Elizabeth A. Stuart

Elizabeth A. Stuart
Professor of Mental Health, Biostatistics, and Health Policy and Management
Associate Dean for Education
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Educational Background:
PhD, Statistics, Harvard University
AB, Mathematics (Major), Chemistry (Minor), Smith College

Elizabeth A. Stuart is a statistician by training who works at the interface of statistical methods and public health, with particular expertise in methods for estimating causal effects. Big picture, Stuart is interested in the trade-offs between different study designs for estimating causal effects and how to increase the internal validity of nonexperimental studies (using methods such as propensity scores) and the external validity of randomized trials. She is committed to the dissemination and translation of statistical methods to broad audiences, and many of her papers aim to provide tutorials on methods or guidance for best practice of statistical methods.

Stuart’s primary areas of application include mental health, substance use, gun violence, education, and policy evaluation, including co-directing the JHSPH Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research and co-leading an evaluation component of a Bloomberg opioids initiative. One of her proudest accomplishments is publishing first-authored papers in substance use, autism, and other fields in addition to her methodological work.

Stuart is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and has been recognized with the mid-career award from the ASA Health Policy Statistics Section, the Gertrude Cox Award for applied statistics, and the Myrto Lefkopoulou award from the Harvard University Department of Biostatistics. She is also particularly proud of the teaching and mentoring awards she has received at Johns Hopkins.

Stuart grew up in Laconia, New Hampshire (and still gets back there whenever she can). While studying for her undergraduate degree at Smith College, she knew she wanted to “save the world through math” but had no idea what that meant or how to do it (this was before Smith developed a strong data science and statistics program). After college, she worked as a research assistant at Mathematica Policy Research, which is where she discovered statistics as a way to link her interests in public policy, the social sciences, and mathematics. She returned to Mathematica for two years after graduate school, and then found her way to public health, where she feels lucky to be able to apply statistical methods and thinking across a range of important application areas and to work in a highly collaborative, collegial, and interdisciplinary environment.