April Carson PhD, MSPH

Dr. Carson joined the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology as an Assistant Professor in 2009.  She is a member of the department’s doctoral admissions committee and strategic planning committee and she is the course master for EPI 611 (Issues in Epidemiologic Design and Analysis; 4 credit hours), a required methods course for Epidemiology majors.

Education

Dr. Carson completed her BS degree in Microbiology with high honors at the University of Georgia and her MSPH and PhD degrees in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in cardiovascular disease epidemiology.  

Research

Dr. Carson’s research focuses on health disparities in cardiovascular disease and diabetes.  She has experience with several large observational cohort studies and has published on a range of social, clinical, and lifestyle factors related to the occurrence of disease in disadvantaged populations.  Currently, Dr. Carson is an investigator with the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study where she is evaluating the performance of cardiovascular disease risk prediction models and assessing the role of glycemic markers in the development of microvascular and macrovascular disease.

Professional Memberships

Dr. Carson is a member of the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and Society for Epidemiologic Research.  Dr. Carson serves as Vice-Chairperson of the Minorities Committee for the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and she is a Scientist in the Center for Cardiovascular Biology, Diabetes Research and Training Center, and Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.