Kathy Carluzzo
CPDE Associate Director
January 2025
In January 2025, Kathy Carluzzo, MS, former Senior Research Associate at CPDE, accepted the position of Associate Director of CPDE. Kathy came to Dartmouth in 2010 as a Health Policy Fellow and joined CPDE in 2014. In her time at CPDE, Kathy has honed her skills in survey design, database development, research project management, grant writing, mixed methods data collection and analysis of primary and secondary data, including clinical, claims, survey, patient-reported, and qualitative sources. Kathy currently leads CPDE’s contract with the VA Office of Rural Health and brings her analytic expertise to CPDE’s partnerships with the Arthritis Foundation and National Association of Chronic Disease Directors under the leadership of Dr. Karen Schifferdecker. In her role as CPDE AD, Kathy will lead the recruitment and hiring of new staff at CPDE, internal process improvements, budget tracking and project invoicing, and oversee CPDE’s finance and operations assistant. Please join us in congratulating Kathy for her promotion to CPDE Associate Director.
Sharon O’Connor
CPDE Associate Director
December 2024
In January 2025, Sharon O’Connor, Senior Research Scientist and most recently, CPDE’s Associate Director, will step back to working 3 days a week and providing transitional support for the Center’s new Associate Director. Sharon joined CPDE in 2010 with co-founders Ginny Reed and Karen Schifferdecker. Sharon has been instrumental in her senior role over the last 15 years, creating CPDE processes and team resources, recruiting and hiring team members, and growing our research evaluation portfolio through her evaluation leadership of multiple IDeA grants beginning with NH-INBRE. Sharon currently leads a national mixed methods impact evaluation of an online patient navigation system developed by BroadReach Group’s Vantage Health in partnership with the American Oncology Network, and the evaluation of a statewide child-parent psychotherapy clinical network. Sharon excels in asking the questions that focus evaluation and research designs, and in delivering high quality, actionable results and data visualizations. She has led multiple trainings, panel sessions and workshops, and led or co-authored publications in the Journal for the American Geriatrics Society, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Journal of STEM Education, Health Promotion & Practice and others.
Rebecca Butcher, MS, MPH
CPDE Director
September 2024
We applaud our Director, Rebecca Butcher, on her Outstanding Citizen Award from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.
The recipient of this annual award shows proven expertise in research support, integrity, and excellence and makes exceptional contributions to Geisel’s research enterprise.
With Rebecca’s strong commitment to mentoring and social responsibility, she has not only fostered a new generation of scholars but has also promoted collaboration and knowledge sharing within and beyond our community. Rebecca has been in a leadership role at CPDE for over 5 years, taking over as Director in 2022. Under her leadership, we have grown 40% and now have a diverse team of 14 full-time researchers and evaluators.
Our Team
Partnership for Better Behavioral Health Outcomes
September 2024
Youth 5 through 18 years old
CPDE is using the RE-AIM framework to evaluate a new Dartmouth Health-led partnership to expand behavioral health prevention, screening, treatment, and recovery services for children and adolescents in western New Hampshire.
- Prevention
- Screening
- Treatment
- Recovery
Research Methodologists
September 2024
CPDE team members specialize in instrument design, development, and validation.
We developed an instrument for English and Spanish speaking older adults assessing patient-reported outcomes and experiences for the COOP study.
Literature Review
Revealed a lack of measures that focus on patient-reported experiences and outcomes related to colonoscopy surveillance.
Interview providers & patients→Draft questionnaire→Conduct cognitive interviews.
Resulted in a revised questionnaire covering 6 domains important for patients (convenience, complications, assistance needed, satisfaction, confidence, and cancer worry).
Pilot study with 400 participants→Psychometric testing
Ongoing feasibility testing and future analysis and testing.
Gender-Affirming Surgery
September 2024
CPDE teamed up with partners at DHMC Department of Surgery to publish a study of the benefits of gender-affirming surgery in addressing gender incongruence.
See more CPDE papers
Rural Healthcare Science
September 2024
Data visualization helps the Center for Rural Health Care Delivery Science see important data patterns.
CPDE created a radial chart (above) from a research skills self-assessment by Research Project Leaders (RPLs) at the Center for Rural Health Care Delivery Science. Results will be used to plan trainings, provide resources, and help RPLs set mentorship priorities.
- Reporting a study: 15%
- Conceptualizing research: 5%
- Research design: 10%
- Collaborating with others: 10%
- Funding a funding a study: 15%
- Planning & managing your research study: 20%
- Protecting research subprojects: 10%
- Collecting recording & analyzing data: 15%