DESPR, NICHD, NIH
6100 Executive Blvd, #7B03B
Bethesda, MD 20892
Phone: 301-435-2295
Email: thomame@mail.nih.gov
| January 2010 -present Bethesda, MD | Postdoctoral Fellow, Intramural Research Training Award Epidemiology Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health |
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| November 2009 Baltimore, MD | PhD, Reproductive Epidemiology concentration Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Thesis: “The Epidemiology and Natural History of Bacterial Vaginosis in Rakai, Uganda” Advisor: Dr. Ronald Gray |
| November 2009 Baltimore, MD | MHS, Department of Biostatistics Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Advisor: Dr. Mei-Cheng Wang |
| May 2000 Philadelphia, PA | B.A., Anthropology, minor in Nutrition, summa cum laude College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Honors Thesis: “Diversity and the University: Social Options for a Diverse Campus” Advisor: Dr. Francis E. Johnston |
| Fall 1998 Samoa/Fiji | Pacific Island Studies School for International Training Independent Study: “The Socioeconomic Impact of Marine Conversation in Aliepata, Samoa” |
| June 2005 – July 2009 Baltimore, MD | Research Assistant Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Research Projects: Rakai Health Sciences Program; Prognosis, Improvements in Quality of Life, and Social Integration of Women with Obstetric Fistula after Surgical Treatments study; Iron Supplementation in Adolescent girls in West Bengal, India |
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| May 2008 – June 2008 Washington D.C. | Research Assistant Save the Children, Saving Newborn Lives Survey-based Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation of Newborn Health Programs |
| Aug 2002 – Aug 2004 Baltimore, MD | Research Program Coordinator Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| Nov 2000 – July 2002 New York, NY | Research Program Coordinator Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University |
| 1999 – 2000 Philadelphia, PA | Research Assistant Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania |
| May 1999 – Aug 1999 Washington D.C. | Administrative Liaison International Fund for Agricultural Development |
| Summer 2011, 2012 | Lecturer, Reproductive Health Studies in Child Health and Human Development, DESPR, NICHD, NIH |
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| April 2011 | Lecturer, Issues in Reproductive Epidemiology Research Fellows Seminar, DESPR, NICHD, NIH |
| Spring 2009 | Teaching Assistant, Statistical Methods in Public Health IV Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| 2007 – 2008 | Teaching Assistant, Methods in Biostatistics I-IV Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| Spring 2006, 2007 | Teaching Assistant, Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| 2006 – 2008 | Tutor, Statistical Methods in Public Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| 2006 | Tutor, Principles of Epidemiology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| Summer 2010 | K. Leanne Sanders, Summer Fellow, NICHD, NIH (Co-mentor) |
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| 2012 | J. Fredo Louis, Postbaccalaureate Fellow, NICHD, NIH (Co-mentor) |
| 2010 | Delta Omega Honors Society, Johns Hopkins University |
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| 2009 – 2010 | Caroline Cochran Scholarship Fund, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2008 – 2009 | The R. Bradley Sack Family Scholarship Award for Infectious Diseases in the Developing World, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2008 – 2009 | Endowed Fellowship in Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2006 – 2007 | Endowed Fellowship in Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2000 | Golden Key International Honors Society, University of Pennsylvania |
| 2000 | Mortar Board National Honors Society, University of Pennsylvania |
Alpha Chapter of the Delta Omega Honors Society in Public Health
American Public Health Association
American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association
Society for Epidemiologic Research
Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research
American Statistical Association
| Aug 2009 – Dec 2009 | Predoctoral Fellowship Role: Predoctoral Fellow (Mentor: Dr. Mark Klebanoff) Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Type: Intramural Research Training Award |
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| April 2008 – March 2009 | The Natural History of Bacterial Vaginosis and Modes of Transmission, Rakai, Uganda Role: Principal Investigator Agency: Center for Disease Control and Prevention Type: R36PS001104-01 A dissertation training award to investigate the natural history of and risk factors for BV and vaginal flora changes among a cohort of pre-and postmenarcheal women in Rakai, Uganda |
| Sept 2004 – May 2007 | Johns Hopkins Sexually Transmitted Diseases Training Center Grant Role: Predoctoral Fellow (PI: Dr. Jonathan Zenilman) Agency: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Type: T32A1050056 |
Microbial Diversity of Water Sources, Rakai, Uganda
Role: Epidemiologist (PI: Drs. Ronald Gray and Maria Wawer)
Agency: Rakai Health Sciences Program
Type: n/a
A pilot project to describe bacterial species present in water from different sources in communities enrolled in the Rakai Health Sciences Program ongoing cohort using 16S rRNA sequencing
The Effect of Diet on Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and Periodontal Disease (PD)
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI: Dr. Alisha Rovner)
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type: Intramural
To assess the association between diet and dietary indices from food frequency questionnaires on BV and PD from the Longitudinal Study of Vaginal Flora (LSVF)
Microbial Diversity of Vaginal, Stool, and Uretheral Samples in Infants
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Type: Intramural
A pilot project to describe bacterial species collected from infants at 1 and 12 weeks of age from different sites (vagina, stool, and urethra) using 16S rRNA sequencing to inform future studies on vertical transmission of microflora
New York State Infant Development Screening Program (Upstate KIDS)
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher (PI: Dr. Mary Hediger)
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type: Intramural
To determine whether infertility treatments, such as ovulation-stimulating medications and various assisted reproductive technologies (ART), adversely affect the growth, motor, and social development of children from birth through age three years
Endometriosis Natural History, Diagnosis, and Outcomes (ENDO) Study
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher (PI: Dr. Germaine Buck Louis)
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type: Intramural
To assess the relation between exposure to persistent environmental chemicals and the incidence and severity of endometriosis using a matched-exposure cohort design to recruit women from geographic areas with known environmental contamination who were undergoing laparoscopy
Approaches for assessing trends in infertility
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Type: Intramural To assess determinants and trends in infertility using different methodologic approaches within the National Survey of Family Growth
Validation Study of Retrospectively Reported Time-to-Pregnancy Data
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher (PI: Dr. Rajeshwari Sundaram)
Agency: National Institute for Child Health and Human Development
Type: Intramural To compared the validity at 3 to 4 years of male and female recalled time to pregnancy (TTP) and other covariates with their original prospective pregnancy study using the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study, which utilized a prospective cohort design suitable for following couples across sensitive windows of human reproduction and development.
Thoma ME, Hediger ML, Sundaram R, Chen Z, Peterson CM, Croughan MS, Buck Louis GM, for the ENDO Study Working Group. Comparing “apples and pears”: How well do women perceive their body size and shape? J Women’s Health. 2012. (Accepted)
Sanders KL, Thoma ME, Yu K, Albert PS. An evaluation of the natural history of bacterial vaginosis using transition models. Sex Transm Dis. 2011 Dec;38(12):1131-6. [PMID: 22082724]
Thoma ME, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. The natural history of bacterial vaginosis (BV) diagnosed by Gram stain among women in Rakai, Uganda. Sex Transm Dis. 2011 Nov;38(11):1040-1045. [PMID: 21992981]
Thoma ME, Klebanoff M, Rovner A, Nansel T, Neggers Y, Andrews W, Schwebke J. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is associated with dietary indices. J Nutr. 2011, Sep;141(9):1698-704. [PMID: 21734062]
Thoma ME, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Aluma S, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. The Short-term Variability of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) Diagnosed by Nugent Gram Stain Criteria among Sexually Active Women in Rakai, Uganda. Sex Transm Dis. 2011 Feb;38(2):111-6. [PMID: 20921931]
Thoma ME, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Aluma S, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. Longitudinal changes in vaginal microbiota composition assessed by Gram-stain among never sexually active pre-and postmenarcheal adolescents in Rakai, Uganda. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2011 Feb;24(1):42-7. [PMID: 20709584]
Cheon K, Thoma ME, Kong X, Albert PS. A mixture of Markov models for heterogeneous longitudinal ordinal data: with applications to longitudinal bacterial vaginosis data, 2012.
Hunsberger S, Albert P, Thoma ME. Approaches for retrospective sampling for longitudinal transition regression models. 2012.
Thoma ME, Louis JF, McLain AC, King RB, Trumble AC, Sundaram R, Buck Louis GM. A comparison of measurement approaches for estimating the prevalence of infertility in the National Survey of Family Growth.
Louis JF, Thoma ME, McLain AC, King RB, Trumble AC, Sundaram R, Buck Louis< GM. Prevalence of couple infertility in the US based on male reporting: evidence from a nationally-representative survey.
Thoma ME, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Aluma S, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. Risk and protective factors for persistent BV among a cohort of reproductive-aged women in Rakai, Uganda.
Thoma ME, Klebanoff MA, Nansel TR, Hediger ML, Neggers Y, Jeffcoat M, Rovner A. The association between periodontal disease (PD) and dietary fats and cholesterol.
Thoma M, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Serwadda D, Wawer M. Unsafe injections and transmission of HIV-1 in sub-Saharan Africa. Lancet. 2004 May 15; 363(9421):1650-1. [PMID: 15145649]
Gray RH, Thoma M, Kiwanuka N, Serwadda D, Wawer M. HIV transmission through health care in sub-Saharan Africa. Lancet. 2004 Nov.6-12; 364(9446):1666.
Report of a Consultative Meeting on Survey-based Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation of Newborn Health Programs April 29-30, 2008. Save the Children, Saving Newborn Lives. [prepared initial draft]
Thoma ME, Louis JF, McLain AC, King RB, Trumble AC, Sundaram R, Buck Louis GM. A comparison of measurement approaches for estimating the prevalence of infertility in the National Survey of Family Growth. Oral presentation at the 2012 Meeting of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, June 2012, Minneapolis, MN.
Louis J, Thoma M, Trumble A. Prevalence of couple infertility in the US based on male reporting: evidence from a nationally-representative survey. Poster presentation at the NIH Spring Research Festival, April 2012, Bethesda, MD.
Cheon K, Thoma ME, Kong X, Albert PS. A mixture of Markov models for heterogeneous longitudinal ordinal data: with applications to analyzing longitudinal bacterial vaginosis data. Oral presentation at the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society Spring Meeting, April 2012, Washington D.C.
Thoma ME, Hediger ML, Sundaram R, Chen Z, Peterson CM, Croughan MS, Buck Louis GM, for the ENDO Study Working Group. Comparing “apples and pears”: How well do women perceive their body size and shape? Oral presentation at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine 67th Annual Meeting, October 2011, Orlando, FL.
Thoma ME, Klebanoff MA, Nansel TR, Hediger ML, Neggers Y. The association between periodontal disease (PD) and dietary fats and cholesterol. Poster presentation at the 2011 Meeting of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, June 2011, Montreal, Canada.
Thoma M, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Aluma S, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. The Short-term Variability of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) among Sexually Active Women in Rakai, Uganda. Poster presentation at the 2010 Meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, June 2010, Seattle, WA.
Thoma M, Gray RH, Kiwanuka N, Wang MC, Aluma S, Sewankambo N, Wawer M. Don’t throw BV out with the bathwater: risk and protective factors for bacterial vaginosis (BV) in Rakai, Uganda. Poster presentation at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, June 2010, Seattle, WA.
Thoma M, Gray R, Kiwanuka N, Serwadda D, Nalugoda F, Kigozi G, Wang M, Aluma S, Ndyanabo A, Wawer MJ. Stage of Puberty and Vaginal Flora Development. Poster presentation at the 18th International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research, July 2009. London, England.
Thoma M, Gray R. Male Circumcision and Genital Ulcer Disease: A meta-analysis. Poster presentation at the 17th International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research, July 2007. Seattle, WA.
Gray R, Wawer M, Thoma M, Serwadda D, Nalugoda F, Li X, Kigozi G, Kiwanuka N, Laeyendecker, Quinn T. Male Circumcision and the risks of female HIV and sexually transmitted infections acquisition in Rakai, Uganda. Oral presentation at the 13th Conference on Retroviral and Opportunistic Infections, February 2006. Denver, CO.
American Journal of Epidemiology
British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Journal of Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Maternal and Child Health Journal
Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology (SPER)
Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER)
Cochrane Review Group on HIV/AIDS
Indian Journal of Medical Research
Technical Reviewer for RFP “Validation of Retrospectively Reported Time to Pregnancy Data”
Reproductive Health Journal Club, NICHD (2009-present)
Epidemiologic Methods Journal Club, NICHD (2009-present)
Postdoctoral Epidemiology series, coordinator for Reproductive/Nutritional
Epidemiology (2011)
Reproductive Endocrinology for Epidemiologists, coordinator (2010-2011)
Sexually Transmitted Infections Journal Club, JHU (2005-2009)
Biostatistics MHS Journal Club, JHU, coordinator (2007-2008)
Sexually Transmitted Infections Seminar series, JHU, coordinator (2005-2007)
Population, Family, and Reproductive Health Departmental Research Day (2006-2007)
Mortar Board National Senior Honors Society Executive Board (1999-2000)
Managing Federal Grants and Cooperative Agreements for Recipients (2004), Management Concepts
One-day training on BV diagnosis and scoring, Dr. Sharon Hillier’s Lab, Magee Women’s Research Institute (2008)
Institute for Genome Sciences, Genomics Workshop at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (April 20-23, 2010)
Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (February 14th, 2011)
Good Clinical Practice Certification, NIAID, NIH (April 2011)
Introduction to R, Computer Training Program, Center for Information Technology, NIH (May 2011)
Contract Officer Representative Training, HHS University, online (October-present, 2012)
Measurement Error in Dietary Intake Data Webinar Series, Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (September – December, 2011)
Media Training, Oratorio Media and Presentation Training, Washington D.C. (November 2, 2011)
SAS Enterprise Guide 1: Querying and Reporting, Computer Training Program, Center for Information Technology, NIH (January 2012)
SAS Programming Essentials for Experienced SAS Enterprise Guide Users, Computer Training Program, Center for Information Technology, NIH (February 2012)
STATA (advanced), R, SAS, Cochrane Collaboration Review Manager, Reference Manager, and Microsoft Office, Excel, Access, Power Point
German proficiency (writing and reading)
Uganda (2001, 2009); Samoa/Fiji (1998)