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Work Experience

Dr. Shane Fernando is a public health researcher, epidemiologist, and educator with extensive experience in clinical research, survey methodology, and healthcare systems. He currently serves as Science and Research Senior Manager at Abt Global, collaborating with the CDC on major public health initiatives, and has previously held academic and leadership roles in pediatrics, research, and community health.

N.S., Abt Global

"It has been an absolute delight to have Shane as a partner epidemiologist and buddy at Abt! We collaborate as side-by-side task leads on two major projects, the Nursing Home Public Health Response Network and Tracking Post COVID-19 Conditions, so I have substantial opportunity to see him at work. Recently I also had the chance to meet him in person and dine together at a CDC reverse site visit in Atlanta, Shane is a true expert on survey development and implementation who is providing essential leadership on the active surveillance component of Track PCC. (I was trying to fill that role before he arrived and it was such a relief to turn the task over to him, without any concern at all). He is an easygoing, calm, authoritative presence on both projects and has excellent client communication skills. He shows enormous patience in attempting to resolve the often conflicting and contradictory inputs from our university site partners on both projects. And he has a great sense of humor!"

Work Experience

Science and Research Senior Manager, Abt Global (2024-Present)

Dr. Fernando continues his duties as Senior Scientist on both the Nursing Home Public Health Response Network (CDC), and the Track PCC project (CDC). Additionally, Dr. Fernando manages a team of junior and early-career staff.

Senior Epidemiologist, Abt Global (2023-2024)

Dr. Fernando served as the senior scientist and content specialist for the Nursing Home Public Health Response Network (CDC), to develop and link nursing homes throughout the country through regional partnerships to understand health issues within. Dr. Fernando’s responsibilities included the Characteristics component of the project, as well as other study protocols related to public health outcomes in the nursing home system. Dr. Fernando served as senior scientist and content specialist for the Track PCC project (CDC) and is primarily responsible for the Active Surveillance component. Within that component, Dr. Fernando designed and monitored the administration of the Adult and the Pediatric surveillance surveys, communicating with partner sites, drafting protocols, and leading analytic plans and data analysis. Dr. Fernando advances Abt’s professional work with various business development applications, including grant writing, project management and federal contract work.

Assistant Professor, TCU School of Medicine (2020-Present)

Involved in education and mentorship of research within the TCU and UNT School of Medicine. Student mentees are paired with mentors for their full academic career, allowing for growth in research for both students and mentors.

Assistant Professor, UNT Health Science Center, TCOM (2014-Present)

Involved in grant applications for new research opportunities and authored numerous journal articles based on department and personal research. Involved in establishing new community outreach and education programs. Managed and led independent and group research projects. Instructor for TCOM Public Health, Social Determinants of Health, Population Health in 1st year, and Fundamentals of Behavioral Science 2nd Year. Content taught include: Disease transmissions and investigations, population health, Biostatistics, and Epidemiology. Family Medicine Rotation educator. Established new course content, wrote TCOM examination questions and delivered course content in large scale setting

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Research Director, Pediatric Mobile Program, UNT Health (2013-2018)

Conducted research projects through the mobile health program (access to healthcare, vaccine perceptions, asthma education, nutrition education, T2 diabetes prevention, obesity prevention, physical activity programs). Mentored student research projects conducted through the mobile health program (Inter-Professional Education-driven projects and independent projects)

Initiated and developed relationships and collaborations between the pediatric mobile program and community/state organizations

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Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, UNTHSC (2014-2017)

Instructor for EPID 5312, Survey Research and Questionnaire Design.
Developed new content, worked on course administration, and developed student projects with Carter BloodCare (collaborating community partner), internal Quality Assurance projects, and community assessment projects. Instructor in Biostatistics and methodologies

 

Instructor for EPID 5300, Principles of Epidemiology (ONLINE)
Developed new course content, managed online education platform, utilized social media and e-platforms to enhance the learning experience, including biostatistics for epidemiologic research and analysis.

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