Gabriel J. Odom, PhD, ThD

Data scientist. Statistician. Avid learner. Ordained priest. | https://github.com/gabrielodom

Profile

I am an assistant professor of biostatistics at Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. I create open-source software packages and databases to facilitate public health research, and I produce and analyze computational statistics methods for genetics and genomics research. I enjoy mentoring my doctoral students, and I show them the simple joys of writing beautiful code. I want my passion for reproducible data science to spur my students to become better scientists and better people. Overall, I strive to become a better steward of my discipline.

Interests

R/Bioconductor Package Development, Statistical Genetics/Genomics, Reproducibility in Data Science, Public Health Surveillance and Informatics, High-Dimensional Statistics, Computational Statistics, Matrix Theory, Bayesian Statistics, Spatial/Time Series, Ethics in Public Health and Medical Informatics

Application Areas

Substance use disorders, public health data reporting, cancers, Alzheimer’s and neuro-degenerative diseases and related neurotoxicology

Employment

08/2019 - Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Stempel College of Public Health
Florida International University, Miami, FL
40 hours / week
Salary: $102,514.05 / 9 months; $136,685.40 / 12 months


08/2017 - 08/2019 Postdoctoral Associate, Division of Biostatistics,
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL
40 hours / week
Salary: $60,000 / year


08/2013 - 08/2017 Graduate Assistant, Department of Statistical Sciences,
Baylor University, Waco, TX
20 hours / week
Salary: $24,000 / year

Research

In Progress:

  • Towards a framework for algorithmic bias and fairness in predicting treatment outcome for opioid use disorder (NIH AIM-AHEAD 1OT2OD032581-02-267). Co-PI. 09/2023 - 09/2025. Contact PI: Laura Brandt, City College of New York.
  • FIU RCMI: Research Capacity Core (NIMHD 2U54MD012393-06 8588). Data Scientist. 08/2022 - 07/2027. PI: Zoran Bursac, Florida International University.
  • Addressing community-level influences of HIV and COVID-19 disparities among people with HIV (NIMHD 2U54MD012393-06 8587). Lead Data Scientist. 08/2022 - 07/2027. PI: Diana Sheehan, Florida International University.
  • Individual Level Predictive Modeling of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Response using Aggregate CTN Datasets (NIDA UG1DA013035-17). Data scientist. 10/2019 - 06/2023. PI: Dan Feaster, University of Miami

Completed:

  • A Software Tool to Standardize Outcomes and Measure Algorithmic Racial Bias in Opioid Clinical Trials (NIMHD FIU-RCMI Pilot AWD000000009108). 07/2021 - 06/2022. PI: Gabriel Odom
  • Building blood based DNA methylation signatures for AD that are reflective of CNS changes (NIA 1RF1AG061127-01). Subcontract PI. 09/2019 - 07/2022. PI: Lily Wang, University of Miami
  • New Statistical Strategies for Comprehensive Analysis of Epigenomewide Methylation Data: NIH-funded post-doc research. PI: Lily Wang, University of Miami
  • iPGDAC, An Integrative Proteogenomic Data Analysis Center for CPTAC: NIH-funded post-doc research. PI: Bing Zhang, Baylor College of Medicine; Site PI and Supervisor: Xi Steven Chen, University of Miami
  • Self-Correcting Energy-Efficient Water Reclamation Systems for Tailored Water Reuse at Decentralized Facilities: NSF-funded PhD research. PI: Tzahi Cath, Colorado School of Mines; Co-PI and Supervisor: Amanda S. Hering, Baylor University

Education

2023 Graduate Certificate, Innovations for Substance Use Disorders

  • Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School
  • “Innovation Pitch Competition” Finalist

2019 Postdoctoral Associate, Biostatistics

  • The University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
  • Mentors: Xi Steven Chen and Lily Wang

2017 PhD, Statistical Science

  • Baylor University
  • Dissertation: “Three Examples of Linear Dimension Reduction”
  • Advisors: Dean M. Young and Amanda S. Hering
  • Honors: Conyer’s Doctoral Honors Fellow; TeaCHE Capstone in Higher Education

2014 ThD, Sacred Theology

  • International Miracle Institute
  • Dissertation: “An Exploration of Biblical Perspectives as Applied to Personal, Business, and National Economics”
  • Advisor: Christian M. E. Harfouche
  • Honors: Vested as Ordained Presbyter

2011 BA, Economics; BS, Mathematics

  • The University of West Florida
  • Thesis: “An Economic Approach to University Campus Parking Shortages”
  • Advisor: Morris L. Marx
  • Honors: Summa Cum Laude, First in Major (Economics); Kugelman Honors Techne Scholar

2011 MDiv, BTh; Theology (conjoint)

  • International Miracle Institute
  • Honors: Licensed Member of the Clergy

Manuscripts

Peer-reviewed

  • “Individual-Level Risk Prediction of Return to Use During Opioid Use Disorder Treatment”. Luo SX, Feaster DJ, Liu Y, Balise RR, Hu MC, Bouzoubaa B, Odom GJ, Brandt L, Pan Y, Hser Y, VanVeldhuisen P, Castillo F, Calderon AR, Rotrosen J, Saxon AJ, Weiss RD, Wall M, and Nunes EV. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.3596
  • “Capturing drug use patterns at a glance: An \(n\)-ary word sufficient statistic for repeated univariate categorical values”. Odom GJ*, Brandt L*, Castro C, Luo SX, Feaster DJ, Balise RR, the CTN-0094 Consortium Team. Plos One. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291248 (* signifies co-first-authorship)
  • “Risk of Experiencing an Overdose Event for Patients Undergoing Treatment With Medication for Opioid Use Disorder”. Brandt L, Hu MC, Liu Y, Castillo F, Odom GJ, Balise RR, Feaster DJ, Nunes EV, and Luo SX. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20220312
  • “Specific polysubstance use patterns predict relapse among patients entering opioid use disorder treatment”. Pan Y, Feaster DJ, Odom GJ, Brandt L, Hu MC, Weiss RD, Rotrosen J, Saxon AJ, Luo SX, and Balise RR. Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadr.2022.100128
  • “pathwayMultiomics: An R package for efficient integrative analysis of multi-omics datasets with matched or un-matched samples”. Odom GJ, Colaprico A, Silva T, Chen X, and Wang L. Frontiers in Genetics. 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.783713
  • “pathwayPCA: an R/Bioconductor Package for Pathway Based Integrative Analysis of Multi‐Omics Data. Odom GJ, Ban Y, Colaprico A, Liu L†, Silva T, Sun X, Pico A, Zhang B, Wang L, and Chen X. Proteomics. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmic.201900409
  • “Moonlight: A tool to interpret pathways to discover cancer driver genes”. Colaprico A, Olsen C, Cava C, Bailey M, Odom GJ, Terkelsen T, Silva T, Olsen A, Cantini L, Zinovyev A, Barillot E, Bertoli G, Castiglioni I, Noushmehr H, Chen X, Papaleo E, and Bontempi G. Nature Communications. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13803-0
  • “An evaluation of supervised methods for identifying DMRs in Illumina methylation arrays.” Saurav M*, Odom GJ*, Gao Z, Chen X, and Wang L. Briefings in Bioinformatics. 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bib/bby085. (* signifies co-first-authorship)
  • “Multi-state multivariate statistical process control.” Odom GJ, Newhart KB, Cath TY, and Hering AS. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/asmb.2333.

With mentees

  • “No evidence of accelerated epigenetic aging among black heroin users: A case vs control analysis”. Jones JD, Martinez S, Gonzalez I†, Odom GJ, Comer SD. Addiction Neuroscience. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addicn.2023.100096
  • “Evaluating the effect of acute diesel exhaust particle exposure on P-glycoprotein efflux transporter in the blood-brain barrier co-cultured with microglia”. Aquino GV†, Dabi A, Odom GJ, Lavado R, Nunn K, Thomas K, Schackmuth B, Shariff N, Jarajapu M, Pluto M, Miller SR, Eller L, Pressley J, Patel RR, Black J, and Bruce ED. Current Research in Toxicology. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crtox.2023.100107
  • “The effect of changing the military’s sexual assault laws on law enforcement investigative findings in the US Army.” Carpenter ER, Gonzalez I†, Garcia SJ, and Odom GJ. Law and Human Behavior. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000489
  • “Lessons Learned From Miami-Dade County’s COVID-19 Epidemic: Making Surveillance Data Accessible for Policy Makers”. Williams R†, Bursac Z, Trepka M, and Odom GJ. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001364
  • “Evaluating the endothelial-microglial interaction and comprehensive inflammatory marker profiles under acute exposure to ultrafine diesel exhaust particles in vitro”. Aquino G†, Dabi A, Odom GJ, Zhang F, and Bruce E. Toxicology. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2021.152748
  • “coMethDMR: Accurate identification of co-methylated and differentially-methylated regions in epigenome-wide association studies with continuous phenotypes”. Gomez L†, Odom GJ, Liu L†, Gao Z, Chen X, and Wang L. Nucleic Acids Research. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz590.
  • † indicates academic mentee / advisee / graduate student

Submitted/In Revision

  • “Empirically Contrasting Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Outcome Definitions”. Brandt L*, Odom GJ*, Hu MC, Castro C, and Balise RR. Addiction. (* signifies co-first-authorship)

Software

Patents

Teaching

  • Introduction to Bayesian Inference. Instructor of Record, Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. 2022-2023.
  • Advanced Biostatistics III. Co-instructor, Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. 2022.
  • Introduction to Statistical Methods in R. Instructor of Record, Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. 2021-2023.
  • Advanced R Computing for Public Health Sciences. Instructor of Record, Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. 2020-2023.
  • Multivariate Methods in Health Sciences Research. Instructor of Record, Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health. 2020.
  • Survey of Statistical Computing. Instructor of Record, University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. 2019.
  • Topics in Biostatistical Research I & II. Instructor of Record, University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. 2018 – 2019.
    • PhD sections: coordinated topics with graduate and external faculty; developed course syllabi; wrote and administered all projects and presentations; assigned all grades
    • MS sections: coordinated topics with graduate faculty; developed course syllabi and course notes; wrote and administered all homework assignments and projects; assigned all grades
  • Complex Data Analysis. Lab Instructor, University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. 2018-2019. Taught weekly software lab sessions to doctoral students in biostatistics and engineering
  • Quantitative Methods for Business I & II. Instructor of Record, Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. 2014 – 2016. Developed course syllabi, course notes, and slides; wrote and administered all quizzes, projects, homework assignments, and exams; assigned all grades
  • Introduction to Christian Scriptures; On the Sacraments; Topics in Leadership. Instructor of Practice, Family Worship Center’s Leadership Academy, Waco, TX. 2014 – 2017. Developed course curriculum and projects; reviewed capstone projects; mentored new deacons

Licenses

  • Software Carpentry. Licensed Instructor, 2018–present
  • Data Carpentry. Licensed Instructor, 2018–present

Doctoral Students

Presentations

  • “Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of Clinical Decision Support Algorithms”. Odom GJ and Brandt L. 2023. Johns Hopkins University’s Innovations for Substance Use Disorder Pitch Competition, Invited presentation. Baltimore, MD.
  • “A Gentle Introduction to Data Science Tools for Addiction Research: Use Cases With Examples”. Odom GJ and Balise RR. 2023. College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Denver, CO.
  • “R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis: A ‘Train the Trainers’ Workshop Series”. Odom GJ and Idris M. 2023. Research Centers in Minority Institutions Coordinating Center National Conference, Invited presentation. Bethesda, MD.
  • “Improving outcome of medication treatment for OUD: Comparing and validating treatment endpoints”. Odom GJ. 2022. American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium. Naples, FL.
  • “Introduction to Quarto”. Odom GJ. 2022. Invited workshop for the ASA’s Section of Statistical Programmers and Analysts. Virtual.
  • “Integrate Partially-Matched Multi-Omics Data with the MiniMax Statistic”. Odom GJ, Colaprico A, Silva S, Chen S, and Wang L. 2022. Joint Statistical Meetings of the ASA. Washington, DC.
  • “Empirically Comparing Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Outcomes”. Odom GJ, Brandt L, Balise RR. 2022. College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Minneapolis, MN.
  • “Detecting Regions of Concurrent and Differential Methylation with coMethDMR (R/Bioconductor)”. Odom GJ, Martinez M, Gonzalez I, and Jones J. 2022. NIDA Genetics and Epigenetics Cross-Cutting Meeting. Virtual.
  • “Identifying Differentially Methylated Genomic Regions with coMethDMR”. Odom GJ, Martinez M, Silva S, Gonzalez I, Veitzman F, Jones J. and Wang L. 2022. BioC2022. https://bioc2022.bioconductor.org/abstracts/paper10/. Seattle, WA.
  • “Using the MiniMax Statistic to Integrate Partially-Matched Multi-Omics Data”. Odom GJ and Wang L. 2022. FIU’s Biomolecular Sciences Institute lecture series. Miami, FL.
  • “Making Public Health Data Accesible to Local Policy Makers: Lessons Learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic”. Odom GJ, Williams R, Rodriguez A, Bursac Z, and Trepka M. 2021. FIU-RCMI’s Health Equity Symposium. Miami, FL
  • “Using the R tidyREDCap Package to Help Novices Explore Research Data”. Balise RR and Odom GJ. 2021. Latin American & Brazilian REDCap Conference – Virtual; International Invited session.
  • “COVID-19 Data Visualization in Practice”. 2021. ASA’s Joint Statistical Meetings – Virtual.
  • “DOPE: A Package for the R Language to Process/Classify Drug Names”. Balise RR, Odom GJ, Bouzoubaa L, Luo S, and Feaster D. 2021. College on Problems of Drug Dependence – Virtual.
  • “Data Visualization and the R tidyREDCap Package”. Balise RR, Espinosa V, and Odom GJ. 2020. REDCapCon – Virtual; International Invited session.
  • “Integrative Pathway Analysis with pathwayPCA”. 2019. BioC 2019 Software Workshop – New York City, NY; Young Researcher Travel Award
  • “Moonlight: A Tool to Interpret Pathways to Discover Cancer-driver Genes”. 2019. European Conference on Computational Biology – Basel, Switzerland; poster presented by Antonio Colaprico
  • “Reproducible Data Science with R Packages”. 2019. Invited Lecture at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine – Memphis, TN
  • “Conducting Reproducible Research using R Packages”. 2019. Invited Lecture at Florida International University – Miami, FL
  • “R for Collaborative and Reproducible Research: Creating your First R Package”. 2018. Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “R for Collaborative and Reproducible Research: Project Organization and Style”. 2018. Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “R for Collaborative and Reproducible Research: Version Control with Git and GitHub”. 2018. Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “Early Fault Detection of Activated Sludge Treatment Systems Utilizing Multivariate Statistical Analysis”. 2018. WEFTEC Student Poster Sessions – New Orleans, LA; poster presented by Kathryn Newhart
  • “Data Visualization with the ggplot and ggmap Packages”. 2018. Quantitative Science Clinic Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “Data Analysis Workflow in R using the RStudio Integrated Development Environment”. 2018. Quantitative Science Clinic Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “Data Manipulation and Transformation with the dplyr Package”. 2018. Quantitative Science Clinic Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “Exploratory Data Analysis Walkthrough with the tidyverse Package Suite”. 2018. Quantitative Science Clinic Invited Lecture at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center – Miami, FL
  • “Multi-State Multivariate Statistical Process Control”. 2017. Quality and Productivity Research Conference Invited Session – Storrs, CT
  • “Iterated Linear Dimension Reduction with Application to Misclassification Reduction”. 2016. Southern Regional Council on Statistics Student Poster Session – Bentonville, AR; Outstanding Student Poster Award
  • “Two-Step LDR for Conditional Error Rate Reduction”. 2016 Conference of Texas Statisticians Student Poster Session – San Antonio, TX
  • “On University Campus Parking Shortages and Possible Solutions”. 2011. Southern Regional Honors Council – Little Rock, AR; Honors Thesis Defense

Honors

2023 Doctorate of Ministry, honoris causa. International Miracle Institute.

2022 Certificate of Merit, the City of Miami Office of the Mayor. For service to the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 FIU Presidential Service Award (runner up) for service to the university community via the Miami COVID Project (Mary Jo Trepka, Zoran Bursac, Gabriel J. Odom, and Roy Williams)

2020 Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, Florida International University

2019 Voluntary Assistant Professor, The University of Miami Department of Public Health Sciences

2019 Young Researcher Travel Award, Bioconductor’s BioC 2019 Conference

2018 Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service, The President of the United States

2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society, Baylor University

2016 R. L. Anderson Student Presentation Award, Southern Regional Council on Statistics

2016 Outstanding Alumni Award (nominated), University of West Florida

2016 Phi Kappa Chi Outstanding Instructor Award, Baylor University

2015 - 2016 Department of Statistical Science Ambassador Award, Baylor University

2014 – 2016 Outstanding Graduate Instructor (finalist), Baylor University

2013 – 2017 Dean’s Fellowship, Baylor University

2014 Golden Key International Honours Society, Baylor University

2014 Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honors Society, Baylor University

2013 The Lion Award for Workplace Excellence, North Central Texas College

2011 Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society, University of West Florida

2011 Pi Mu Epsilon Honors Society of Mathematics, University of West Florida

2011 Scholastic Excellence Award, University of West Florida

2010 Honors Mentor of the Year, University of West Florida

2008 – 2011 President’s List, University of West Florida

2008 Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society

Service

  • Doctoral Progam Comprehensive Examination Committee, FIU’s Department of Biostatistics. 2023. Wrote and graded PhD comprehensive exams.
  • Grant Reviewer, NIDA. 2022. Served on the grant review panel for the “Accelerating the Pace of Drug Abuse Research Using Existing Data” study section.
  • Doctoral Program Development Committee, FIU’s Department of Biostatistics. 2019 - 2021. Wrote the new degree application, syllabi for new courses, and chaired the hiring committee for new graduate faculty in the program.
  • Lead Data Scientist, The Miami COVID Project. 2020 - 2021. Cleaned and wrangled publich health data related to the COVID-19 epidemic in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties in Florida; gave weekly presentations on the local state of the pandemic and trends to county and city elected officials, presented our findings to the general public via a weekly-updated website: https://rwilli5.github.io/MiamiCovidProject/
  • Program Committee Chair Elect and Chair, American Statistical Association’s Section of Statistical Programmers and Analysts. 2020 - 2022. Assisted in the curation of the sections invited talks for the ASA’s Joint Statistical Meetings in 2022
  • PhD Program Development Committee, Department of Biostatistics, Florida International University. 2019 - 2021. Developed new curriculum schedule for the PhD in biostatistics, co-wrote the application module presented to the State of Florida Board of Governors, and wrote, modified, and/or extensively edited all submitted syllabi
  • Seminar Series Coordinator, Division of Biostatistics, University of Miami. 2018 – 2019. Curated list of nationally-recognized speakers in biostatistics; invited these speakers to the Miller School of Medicine for grand rounds; coordinated and hosted guest faculty during their visit
  • Assistant Clergy in Residence, Words of Life Fellowship Church, Miami, FL. 2017 – 2019. Mentored parishioners in service and ministry roles; performed clerical visits
  • Assistant Clergy in Residence, Family Worship Center, Waco, TX. 2014 – 2017. Wrote sermons and homilies; mentored deacons in service and ministry roles; performed clerical visits; taught leadership academy candidates



Updated: 2023-11-07