Caroline Birdrow promoted to senior biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Caroline Birdrow to senior biostatistician, effective November 1. Originally from New Orleans, Birdrow earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Washington and Lee University, with a minor in poverty and human capability studies, and a term abroad in China on management accounting. For her MS in biostatistics from Vanderbilt, she completed her thesis, "Cumulative Probability Models for Semiparametric G-Computation," under the supervision of associate professor Andrew Spieker. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 2021, Birdrow has collaborated primarily with Vanderbilt's Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center; her duties as a biostatistician have included completing data safety monitoring board reports for randomized controlled trials, managing and analyzing observational study data, leading project meetings, and conducting a variety of ancillary analyses in relation to larger projects. She is a 2023 and 2024 winner of travel awards from Women in Statistics and Data Science, a graduate of the ISTAART (International Society to Advance Alzheimers Research and Treatment) Design and Data Analytics PIA (Professional Interest Area) Workshop on applying novel models for longitudinal continuous outcomes (including cognitive function), and a co-author of peer-reviewed papers in JAMA Network Open and Critical Care Medicine. As an ASA (American Statistical Association) GivesBack leader, she has judged the ASA's Fall Data Challenge and Virtual Science Fair, developed community impact projects for JSM 2023 and 2024, and actively contributed to other organizational and peer-review activities. Her service to the Department of Biostatistics includes participating on the hiring and staff onboarding committees, the causal inference working group, and the Ethical Responsibilities Regarding Race in Research group. Outside of biostatistics, Birdrow loves listening to podcasts and music, watching reality TV and documentaries, spending time with her dog, and going for long walks.
Onur Orun promoted to principal biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Onur M. Orun to principal biostatistician, effective October 1. Orun earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Izmir University of Economics in Turkey, followed by a MS in math from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey) and a MS in statistics from Colorado State University, with his master's project focusing on alumni association membership retention at CSU. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 2019, Orun has collaborated primarily with Vanderbilt's Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center, playing a lead role in creating statistical analysis plans and high-quality, reproducible reports for randomized controlled trials and observational studies, with first-authorship of "Statistical analysis plan for the Surgery for Cancer with Option of Palliative Care Expert (SCOPE) trial: A randomized controlled trial of a specialist palliative care intervention for patients undergoing surgery for cancer" (Trials 2021). Orun has co-authored nine other peer-reviewed publications to date, in high-impact journals such as Lancet: Respiratory Medicine, JAMA Surgery, Chest, and New England Journal of Medicine, and won our department's Linda Stewart Applied Analysis Report Award twice, in 2019 for "Vitamin D to Improve Outcomes by Leveraging Early Treatment: Long-term Brain Outcomes in Vitamin D Deficient Patients (VIOLET-BUD)" and in 2023 for "BRAIN-ICU Long-term Outcomes Latent Trajectory Analysis Report." Away from his computer, his interests include foodie adventures and hiking. Click his name to view his staff profile.
