Over the past two years, FHSD has been without any epidemiology support. Previously, the division had two division-level epidemiologists who provided critical guidance and support specifically to the Title V and SSDI grants, PRAMS program, as well as overall technical assistance to FHSD programs with data presentations, research, and publications.

In December 2018, Don Hayes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention MCH Epidemiology assignee, resigned after accepting a job offer at CDC Atlanta. Later in August 2019, Tiana Garrett-Cherry, FHSD’s Division Epidemiologist II, resigned to relocate to Virginia.

FHSD has aggressively worked to fill both positions to no avail. FHSD continues to seek another CDC MCH Epidemiology assignee. Although an interview with a promising candidate was conducted in September 2019, the candidate did not accept the job offer due to salary issues. There were no prospective candidates in FY 2020. Hawaii submitted another CDC request in FY 2021, but no candidate has been found at this time that meets Hawaii’s requirements.

Initially, FHSD actively recruited for the Epi II position but was not able to find a viable candidate. In 2020, the position was under a statewide hiring freeze due to the pandemic. FHSD resumed recruitment for the position in July 2021 when the freeze was lifted.

FHSD does have three FTE research statistician positions located at the division and CSHN and MCH branches that provide data analysis support and consultation. Carlotta Fok, Ph.D., has served as the division research statistician since 2016. She received her Ph.D. from McGill University, Canada, in quantitative psychology in 2006 and was a postdoctoral fellow and then a research scientist at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR), focusing on health disparities research, cross-cultural measurement development, theory testing, and analysis of intervention effects. Her expertise is in longitudinal and functional data analysis, measurement development, small sample methodology, and developing quantitative methodology for program evaluation. She provides statistical assistance and data analysis for the Title V and PRAMS programs. Dr. Fok works with the DOH vital statistics office to draw the PRAMS monthly sampling.