
Laura Cassidy, MS, PhD
Professor and Director, Institute for Health & Humanity; Director of Community Health; Associate Dean Global Health
Locations
- Primary Appointment: Professor, Epidemiology
- Secondary Appointments:
Founding Director of Masters in Global Health Equity
Research Director, Institute for Health & Humanity
Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM)
Director, Surgical, Clinical, and Outcomes Research
Contact Information
Education
MS, Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh
BS, Mathematics and Physics, University of Pittsburgh
Biography
“I love interacting with my PhD students. They work closely with the community to address health disparities and improve health equity. This challenging work gives me a sense of pride in my students and MCW.”
- Laura Cassidy
Dr. Laura Cassidy joined the Institute for Health & Equity in 2011 when she took over as Director of the PhD Program in Public and Community Health and the Division of Epidemiology. Dr. Cassidy is the Research Director for the Institute for Health & Equity.
Dr. Cassidy’s journey to MCW began in Pittsburgh, where she grew up. Both of her parents were academic researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Originally, her academic pursuit was in engineering, however, she found her passion was in math and healthcare. While working fulltime in the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Dr. Cassidy earned the MS in Biostatistics and a PhD in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology.
While pursuing her PhD, her mentor’s child was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia and they developed a long-standing relationship with the pediatric surgeons at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. They collaborated on multiple manuscripts and shortly after receiving her PhD, she was awarded a grant through the Emergency Medical Services for Children to design a National Trauma Registry for Children. Dr. Keith Oldham was on her advisory panel and eventually recruited her to MCW to support research in general pediatric surgery and the pediatric surgical divisions of urology, cardiothoracic, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, and anesthesia.
Dr. Cassidy’s research experience is diverse, including managing a bladder cancer screening program in an underserved community of occupationally exposed workers for 15 years, evaluating community health departments, a Mid-Atlantic AIDS education training grant, health effects of radiation exposure in Russian workers, in addition to clinical outcomes research and registry development. She has been the PI on two federally funded grants focusing on pediatric trauma and has over 100 publications. In 2003, she traveled to a remote hospital in Haiti to evaluate data collection methods in that environment; and in 2010, she traveled to Nigeria to implement a web-based trauma registry that currently collects a culturally sensitive, minimal data set from multiple hospitals. Through this work, she gained valuable experience with complex data compiled from challenging and unique environments.
Dr. Cassidy has developed a family in her division among the faculty and staff. Under her leadership the division has grown from two faculty members and two staff to four faculty, two fellows, two postdoctoral fellows and seven full-time staff members. With the continuous learning opportunities at MCW she has been able to build upon and redesign the Public and Community Health PhD program to better foster academic learning and independent research.
In 2017, Dr. Cassidy was chosen for the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program for Women. She is currently working on her ELAM project and building on our global partnerships.
Outside of MCW, Dr. Cassidy serves as the President on the Board of Directors for the Milwaukee Center for Children and Youth, a community based organization designed to address gaps in services and provide programs to the underserved and impoverished populations in Milwaukee. Additionally, she is the Chair for the Research Committee for the Pediatric Trauma Society.
Honors and Awards
2016, Present Outstanding Graduate School Teacher of the Year, Medical College of Wisconsin
2017-2018, Fellow-Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM)
Leadership Positions
- Director, Division of Epidemiology & Social Sciences
- Founding Director Master of Science in Global Health Equity
- Research Director, Institute for Health & Equity
Publications
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(Tomas C, Kallies K, Levas M, deRoon-Cassini T, Cassidy L, Flynn-O'Brien K.) Inj Prev. 2025 Mar 20;31(2):107-113 PMID: 39988365 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85219145663 02/24/2025
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Depression symptom severity and behavioral impairment in school-going adolescents in Uganda.
(Anguzu R, Abbo C, Dickson-Gomez J, Bobholz M, Kiconco A, Shour AR, Kabanda R, Kalani K, Cassidy LD.) BMC Psychiatry. 2025 Jan 25;25(1):75 PMID: 39863866 PMCID: PMC11762070 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85216998850 01/26/2025
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(Mantych ML, Neupane S, Sapkota M, Cassidy LD, Young SC, Anguzu R, Basnet S.) Int J Emerg Med. 2025 Jan 17;18(1):16 PMID: 39825234 PMCID: PMC11740460 01/18/2025
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A comparison of traumatic injury characteristics in rural and urban adults living in Wisconsin.
(Kallies KJ, Koehne WJ, Tomas CW, Tarima S, Beckman MA, Beyer KM, Cassidy L.) J Rural Health. 2025 Jan;41(1):e2922 PMID: 39910720 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85217032660 02/06/2025
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Toward a Public Health Approach to Farmer Suicide Prevention: The Potential Power of Systems Change.
(Kohlbeck S, Quinn K, deRoon-Cassini T, Hargarten S, Nelson D, Cassidy L.) J Agromedicine. 2024 Oct;29(4):665-675 PMID: 39105563 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85200519836 08/06/2024
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(Kallies KJ, Cassidy LD, Kostelac CA, deRoon-Cassini TA, Tomas CW.) Injury. 2024 Aug;55(8):111693 PMID: 38943795 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85196948367 06/30/2024
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(Tomas CW, Timmer-Murillo S, Kallies KJ, Snowden AJ, Borisy-Rudin F, Busalacchi M, Mackenzie R, Kostelac CA, Cassidy LD, deRoon-Cassini TA.) Soc Sci Med. 2024 Jul;352:117035 PMID: 38850675 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85195188628 06/09/2024
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Association Between Lead Poisoning and Academic Performance of Third-Grade Children in Milwaukee.
(Anguzu R, Rein LE, Tarima S, Stewart M, Kostelac C, Carter C, Meurer JR, Cassidy LD.) WMJ. 2024;123(6):569-577 PMID: 39908518 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85217825507 01/01/2024
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(Anguzu R, Walker RJ, Babikako HM, Beyer KMM, Dickson-Gomez J, Zhou Y, Cassidy LD.) BMC Public Health. 2023 Nov 17;23(1):2276 PMID: 37978467 PMCID: PMC10656909 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85176939609 11/18/2023
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(Anguzu R, Cassidy LD, Nakimuli AO, Kansiime J, Babikako HM, Beyer KMM, Walker RJ, Wandira C, Kizito F, Dickson-Gomez J.) BMC Womens Health. 2023 Nov 08;23(1):584 PMID: 37940914 PMCID: PMC10634177 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85176043761 11/09/2023
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(Anguzu R, Walker RJ, Beyer KMM, Zhou Y, Babikako HM, Dickson-Gomez J, Cassidy LD.) BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2023 Nov 03;23(1):767 PMID: 37924014 PMCID: PMC10623746 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85175710523 11/04/2023
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Characteristics and neighborhood-level opportunity of assault-injured children in Milwaukee.
(Georgeades C, Farazi M, Bergner C, Bowder A, Cassidy L, Levas MN, Nimmer M, Flynn-O'Brien KT.) Inj Epidemiol. 2023 Aug 21;10(Suppl 1):43 PMID: 37605186 PMCID: PMC10441698 08/22/2023