Board of Directors (2024 - 2026)
PRESIDENT: Huiwen Xu
Huiwen Xu, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. Dr. Xu’s research examines the staffing, quality, disparity, and policy in nursing homes using large administrative data and various survey data. He is also interested in applying machine learning to aging research and has built various supervised and unsupervised machine learning models. Dr. Xu currently leads a 4-year R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG081282, 2023-2027). He participated in multiple NIH-funded projects in cancer survivorship previously (R01, U01, UG1, R21, etc.). Dr. Xu was selected into several prestigious aging-related training programs including the RL5 Pepper Scholar from UTMB Pepper OAIC Center, the NIA RCCN Scholars Program in Multidisciplinary Research, the NIA AWARD Network Dementia Workforce Summer Institute, and the R25 Research Methods in Supportive Oncology from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Xu has published 60+ peer-reviewed articles in leading medical and policy journals including The Lancet, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Oncology, JAMA Network Open, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAGS, JAMDA, Health Affairs, Health Services Research, and Medical Care; he coauthored two book chapters and 90+ scientific abstracts. His work has been cited 2,400+ times, with an H-index of 24. Dr. Xu holds national leadership positions at the AcademyHealth, NIA AWARD Network for Dementia Workforce Research, and Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG). He serves as a scientific reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, AWARD Network, and CARG, as well as 25+ scientific journals. He has mentored 20+ statisticians, fellows, junior faculty, and students (undergraduate, master, medical, and doctoral). Dr. Xu received several national and international awards. Before coming to Emory, Dr. Xu held faculty positions at the University of Rochester Medical Center and University of Texas Medical Branch. He earned his PhD in Health Services Research and Policy with Data Science training from the University of Rochester.
PRESIDENT-ELECT: LEI SI
Dr. Lei Si is an Associate Professor in Health Services Management at Western Sydney University. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health and an Adjunct Professor at Nanjing Medical University. Dr Si undertakes research that employs health economics methods to promote efficient and equitable distribution of healthcare sources. He has extensive experience in cost-of-illness analysis, quality-of-life research, and health economic evaluation alongside clinical trials and model-based health economic evaluation. Dr Si has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Many studies were published in top health economics or clinical research journals such as Circulation, JAMA Network Open, Value in Health, BMJ Global Health, Osteoporosis International, Quality of Life Research and Pharmacoeconomics. Lei's work has successfully attracted competitive funding of over $7 million from the NHMRC and MRFF (Australia), CIHR (Canada), NSFC (China), CMB (US), etc. Dr Si is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Health Economics Review and an Associate Editor for BMJ Global Health. He also serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Osteoporosis International, Heliyon, International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, Advances in Therapy, Frontiers in Public Health etc. He has been an External Evaluator of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).
SECRETARY: Xinxin Han
Dr. Xinxin Han is a Tenure-track Assistant Professor (PI) in the School of Public Health and Emergency Management at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. Dr. Han received her PhD degree in Health Policy from the George Washington University (GW), and her MS degree in Health Services Research, Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Her work focuses on health policy evaluation, primary care services, health workforce, implementation research, and big data application. Dr. Han was a Senior Research Associate in the GW Health Workforce Research Center, where she led and participated in multiple projects funded by HRSA to examine workforce policy and health technology on enhancing the distribution of health care resources and service capacity of FQHCs. Before joining SUStech, Dr. Han was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Tsinghua University, where she was selected by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program (Talent-Introduction Program) and Tsinghua University Shui Mu Tsinghua Program. Dr. Han has published over 30 peer-reviewed original research articles in leading public health and health policy journals including Health Affairs, AJPH, AJPM, and Medical Care, and her research was picked up by Washington Post and other newspapers. Her research findings on national basic public health service have been used by local government in innovating program funds allocation method. Dr. Han serves as a committee member in several national, provincial, and local associations and as a peer-reviewer for over 10 scientific journals.
TREASURER: Meiling Ying
Meiling Ying, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Grossman Long Island School of Medicine at New York University. Dr. Ying is dedicated to leveraging her expertise in economics, econometrics, and health services research, as well as the use of claims, assessment files, and clinical datasets to study the most pressing healthcare-related topics, such as payment and delivery systems, health equity, and care outcomes and quality, with the goal of providing scientific evidence which can inform more efficient and effective policy decisions and more effective outreach to policymakers, contributing to improvements in care quality and health outcomes for all people, particularly those who are low-income and historically underrepresented. She leads and contributes to multiple federally funded projects focusing on alternative payment reforms, health disparities, and cancer care. Her manuscripts have been accepted by leading economics, health policy, and medical journals (e.g., Journal of Financial Research, Medical Care, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Journal of General Internal Medicine, JAMA Network Open, etc.). Dr. Ying received multiple national and international awards. Dr. Ying earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Economics from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Nankai University, respectively. She holds a PhD in Health Services Research and Policy from the University of Rochester.
Director of Academics: hui shao
Dr. Hui Shao is an associate professor at the Hubert Department of Global Health, with a joint appointment at the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University. Dr. Shao has an interdisciplinary research background, with an MD degree in endocrinology and a Ph.D. in health economics and policy. He was a Steven M. Teutsch Prevention Effectiveness (PE) Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Diabetes Translation, and the winner of the 2020 CDC Health Economic Research Group Kaafee Billah Award. Dr. Shao has strong research expertise in comparative effectiveness analysis, machine learning, and health economics. Dr. Shao’s research focuses on the development and application of AI and machine-learning methods in precision medicine and precision public health in diabetes and multimorbidity. His research harnesses the power of modern analytical AI methods to generate new insight into data from clinical trials and the real world. Dr. Shao's research focuses on employing machine learning techniques to analyze data from randomized control trials and the real world, with the aim of phenotyping enrollees based on their expected benefit. The objective is to identify high-benefit users, characterized by significant clinical and economic outcomes, for the treatment and to uncover the underlying mechanisms that contribute to such favorable responses. Building on this research, he seeks to identify policy-level solutions for providing support and resources to high-responders, thereby removing barriers to treatment access. By doing so, it can maximize health outputs and reduce health disparities, especially in situations where resources are limited. His research projects are funded by NIDDK (R01DK133465) and CDC (U18DP006711, U18DP006512), in which he serves as the project PI.
DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP: Fangli Geng
Dr. Fangli Geng is set to join Brown University as an Assistant Professor in the summer of 2024. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy. Dr. Geng holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy and a secondary degree in Data Science from Harvard University. Her research primarily focuses on health policy issues related to aging in the U.S. and China, aiming to design patient-centered and equitable care delivery models for elderly and vulnerable populations. She employs advanced quantitative and data science methods to enhance decision-making in health policy and management. Prior to her postdoctoral role, Dr. Geng earned a B.S. in Biotechnology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an S.M. in Risk and Decision Science in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also has extensive experience in health economic, cost-effectiveness and disease simulation modeling research, having worked at Harvard’s Center for Health Decision Science. Her contributions to health policy, particularly in post-acute and long-term care, have been published in prominent journals such as Health Affairs, JAMA Health Forum, and BMJ Medicine, and contacted by major media outlets like the Wall Street Journal. Her work has also drawn attention from significant U.S. healthcare bodies including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the Government Accountability Office.
DIRECTOR OF FUND RAISING: Xiaotao Zhang
Xiaotao Zhang, MD, PhD is a tenure-track assistant professor at Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, and The Tisch Cancer Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Zhang earned his medical degree in Preventive Medicine in China. With a growing interest in disease prevention at the level of population health, he emigrated to the U.S to continue his education and training in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Tulane University in New Orleans and The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. His research and experience are primarily focused on nutrition, the microbiome, multi-omics, liver diseases and cancer prevention. By merging epidemiologic methods with innovative techniques and bioinformatic/statistical strategies, his current research examines the role of biological and modifiable factors in fatty liver diseases and liver cancer. He hopes to unravel risk factors and mechanisms to inform the development of new preventive interventions and clinical strategies. Dr. Zhang has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in leading medical journals (e.g., Science, Lancet EbioMedicine, JAMA network open, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, Clinical Nutrition and Journal of Nutrition); he has coauthored one book chapter titled as “Diet, inflammation, microbiome and Cancer”, a few invited editorial/comments and over 40 scientific abstracts. His work has been cited for 1500+ times. Dr. Zhang currently serves on the Committee of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) CME and American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) Journals Publications. He has also served as MD-PhD admission committee member at Mount Sinai and an early career reviewer for NIH study section. Dr. Zhang has been an Associate Editor of BMC Medicine, BMC Public Health, BMC Cancer, and Nutrients and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for over 30 scientific journals including JAMA Oncology, JAMA Network Open, JNCI, AJCN, and Cancer, as well as a reviewer for AHA, APHA, ASPO, ASN annual meetings. Meanwhile, Dr. Zhang received several national and international award and honors, including American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Award, AACR Scholar in Training award, Society for Epidemiology Research (SER) Kenneth Rothman Scholarship, as well as Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASSC) Young Investigator Award.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS: Wenxi Tang
Dr. Wenxi Tang is a Health Economist and Policy Researcher serving as a Full Professor in China Pharmaceutical University since 2015. She obtained a PhD in Health Management at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy at the University of Arizona, College of Pharmacy. Her research interests cover economic evaluation of oncology therapeutics and infectious diseases, and integrated healthcare delivery system. She has presided 6 national grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China and Ministry of Science, including 2 international cooperation projects. Her academic publications include over 40 studies on evidence-based medicine and modelled drug value in BMC Medicine, Value in Health, etc. Her work was reported by ISPOR in 2018 and awarded Best Poster in ISPOR Latin America 2019. Prof. Tang has successfully mentored over 40 postgraduates till 2024.
Link to Board of Directors (2022-2024)
Link to Board of Directors (2020-2022)
Link to Board of Directors (2018-2020)