Manya Magnus, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the GWU SPHHS Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. An epidemiologist and a former nurse, Dr. Magnus is experienced with all facets of clinical trials, observational, and evaluation study implementation including study design, quality, and data management, instrument development and testing, training personnel on data collection and analysis methods, issues in clinical trials implementation, regulatory procedures, and grant writing.

Dr. Magnus has spent the last decade working with HIV-infected men, women, and children in evaluation research, observational studies, and clinical trials. Since 1998, Dr. Magnus has been the RWCA Title IV external evaluation consultant for Family Advocacy, Care and Education Services (FACES) Program of Children’s Hospital New Orleans, and was the evaluator in their HRSA-funded contract to study the association between ancillary service delivery and behavioral outcomes for HIV-infected women and children. Since 2001 she has been the evaluator on the SPNS IT initiative evaluating the impact of an electronic database for a statewide database for a cohort of over 6,000 HIV-infected individuals seeking care in Louisiana.

Since 2002 she has been the evaluator on a comprehensive evaluation of six case definitions within the VAERS surveillance system. She has presented results of evaluation studies at over 20 conferences, and has trained social work staff evaluation skills at numerous events, including five RWCA-associated sessions. She is currently a co-investigator working on a SPNS-sponsored curriculum development regarding incorporation of mixed methodology into HIV evaluation research. Dr. Magnus has coordinated or been a co-investigator on numerous observational studies including a CDC-funded a prospective cohort study of HIV- and syphilis-infected individuals following partner notification, case-control, cohort, and survey studies of Trichomonas vaginalis and cervicovaginal HIV virus shedding, and qualitative research studies of perceptions of environmental tobacco smoke and smoking cessation media in Louisiana. In each of these projects she was responsible for every study phase, from design to analysis and dissemination.

Dr. Magnus collaborated for five years with the NIAID-funded Tulane-LSU Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, as program and data manager for over 35 clinical trials among HIV-infected pregnant women and children. Nationally with the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group, Dr. Magnus was the vice-chair and chair of the Pediatric Site Operations Committee from 1994 to 1997, a member of the Pediatric Site Advisory Core Committee 1995 to 1997, and the acting chair of the Pediatric Site Advisory Core Committee and representative to the Pediatric Executive Committee during 1997. She also was the chair of the Electronic Resource Center Sub-Committee from 1994 through 1997, working on all phases of development, training, and usage of an electronic system to share site-developed clinical trials tools throughout a clinical trials network.

In addition, Dr. Magnus owned and operated Research Support Services (RS2), a consulting service specializing in clinical trials research. Dr. Magnus has taught numerous MPH and doctoral-level courses in HIV epidemiology, epidemiologic methods, analysis of complex HIV and STI datasets, and survey methodology.

She has ten articles in the peer-reviewed literature, as well as given 23 invited presentations, and presented 27 posters at scientific conferences. In addition to her work in HIV, Dr. Magnus has been a co-investigator in multiple OB/GYN studies regarding decision-making behavior, and she is also the author of The Complete Fertility Organizer: A Guidebook And Record-Keeper For Women (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.).