After the PostDoc | Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences

After the PostDoc

The Next Adventure(s) for Our Postdoctoral Fellows & Scholars

After mentorship by PQHS faculty, where do our fellows and scholars go? Here are a few departmental postdoc "alum" and their career paths.

Note: This page is new and currently being developed. If you would like to be added, or would like to recommend someone be added, email jxg1116 at case dot edu.

Raghav Awasthi, PhD

Raghav was a Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences post-doctoral researcher from September 2023 through April 2026. Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD mentored Raghav.

Dr. Awasthi is currently a researcher for Johnson & Johnson.

Elina Misicka, PhD

After earning a PhD in our Epidemiology & Biostatistics program, Elina was a Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences post-doctoral scholar (June 2022-Oct 2024) who earned a fellowship grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (2023). Her postdoctoral mentor was Farren Briggs, PhD.

Dr. Misicka went on to be a biostatistician at The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and is currently a consultant for Experis.

Andrea R. Waksmunski, PhD

Andrea earned a PhD in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences with PQHS department chair Dr. Jonathan Haines as dissertation research advisor. Read our article about the AMD research study on which she worked. She continued in the Haines lab as a postdoctoral fellow from June 2020 until May 2023.

Currently Dr. Waksmunski is a medical writer for OPEN Health.

Shannon Walker, PhD

Shannon was a CTSC T32 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, PQHS Department through January 2026. She was mentored by Dy Darcy Freedman, and her research topic was racial disparities in maternal perinatal and postpartum outcomes.

Currently Dr. Walker is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University.

Yihe Yang, PhD

Yihe Yang was a Postdoctoral Fellow in our department through the spring of 2026. Yihe was first author on a paper published in Genome Biology detailing his work with mentor Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD. In this paper, Dr.s Yang and Zhu introduce MRBEE-TL, a new statistical method designed to enable more inclusive and informative genetic studies of disease. As of May 2026 Dr. Yang is now a PQHS Research Associate.