KUSM-W > Office of Research

Associate Dean for Research/Physician

David Grainger, M.D.
Associate Dean for Research/Physician

Dr. Grainger completed his undergraduate work at Wichita State University with a major in chemistry. He attended medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine- Kansas City. His residency was completed at the University of Kansas School of Medicine- Wichita in obstetrics and gynecology. Additionally, he completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Grainger earned a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Kansas in 2000.

Dr. Grainger is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology as well as in the sub-specialty of reproductive endocrinology and infertility. He is the president-elect of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. Dr. Grainger is also a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine- Wichita and the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology.

Dr. Grainger has a joint appointment in the Department of Preventive Medicine. He provides strategic leadership and research development in the Office of Research.

Statistical Consulting Coordinator/Applied Statistician/Office Manager

Rosalee E. Zackula, MA
Statistical Consulting Coordinator/Applied Statistician/Office Manager

Ms. Zackula has a master’s degree in statistics from the University of Missouri - Columbia. Her thesis “Assessing Schizophrenia with Shape Analysis” contained new contributions to the area of shape analysis and developed a novel diagnostic tool for schizophrenia. She also has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kansas State University.

Ms. Zackula has significant experience as a research assistant in statistics. She has 5 years of data base design and data management experience. She has 3 years of independent university teaching experience, including 4 different introductory courses in statistics departments at 2 universities. She also has a year of experience teaching computer software short courses for a propriety school, including the design of instructional materials.

Ms. Zackula provides statistical consulting to investigators including research design, data management, programming, statistical analyses, and assists with research development

Assistant Research Professor

Cari Schmidt, PhD
Assistant Research Professor

Dr. Schmidt held a one-year Post Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Office of Research at KUSM-W after received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Wichita State University. She has a master’s degree in Community-Clinical Psychology, also from Wichita State University, with a specialization in research methodology. Dr. Schmidt has taught Introduction to Psychology, Psychological Statistics, and Stress management at Wichita State University for four years. She has also worked as an independent consultant in research and statistical measures.

Dr. Schmidt’s previous research has focused on academic issues including cheating, graduate teaching assistant and new instructor training, student perceptions of teaching effectiveness, and teaching strategies. At KUSM-W her research has involved health numeracy and literacy, decision-making, health disparities, e-health issues, and community health needs. She is also interested in psychological and vocational assessment tools and assessment development.

Dr. Schmidt has presented her work at local and national conferences, and has publications in several peer-reviewed journals. As a Research Assistant Professor, Dr. Schmidt will continue her work in the area of health disparities, especially in the areas of health numeracy and literacy, and e-health. In her role as Director of Research Ethics she will provide ethical counseling and support to researchers and HSC-2 members, as well as providing instruction on pertinent ethical topics.

Measurement Statistician

Karen Kramer, PhD
Assistant Professor
Measurement Statistician

Dr. Kramer graduated with her Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology in 2003 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has two master’s degrees in Statistics and Psychology, also from the University of Illinois. She has been providing statistical consulting, conducting research, and teaching statistics for a decade. Her statistical consulting and research interests have taken her into several fields, particularly medicine, economics, and psychology.

Dr. Kramer research interests are in developing quantitative models of individual judgment and decision making, particularly in situations with risk, uncertainty, low information, time pressure or emotional pressure. Her dissertation developed a mathematical extension to a theory regarding how people use information to adjust their probability estimation. In her post-doctoral fellowship at the Midwest Center of Health Services and Policy Research, Hines VA Medical Center, and the Institute of Health Services Research and Policy Studies, Northwestern University, she extended her work to medical decision making; particularly to patient preferences, and risk and uncertainty factors in shared decision making between patients and physicians.

Dr. Kramer has been active in research, with results ranging from assisting in a project that led to an invited talk in Paris, France, to being a Principal Investigator on a VA-funded grant, to inclusion in American Cancer Society and various National Institute of Health grants. She has published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Risk and Decision Policy, and Revue d’Economie Politique. She was lead author on a book chapter in the recently published “Experimental Business Research”(eds. Rami Zwick and Amnon Rapoport) on empirical models of uncertainty with Ellsberg’s Paradox, a theory that in turn discounted the use of the Standard Gamble health utility theory for subjective purposes.

As a Quantitative Psychologist, Dr. Kramer has Ph.D.-level statistics knowledge with a focus on methods common to psychology. Besides expertise in general statistical methods and designs, she has special training in regression, modeling, and the associated designs; classical test theory, item response theory, and their analyses; test development; generalized linear models; multidimensional and unidimensional scaling; social networks; latent trait/class/variable modeling; longitudinal and multilevel modeling; and more. She also has expertise in mathematics and cognitive psychology. She brings these skills to her statistical consulting for several clients, and eagerly works with the members of KUMC and surrounding communities.

Dr. Kramer enjoys sharing her love of statistics and her research topics through teaching. She has taught at all levels of statistics in the psychology curriculum and on multiple topics. At KUMC- Wichita, she has taught the introductory biostatistics course for Masters of Public Health students.

Dr. Kramer is an assistant professor in the Office of Research and the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Internal Medicine.

Office of Research
The University of Kansas School of Medicine - Wichita
1010 N. Kansas St, Wichita, KS 67214
(316) 293-2617

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Last Modified: April 10, 2007