UW News

UW experts on novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

The University of Washington is home to many experts on topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Expand each topic to see their names and specific expertise. Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Public health

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Marissa Baker Worker health and safety; worker health effects related to COVID-19; health effects of job displacement or job insecurity; vulnerable workers; controls for worker protection
Janet Baseman Epidemiology, public health practice, public health surveillance, public health emergency preparedness and response systems
Betty Bekemeier Local public health department practice, systems, workforce, and funding; public health practice strengths and needs in the wake of COVID-19
Jared Baeten Infectious disease physician, public health, global health, epidemiology
Jerry Cangelosi Screening, self-sampling, infectious disease emergence, occupational exposure, global health
Nicole Errett Disaster research: preparation and recovery
Hilary Godwin Translating public health communications and projections for a general audience; insights into how to make good, evidence-based decisions in times of uncertainty
Anne Hirsch Nursing education
Rodney Ho Anti-viral or COVID-19/SAR drug expert, drugs in development, experimental treatment and prevention, global drug access, clinical virology, drug repurposing, translational medicine, infectious disease expert
Aaron Katz Health care policy, public health policy, health care markets, health insurance markets, health care safety net, health care reform, Medicaid, ACA, global health policy, global AIDS policy
Scott Meschke Environmental virology
Dr. Peter Rabinowitz Zoononics, One Health, all things epidemiology and virus related
Marilyn Roberts Contamination and disinfection in the environment and on surfaces
Tatiana Sadak Geriatric mental health, multi-morbidity, caregiving, dementia, and educating nurses during pandemic
Paul Yager Microfluidic bacterial and viral testing at the point of care

Medicine and virology

For experts in the School of Medicine, please contact the UW Medicine Newsroom.

Mental health and human connection

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Susan Joslyn Decision-making, risk communication
Jonathan Kanter Connecting with people while social distancing; depression and human connection; xenophobia
Peter Kahn Impact of nature on health, particularly mental health. Strategies for experiencing benefits of nature while indoors, at home, on walks.
Lynn Katz Communicating with children about coronavirus; parenting in the context of coronavirus
Joshua Lawler Nature’s health benefits, and the effectiveness of programs and policies designed to take advantage of those benefits
Liliana Lengua Impact of stress on children and families; coping with stress; parenting; mindfulness for parents
Jane Simoni Coping with trauma, chronic illness and other stressful life events; behavioral interventions; culturally relevant disease prevention
Dr. Pooja Tandon Strategies for play and exercise for children during COVID-19 restrictions
Riki Thompson Connecting through digital technologies, pandemic dating, polyamory during a pandemic, managing non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships during COVID, social media and mental health
Kathleen Wolf Nature’s benefits for human health, especially on mental health and well-being

Policy, law, political science and supply chain

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Ann Bostrom Risk perception, risk communication, and decision making under uncertainty
Benjamin Brunjes Public management, emergency management and response, federal/state/local coordination, spending and resource allocation, public/private partnerships, supply chain, use of contractors, human capital
Anne Goodchild Impact of the higher number of deliveries on transportation and supply chains, potential impacts on retail/food and prepared food delivery systems
Bill Keough Supply chain and logistics
Aseem Prakash Impact of COVID-19 on supply chain, climate change
Anita Ramasastry Supply chains, workers rights, business and contract issues
Hugh Spitzer Law, state and local laws regarding shelter-in-place orders, National Guard powers

Business and economics

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Diana Pearce Income inequality
Jennie Romich Poverty, government policies to address inequities
Jacob Vigdor Regional job market, impact on small business

Education

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Katie Davis Technology’s role in child/adolescent development and wellbeing
Meredith Honig School district decision-making
Julie Kientz Families, kids and technology; consumer health technologies; human-centered design; families using technology to navigate home-based learning during COVID-19
Soojin Oh Park Early childhood development, parenting, race and income equity, immigrant-origin children, family engagement

Data, modeling and misinformation

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Aleksandr Aravkin COVID-19 modeling; mathematical and statistical analysis, and applications to natural, physical, and health sciences; optimization; machine learning and data science
Carl Bergstrom Flatten the curve, misinformation
Shan Liu Healthcare modeling and decision analytics; optimization applied to medical decision making, public health policy and resource allocation problems; technology assessment and evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis
Adrian Raftery Interpreting COVID-19 data, understanding different COVID-19 data sources and statistics
Chirag Shah Misinformation and search engines, search and recommender systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence
Emma Spiro Misinformation in social media, including disaster and crisis events; information flow; social behavior and social interaction; collective sensemaking; attention dynamics; role of emergency responders; and computational and data science methods.
Kate Starbird Intentional spread of misinformation (disinformation) during crisis events, across social media and through the wider information ecosystem
Ka-Kit Tung Modeling COVID-19 outbreaks, projecting public health impact, comparing different types of modeling approaches
Jevin West Misinformation, evolution of science, the models and science used to predict the spread of COVID-19

Historical precedent

Name Expertise
Steven Goodreau Pandemics in history, stigmatizing groups during pandemics
Margaret O’Mara Historical precedent

Environment

Click on an expert’s name to view their contact information, recent media mentions and more.

Name Expertise
Nives Dolšak Common resources, environment and decision-making
Peter Kahn Impact of nature on health, particularly mental health. Strategies for experiencing benefits of nature while indoors, at home, on walks
Meade Krosby Implications for behavioral change, resilience, and adaptation more generally; Implications for wildlife — e.g. whether COVID-19 is leading wildlife to come back to certain areas, and what that means
Joshua Lawler Nature’s health benefits, and the effectiveness of programs and policies designed to take advantage of those benefits
Aseem Prakash Environmental politics
Christopher Schell Urban wildlife
Amy Snover COVID-19’s effects on climate & climate-relevant activities; Comparing actions to address COVID-19 vs. climate change
Kristi Straus Sustainability, personal choices, sustainable habits
Dr. Pooja Tandon Strategies for play and exercise for children during COVID-19 restrictions
Kathleen Wolf Nature’s benefits for human health, especially on mental health and well-being

 

We will be expanding this list on an ongoing basis. If you’re a UW expert and you want to be added to this list, please contact the public information officer for your unit.

Recent COVID-19 news coverage Full experts directory