Program Director:
Dima M. Qato, PharmD, MPH, PhD
qato@usc.edu
Director, USC Program on Medicines and Public Health, USC School of Pharmacy
Senior Fellow, USC Schaeffer Center
Hygeia Centennial Chair and Associate Professor, USC School of Pharmacy
Profile
Dr. Qato serves as the Hygeia Centennial Chair and Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy. In her newly appointed role as Director of the Program on Medicines and Public Health, she will develop and lead interdisciplinary research efforts focusing on drug utilization, access to medicines, and pharmaceutical policy both in the U.S. and globally to better understand why medications are used, or not used, and how they can and should be used in the population to promote equity, longevity and good health. Dr. Qato’s goal is to promote public accountability to better ensure access to, and safe use of, medications at the national, state and local levels.
Program Members:
Katharine Ozenberger, MS, PhD(c)
ozenberg@usc.edu
Senior Research Associate
Katharine specializes in epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology. Her research focuses on medication utilization and safety, using longitudinal data from population-based cohorts, prescription dispensing, and all-payer health claims. Katharine’s interdisciplinary approach leverages prior experience in public health outreach and program evaluation.
Elkanah Linder
Research Affiliate
Elkanah received her PharmD in 2021 and thereafter went to Sweden with a Fulbright Scholarship. As part of the pharmacoepidemiology research group at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, her Fulbright research focused on stakeholders’ perspectives and use of web-based knowledge support systems that provide environmental information on pharmaceuticals. Her research interests include the intersection of the climate change and the environment with healthcare and healthcare education. She currently works as a community pharmacist in Vermont.
Hyung-Jin Kim
Research Affiliate
Hyung-Jin Kim received his Ph.D. in Economics in the summer of 2024. He is interested in exploring questions at the intersection of Industrial Organization, Health Economics, and Machine Learning. His recent research focuses on market consolidation in the healthcare sector and related antitrust policies.
Affiliated Faculty:
Jenny S. Guadamuz, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor
Health Policy & Management
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Profile
Dr. Guadamuz is an Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management. As a health services researcher and pharmacoepidemiologist, Dr. Guadamuz uses an interdisciplinary approach to identify how structural determinants impact the use of healthcare, especially medications among minoritized racial/ethnic populations.
Tien M.H. Ng, PharmD, FHFSA, FACC, FCCP, BCPS AQ Cardiology
tienng@usc.edu
Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine
Director, Clinical-Translational Sciences Fellowship in CV Pharmacology
Vice Chair, Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy
Profile
Tien M.H. Ng, PharmD, FHFSA, FACC, FCCP, BCPS AQ Cardiology is Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Southern California, and Vice-Chair in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy. He is also the director of the Clinical-Translational Sciences Fellowship in CV Pharmacology at the USC School of Pharmacy. Dr. Ng practices as a clinical specialist with the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit team at the LAC + USC Medical Center. His research interests broadly encompass cardiovascular therapeutics, but his primary focus is on heart failure pathophysiology, pharmacotherapy, and outcomes.
Paul J. Wong, PharmD, BCCCP
paulwong@usc.edu
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
Profile
Paul J. Wong, PharmD, BCCCP, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy in the Titus Department of Clinical Pharmacy and serves as a Faculty-in-Residence at Cedars-Sinai, providing clinical pharmacy services for the internal medicine teams and support for their experiential education program.
Christopher G. Rowan, PhD
crowan@cohrdata.com
Pharmacoepidemiologist and Founder of COHRDATA, INC
Profile
Christopher G. Rowan PhD, is a pharmacoepidemiologist, biostatistician, and outcomes researcher by training. He is the Founder and President of Collaborative Healthcare Research & Data Analytics (COHRDATA). His research vision is to generate real world evidence (RWE_, using real-world data (RWD) that healthcare decision makers (i.e., patients, providers, payers, and regulators) and industry partners may use to guide evidence-based decisions.
Gregory Calip, PhD
Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Gregory Calip is an experienced pharmacoepidemiologist and biostatistician specializing in hematology, oncology, and cancer health equity research. He is recognized as a scientific authority in quantitative research methods and real-world evidence for his demonstrated expertise in cancer epidemiology, biostatistics and drug safety. He has conducted extensive research utilizing diverse datasets including population-based registries, electronic health records, administrative claims data, and clinical trials with over 15 years of experience in academia, health technology and biopharmaceutical industries.
Affiliated Students:
Ian Davis, MA, PhD Student
ijdavis@usc.edu
PhD Student
Jennifer Tran, PharmD Candidate, Class of 2023
trany@usc.edu
Pharm.D. Candidate
Jennifer Tran is a third-year pharmacy student at USC School of Pharmacy. She completed her undergraduate education at California Student University, Fullerton, where she majored in biology and health science. Her pharmacy work experience includes community, hospital inpatient, and long-term care settings. In the future, she intends to pursue her Master of Public Health degree as well as public health research to help address the need for pharmacists in public health.