Jessie Edwards is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health, advancing Health Science as an infectious disease epidemiologist. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2013, MSPH in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2010, and BS in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. Edwards' professional trajectory at UNC Chapel Hill includes Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Epidemiology from 2013 to 2015, Research Assistant Professor from 2015 to 2020, Assistant Professor from 2020 to 2022, and Associate Professor since 2022. Her research centers on developing and refining quantitative methods to support public health decisions with imperfect data sources, particularly those involving missing information and measurement error. This work targets improving responses to HIV and other infectious disease outbreaks in the United States, Dominican Republic, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and East Africa, encompassing epidemiologic methods, HIV, measurement error, exposure mixtures, and occupational exposures.

Edwards has served as Principal Investigator on multiple National Institutes of Health grants, including R01 AI125087 (2016-2021) on the comparative effectiveness of tailored HIV treatment plans and mortality, R01 GM140564 (2021-2025) merging machine learning and mechanistic models for emerging epidemics, and earlier UNC CFAR awards. She is Co-Principal Investigator on R01 AI157758 (2020-2025) for improved analyses in HIV studies. Notable publications include "Mortality among people entering HIV care compared to the general US population: an observational study" (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2021), "Association of Race and Ethnicity With Initial Prescription of Antiretroviral Therapy Among People With HIV in the US" (JAMA, 2023), "Nonparametric estimation of the cumulative incidence function under outcome misclassification using external validation data" (Statistics in Medicine, 2019), "Geographic mobility and treatment outcomes among people in care for tuberculosis in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa" (PLOS Global Public Health, 2023), and "Estimating sizes of key populations at the national level: considerations for study design and analysis" (Epidemiology, 2018). Her honors include Reviewer of the Year, American Journal of Epidemiology (2015), Berton H. Kaplan Student Publication Award (2013), Sidney Kark Award for Distinguished Teaching Assistant (2013), Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society (2013), and Society for Epidemiologic Research Student Poster Award (2012). Edwards' contributions enhance methodological rigor in epidemiology, influencing HIV research and public health policy through rigorous analyses and funding successes.

Professional Email: jessedwards@unc.edu