Staff

Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA is the Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Reede also holds appointments as Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and is an Assistant in Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. Institutional transformation and change at multiple levels, workforce development in biomedical sciences across the life cycle, sponsorship, coaching and mentoring at critical career junctures, developing networks and connections as well as leadership development are the hallmark of Dr. Reede’s work in the biomedical sciences. To that end, she has developed, directed, and continue to provide leadership for a multi-faceted portfolio of programs that support the career development of faculty, trainees, and students. These programs are local and national in scope and create multiple entry and exit points for individuals as they pursue their educational and career goals. 
 
As a faculty, Dr. Reede’s engagement in teaching, research and service offers an opportunity to interact with other stakeholders—students, faculty, administrators. provide insights and understanding of the unique and common issues within these communities. Connectivity and contextual factors are mainstay of Dr. Reede’s programs that include mentoring, with the knowledge that those individuals who are offered mentorship will more likely persevere and realize their potential, and in turn promote a culture of mentorship and foster the development of excellent mentors for future generations. Her system-based perspectives have increasingly propelled her to work at the institutional levelto create and sustain cultures of inclusive excellence. At multiple levels across organizations and sectors, her work has led to discourse and dialogue that have engendered the development of policies and the creation of programs that address issues that are fundamental to diversity and inclusion and inclusive excellence.

Emorcia V. Hill, PhD,  Director of Research and Evaluation focuses on the development of integrated theoretical, methodological and analytical frameworks that can be generically applied across disciplines, organization and sectors to understand how social and institutional environments change. Her expertise is in basic and applied research, program development and policy analysis that draw on multiple disciplines and perspectives. Dr Hill is a sociologist who applies system approaches to research and evaluation with substantial experience in the design, implementation, research, and evaluation of educational and social programs across different organizational settings and sectors. She is especially interested in systems thinking and interdisciplinary approaches and the compatibility of both to understand social phenomena and address human capital and human resource development in the biomedical, behavioral and STEM fields. Her expertise is in basic and applied research, program development and policy analysis that draw on multiple disciplines and perspectives. Dr Hill’s  formal training and considerable professional experience include quantitative and qualitative research methods. As a program administrator, she has designed and implemented programs for underrepresented populations to increase their access and success in academia and industry. These programs include individual and institutional strategies, and at local, regional and national levels. The development of integrated theoretical, methodological and analytical frameworks that can be generically applied across disciplines, organization and sectors to understand how social and institutional environments change is the focus of her work. Conceptually and operationally, Dr. Hill’s current work involves the development of models and frameworks that guide, and potentially catalyze, institutional change and transformation and which results in more inclusive environments.  Dr. Hill has a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College. Her dissertation examined the class structure of academia and the factors that inhibit or facilitate the success of scientists and engineers in institutions of higher education

Rivana Christie, MS, Data Scientist, delivers impactful business solutions to address real-world problems by leveraging data-driven insights and building models that integrate diverse data sources. Her data science and machine learning competency includes exploratory data analysis, predictive modeling, classification and clustering, dimensionality reduction, deep learning and natural language processing. She is proficient in tools such as Python, R, PySpark and SQL that are routinely used to perform data analysis and modeling; and frequently uses Tableau to craft data visualizations. She ensures the highest of data quality and accuracy by validating sources, auditing for completeness, standardizing formats and collaborating with domain experts to validate data interpretations. With a background in technology consulting, Ms. Christie has collaborated cross-functionally with diverse stakeholders and worked with wide range of technologies, which together have effectively enhanced her abilities to translate business requirements into robust technical solutions. She is also extremely experienced in building recommendation systems that provide highly personalized and customized user experiences for online streaming platforms.

Ms. Christie actively advances technical data infrastructure, laying the groundwork for the strategic application of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches that decisively account for unique contextual and business sectors. Her diverse functional experiences and expertise drives strategies and approaches used to create sector and initiative-specific metrics. Operating within an iterative agile project framework, she collaboratively fulfills end-user needs and expectations via establishing back-end architecture and cloud infrastructure, managing data governance, improving front-end reporting features and visualizations, and overseeing project lifecycle execution.

Ms. Christie received her B. Tech in computer science and engineering from VIT University in India and MS in data science from Northeastern University in Boston. Her passion lies in using data science techniques to explore and analyze the impacts of day-to-day occurrences on individual lives and ultimately to produce broader societal benefits.  Her comprehensive skill set coupled with dedication to driving innovation, positions Ms. Christie well for significant contributions to data science and analytics.