Ryan Heitmann, DO

Ryan
Heitmann
DO
Director
Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility
Associate Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Jamie Kim, MD

Jamie
Kim
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Harris Bland, MPH, MBA

Harris
Bland
MPH, MBA
Sr. Project Manager, PhD Student (Human Genetics)
Biomedical Informatics

My research focuses on improving sex-specific hormone levels to enhance overall health and mitigate risks associated with hormone therapy. This involves a detailed exploration of how precise adjustments in hormone levels can positively impact various health conditions. Additionally, I am dedicated to refining the use of sex and gender terms in research, advocating for their accurate specification as variables to ensure clarity and relevance in scientific studies.

Active grants

  • U01HG01181: Vanderbilt Genome Electronic Records Project (VGER)
  • U01CA232829: Family History and Cancer Risk Project (FOREST)
  • U01HG01181-04S1: VGER Administrative Supplement (Sex and Gender Minority-focused)
  • U01CA232829-1A1S1: FOREST Administrative Supplement (Sex and Gender Minority-focused)

Jeewoo Kim, BA

Jeewoo
Kim
BA
MD/PhD Candidate

Research interest

Uterine fibroid genetics

Active grant

Vanderbilt's Clinical and Translational Award (CTSA) training program (TL1)

Brittney Snyder, PhD

Brittney
Snyder
PhD
Assistant Professor
Quantitative Sciences
Divisions of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine and Epidemiology, Department of Medicine

Britt Snyder, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Division of Quantitative Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She holds secondary appointments in the Divisions of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine and Epidemiology in the Department of Medicine. She is also an active member of the Center for Asthma Research. Snyder joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow in 2018 after receiving a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Iowa. She was awarded fellowship funding through an NHLBI T32 in clinical and translational training in pulmonary medicine and a K12 grant through the Vanderbilt Faculty Research Scholars Program. She started as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine in 2021 and transitioned to the Department of OBGYN in 2024. She is currently an NHLBI K01 awardee.

Lab Website
https://medsites.vumc.org/centerforasthmaresearch

Snyder is a maternal-child health epidemiologist who is passionate about improving primary prevention and reducing the burden of early-life respiratory diseases, particularly infant respiratory syncytial virus infections and childhood asthma. Her research focuses on in utero and early-life environmental risk factors and biological pathways contributing to the development of childhood respiratory diseases. She utilizes large administrative, prospective cohort, and high-dimensional molecular (genetic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic) data to address fundamental questions about pathways of disease development.

Awards

  • T32 awardee
  • Vanderbilt Faculty Research Scholars Program awardee
  • K01 awardee

Salisha Marryshow Batson, MPH

Salisha
Marryshow Batson
MPH
Population Public Health Manager
Institute for Public Health & Medicine

Salisha coordinates and performs a wide variety of research, programmatic, and administrative activities for Health Service Research within IMPH. Some of her work includes clinical research responsibilities for the eMERGE & MPRINT study. She seeks to assist in meaningful research projects to ensure medical discoveries and the dissemination of health information, with a focus on research and departmental support.

Elizabeth Jasper, PhD

Elizabeth
Jasper
PhD
Assistant Professor
Center for Precision Medicine at Vanderbilt University
Quantitative and Clinical Sciences

Elizabeth A. Jasper, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Quantitative and Clinical Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Iowa's College of Public Health in 2019. Jasper completed her postdoctoral research fellowship in the Vanderbilt Genomic Medicine (VGM) Training Program, funded by a National Human Genome Research Institute T32. As an early career faculty member at VUMC, she became a Faculty Scholar in VUMC's Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) and a Precision Therapeutics Academy trainee for the Vanderbilt Integrated Center of Excellence in Maternal and Pediatric pRecIsioN Therapeutics (VICE-MPRINT).

My focus areas are reproductive epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and women's and maternal-child health. My current research program is designed to discover and understand genetic and environmental risk factors for complex phenotypes, with an emphasis on the perinatal period and developmental origins of health and disease. Specifically, my work focuses on understanding the multigenerational effects of maternal health. My lab leverages large electronic health record databases and linked biorepositories, employing bioinformatic, epidemiologic, and genetic methods, to study common characteristics and complications of pregnancy, including perinatal depression, perineal lacerations following childbirth, and glucose variation throughout pregnancy. My major focus is on gestational weight gain, a potentially modifiable risk factor for adverse outcomes throughout the life course of birthing persons and their children. The goal of my research is to uncover biologic mechanisms and identify modifiable risk factors associated with maternal-child health and build off this line of work to translate findings into advances in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.

Alex Sundermann, MD, PhD

Alex
Sundermann
MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Quantitative and Clinical Sciences
Institute for Medicine and Public Health

Alex Sunderman, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Quantitative and Clinical Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has a secondary appointment in the Institute for Medicine and Public Health and is a member of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center. She completed her medical and doctoral degrees through Vanderbilt's Medical Scientist Training Program. Her doctoral work targeted the development and application of epidemiologic methods for studying risk relationships involving time-varying exposures in pregnancy. She then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center. She returned to Vanderbilt as faculty in 2024 in a physician-scientist position with the aim to leverage the insight afforded by caring for patients to conduct pertinent and timely research for the advancement of reproductive health.

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