Dr. Dean is an Assistant Professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public. She earned her PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Florida. She was also a statistical consultant for the World Health Organization’s HIV Department. Before arriving at Emory, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Her areas of expertise are in infectious disease epidemiology and vaccine study design. Her research focuses on clinical trial and observational studies for evaluating vaccine efficacy, with a focus on emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19.

Dr. Dean is the Principal Investigator of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant R01-AI139761 on vaccine study design for emerging infectious disease threats. She is a Co-Investigator on a cluster-randomized trial of Targeted Indoor Residual Spraying for the prevention of Aedes-borne disease in Mexico. She has been funded on other research activities supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. She received a 2020 Excellence Award for Assistant Professors from the Provost of the University of Florida and was selected to the 2022 COPSS Leadership Academy. Dr. Dean has been internationally recognized for her public engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.