Meredith Brooks, PhD

Meredith Brooks, PhD, is an epidemiologist whose work sits at the intersection of infectious disease modeling, health systems research, and algorithmic optimization. She leads projects on tuberculosis transmission dynamics and has recently applied multi-armed bandit models to optimize the deployment of mobile screening units (winner of Dean’s Innovation Challenge). Her modeling combines rigorous epidemiologic inference with decision science to improve intervention efficiency and impact across settings. Brooks also has experience conducting large international clinical trials, with topics spanning from tuberculosis treatment to spinal anesthesia. Her research involvement has included partnerships and collaborations in Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.

Brooks previously held an Early Career Award from the Thrasher Foundation and a Research Catalyst Award from the American Lung Association; she is also currently a Parker B. Francis Fellow in Pulmonary Research through the Francis Family Foundation. Brooks is a prior recipient of a National Research Service Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (F32) and is currently the Principal Investigator of a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01), both from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH. Her K01 Award explores tuberculosis transmission in adolescents through geospatial and genotypic analyses, as well as infectious disease modeling of transmission dynamics. Brooks recently won a Carlin Foundation Award for Public Health Innovation for which she proposed to develop a model to optimize the real-time movement of mobile screening units throughout a community to increase the detection of individuals with tuberculosis and to allocate resources more efficiently.

Brooks currently serves on the Editorial Boards at Public Library of Science (PLOS) One, British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open, and BMC Global and Public Health.

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