Research Interests
novel statistical modelssocial and structural determinantshealth and illnessvulnerable populationsurban settings
Opportunities
Work Study Positions Available: No
Grant Funded Positions Available: No
Course-Credit Research Opportunities Available: No
Volunteer Research Positions Available: No
Biography
Dr. Ramona Stone has joined the Department of Health, as an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in Community Health. She is a social epidemiologist specialized in quantitative research methods and in advanced statistical techniques, with extensive experience in community-based research.
Dr. Stone started her career in the social determinants of health research as a sociologist, with the Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Romania, for a community-based program aiming to improve maternal and child health in minority communities. She came to the United States in 1997, to enroll in the doctoral program at the UofL. After completing her doctorate, Dr. Stone continued at UofL as a research faculty in social work, and served as an investigator on numerous program evaluation studies of social, educational and public health programs. She led the quantitative research efforts of the Kentucky’s Welfare Reform evaluation, of a statewide community collaboration to prevent and reduce child abuse and neglect, and of the community supportive services for public housing residents relocated due to the HUD’s HOPE VI program. Her prior research efforts also include a cost analysis of health and social services available to the homeless population in Louisville, and a cost-effectiveness analysis of a diversion program aiming to reduce incarceration of individuals with mental health and substance abuse issues. In 2010, she entered the postdoctoral MPH program in Quantitative Methods at HSPH, and obtained an associate research professor position at the University of Kentucky, in the College of Public Health. At UK, Dr. Stone conducted evaluation of several programs delivered via research centers (cancer and infectious disease prevention, safety and injury prevention, biomedical research undergraduate training, and clinical and translational programs).
Dr. Stone authored and co-authored papers focused on program evaluations’ results, published and presented in peer-reviewed journals and at national conferences. She is the recipient of the 2002 Outstanding Dissertation Award in Urban Affairs at the UofL, and was nominated twice as a Faculty Favorite by the UofL’s graduate students in social work. Dr. Stone maintains membership in the American Public Health Association, American Evaluation Association, Urban Affairs Association, as well as in the Romanian Academic Society and the Association of Romanian Sociologists.
