Lab Team

Dr. Bhatia is a board-certified radiation oncologist practicing at Winship Cancer Institute's Clifton campus. She joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2024. A Gold Humanism Honor Society member and Fulbright awardee, she has been active in global health research, including key work on hypofractionation for breast cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa funded by the ASTRO-BCRF Resident Seed Grant. Prior to joining Emory, she received a degree in Epidemiology and her MD from the University of Rochester. She completed her medical internship at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and completed her residency in radiation oncology at Johns Hopkins University, where she was chief resident in her final year.

Dr. Bhatia’s research bridges global oncology and patient-centered care. She examines barriers to accessing high-quality radiation therapy in resource-limited settings using implementation science and mixed-methods approaches. She also studies the optimal treatment modalities for patients with metastatic disease and investigates their emotional, communicative, and informational needs to support truly shared decision-making. She currently leads the development of a web-based support tool for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Kawther Al Ksir, DrPH, is a mixed-methods public health researcher committed to advancing equitable cancer prevention, control, and survivorship. She manages research initiatives in the Health Services, Outcomes, and Policy Research Division of Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology, supporting studies that optimize radiation oncology systems and improve patient and population outcomes. Her work integrates quantitative, qualitative, and epidemiologic methods to examine environmental and behavioral risk factors—including radon exposure, air pollution, and tobacco use—and their effects on cancer outcomes, particularly in rural and underserved communities.

She earned her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Community and Behavioral Health from East Tennessee State University and has over three years of experience leading multidisciplinary research on health disparities, environmental exposures, and access to care.

Mokshad P. Gaonkar is a Senior Biostatistician in Emory University School of Medicine's Department of Radiation Oncology and a PhD candidate in Biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His work focuses on cancer and cardiovascular outcomes, health services research, and reproducible analytics. He specializes in survival analysis, survey data analysis, and longitudinal modeling using large datasets such as SEER-Medicare, MarketScan, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Health Interview Survey, UK Biobank, and institutional oncology registries.

His current research interests include oncology care delivery and timeliness, policy evaluation in cancer populations, and dose–response modeling for cardiac and pulmonary substructures. His publications appear in journals such as JACC: Heart Failure, Nature Communications, and Nature Cardiovascular Research. He also serves as a peer reviewer for journals in cardiology and population health. Mokshad is the 2025–26 FDA Oncology Center of Excellence/ASA Oncology Education Fellow.

Haofan (Will) Yang is a first-year doctoral student in Health Services Research and Health Policy (Health Economics track) at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. His research focuses on improving healthcare access and the quality of care. Will earned his Master of Public Health in Public Health Policy and Management from New York University's School of Global Public Health and his Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from New York University.

Before joining Emory, Will worked as a Research Assistant at NYU Langone's Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab (HEAL), where he conducted quantitative and qualitative research on healthcare disparities and treatment outcomes. He also served as a Research Assistant at Marshall University's Global Health Institute, contributing to strategic planning initiatives, grant writing, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Zhanji Zhang is a Research Scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. His work focuses on health policy evaluation and comparative effectiveness research in cancer treatment, drawing on survey data, administrative claims, and electronic medical records. His research applies economic theory to healthcare systems, with prior studies examining ownership changes in home health agencies and the return on investment in social determinants of health.

He earned his PhD in Applied Economics (Health Economics track) from the University of Minnesota.