Elizabeth A. Stuart, PhD, AM, is Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Trained as a statistician, her primary research interests are in the development and use of methodology to better design and analyze the causal effects of public health and educational interventions. Through this work, she seeks to bridge statistical advances and research practice, collaborating with mental health and educational researchers to identify and solve methodological challenges.
She is particularly interested in the trade-offs among different designs for estimating causal effects, especially in terms of improving the internal validity of non-experimental studies and the external validity of randomized studies. This work translates into two primary research areas. First, she focuses on the use of propensity score methods for estimating causal effects in non-experimental studies, using these methods to improve internal validity and reduce confounding.
Her interests in this area include providing guidance to researchers on best practices for estimation, diagnostics, and the use of propensity score methods. She also investigates how to address complexities in propensity score methods, including multilevel data settings, covariate measurement error, and complex survey data. Her second primary research area focuses on methods to assess and enhance the external validity (generalizability) of randomized trial results and to help policymakers determine how applicable the results of a particular randomized study are to their own target populations. She also has interests in addressing complexities in randomized experiments, particularly missing data and non-compliance.
The applied areas on which she focuses include autism, the long-term consequences of adolescent substance abuse, education, mental health services and systems, and the effects of health care reform models on mental health service use.