Laura Cassidy, MS, PhD

Dr. Cassidy’s journey to MCW began in Pittsburgh, where she grew up. While working fulltime at 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 working as a full time research coordinator in the Department of Biostatistics. 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, MCW, Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery was on her advisory panel and in 2016 recruited her to MCW Department of Surgery as an Associate Professor and Director of Surgical Clinical Outcomes Research in general pediatric surgery and the pediatric surgical divisions of urology, cardiothoracic surgery, otolaryngology, orthopedic, plastic surgery, and anesthesia.

She transitioned to the College’s Institute for Health & Equity in 2011 when she became Director of the PhD Program in Public and Community Health and the Founding Director of the Division of Epidemiology and as of recent, Epidemiology and Social Sciences. She became full Professor with Tenure in 2014 and currently serves also serves as the Institute’s Research Director. In 2017, Dr. Cassidy was chosen for the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program for Women. An outcome of that program was her founding the State’s first Master of Science in Global Health Equity degree program and currently serves as its Director.

Dr. Cassidy’s research experience is diverse, including managing a bladder cancer screening program, evaluating community health departments, a Mid-Atlantic AIDS education training grant, health effects of radiation exposure in Russian workers, Native American health, in addition to clinical outcomes research and registry development. She has been the PI on multiple federally funded grants including NIH, RWJ and NIJ, and has over 100 publications.

She has had many global collaborations including a remote hospital in Haiti to evaluate data collection methods in that environment and Nigeria to implement a web-based trauma registry that currently collects a culturally sensitive, minimal data set from multiple hospitals. She is an Examiner, at the Uganda-based Makerere University School of Public Health and maintains partnerships in Rwanda with Health Builders and Ageis Trust where she serves as Chair of Steering Committee on Mental Health in Rwanda. Through this work, she gained valuable experience with complex data compiled from challenging and unique and diverse resourced environments. From 2011-2020, 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 including diversifying its matriculants.

Through COVID-19 pandemic, she has served as an Epidemiology Advisor to Dr. Raymond, a member of the WI Covid-19 Leadership Core Steering Committee, an advisor to the Milwaukee Restaurant COVID-19 Health and Safety, and the Wisconsin Performing Arts COVID-19 Health and Safety Advisor. She received the Marcus Performing Arts Center's Dynamic Leadership Award for the extraordinary service, guidance, and volunteerism she provided the arts sector during the pandemic, the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s 2021 Distinguished Service to Public Health Award, and an Excellence in Journalism Gold award for Best Pandemic Story in Audio for the CTSI Discovery Radio Episode on The Epidemiology of Disease: COVID-19 which also featured, her colleague, Dr. Kirsten Beyer.

Focused on all four missions of the College including successful grant writing, manuscript development, and a mentor to medical students, residents, fellows, graduate and doctoral students and post-doc fellows and faculty, Dr. Cassidy became Associate Dean for Global Health in July 2022.