Kayln Janace, PhD, MPH

I started as a postdoctoral fellow with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation (HJF) for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) while completing my dissertation in 2018. There I conducted research on opioid use and prescribing in the Military Health System and on pain outcomes related to different physical interventions. Next, I accepted another position with HJF at the Center for Rehabilitation Sciences Research (CRSR) as a Research Epidemiologist supporting a wide variety of studies across the continuum of combat-casualty care, including a massive, multisite concussion study (CARE). I am now a Senior Scientist at CRSR supporting many ongoing studies. I obtained my first two research grants in 2023, one examining the impact of COVID-19 on rehabilitation care following neuromusculoskeletal injury and the other examining rehabilitation care and dispariaties among active duty service women since their integration into all military occupations in 2015. I hold academic appointments at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science (USUHS) in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pediatrics.

What led you to public health and to occupational & environmental health in particular?

My husband’s completion of military service brought us to Houston, where I pursued the Occupational Epidemiology program at the SWCOEH at UTHealth Houston. As a military brat, I saw my father (who served almost 30 years in the Army), friends, and other family impacted by a variety of injuries in a number of conditions. I also watch their health be impacted, and in some cases, deteriorate significantly after many years of service. I was drawn to occupational epidemiology as I knew their occupational exposures had to be impacting their health.

Tell us about your work. What is an average day like for you?

My day can vary depending on what time of year it is! At present, we are hard at work executing the existing grants I’ve obtained. I also spend time writing protocols, conducting statistical analyses, conducting power and sample size calculations, preparing grant applications, advising clinicians on how to execute their research, and run the CRSR Data + Analytics Team. I have many meetings weekly with our research partners across the world. I love my position because there is so much variation in what I do and it all feels like I’m part of a bigger mission. I am also a co-chair of our Statistics Working Group at USUHS, which meetings bimonthly to improve understanding of statistical methods and to share challenges across the research centers.

How did your education as a SWCOEH ERC trainee at UTHealth School of Public Health prepare you for your current career?

I have always been intimidated by math. Even though I did well and grasped the concepts, I always had mathematical “imposter syndrome.” I like that the Occupational Epidemiology program required a minor in biostatistics because that has been the single most important trajectory for my epidemiology career. Between the study methodology from the epidemiology side, understanding the appropriate statistical methods for the studies we write, executing those analysis plans, and then having an understanding of how occupational exposures are captured has been incredibly important to my position. I have maintained contact with most of the members of my dissertation committee and hope to collaborate with them in the future.

What advice do you have for students pursuing a SWCOEH ERC traineeship leading to a career in public health?

Take all the statistics coursework you can! Take the courses that feel hard. Do not shortchange yourself because the foundations you receive from these course will make you so much more valuable as a scientist after graduation.