Courtney Marie Cora Jones, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Professional Background

Courtney Jones, PhD MPH received her MPH in 2008 and her PhD in epidemiology in 2014 from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry. She completed an Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship in 2016 and the Geriatric Faculty Scholar Program in 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Orthopaedics, and Public Health Sciences. Dr. Jones has an active research laboratory in which she focuses on optimizing patient care in acute settings such as the emergency department and ambulance. She also provides research methods and statistical consultation on a wide variety of topics include emergency care, infectious disease, orthopaedic injury and surgery, sports epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, and others.

Dr. Jones also has an active role in the education of medical trainees. She is the Director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Curriculum, Journal Club, and the Research Track within the URMC Emergency Medicine Residency Program as well as the Assistant Director of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship. In this role, she leads the quarterly departmental journal club and provides research methods lectures on topics critical to interpreting the articles selected for discussion. She mentors emergency medicine residents and fellows in the conduct of their independent research and provides guidance and mentorship ranging from study conceptualization, data acquisition, data analysis, and dissemination. Dr. Jones also teaches epidemiology to first year medical students in Medical Evidence and Inquiry and serves as a problem-based learning tutor in a number of courses in the School of Medicine. In the emergency medicine clerkship, Dr. Jones also lectures on ways to optimize emergency care of older adult patients through the lens of Age-Friendly Health Systems.

Dr. Jones also directs two graduate courses in the Department of Public Health Sciences. PM 489 Injury Epidemiology and Emergency Care Research Methods focuses on the burden of injury on the population’s health, epidemiologic methods unique to studying injury, and specific content areas such as opioid overdose, prehospital care of injured patients, and traumatic brain injury. PM 424 Epidemiology and Prevention of Chronic Diseases focuses on defining and conceptualizing chronic disease risk and prevention. This course leverages social determinants of health and social epidemiology as frameworks to understand the web of causation that is frequently present in the etiology of chronic disease. In addition to these graduate courses, Dr. Jones frequently provides guest lectures on River Campus and mentors students in the conduct of research through their graduate theses or dissertations and undergraduate independent studies.

Dr. Jones is active in service across the University of Rochester. She served on the Commission for Gender Equity and Inclusion where her work focused on issues of gender equitable compensation. She has served on the Faculty Senate since 2017 and was elected to the Research Policy Committee and Senate Executive Committee in 2021 and is currently Co-Chair of the Faculty Senate for the 2021-2022 academic year. She is also a member of a number of committees and working groups across campus on topics such as global engagement and career path modernization.

Lastly, Dr. Jones is a mother of two young children and enjoys supporting them in academic endeavors as well as their sports activities.

Research