Speaker Bios
Krystal Tsosie, PhD, MPH, MA (Keynote Presenter)
Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University
Associate Director of the Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center at ASU
Krystal Tsosie is an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences and Associate Director of the Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center at Arizona State University. She is a National Academies Kavli Fellow, co-founder of the Native BioData Consortium and ENRICH Global Scholar. Her advocacy and research on genomics and bioethics with Indigenous data technologies have gained international recognition. Tsosie’s work challenges ethical norms in research and policy, earning her positions on advisory boards such as National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the World Health Organization; the American Society of Human Genetic National and others.
Jenea Adams, MS
Penn Presidential Ph.D. Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Genomics and Computational Biology
Founder and Executive Director of the Black Women in Computational Biology Network (BWCB)
Jenea Adams is a PhD candidate in Genomics and Computational Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on adapting computational tools to analyze patient transcriptomes for clinical insights. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Women in Computational Biology Network (BWCB), a nonprofit organization that supports opportunities for Black women in STEM. Adams holds a MA in Statistics and Data Science from the Wharton School and works on research in the Yi Xing lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Erin Beck, MS
Biomedical Informatics Project Manager
National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH
Erin Beck is a Bioinformatics Project Manager working on the Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Center for Biomedical Informatics & Information Technology (CBIIT). She is the Federal Lead for their 3 Cloud Resources Data Commons Framework. Her focus is on data democratization within the Cancer Research community and finding ways to lower the barriers to entry to the CRDC’s cloud resources. She has her M.S. in Bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to the NCI, she worked as an bioinformatician and data scientist at the National Center for Advancing Technologies and the J. Craig Venter Institute.
Seth Berke
Research Assistant position at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Seth Berke is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, combining academic excellence with extensive research and community service experience. His undergraduate research focused on sex-specific differences in orofacial cleft risk using pediatric genomics data, leading to presentations at several scientific conferences. Currently, Seth works as a Research Assistant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, contributing to the NIH’s Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Consortium’s Data Integration and Resource Center team by preparing multimodal data for public access to enhance biomedical discovery opportunities.
MacKenzie Brandes, MBA
Project Manager I, Metabolism Program, Diabetes
Broad Institute
MacKenzie Brandes serves as the Project Manager for the Common Fund Data Ecosystem Knowledge Center at the Broad Institute, where she manages the Knowledge Center product and leads scientific outreach efforts, including the Public Webinar Series. Her dual role combines product management with community engagement, aiming to enhance the accessibility and utilization of Common Fund data resources. Brandes’ educational background, comprising a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and an MBA from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, equips her with both scientific knowledge and business acumen.
Noël Burtt
Director, Operations & Development, Diabetes Research & Knowledge Portals
Program in Medical and Population Genetics
Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Noël Burtt is the Director of Operations and Development for Knowledge Portals and Diabetes Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Her work focuses on scientific strategy and operational leadership of large-scale, international research consortia and on community engagement for open-access biomedical resources. She is an MPI for the NIH Common Fund Data Ecosystem Knowledge Center.
Dr. Kevin Cassel, Dr PH, MPH
Associate Director, Community Outreach and Engagement Office
Associate Professor Population Sciences in the Pacific Program
University of Hawaii Cancer Center
Dr. Kevin Cassel is an Associate Professor and Researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, directing the Community Outreach and Engagement Office. With over 30 years of experience in cancer prevention, Dr. Cassel’s work focuses on culturally congruent training, education, research, and support for medically underserved populations and clinical providers in Hawaii and the US Pacific. He has led the NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities Project which promotes inclusion of Pacific Islander women in Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial. Dr. Cassel also leads the Kū Ola Project, which promotes colorectal cancer screening among Native Hawaiian men.
Dr. Nyasha Chambwe, PhD
Assistant Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health & Department of Molecular Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell
Adjunct Assistant Professor; Cancer Center Member, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Dr. Nyasha Chambwe is an Assistant Professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and the Department of Molecular Medicine at Zucker School of Medicine, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Her research focuses on cancer genomics, biomarker discovery, and understanding cancer health disparities in underserved populations through computational analysis of large-scale genetic datasets. Dr. Chambwe’s work aims to uncover potentially causal differences across racial and ethnic groups to inform equitable health outcomes. In addition to her research, she is committed to teaching, mentorship, and promoting diversity in STEM through various initiatives and global capacity building efforts.
Frank Elavsky, he/him
Research Assistant, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Frank Elavsky is a PhD student and researcher at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, focusing on the intersection of data interaction and accessibility. His work aims to make analytical tools more accessible for people with disabilities, developing projects such as Chartability and Data Navigator. As an invited expert in data visualization for the ARIA standards working group, Frank contributes to accessibility standards. His professional experience includes collaborations with major tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, as well as consultations for various organizations across private and public sectors.
Dr. Katherine Kim, PhD, MPH, MBA, FAMIA
Adjunct Full Professor at University of California Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences
Senior Scientist for Health at CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) at UC Berkeley
Dr. Katherine Kim is a consumer health informaticist with expertise in digital health, data equity, and community-engaged research. She holds positions as Adjunct Full Professor at UC Davis School of Medicine and Senior Scientist at CITRIS, UC Berkeley. Dr. Kim, an elected fellow of AMIA, founded Health Tequity LLC to bring digital health solutions to underserved communities. Kim is an elected fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Chair of the AMIA Working Group Steering Committee, and Co-Chair of AMIA’ Subcommittee on Advancing Health Equity and Anti-Racism in Healthcare. Her involvement aims to improve healthcare through technology, while promoting health equity and anti-racism in healthcare.
Dr. Mitchell Lunn, MD, MAS, FACP, FASN
Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Mitchell R. Lunn is an Associate Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research focuses on sexual and gender minority (SGM) health, utilizing innovative technologies to better understand these underrepresented communities in biomedical research. Dr. Lunn co-directs The PRIDE Study, a national longitudinal health study of over 30,000 SGM adults, and PRIDEnet, a community engagement network involving SGM individuals in the research process. With board certifications in internal medicine, nephrology, and clinical informatics, Dr. Lunn brings a multidisciplinary approach to his work in advancing SGM health research and community engagement.
Avi Ma’ayan, PhD
Mount Sinai Endowed Professor in Bioinformatics
Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences
Director, Mount Sinai Center for Bioinformatics
Dr. Ma’ayan is a Mount Sinai Endowed Professor in Bioinformatics, Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Bioinformatics, Professor in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Professor in the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health. Dr. Ma’ayan is also a Principal Investigator of the NIH Common Fund Data Resource Center (DRC) for the Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE). Dr. Ma’ayan was also a Principal Investigator of the Data Coordination Center of the NIH Common Fund LINCS and IDG programs. The Ma’ayan Laboratory develops bioinformatics software applications to enable experimental biologists to form novel hypotheses from high-throughput omics datasets, while aiming to better understand the structure and function of regulatory networks in mammalian cellular and multi-cellular complex systems.
Nandita Rahman
Director of Data Governance, Office of Data and Analytics, All of Us Research Program
Nandita Rahman directs Data Governance for the All of Us Research Program at the National Institutes of Health. With over a decade of experience in bioinformatics and machine learning, she focuses on leveraging AI to advance health equity using the program’s health dataset of various types of health data from diverse participants. Rahman develops data governance frameworks emphasizing FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) to enhance data quality for researchers. She also lectures around “Fairness, Bias, and Responsible AI development,” teaching how to code and detect biases in data and algorithms affecting health equity in underrepresented communities.
Dr. Zaki A. Sherif, PhD
Tenured Full Professor at Howard University College of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine
Dr. Zaki A. Sherif is a Tenured Full Professor at Howard University College of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. His research focuses on cancer, translational medicine, and SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, with significant contributions to breast and liver cancer studies, particularly in health disparities. Dr. Sherif has led major research initiatives, including a multi-omics chronic liver study and the Howard University COVID RECOVER Project. With over $21 million in research grants, he serves on various NIH committees and editorial boards. Dr. Sherif also served as an unofficial ambassador and lecturer for AAAS on cutting-edge research topics such as cloning, genomic sequencing, CRISPR, microbiome, COVID-19, PASC (long COVID), etc.
Dr. Desiree Shantai Smith, MPH, DrPh
Health Equity Research and Evaluation
Dr. Desiree Shantai Smith holds a Doctor of Public Health and Master of Public Health from Mercer University. Her research experience spans several esteemed organizations, including BLKHLTH, the African Population Health Research Centre, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Equity Technical Assistance Center. Dr. Smith’s work, published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, focuses on a broad spectrum of public health issues. Her research interests encompass chronic diseases, reproductive and environmental health, harm reduction, data equity, and public health workforce development, with a particular emphasis on health and racial equity.
Dr. Karriem S. Watson, DHSc, MS, MPH (he/him)
Chief Engagement Officer, All of Us Research Program
Dr. Karriem S. Watson serves as the Chief Engagement Officer for the NIH’s All of Us Research Program, leading efforts to build diverse health datasets for precision medicine research. With over 15 years of experience in cancer disparities research, his work focuses on community-engaged research, implementation science, and improving diversity in clinical trials. Dr. Watson’s contributions have been funded by multiple NIH institutes, and he has been recognized for his commitment to STEM education. Dr. Watson also served as a health care administrator overseeing community-based research and serving as the Associate Executive Director for a network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).
Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam
Data Science and Open Science Officer in the National Library of Medicine’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, NIH
Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam serves as the Data Science and Open Science Officer at the National Library of Medicine’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. Her work focuses on enhancing data science and open science capabilities in the biomedical research community, while promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, Dr. Zaringhalam holds a part-time position as Assistant Director for Public Access and Research Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she coordinates interagency efforts on open science policies. With a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Rockefeller University, she brings scientific expertise to her roles in advancing open science and research policy.