Brittany Shelton, MPH, DrPH – Currently Accepting PhD Students

Assistant Professor

Biography

Brittany A. Shelton, DrPH, MPH (pronouns: she/her/hers), is a health disparities researcher who earned her MPH (2014) in health policy and DrPH (2022) in health policy and organization from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB, Dr. Shelton began her research career studying chronic diseases, particularly end-stage organ disease and the need for transplantation. As a health disparities researcher, Dr. Shelton’s work has examined access to both kidney and liver transplantation for people with HIV and for African American and Black individuals. Dr. Shelton’s HIV research has subsequently informed national policy, specifically the HOPE Act which permitted organ donation from people with HIV for the first time in United States history. Similarly, her research examining disparities in liver transplantation and in pediatric transplantation have resulted in modifications to the liver and kidney organ allocation systems. She intends to continue her health disparities work by examining knowledge of and barriers to organ donation among LGBTQ+ young adults and by assessing access to the kidney transplant waitlist for people with HIV. Dr. Shelton has experience with big data and enjoys employing econometric methods such as cost-effectiveness, interrupted time series, regression discontinuity, and fixed effects analyses. She has served as a data analyst on three NIH-funded R01’s and multiple industry and societal awards. Coming from a clinical research setting, Dr. Shelton enjoys team science having worked with undergraduate students, medical students, professional students, epidemiologists, clinicians, health economists, ethicists, and economists on singular projects. The diversity of perspectives and expertise provides robust discussion around study design, data collection, interpretation, and how best to implement study findings. She is excited to expand her network of collaborators. In her free time, she enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction, attending Lady Vols sporting events with her partner, cuddling her two cats and two dogs, and spending as much time outdoors as possible.

Curriculum Vitae

Research

• 2022, Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society Inductee
• 2022, DrPH Student of the Year, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• 2018, American Transplant Congress Young Investigator Award

Education

• BS- Microbiology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN- 2011
• MPH- Health Policy, University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL-2014
• DrPH- Health Policy and Organization Outcomes Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL- 2022

Publications

Shelton BA, Sawinski D, MacLennan PA, Lee W, Wyatt CM, Nadkarni G, Fatima H, Mehta S, Crane HM, Porrett P, Julian B, Moore RD, Christopoulos K, Jacobson JM, Muller E, Eron JJ, Saag M, Peter I, Locke JE. Birth Sex and Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease Development among Persons Living with HIV. eClinical Medicine. In Press.

Woods C, Owens G, Shelton BA, MacLennan PA, Sawinski D, Jacobson J, Locke JE. Efficacy of hope: Analysis of organ quality and availability among deceased HIV-positive donors. Transpl Infect Dis. 2022 Jul 29: e13916. doi: 10.1111/tid.13916. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35904220.

Killian AC, Shelton B, MacLennan P, McLeod MC, Carter A, Reed R, Qu H, Orandi B, Kumar V, Sawinski D, Locke JE. Evaluation of Community-Level Vulnerability and Racial Disparities in Living Donor Kidney Transplant. JAMA Surg. 2021 Dec 1;156(12):1120-1129. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.4410. PMID: 34524392; PMCID: PMC8444059.

Locke JE, Shelton BA, Olthoff KM, Pomfret EA, Forde KA, Sawinski D, Gray M, Ascher NL. Quantifying Sex-Based Disparities in Liver Allocation. JAMA Surg. 2020 Jul 1;155(7): e201129. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.1129. Epub 2020 Jul 15. PMID: 32432699; PMCID: PMC7240642.

Shelton BA, Berdahl G, Sawinski D, Linas BP, Reese PP, Mustian MN, Reed RD, MacLennan PA, Locke JE. Optimal timing of hepatitis C treatment among HIV/HCV coinfected ESRD patients: Pre- vs posttransplant. Am J Transplant. 2019 Jun;19(6):1806-1819. doi: 10.1111/ajt.15239. Epub 2019 Jan 25. PMID: 30589503; PMCID: PMC6538449.

Shelton BA, Sawinski D, Linas BP, Reese PP, Mustian M, Hungerpiller M, Reed RD, MacLennan PA, Locke JE. Population level outcomes and cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C treatment pre- vs postkidney transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2018 Oct;18(10):2483-2495. doi: 10.1111/ajt.15040. Epub 2018 Aug 30. PMID: 30058218; PMCID: PMC6206868.

Shelton BA, Sawinski D, Ray C, Reed RD, MacLennan PA, Blackburn J, Young CJ, Gray S, Yanik M, Massie A, Segev DL, Locke JE. Decreasing deceased donor transplant rates among children (≤6 years) under the new kidney allocation system. Am J Transplant. 2018 Jul;18(7):1690-1698. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14663. Epub 2018 Feb 7. PMID: 29333639.