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Research Engineer II

Contact

  Contact
  • Hannah Smalley LinkedIn

Education

  • Ph.D. Optimization (2012), Georgia Institute of Technology
  • M.S. Operations Research (2008), Georgia Institute of Technology
  • M.S. Mathematics (2005), Winthrop University
  • B.S. Mathematics (2004), Winthrop University

About

Hannah Smalley is a Research Engineer II in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and System Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech. 

Research

Her research focuses on the applications of operations research, modeling, and analytics in health systems. Past projects include (i) health systems performance improvement (e.g., improving physician scheduling and patient flow in clinics and hospitals; determining factors impacting transplant center performance; analyzing lung transplant waitlist prioritization and implications of missing patient data), (ii) personalized medical decision-making (e.g., catch-up scheduling for childhood immunization; assessing infectious encephalitis risk among organ donors and liver transplant survival), (iii) disease modeling and resource allocation to improve health outcomes (e.g., strategies for oral cholera vaccine allocation; assessing the effectiveness of interventions for reducing cases of Malaria), (iv) public health (e.g., investigating disparities in childhood immunization coverage subnationally in Senegal). Most recently, as part of the Guinea Worm simulation modeling team at Georgia Tech, she has worked on developing simulation models to project the spread of Guinea Worm disease and analyzing the potential impact of a proposed diagnostic test to detect pre-patent infections in dogs. Publications can be found here. 

Representative Publications

  • Smalley H, Keskinocak P, Swann J, Delea MG, Eneanya OA, Weiss A. Proactive Tethering to Prevent Guinea Worm Infections among Dogs in Chad: An Analysis of the Impacts of Timing and Dog Selection. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2025; 113(2):317-323.
  • Castillo-Zunino F, Hester KA, Keskinocak P, Nazzal D, Smalley HK, Freeman MC. Associations between family planning, healthcare access, and female education and vaccination among under-immunized children. Vaccine. 2024; 44:126540.
  • Wang Y, Wang X, Gurbaxani B, Gutman JR, Keskinocak P, Smalley HK, Thwing J. Modeling the impact of proactive community case management on reducing confirmed malaria cases in Sub-Saharan African countries. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2024; 111(3):490-497.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Swann J, Hanna C, Weiss A. Potential impact of a diagnostic tool for detecting prepatent Guinea worm infections in dogs. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2024; 110(5):953-960.
  • Smalley HK, Castillo-Zunino F, Keskinocak P, et al. Factors associated with vaccine coverage improvements in Senegal between 2005 and 2019: a quantitative retrospective analysis. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e074388. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074388
  • Wang Y, Perini T, Keskinocak P, Smalley HK, Swann J, Weiss A. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Potential Interventions for Guinea Worm Disease in Dogs in Chad Using Simulations. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2023;109(4):835-843. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.22-0654
  • Sakas Z, Hester KA, Rodriguez K, et al. Critical success factors for high routine immunization performance: A case study of Senegal. Vaccine: X. 2023;14:100296.
  • Smalley HK, Anand N, Buczek D, et al. A mathematical model to describe survival among liver recipients from deceased donors with risk of transmitting infectious encephalitis pathogens. Transplant Infectious Disease. 2019;21(4):e13115.
  • Smalley HK, Anand N, Buczek D, et al. Assessment of risk for transplant-transmissible infectious encephalitis among deceased organ donors. Transplant Infectious Disease. 2018;20(5):e12933.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P. Automated medical resident rotation and shift scheduling to ensure quality resident education and patient care. Health Care Management Science. 2016;19(1):66-88.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Swann J, Hinman A. Optimized oral cholera vaccine distribution strategies to minimize disease incidence: A mixed integer programming model and analysis of a Bangladesh scenario. Vaccine. 2015;33(46):6218-6223.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Vats A. Physician Scheduling for Continuity: An Application in Pediatric Intensive Care. INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. 2015;45(2):133-148.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Vats A. Development of a handoff continuity score to improve pediatric ICU physician schedule design for enhanced physician and patient continuity. Crit Care. 2011;15(5):R246-R246.
  • Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Engineer FG, Pickering LK. Universal Tool for Vaccine Scheduling: Applications for Children and Adults. Interfaces. 2011;41(5):436-454.
  • LaBorde DV, Griffin JA, Smalley HK, Keskinocak P, Mathew G. A framework for assessing patient crossover and health information exchange value. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2011;18(5):698-703.
  • Lee EK, Smalley HK, Zhang Y, Pietz F, Benecke B. Facility location and multi-modality mass dispensing strategies and emergency response for biodefence and infectious disease outbreaks. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management. 2009;12(2-4):311-351.