About Us

Yhenneko Taylor, PhD
Co-Director
Assistant Vice President, Analytics and Outcomes Research
Adjunct Professor, Social Sciences and Health Policy

Dr. Yhenneko Taylor is Assistant Vice President for Analytics and Outcomes Research at Atrium Health, Co-Director of the Center for Health System Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She previously served as founding director of the health services research program within the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, where she led an interdisciplinary team that collaborated with clinicians and other stakeholders to improve care delivery and patient outcomes by conducting real-world studies leveraging quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on access to care and outcomes of pregnancy. She has published more than sixty peer-reviewed articles on these topics. In 2023, Dr. Taylor was recognized with the Academic Learning Health System Award from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine for her work advancing translational research.  Dr. Taylor received her Master's in Statistics from North Carolina State University and her PhD in Health Services Research from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is associate graduate faculty and member of the Public Health Advisory Board.

Graduate School: PhD, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Graduate School: MStat, North Carolina State University

Explore Dr. Taylor's research:

• PubMed Bibliography

Nicholas M. Pajewski, PhD
Co-Director
Professor, Biostatistics and Data Science

Co-Director, CTSA Health Informatics Program
Director of Statistical Analytics, Center for Health Care Innovation

Dr. Pajewski is a Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he also serves as the Co-Director of the CTSA Health Informatics Program and Director of Statistical Analytics for the Center for Health Care Innovation. Dr. Pajewski’s research interests broadly span biostatistics, clinical informatics, the conduct of traditional and pragmatic clinical trials, and aging research. He has over 10 years’ experience working as part of Data Coordinating Centers for large, multi-site randomized trials, largely focused on pharmacologic management of common chronic diseases. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts in prestigious journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Neurology, Lancet Neurology, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Pajewski received the academic Learning Health System award from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 2022. 

Graduate School: PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin 

Marc Kowalkowski, PhD
Associate Director            
Associate Professor, Internal Medicine 
Associate Chief for Research, Section of Hospital Medicine

Dr. Kowalkowski is an experienced health services researcher studying the development and implementation of complex care innovations to address health system-critical questions. His research applies epidemiology, pragmatic methods and care delivery sciences to improve health care quality and outcomes for patients hospitalized with sepsis and other acute conditions. He has received funding for his research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institutes of Health, PCORI and the Duke Endowment. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has received research awards from AcademyHealth, Society of Critical Care Medicine and Society of Hospital Medicine.

Graduate School: PhD, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Graduate School: MS, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Explore Dr. Kowalkowski's research:

• PubMed Publication

Tara Eaton, PhD, MA
Associate Director and Lead Scientist for Qualitative Research 
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Implementation Science  

Dr. Tara Eaton is Associate Director and Lead Scientist for Qualitative Research of the Center for Health System Sciences. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Implementation Science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. As an applied anthropologist and health services researcher, Dr. Eaton studies health care delivery and telehealth interventions for hypertension, diabetes, sepsis, aging, clinical pharmacy, and primary care. Her research interests also include organizational change, innovation in qualitative research methods, and the adoption of evidence-based practice into real world settings using implementation science. Apart from her research activities, Dr. Eaton has a passion for teammate engagement and mentorship. She is the Co-Leader of the Atrium Health Asian Heritage and Allies System Resource Group and has helped stand up and support mentoring programs throughout the enterprise, including regularly serving as a mentor for graduate students selected for CHASSIS’s annual Summer Internship Program.
Graduate School: PhD, Wayne State University
Graduate School: MA, Wayne State University

Explore Dr. Eaton's research:

• Google Scholar

C. Danielle Connor, MPH
Health Services Researcher

Danielle Connor is a Health Services Researcher for CHASSIS. She has contributed to qualitative and survey-based projects involving care delivery for hypertension management, maternal health, and post-sepsis care. Her research interests include health care access, patient education, implementation science, and user experiences with healthcare technology. Danielle received her Master of Public Health degree from UNC-Charlotte and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES®).   

Graduate School: MPH, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Explore C. Danielle's research:

• Google Scholar

Kelsey Flores
Research Coordinator

Kelsey Flores is Research Coordinator of the Center for Health System Sciences with extensive experience in clinical research, ranging from retrospective chart reviews to sponsored trials. She assists with coordinating various protocols as well as recruiting patients and other stakeholders for research participation. Ms. Flores has training in health literacy and plain language writing and is passionate about engaging patients in clinical research, including providing support to Spanish-speaking populations. Prior to joining CHASSIS, she worked as a Clinical Research Technician on more than a dozen clinical research protocols in the Department of Anesthesiology at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health. Kelsey completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology at Wake Forest University and joined CHASSIS in March 2024.

Explore Kelsey’s research: 

• Google Scholar

Asha Ganesan
Project Manager II

Asha Ganesan joined The Center for Health System Sciences (CHASSIS) in January 2023. Asha obtained a PhD in immunology from University of Southampton, UK. She completed her postdoctoral research at Thomas Jefferson University and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania investigating the processing and presentation of MHC-II-restricted influenza derived viral epitopes. Prior to joining CHASSIS, she has grants management and lab operations management experience. With her research administration skills, she manages both federal and foundation sponsored projects focusing on patient outcomes improvement initiatives.  

Graduate School: PhD, University of Southampton, UK

Sara Haddad
Senior Data Developer

Before joining Atrium in October 2024, Sara Haddad worked as a Lead Developer specializing in migrating healthcare data from a variety of legacy systems to secure, web-based applications. At Atrium Health, she provides data management support for a range of projects.

Ethan Hurley
Programmer/Analyst I

Ethan joined the team as a Programmer/Analyst in June 2024, upon graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. In addition to CHASSIS, Ethan supports the Wake Forest School of Medicine Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) by handling data requests from researchers across the enterprise. While at Wake Forest, Ethan has obtained four Epic certifications: Cogito Fundamentals, Caboodle Data Models, Clarity Data Models, and Clinical Data Models.

McKenzie Isreal
Project Manager II

McKenzie joined CHASSIS at the beginning of 2023 as a project manager to support the center with grant submissions and management. Prior to joining Atrium, McKenzie worked as a program coordinator developing programming to promote safe sex education on a university campus as well as media development for public health care campaigns. She has also served as a program manager for a non-profit to support oncology patients find resources to improve their social determinants of health. Her research interests include maternal health outcomes, and population health management.

Graduate School: MPH, University of South Carolina 

Kristin M. Lenoir, MPH
Biostatistician IV 

Kristin Lenoir has spent her career working in the public health sector in a variety of capacities, which has provided a comprehensive understanding of both population health and research. She specializes in using electronic health record data for observational studies in collaboration with numerous internal and external investigators. Her own research focuses on how our experiences and exposures shape our health and health care utilization in older age (informatics, chronic disease, diabetes, frailty and social determinants of health.) 

Graduate School: PhD, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 
Graduate School: MPH, University of Pittsburgh

Explore Kristin's research

Tsai-Ling (Ginger) Liu, PhD, MSPH
Senior Data Scientist

Dr. Liu has been with Atrium Health since 2016. She holds a background in health services research, with a focus on quantitative outcomes research. Her work involves collaborating with patients, providers, and clinical leaders to identify current healthcare challenges and design mixed-methods research approaches aimed at understanding and improving health and healthcare outcomes. In her current role at CHASSIS, Dr. Liu focuses on enhancing outcomes for older patients, particularly those living with dementia, with the goal of delivering optimal healthcare services to this population. Additionally, she applies mixed-methods approaches to support the leadership team in guiding the deployment of an AI documentation tool for providers within Atrium Health. 

Graduate School: PhD, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Graduate School: MSPH, National Yang-Ming University

Explore Dr. Liu's research:

• PubMed Publication
• Google Scholar

Rohan Mahabaleshwarkar, PhD
Senior Data Scientist

Dr. Mahabaleshwarkar joined Atrium Health in 2014. He has a background and interest in public health research, specifically the evaluation and implementation of interventions to improve primary care delivery for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. He is also interested in conducting research on outcomes and receipt of guideline-concordant care in patients with chronic diseases, to identify groups at risk of not receiving recommended care and experiencing suboptimal outcomes and understand where the need of interventions is and what type of interventions are needed. 

Graduate School: PhD, University of Mississippi
Graduate School: MS, St. John’s University

Explore Dr. Mahabaleshwarkar's research:

• Google Scholar

Hieu Nguyen, MS
Senior Statistician  

Before joining CHASSIS in 2020, Hieu Nguyen started his career as a data scientist in the computer hardware industry. At CHASSIS, he provides support with statistical design, data analysis, and research dissemination for a range of studies. A sample of projects with his involvements includes forecasting models for COVID-19 hospital census, predictive models for hypertension risks, evaluation of AI-powered clinical documentation to improve clinician efficiency, evaluation of implementation strategies to increase the utilization of Hospital-at-Home programs. 

Graduate School: Colorado State University, Fort Collins 

Jason Roberge, PhD, MPH
Senior Data Scientist

Dr. Roberge has been designing, managing and analyzing epidemiologic studies for more than 17 years. He has worked at Atrium Health for 11 years and his current role as senior data scientist focuses on assessing initiatives that seek to improve outcomes for patients in the department of psychiatry. He is the PI on two clinical trials which are assessing virtual care services for patients discharged from a behavioral health hospital and for patients seen in primary care with severe depression/anxiety.  

Graduate School: PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin 
Graduate School: MPH, Emory University

Explore Roberge's research:

• PubMed Publication

Timothy Rogers
Senior Data Developer

Prior to joining CHASSIS in 2023, Tim Rogers was Lead Systems Operations Engineer with Wells Fargo where he was an application manager and supported metrics reporting for CCIBT (Commercial and Corporate & Investment Banking Technology). Prior to this Tim worked as an Implementation Engineer with Mckesson installing and configuring Health Information Systems for large health care organizations. Currently, at CHASSIS, he provides data management support for a range of projects.  

Casey Stephens, MPH
Intermediate Health Services Researcher 

Casey Stephens joined Atrium Health in January 2017. She has developed and managed databases, collaborated/designed psychometric surveys and has performed statistical analyses on numerous projects. Casey also co-leads the CHASSIS Summer Internship program, which takes the interns from orientation to successfully publishing manuscripts. She continues to collaborate with physicians across the health care system and is excited to be a part of the CHASSIS research group. Casey will be graduating with her PhD in Health Services Research in December 2025.

Graduate School: MPH, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Explore Casey's research:

• ResearchGate