Spring 2026 Graduating Student Profile
James Hollister
PhD in Biostatistics
Public Health doctoral student enhances educational experience for others and pursues innovative health research
James Hollister graduated with his PhD in Biostatistics and a Minor in Epidemiology. During his time in the college he significantly contributed to the college community as a student Ambassador, taking the initiative on events and activities that helped build connection, while at the same time supporting innovative research studies. He won the Spring 2026 Student Life Award.
James Hollister
PhD in Biostatistics and Minor in Epidemiology
James Hollister graduated with his PhD in Biostatistics and a Minor in Epidemiology. He currently works with the college’s Center for Firefighter Health Collaborative Research on the national Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS). His dissertation is titled Methodological Advances in Causal Inference for Observational Occupational Health Data.
In addition to working on the FFCCS, James worked on the vital Arizona Healthcare, Emergency Response, and Other Essential Workers Surveillance Study (AZ-HEROES) that launched in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to track the spread of infection and later to test vaccine effectiveness.
James has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to MEZCOPH throughout his time as a student ambassador. He has consistently taken initiative on numerous projects and made meaningful contributions to the college by promoting and facilitating student activities and events, while also building strong connections with prospective students.
His exceptional foundation in mathematics and biostatistics positions him well to make a lasting impact in the field of Public Health. It has been a true pleasure to witness his engagement with both current and future MEZCOPH students, as well as his involvement in a wide range of ventures across campus.
James won the Spring 2026 Student Life Award.
Thank you James for your service and congratulations on your PhD!
For this profile, we asked James about what shaped his experience in the college.
Q: In addition to your classes, what projects or programs (often internships) did you work on while earning your degree?
A: I had the opportunity to work on several research projects throughout my time at MEZCOPH, most notably AZ-HEROES and FFCCS. AZ-HEROES was a CDC-funded project that began in 2020 studying COVID-19 during the pandemic in a cohort of frontline workers. We studied everything from risk factors for infection to vaccine efficacy to antibody dynamics.
FFCCS (Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study) is an ongoing prospective cohort study with over 8,000 U.S. firefighters enrolled to date. We are trying to better understand all of the exposures that firefighters face, as well as the consequences of those exposures. We work alongside our fire service partners to come up with ideas for exposure-reduction techniques, and we have published several articles to advance the safety of firefighters, with more on the way.
On both projects, I worked as a student biostatistician and had the opportunity to learn from some fantastic mentors. As I advanced through graduate school, I was able to take on more responsibility and tougher analyses, which has been a rewarding experience.
One of the biggest takeaways I’ve had working on research projects is that no two data analyses are the same, and each research question is its own puzzle. The creativity required to answer each research question is one of my favorite parts of being a biostatistician.
Q: How will your education and experience as a public health student influence your path forward?
A: I’m really excited for my future in public health. I feel that the Biostatistics program at MEZCOPH has opened so many doors, whether it’s a position with government, industry, or academia. One of my favorite parts of my MEZCOPH experience was getting to work with and learn from subject-matter experts across a diverse set of fields. This made me realize that the learning never stops in public health, and a future career in biostatistics means having the opportunity to work on unique projects and help to solve difficult problems.
One value I want to carry forward in my career is to always conduct research that directly benefits my community, no matter how big or small that community may be. To me, that’s public health.
Q: What else would you like to add? Please share anything that was not addressed in the other questions.
A: One of my favorite characteristics of MEZCOPH is the sense of community, and being a graduate student ambassador for the college for the past 5 years was a great way to be especially involved in the college community. I’m originally from a tiny town in North Dakota, and so being involved in the community was not only common, but it was expected of everyone. I learned quickly that an upside of being involved in the community is the ability to learn new skills outside of one’s specialty, and that held true for my time in graduate school.
While being an ambassador for the college did not directly contribute to my skills as a biostatistician, it did contribute greatly to my future in public health. For example, learning how to answer the “what is public health?” question for individuals outside of the field was significantly more challenging than I originally thought, but it taught me how to frame my work beyond the minutia of biostatistics and make it understandable for the community.