Michelle Odlum

Dr. Michelle Odlum is a Health Equity Researcher with over ten years of experience in research, evaluation, and health promotion initiatives targeting vulnerable populations. Her current work focuses on eliminating health disparities through applied informatics-based approaches. Dr. Odlum utilizes Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data analytics to explore social network site data (e.g., Twitter) to support the prevention, containment, and control of infectious disease outbreaks, including Ebola, MRSA, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19, particularly in high-risk groups. These analytic methods have also enhanced understanding of the unique challenges in aging with HIV, strengthening her Precision Science approach to intervention development and implementation. 

Dr. Odlum’s first-authored manuscripts have been published in prestigious journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association Open (JAMA), British Medical Journal Open (BMJ), Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), and BMC Public Health. She has received funding through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Connections Junior Investigator award, the HIV Prevention Trials Network Scholar award (NIH), and a P30 pilot award (NIH-NINR). 

Her research on aging is further supported by the Sustained Training in Aging and HIV Research Scholar award (NIH-NIMH), the Butler-Williams Scholars program (NIH-NIA), and she is a 2023 Multiple Chronic Conditions Scholar through the AGING Initiative, which includes the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN) and the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAIC). As an educator and mentor, Dr. Odlum has guided students to a deeper understanding of health disparities, the social determinants influencing them, and the transformative potential of technology to address the complex intersection of society, policy, and health. 

Dr. Odlum holds degrees in Nursing (College of Nursing, Syracuse University), Public Health (Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University), Education (Teachers College, Columbia University), and post-doctoral training in Nursing Informatics (School of Nursing, Columbia University).