Teaching Team

Megha Joshi, PhD

Dr. Megha Joshi has more than 9 years of experience in designing and leading research projects. She has expertise in causal inference and meta-analytic methods, as well as experience in cleaning and analyzing large, complex data sets in R. She has developed and maintains several R packages including wildmeta, simhelpers, and metaselection. She has a PhD in Quantitative Methods from The University of Texas at Austin. At the university, she assisted in the following courses that used R heavily: Data Analysis, Simulation, and Programming in R and Causal Inference. She currently works in the insurance industry and has experience in conducting educational policy and program evaluations.

Tiffany “Tiff” M. Kollah, BSPH

Tiffany M. Kollah is a dedicated biostatistician in training and public health researcher with a strong background in mental health, chronic disease, and clinical trials. She currently serves as a Clinical Trial Research Coordinator in the Department of Neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tiffany holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Slippery Rock University and is pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics and Data Management at NC State University (part-time) while working full-time in research at UNC.

Her research career has spanned roles as a Research Assistant in neurobiology, where she supported Alzheimer’s disease studies using neuroimaging, and as a Research Specialist with a focus on chronic kidney disease and its psychosocial impacts in dialysis patients. Her interests lie at the intersection of biostatistics, psychiatric epidemiology, and mental health disparities in minority populations. She is particularly passionate about the statistical analysis of longitudinal psychiatric data and the advancement of data science in mental health research.

Tiffany is an active member of the American Statistical Association (ASA), where she contributes to the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Outreach Group. She co-chaired the JEDI Young Professionals Group during 2024–2025 and currently serves on its executive committee. In this role, she works to expand representation and access in the statistical sciences, particularly for underserved communities.

She is also a proud member of the CoachR Network, collaborating with Megha Joshi on the development of a course designed to empower individuals who were unconstitutionally laid off, equipping them with skills to enter the growing field of public health technology.

Outside of her professional work, Tiffany enjoys playing tennis, hiking, practicing yoga and mindfulness, and painting.