Laura Balzer is a PhD student in Biostatistics at the University of California,
Berkeley. She is working with Dr. van der Laan and Dr. Petersen to design optimal studies
and to develop efficient and maximally unbiased estimators for the causal effects of
cluster-based interventions. The specific applications of this work include impact
evaluation for HIV prevention and treatment strategies and understanding neighborhood
determinants of health. 

Laura is the recipient of the Berkeley Fellowship. Prior to attending Berkeley, she
earned a BS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Vermont and her MPhil in
Computational Biology at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Articles

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Estimating Effects on Rare Outcomes: Knowledge is Power (with Mark J. van der Laan), U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series (2013)

Understanding the etiology of rare cancers, perinatal mortality, international conflicts or natural disasters can have...

 

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Adaptive Matching in Randomized Trials and Observational Studies (with Mark J. van der Laan and Maya L. Petersen), U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series (2012)

In many randomized and observational studies the allocation of treatment among a sample of n...

 

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Why Match in Individually and Cluster Randomized Trials? (with Maya L. Petersen and Mark J. van der Laan), U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series (2012)

The decision to match individuals or clusters in randomized trials is motivated by both practical...

 

Presentations

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Introduction to Targeted Learning, University of California, Berkeley (2013)
 

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Estimating the impact of community-level interventions: The SEARCH Trial and HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Maya Petersen, Joshua Schwab, and Mark van der Laan), WNAR/IMS and Graybill Conference (2012)

Evaluation of community level interventions to prevent HIV infection presents significant methodological challenges. Even when...

 

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Why Match in Individually and Cluster Randomized Trials? (with Maya Petersen and Mark van der Laan), Atlantic Causal Inference Conference (2012)

The decision to match individuals or clusters in randomized trials is motivated by both practical...