Faculty

Maayan S Simckes

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Epidemiology


Education

PhD Epidemiology, University of Washington, 2019
MPH Epidemiology, Saint Louis University, 2013
BA Community Health, Tufts University, 2011

Contact


Bio

Dr. Maayan Simckes has a range of interests both in the research and applied epidemiology settings. Prior to completing her PhD in epidemiology, Maayan spent two years as an Applied Epidemiology Fellow with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and has continued her career in the practice setting. During her time as a PhD student at the University of Washington, she worked with Dr. Janet Baseman to develop and run the Student Epidemic Actional Leaders (SEAL) Team and expand training opportunities students interested in public health practice. Maayan currently works at the Washington State Department of Health where she serves at the Principal Investigator for the Washington Health Youth Survey. She also explores the intersection of equity and social justice in applied epidemiology, identifying ways to decolonize and improve upon longstanding epidemiologic methods. Her ongoing research interests center around the effects of law enforcement on population health and integrating non-traditional public health data sources to answer challenging interdisciplinary questions. She also leads a national workgroup on addressing stigma perpetuated and upheld by the field of public health, developing tools to dismantle these practices within applied organizations and research. The workgroup currently is examining the role public health research and practice plays in perpetuating antifat bias and weight stigma.

Research Interests

Public health practice
Applied epidemiology
Equity and social justice in epidemiologic methods
Policing and criminal legal system epidemiology
Social epidemiology
Whole person health

Recent Publications (PubMed)

Lethal use of force surveillance: practical considerations for open-source database linkage.
(2023 Aug)
J Epidemiol Community Health 77(8): 543-548
Simckes M, Willits D, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Hajat A

Trends in the Use of Face Coverings in Publicly Accessible Spaces During the COVID-19 Pandemic, King County, Washington, November 2020-May 2021.
(2022 Sep-Oct)
Public Health Rep 137(5): 841-848
Tolentino L, Guthrie B, Baker MG, Beck NK, Chan N, Duchin JS, Gomez A, Simckes M, Wasserman C, Cohen MA, Wasserheit JN

Navigating the Storm of COVID-19 Literature Through Academic-Practice Partnership in Washington State: The COVID-19 Literature Situation Report.
(2022 Jan-Feb 01)
J Public Health Manag Pract 28(1): E9-E15
Simckes M, Shah A, Guthrie BL, Ross JM, Wasserheit J, Wickersham K, Wasserman C

The adverse effects of policing on population health: A conceptual model.
(2021 Jul)
Soc Sci Med 281(): 114103
Simckes M, Willits D, McFarland M, McFarland C, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Hajat A

The Effects Of Violence On Health.
(2019 Oct)
Health Aff (Millwood) 38(10): 1622-1629
Rivara F, Adhia A, Lyons V, Massey A, Mills B, Morgan E, Simckes M, Rowhani-Rahbar A

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