (i.e., Medicare, American Hospital Association Survey, and Hospital Compare) as well as cohort data (i.e., REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Jackson Heart Study) in his research. He has also engaged in the collection of primary data on implicit and explicit racial bias among healthcare workers and participated in the development of an intervention to decrease perceived discrimination and improve patient satisfaction in primary care clinics in Alabama. Most recently, Dr. Tajeu is developing skills in applying machine learning techniques to electronic health record data.

Steering Committee Member
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Steering Committee Member
School of Health Professions
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Steering Committee Member
School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Steering Committee Member
School of Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Steering Committee Member
School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Professor and Associate Dean, School of Health Professions
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Associate Director for Basic Research, UAB Heersink School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Associate Professor and Magic City LGBTQ Health Studies Endowed Associate Professor, School of Public Health
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Professor, UAB Heersink School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Professor, UAB Heersink School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Internal Advisory Committee Member
Associate Professor, School of Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

External Advisory Committee Chair
Chair and Professor, Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts

External Advisory Committee Member
Chief Innovation Officer & Senior Vice President, Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network
Vanderbilt University

External Advisory Committee Member
Assistant Professor, Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences
Emory University

External Advisory Committee Member
Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Co-Director UC San Diego Dissemination and Implementation Science Centers
University of California San Diego

External Advisory Committee Member
Chair and Professor, Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
University of Florida