Benjamin White, MPH
Projects
I've worked on a plethora of different GIS projects in my various lines of work. Here are some I'm most proud of.
City of Bethlehem, PA Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Results page
As a GIS Technical Consultant with Esri Professional Services, I created a website for the City of Bethlehem's Health Bureau to present the results of their 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment. A series of interactive ArcGIS StoryMaps and Collections, the results of the CHNA can be viewed here.
Opioid Overdose Mapping for Georgia Department of Public Health
As a GIS Technical Consultant with Esri Professional Services, I created python scripts that ingested case-level drug overdose data, which then calculated case counts, crude, and age-adjusted rates by age, race, and sex for quarterly periods across all counties and suppressed small numbers data. The results are published in an ArcGIS Hub and two dashboards. You can view them on the GADPH Drug Surveillance page here.
UAV Cadastral Mapping of the Zambian Copperbelt for Systematic Land Titling
As a GIS Engineer and Part 107 Commercial Drone Pilot for Medici Land Governance, I coordinated and mapped 102 km2 of the cities of Kitwe and Ndola using a team of PPK-enabled WingtraOnes to assist the Ministry of Lands in their National Titling Program. Read more about our work at www.mlgzambia.com and see the results of the project here. Local media coverage can be found here.
UAV Cadastral Mapping of St. Kitts
As a GIS Engineer and Part 107 Commercial Drone Pilot for Medici Land Governance, I coordinated and mapped 155 km2 of the island of St. Kitts using a senseFly RTK-enabled eBee X and a PPK-enabled WingtraOne to provide St. Kitts updated imagery for their cadastre system overhauling. Read more about our work at www.mediciland.com and read more about the St. Kitts project here
Small Area Estimations of Health Conditions
in Colorado
Utilizing over 50,000 individual telephone and landline community health survey responses from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and U.S. Census American Community Survey data, I improved, validated, and disseminated statewide census tract-level neighborhood prevalence estimates of 14 different public health indicators. This data is used by state and local health departments, non-profits, and healthcare agencies in Colorado. (See more about this project)
Behavioral Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA)
Utilizing block-group level population data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, the practice locations of behavioral health care providers from the Colorado Health Systems Directory, and the number of patient encounters per providers calculated by the Health Access Branch, I analyzed under-served areas of behavioral and mental health treatment in Colorado to help determine grant funding allocation to promote providers working in under-served areas.This was done via the Variable Two Step Floating Catchment Area (V2SFCA) method. (See more about this project) (learn more about the methods)
Spatial Autologistic Regression Modeling of South-Central Skunk Rabies among Terrestrial Animals, Four Corners
A collaborative effort between the State Public Health Veterinarians of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. Utilizing the known locations of 2013-2018 South-Central Skunk Variant rabies positive (RABV+) terrestrial animals and remote sensing environmental data from MODIS, I modeled the probability of South-Central Skunk Variant Rabies across the Four Corners states.
Colorado CCPD Health Rankings
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Pulmonary Disease Grant Program (CCPD) funds programs at local public health agencies and non-profits for early detection and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic pulmonary disease. In order to better distribute these funds, I designed a CCPD-specific health index similar to the County Health Rankings. This index was created in SAS via principal components analysis using data from multiple sources - CDPHE Vital Statistics Program, CDPHE Cancer Registry, U.S. Census American Community Survey, the Colorado Center for Law and Policy, and the Colorado Hospital Association.
Tobacco Retailer Access Colorado (TRAC)
GIS Web Application
A web-based GIS mapping application designed for Local Public Health Associations, non-profits, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Tobacco Free Colorado program. TRAC combines local, state, and federal tobacco retailer location and violation data in an easy, accessibly format.
Childhood Lead Poisoning Risk Assessment Tool
A web-based GIS mapping application designed for use by clinicians during exams with children to assess with blood lead level testing decision-making and exposure information based on home age and poverty status.
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(Access the Childhood Lead Risk Assessment Tool)
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Colorado Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Maps
A web-based GIS mapping application designed for use by the State of Colorado's WIC program, local public health agencies, and non-profits, to understand trends in WIC recipients, clinics, services, and needs
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Office of Health Equity - Equity Action Guide Maps
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Office of Health Equity's mission is to build partnerships to mobilize community power and transform systems to advance health equity and environmental justice. I assisted the OHE with the creation of health equity maps regarding health outcomes and historic housing racial discrimination known as 'redlining'. The maps.
Body Mass Index (BMI) Monitoring Project
The Colorado BMI Monitoring System combines measured heights and weights collected from electronic health record data (EHR) from multiple health care organizations to calculate body mass index (BMI). The system generates community-level overweight and obesity prevalence estimates. I was tasked with updating this data for 2013-2015 and 2014-2016 data, as well as running , debugging, and QC'ing the SAS code and outputs.
2013 Colorado Floods: Legionnaires' Disease Cluster Analysis
Legionellosis is a bacterial pneumonia caused by a water-loving bacteria Legionella that live in warm, stagnant fresh water. Following the Colorado Floods of 2013 the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) saw an unexplained uptick in reported cases of Legionnaires' disease. As the Waterborne Disease Epidemiologist, I was tasked with investigating this increase to determine a root cause. Through a spatial statistical analysis of clinical and local environmental/meteorological data, I determined Colorado's increase in Legionellosis to be related to the heavy rainfall and flooding. (See a poster of this project presented at the Colorado Public Health Nurses' Association Conference)
Associations Between Socio-economic Factors and Rates of Campylobacter
As an enteric disease and outbreak epidemiologist, I helped manage the statewide disease reporting system CEDRS. Colorado has participated in the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) and collaborates with 9 other states and CDC to create trends and analyses of enteric disease. As the co-chair of the FoodNet Geospatial Working Group I was able to work with other colleagues on spatial analyses of camplyobacter.
Here is a paper detailing some of our research efforts.
Find out more about my local Colorado Campylobacter study.
Cluster Analysis and Socio-demographic Modeling of Bordetella Pertussis in Colorado
As an emerging infections epidemiologist, I helped manage the statewide disease reporting system CEDRS. Colorado has participated in the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) and collaborates with 9 other states and CDC to create trends and active surveillance analyses of reportable infectious diseases. Partnering with CDPHE's Vaccine Preventable Disease Epidemiologists and the Immunization Branch I conducted an analysis of B. pertussis ("whooping cough") rates and risks in Colorado.
National Ecological Observation Network (NEON)
As a GIS Technician at Colorado State University's Natural Resource Ecology Lab we worked with NEON to prepare maps of their long-term ecological monitoring sites for staff ecologists and partners. I also collected soil nitrogen level samples and did botantical and biomass sampling in the two Colorado NEON ecological monitoring sites of Pawnee National Grasslands and Rocky Mountain National Park. Finally, I assisted my boss, Dr. Jim Graham, with invasive species mapping, citizen scientist efforts, and undergraduate GIS lab instruction.
Mitrou Archaeological Project
The Mitrou Archaeological Project is an excavation collaborative project between the University of Tennessee and the Greek Archaeological Service. I was an archaeology field student in Tragana Greece for this project in 2005 and returned in 2007 as the GIS Technician. My job was the management of the excavation's 20,000+ data points which included trenches, artifacts, and burials. I was also in charge of datum management, surveying, GIS field student tutelage, and data cleaning. I utilized ArcGIS, Nikkon, Trimble, and Microsoft Access. (See more about this project)
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