Denis Nash, PhD
Director, Implementation Science and Health Outcomes Core
Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
Executive Director, Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH)
Email: denis.nash@sph.cuny.edu
Denis Nash, PhD, is an epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience and leadership in conducting epidemiologic studies. His central interests include infectious diseases, the field of public health surveillance and the use of public health surveillance data to conduct rigorous assessments of programmatic effectiveness and the impact of policies on health. He has worked extensively in domestic and international settings conducting large-scale, ‘real-world’ epidemiologic studies examining key outcomes among persons with HIV infection.
Dr. Nash is Professor of Epidemiology at the CUNY School of Public Health. He has worked at the forefront of the emerging field of implementation science, and is the founding Executive Director of CUNY’s new interdisciplinary Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health. He has published over 150 scientific articles and his research is primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is the Associate Director of the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Director the Implementation Science and Health Outcomes Core of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University. Dr. Nash also serves as a standing member on the National Institutes of Health study section review panels.
Examples of recent studies led by Dr. Nash include the CHORDS Study evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV care coordination at improving HIV viral suppression among over 7,000 persons living with HIV in New York City’s Ryan White Program; the LSTART Study, which enrolled and followed over 1,200 persons initiating HIV treatment in Ethiopia to identify factors associated with late HIV treatment initiation; and the IeDEA Central Africa regional collaboration, which is an implementation science study that follows over 50,000 persons enrolled in HIV care in 5 Central African countries (Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Republic of Congo, and Rwanda). Dr. Nash also led the development of New York’s Ending the Epidemic Dashboard system, which tracks the progress of Governor Cuomo’s initiative to End New York’s AIDS Epidemic by the end of 2020.
Dr. Nash teaches courses in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Public Health Surveillance, and has mentored over 75 masters students, doctoral students, and post-doctoral fellows training in epidemiology, public health and implementation science.
Prior to joining CUNY, Dr. Nash was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He also served as the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation for ICAP at Columbia University, where he spearheaded a large-scale, multi-country initiative collecting routine medical records electronically. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Nash was the Director of HIV/AIDS Surveillance at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he played a key role in implementing named reporting for HIV. Dr. Nash also served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and played a key role in the outbreak investigation around the emergence of West Nile Virus in New York in 1999.
EDUCATION
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
MPH - 1995 - Public Health
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
PhD - 1999 - Epidemiology
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1998-1999: Senior Research Assistant, Program in Human Health and the Environment, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
1999-2001: Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Based at the New York City Department of Health, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program, New York, NY
1999-2004: Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
2001-2003: Director, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Unit, HIV/AIDS Surveillance and Epidemiology Program, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY
2003-2004: Investigator, Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, The New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY
2004-2006: Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
2006-2010: Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
2010-2012: Associate Professor of Epidemiology (with tenure), Hunter College, School of Urban Public Health, New York, NY
2011-2012: Associate Professor of Public Health, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
2012-2016: Associate Professor of Epidemiology (with tenure), Hunter College, School of Urban Public Health, New York, NY
Professor of Public Health, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
2013-2016: Executive Officer, Doctor of Public Health Programs, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
2010-present: Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
2015-present: Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
2016-present: Professor of Epidemiology (with tenure), CUNY School of Public Health
2016-present: Executive Director, Institute for Implementation Science Research in Population Health, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
2018-present: Visiting Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health
Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology (with tenure), CUNY School of Public Health
HONORS AND AWARDS
2001: Outstanding Unit Citation: U.S. Public Health Service for work on the 1999 West Nile outbreak
2001: Honor Award: Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Infectious Diseases
2001: Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service (West Nile outbreak response): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2002: CDC, Charles C. Shephard award finalist, for best epidemiologic publication in 2001
2002: James H. Nagano Citation for an outstanding CDC scientific publication in 2001, National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC
2004: NIH Health Disparities Research Fellow, NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP)