Michelle Shardell

Michelle Shardell is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland. She serves as Vice Chair of Research and Director of the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, with additional appointments as Co-Director of the Biostatistics and Informatics Core in the UMB's Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (UM-OAIC). Her research integrates biostatistical methodology with aging and dementia studies, focusing on structural models, survival bias, unmeasured confounding, and machine learning applications in harmonized data.

• Education:
  • B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Florida
  • M.S. in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan School of Public Health
  • Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Her research spans aging-related functional decline, biomarker threshold validation (e.g., vitamin D in PROVIDO), and statistical methods for proxy reporting, missing data, and time-to-event analysis. She has contributed to microbiome harmonization standards (STORMS checklist) and -omics data integration in aging studies.

Her 15 most recent publications highlight advancements in multivariate modeling for dual cognitive-physical decline (2023), phenotypic aging metrics (2022), sex-specific vitamin D thresholds (2021), microbiome reporting guidelines (2021), and longitudinal causal inference techniques (2018, 2016, 2015). Earlier works address proxy reporting bias, ICU infection control, and semiparametric modeling.

• Scientific Awards:
  • 2006 Outstanding Teaching Award (University of Maryland)
  • 2017 Fellow, Gerontological Society of America
  • 2020 Strategic Initiatives Award (ASA Biometrics Section)
  • 2024 Fellow, American Statistical Association

She leads NIH/NIA-funded grants including R01 AG079854 (Biomarkers of Aging in Alzheimer’s and Disability), R01 AG048069 (Kidney Markers in Dementia and Disability), and RF1 NS128360 (Biomarkers of Aging). She also co-directs the Biostatistics and Informatics Core for the Pepper Center (P30 AG028747) and collaborates on FNIH Biomarkers Consortium projects.