Sharon Phillips, MSPH, G6
Research Mentors: Yaomin Xu, Ph.D. and Digna Velez-Edwards, Ph.D.
Thesis Topic: Ovarian Cancer
Biography
Sharon received a BS in Natural Sciences for Mathematics and Education and taught high school mathematics for 11 years. She received her MSPH in Biostatistics in 1998 and began working as a biostatistician. Her first job was with Shriners Hospitals for Children in the corporate offices in Tampa, FL. She left Shriners after about 10 months to accept a position with Baycare at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, FL where she was the manager for the original research department. This department was responsible for all research grants for the hospital, both their submission and managing them once awarded. A longitudinal study of aging that was started in 1979 was also run through this department which she was the PI for the study from 2000-2006. In 2007, she relocated to Nashville to take a position with the Department of Biostatistics at Vanderbilt. In the 11 years she has been here, her work has ranged from cancer studies to outcomes research in surgical sciences to randomized clinical trials.
The PhD program at Vanderbilt is unique in that it allows students the opportunity to work with a research team from the beginning. Class projects allow you to use the research from your work. This makes the learning experience more meaningful by combining theory with real life applications.