Center for Data Science
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How Is Data Science Shaping the Future of Nursing?
Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science are fundamentally changing the health care landscape. By leveraging and contextualizing big data, nurse leaders can improve health care processes and patient outcomes.
Our Mission
The Center for Data Science at Emory University transforms nursing research, education, and practice by bringing the power of data-driven thinking to bear on challenging problems in nursing science.
Founded in 2015, Emory School of Nursing’s Center for Data Science serves as a(n):
- Research center advancing nursing and healthcare data science.
- Bridge between academia and healthcare.
- Platform for large-scale, externally funded research.
- Hub for interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Training engine for the next generation of nurse data scientists.
- Center of technical excellence in priority areas critical to nursing research and practice.
- Incubator for innovative data resources.
The Center for Data Science is uniquely positioned to bring together clinical nursing expertise, computational science, health system partnership, and educational innovation so that nurses are not only users of emerging technologies, but leaders in their design, evaluation, implementation, and governance.
“For centuries, nurses forged innovative pathways to improve the care of patients and communities despite often being hard pressed for time, resources, and institutional support. Emory Nursing’s Center for Data Science is changing this narrative by giving disruptive nurses the tools they need — using data to bring new ideas to life.”
Vicki Hertzberg, PhD, FASA, Professor and Founding Director for the Center for Data Science
Programs
Transforming the Future of Frontline Nursing Research
Here’s a look at two programs offered by the Center for Data Science: Project NeLL and the NeLL Scholars Program.
Project NeLL
Project NeLL — which stands for Nurse’s Electronic Learning Library — is a powerful suite of applications for teaching, learning, and practicing data science. It was designed by nurses for nurses to enable researchers to develop data-driven, evidence-based practices and find innovative solutions for health systems. Project NeLL includes access to a repository of more than 2 billion de-identified electronic health records, a proprietary data dictionary, data visualization tools, and a video library.
Project NeLL Scholars Program
A collaboration between the School of Nursing and Emory Healthcare, the Project NeLL Scholars Program is a one-year data science immersion for Emory Healthcare nurses. Scholars learn how to use Project NeLL, complete a big data research project leveraging its suite of applications, and disseminate their research findings through peer-reviewed publications.
Partners
Driving Change Through Innovation
We are building our partner network. If you would like to work with the Center for Data Science, please contact us at cds@emory.edu.
"Nurses need big data, and big data needs nurses. With 32 trillion data points, Project NeLL provides the data that nurses need to create the best health care solutions.”
Roy Simpson, DNP, RN, DPNAP, FAAN, FACMI, Assistant Dean for Data Science Education, Professor, and Co-Director for the Center for Data Science
Our Team
Our Directors
Founding Director, Professor
Dr. Hertzberg, PhD, is Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She also has courtesy appointments as a professor in the Departments of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Computer Science, and Mathematics at Emory. Dr. Hertzberg received her BS cum laude from Miami University in 1976 and her PhD in biostatistics from the University of Washington in 1980. She then served on the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology faculty at the University of Cincinnati until moving to Emory University in 1995 to become chair of the Department of Biostatistics in the Rollins School of Public Health. In 2015, she moved to the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing where she founded and continues to direct the Center for Data Science.
Executive Director, Professor
Patti is an internationally recognized nurse scientist and informatician focused on improving patient safety, quality, and outcomes through health IT, predictive analytics, and implementation science. She has led numerous NIH-, AHRQ-, and PCORI-funded studies that bridge research and practice in partnership with clinicians, health systems, patients, and families.
She developed widely adopted innovations including Fall TIPS, an Epic-embedded fall prevention tool, and DOVE eCQM, the first NLP-based electronic clinical quality measure in the CMS national program. She is also a lead investigator on the CONCERN early warning system using AI to detect patient deterioration.
Dr. Dykes is a former Professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, past President of AMIA, and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Director, Professor Asa Griggs Candler Chair of Nursing Data Science
Dr. Hu conducts research at the intersection of computational and health sciences where he develops signal processing, mathematical modeling, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms to transform physiological and clinical data into actionable information for improving patient care. Through his research, Hu has created knowledge advancing the relationship among clinicians, scientists, engineers, innovators, policy makers, and healthcare administrators. Dr. Hu also serve as Associated Faculty of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine and Associated Faculty of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences and serves as advisory board for the AI Humanity Initiative.
Director, Professor
Dr. Simpson lectures extensively around the world and has published more than 500 articles on nursing informatics. He also sits on 12 editorial review boards, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, New York Academy of Medicine and the National Academies of Practice. He attained a doctorate in nursing practice, executive leadership/informatics, from American Sentinel University.
Associate Director, Operations and Research Projects
Tracie Graham is a dynamic, engaging, and authentic leader. She has over 20 years of experience in public health research project coordination and management in an academic setting. The consistent thread in her career is her ability to successfully implement research protocols while also mentoring and training the next generation of public health professionals. Her mindset is driven by her commitment to the ethical conduct of research and improving the health of marginalized communities. Tracie supports the CDS through project leadership and by managing day-to-day operations of the Center. Tracie received her BA in Psychology and Sociology at Emory University and her MPH in Health Behavior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Faculty
Assistant Professor
Foster Osei Baah, PhD, RN is a cardiovascular nurse scientist with a program of research focused on the social determinants of cardiovascular health behavior, self-care, cardiometabolic disease and cardiovascular health disparities in marginalized groups. The fundamental goal of this research program is to inform, design, and test interventions that enhance health behavior, improve health outcomes, and promote equity across diverse population groups. Prior to joining the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor, he completed a PhD in Nursing Science at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral fellowship at the Social Determinants of Obesity and Cardiovascular Risk Laboratory at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) with a focus on intervention design to address obesity and cardiovascular health disparities in resource limited neighborhoods.
Assistant Professor
Monique Bouvier is an Assistant Professor for Emory University, School of Nursing and a research nurse scientist for Emory Healthcare. She is working on nursing care delivery model redesign and improvements in nursing documentation. She has mentored and guided numerous frontline nurses and nurse leaders on research, EBP, and quality improvement. She has authored several articles for peer-reviewed journals and has presented at conferences nationally and internationally. She obtained her PhD from the University of San Diego with her research focus on influenza-like illness and symptomatology.
Assistant Professor
Stephanie is a Pediatric Critical Care Physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine. She earned her medical degree at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and completed pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. She then completed pediatric critical care fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital and concurrently earned a Master of Science in Epidemiology in the Clinical and Translational Research track at the University of Washington. The focus of her work is the application of machine learning approaches to identify clinical deterioration and optimize the use of extracorporeal life support in critically ill children.
Associate Professor, Director of Nursing Research, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Professor, Assistant Dean of Education Systems Science
Ike Choi is a learning systems scientist investigating the role of authentic experiences and reflective thinking in developing human expertise to solve uncertain, ill-defined real-world problems. He worked with leading scholars in health sciences (medicine, pharmacy, vet medicine, and nursing), basic sciences, engineering, and teacher education. He developed and disseminated generalizable instructional theories and models that enhance authenticity, reflection, and learning. His recent interdisciplinary research focuses on applying learning science, data science, and advanced technologies—virtual reality, simulation, machine learning, and biosensing technologies—to improving health professions education.
Associate Professor
Dr. Chung (she/her) is a nurse scientist with expertise in technology and aging research. Focusing on technology-enabled risk detection, prevention, and interactive interventions, she aims to promote independent living in community-dwelling older adults including those with health disparities. Additionally, she continues to work on advancing technology implementation science by exploring the acceptability of digital health technology among older adults and caregivers in a sociocultural context. She utilizes design thinking to create user-centered technology solutions that meet the needs of older adults from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. In recognition of the impact of her work, she has been selected as a fellow of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship Program for Nurse Leaders and Innovators and as a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). She was a fellow of the Latino Aging Research Resource Center, one of the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). She is currently working on an NIH/NIA-funded R01 project to develop digital biomarkers of dementia based on sensor-based mobility and activity data, as well as an R21 project focused on developing a machine learning algorithm to automatically assess older adults’ loneliness risks in the home setting.
Associate Professor
Dr. Cimiotti is an internationally recognized health services researcher with expertise in nurse workforce issues and the quality of patient care. Her research has been cited for its expertise on nurse outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, burnout, and patient outcomes, specifically healthcare-associated infections and the sequela of infection such as extended lengths of stay, hospital readmissions, and mortality. Her work on healthcare-associated infections has been nationally and internationally recognized through NBC News, the Daily Mail, Modern Healthcare, and National Public Radio (NPR). Dr. Cimiotti is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academies of Practice, and a member of Sigma Theta Tau International. She currently serves as a Health Services Research & Development reviewer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Close is a board-certified pediatric nurse practitioner with a BS, MS and PhD from Columbia University School of Nursing in New York. She is also inducted as a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine. Her area of clinical and research interest is pediatric primary care, developmental pediatrics, management of chronic conditions of genetic origin, and variations of sex chromosome aneuploidy. Her current work at the School of Nursing includes teaching in genetics and pediatric primary care.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Eldridge received his B.S. from Loyola University Chicago, his MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health, and his PhD from Emory University. He is an expert in the fields of cancer epidemiology, causal inference methods, applied statistics, and data analysis. He uses his interest in advanced methods to study the biological mechanisms of cancer symptoms and survival. Currently, he is involved in identifying the differential metabolic pathways of head and neck cancer survival through high-resolution metabolomics and identifying complex longitudinal patterns in cancer patient reported outcomes that predict poor survival.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Fedorov is committed to developing trustworthy medical artificial intelligence systems across diverse healthcare data. His research focuses on developing novel semi-supervised and self-supervised multimodal machine learning algorithms designed to adapt seamlessly to new data, promoting broader clinical applications. Throughout his academic pursuits, Dr. Fedorov has amassed invaluable experience by presenting his work at venues such as ICLR, NeurIPS, MICCAI, and IEEE, as well as interning at leading technology companies such as Meta, Descript, Microsoft Research, and the academic lab Mila - Quebec AI Institute, led by 2018 A.M. Turing Award recipient, Dr. Yoshua Bengio. Dr. Fedorov earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico. Additionally, he holds a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Applied Mathematics, both from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology.
Assistant Clinical Professor, Director, Georgia Nursing Workforce Center
Chelsea O. P. Hagopian, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and serves as Executive Director for the Georgia Nursing Workforce Center, which uses data and community building to tell and actively shape the story of nursing in Georgia toward a shared vision of a sustainable Georgia nursing workforce with a strong sense of professional mattering. Chelsea holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Health Systems Leadership, and her research and scholarship focus on informed consent, nursing ethics, and professional identity in nursing with authored peer-reviewed publications in the nursing literature on informed consent and ethical challenges with nonsurgical medical aesthetic devices and the plastic surgery literature on informed consent and patient decision aids in aesthetic plastic surgery. Her clinical background and current practice is in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Hawks serves as the MN Enrichment Initiative Team Lead, where she directs the AI and Digital Health Enrichment Initiative. In this role, she is deeply integrated into Emory’s expanding nursing AI and digital health ecosystem, leading experiential learning opportunities that connect nursing students with emerging technologies, human-centered design practices, and data science applications in healthcare.
Dr. Hawks’ scholarship and leadership span multiple projects and partnerships including serving as Principal Investigator of NurseMaiT, a cross-cultural AI teammate designed to detect and respond to collective burnout, and Co-Principal Investigator of an AI-enabled diabetic foot health project funded by the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation. She is also advancing global collaborations in Vietnam focused on curriculum renewal and digital workforce development.
Across her work, Dr. Hawks is committed to preparing nurses to lead in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, where data science, AI, and ethical design converge. Through innovative teaching, Miranda Hawks, PhD, RN, CNL is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and serves as the MN Enrichment Initiative Team Lead, where she directs the AI and Digital Health Enrichment Initiative. In this role, she is deeply integrated into Emory’s expanding nursing AI and digital health ecosystem, leading experiential learning opportunities that connect nursing students with emerging technologies, human-centered design practices, and data science applications in healthcare.
Dr. Hawks’ scholarship and leadership span multiple projects and partnerships including serving as Principal Investigator of NurseMaiT, a cross-cultural AI teammate designed to detect and respond to collective burnout, and Co-Principal Investigator of an AI-enabled diabetic foot health project funded by the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation. She is also advancing global collaborations in Vietnam focused on curriculum renewal and digital workforce development.
Across her work, Dr. Hawks is committed to preparing nurses to lead in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, where data science, AI, and ethical design converge. Through innovative teaching, participatory co-design, and interdisciplinary partnerships, she equips future nurse leaders to shape technologies that center human experience, equity, and clinical excellence.
Associate Professor
Dr. Ho has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.A. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research involves the development of novel data mining and machine learning algorithms to address problems in healthcare. She has papers in premier journals and conferences across both computer science and clinical venues including KDD, AISTATS, TKDD, AMIA, JMLR, and JBI. Her work received the best paper award at the 2017 AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science. She also co-founded a successful healthcare analytics company (Accordion Health) and previously worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Houser earned her PhD in Emory’s Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis program and has extensive experience with laboratory and computational research studying the interplay between gut microbes and the host immune system and the role of inflammatory processes in chronic disease. She works collaboratively with numerous research teams, contributing topical as well as methods expertise and technical skills in bioinformatics and analysis of omics data sets. Consistent themes in Dr. Houser’s research are the integration of multiple data sources (often including microbiome, metabolomics, and/or inflammation-related data) and assessment of the interactions of complex systems to identify risk factors and contributors to adverse health outcomes.
Professor, Director, PhD AI Track
Dr. Huzurbazar joined the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in early 2024 with a secondary position as Director of the provisional AI track in the Nursing PhD program. Most recently, she was Professor of Data Science and Associate Director in the School of Mathematical and Data Sciences at West Virginia University (WVU), where she founded the Data Science program in 2020. She was Chair of Biostatistics at WVU (2017-2019), Professor of Statistics at the University of Wyoming (1995-2017), and Deputy Director (2012-14) of the NSF’s Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute in North Carolina. Earlier in her career, she was a Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder and she also initiated and obtained NIJ funding to start the STOP Violence program at the Univ of Wyoming. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. Her methodological and interdisciplinary research is now at the intersection of statistics and data science, with a view towards uncertainty quantification. She earned her PhD in Statistics from Colorado State University, her MA in Economics from Vanderbilt University and her BA from Grinnell College. She is one of the two statistical editors for the journal Anesthesiology.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Kang received her PhD in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. Her area of expertise is heart failure. She is currently conducting a randomized controlled trial study examining the feasibility and acceptability of home-based symptom monitoring for heart failure patients. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is funding the study.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Kim is committed to reducing the racial/ethnic disparities in women's and fetal health outcomes by identifying at-risk populations based on their psychosocial and biological chronic stress profiles as well as cultivating their resilience. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing with her dissertation addressing the role of chronic stress in the different maternal age patterns of preterm birth (PTB) among four major racial/ethnic groups of pregnant women in the U.S. She has participated in multiple pilot and national-level research projects that developed and tested culturally tailored, technology-based intervention programs among Asian American women in unique health needs (e.g., midlife women and breast cancer survivors).
Assistant Professor
Dr. Hyunjung Gloria Kwak focuses on developing equitable AI for healthcare by integrating machine learning techniques to address social determinants of health and promote fairness in healthcare research. She has collaborated with prominent research efforts worldwide, including the MIT LCP and the CHoRUS project. Dr. Kwak has also worked with hospitals across Hong Kong, Korea, and other regions during her PhD and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Before transitioning to academia, she held professional positions at two leading tech companies, contributing to AI innovations. Her global journey in computer science spans HKUST, University College London, and Korea University. She also serves as a section editor for PLOS Digital Health.
Assistant Research Professor
Dr. Kwon earned her PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology from the University of Georgia Mary Frances Early College of Education. Dr. Kwon was one of the core members of Research and Innovation in Learning (RAIL, an interdisciplinary research lab) at UGA and participated in the Translational Workforce Development (TWD) project of the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA) for six years. Her research focuses on investigating effective ways of enhancing problem-solving and decision-making abilities, with a particular emphasis on enhancing clinical reasoning and emotional regulation among health professionals.
She also co-founded a successful healthcare analytics company (Accordion Health) and previously worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Li’s research is aimed at uncovering knowledge related to nursing workforce, as well as the costs and quality of care at both the national and international levels. Dr. Li has an interdisciplinary education and training in medicine, nursing, economy, business, and sociology. She also has extensive background and experience in data management and analysis, especially using large datasets. Her dissertation used an economic theory to examine the primary care nurses’ contributions to the quality of primary care and their economic returns. Currently funded studies focus on developing a business case for employment of hospital-based advanced practice registered nurses and examining how nursing licensure compact may improve the response to natural disaster (both funded by NCSBN).
Assistant Professor
Dr. Jiaying Lu received his Ph.D. in computer science & informatics from Emory University in 2024, an M.Eng. in Electronics & Communication Engineering and a B.Sc. in Information Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. His research involves developing trustworthy artificial intelligence solutions for healthcare applications in alliance with nurses, physicians, and biostatisticians. He is an expert in the fields of natural language processing, data mining, and machine learning, with extensive experience in analyzing EHR, omics data, physiological data, and more. Dr. Lu is a recipient of the Young Scientist Excellence Award from MCBIOS in 2024.
Assistant Professor
Jacqueline Nikpour, PhD, RN is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Emory University in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a steering committee member for the Georgia Nursing Workforce Center. Dr. Nikpour’s research examines the impact of new primary care delivery models on achieving equitable health outcomes for patients. She is especially interested in the organization, delivery, and financing of nursing care in primary care clinics, health centers, and other community-based settings. Dr. Nikpour’s research and teaching bridge her clinical nursing background with her training in health policy and value-based care to answer key questions on nurses’ roles in achieving equitable, high-value health care.
Associate Professor
Dr. Sharon Sonenblum is dedicated to improving patient outcomes and enhancing the lives of individuals with disabilities through the application of data-driven insights to clinical practice and engineering innovation. She joins the Center for Data Science after spending 20 years at Georgia Institute of Technology, bringing her unique ability to collaborate between researchers and clinicians to the School of Nursing. Her research program spans pressure injury prevention, detection, and etiology, and wheelchair seating and mobility. She conducts influential studies on the impact of real-world behavior on pressure injury development and technology's role in behavior modification. She also employs advanced approaches to investigate how tissues respond to loading considering differences across diverse skin tones. Dr. Sonenblum is an alumnus of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel's board of directors and a member of the Prophylactic Dressing Standards Initiative. She holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an ScM in Bioengineering and an ScB in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Ryan Suk (pronounced Rye-un Sook) is a Health Economist and Decision Scientist by training, focused on using real-world data and decision modeling for economic evaluation to evaluate and inform healthcare efficiency and individuals’ health decision making. Dr. Suk’s research focuses on HPV-associated cancer prevention and control, as well as patient-centered cancer survivorship. Her ongoing supported projects include 1) identifying spatial and informational accessibility, and opportunity costs, for affordable HPV vaccination using advanced spatial modeling and cognitive task analysis; 2) developing a web tool for navigating healthcare and social resources (HPVx Navigator); and 3) integrating real-world data with causal machine learning and microsimulation to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects and conduct a distributional cost-effectiveness analysis of advanced palliative radiotherapy. She received a Bachelor's in Business Administration (BBA) from Korea University (Seoul, Korea), an MS in Economics from the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah), and after completing her PhD coursework at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida), a PhD in Health Economics from The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) School of Public Health (Houston, Texas). Before joining Emory and the Center for Data Science, Dr. Suk was an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and at UTHealth School of Public Health. Dr. Suk is a Seoul (Korea) native.
Associate Professor
Dr. Xiao is a biomedical engineer by training, with a research focus on applying engineering principles and AI/machine learning to healthcare. His primary work centers on cardiovascular research, leveraging physiological waveforms (e.g., ECG, EEG, and PPG) in combination with electronic health records to improve diagnosis and prognosis for acute coronary syndromes and cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. He also maintains a diverse research portfolio in computational neuroscience, analyzing neuronal signals (e.g., EEG, ECoG, and LFP) to study neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration.
In addition to his research, Dr. Xiao is an active educator in AI. He co-leads an R25 grant that delivers AI and data science training to non-engineering audiences, develops and teaches courses for PhD students in the AI track, and serves as the inaugural Program Director for the Master of Science in Healthcare Analytics program at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
Associate Professor
As an aging-focused health services researcher, Dr. Xu has extensive experience studying long-term care, health policy, and cancer survivorship, using large Medicare claims, resident assessments, and various survey data. His NIH-funded research projects seek to understand the interaction of federal and state policies with nursing home operations and the ways in which this interaction may improve or unintendedly compromise quality of care or health equity. He has also applied various supervised and unsupervised machine learning models to aging research. He previously participated in multiple NIH-funded projects in cancer survivorship. Dr. Xu was selected into several prestigious aging training programs such as the RL5 Pepper Scholar and RCCN Scholars Program in Multidisciplinary Research. Dr. Xu has published 60+ peer-reviewed articles in leading medical and policy journals including The Lancet, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Health Affairs; he coauthored two book chapters and 90+ scientific abstracts. His work has been cited 2,500+ times, with an H-index of 25. Dr. Xu holds national leadership positions and serves as a scientific reviewer for NIH and 25+ scientific journals. Before coming to Emory, Dr. Xu held faculty positions at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Yan earned his Doctorate and Master degrees in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2023 and 2019, respectively, following the completion of his Bachelor's degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2018. His research focuses on employing machine learning and deep learning techniques to model human behaviors and predict outcomes related to health and well-being.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Eldridge received his B.S. from Loyola University Chicago, his MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health, and his PhD from Emory University. He is an expert in the fields of cancer epidemiology, causal inference methods, applied statistics, and data analysis. He uses his interest in advanced methods to study the biological mechanisms of cancer symptoms and survival. Currently, he is involved in identifying the differential metabolic pathways of head and neck cancer survival through high-resolution metabolomics and identifying complex longitudinal patterns in cancer patient reported outcomes that predict poor survival.
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Assistant Professor
Dr. Zhang earned her BSN from the Xiang-Ya Schools of Medicine and Nursing, Central South University, China. Together with her PhD in Nursing, she obtained a master’s degree in Statistics (Department of Statistics and Data Science), a minor portfolio certificate in Aging and Health (Department of Human Development and Family Sciences), and training in health informatics and telehealth at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed a 2-year postdoctoral training in the Center for Data Science, Emory University NWH School of Nursing. During these two years, she received further training in geriatrics, data science, clinical informatics, and omics. She also advanced her multimorbidity research training with the Center for the Study of Symptom Science, Metabolomics, & Multiple Chronic Conditions.
Post-Docs
Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Bennett earned her PhD in Nursing Research from the University of Cincinnati. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar. She has mentored students in areas of patient-centered care, health literacy, and interprofessional care planning. Her research interests relate to improving outcomes for aging populations, primarily focusing on Black women’s health and intersectionality. Particularly, she will leverage data science and HIT to research intersectional drivers of high rates of dementia in black women and to develop relevant psychoeducational interventions. She is a WISDOM postdoc, which is a T32 trainee program led by Drs. Rasheeta Chandler and Vicki Hertzberg.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Ayca Ermis recently earned her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she specialized in systems and controls, signal processing, and the thermal management of implantable medical devices. During her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she developed personalized thermal comfort models and novel control frameworks for real-time energy and thermal management in medical technologies using machine learning techniques, time-series modeling, and adaptive control methods. Before joining the Center for Data Science, Dr. Ermis worked at iRhythm Technologies on wearable multi-sensor devices and noninvasive blood pressure estimation. Currently, she is working with Dr. Xiao Hu on cuffless blood pressure estimation using foundation models and constraint optimization for noninvasive intracranial pressure estimation. She is a T32 ADBDB-TP postdoctoral fellow.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Davood Fattahi earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (Bioelectric) from Shiraz University in 2022. His research focuses on biological signal processing and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. Over his career, he has contributed to advancements in analyzing biological data, including Electrocardiography (ECG), Phonocardiography (PCG), Electroencephalography (EEG), lung sounds, and other physiological signals, to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiopulmonary, epileptic, and seizure-related conditions. Currently, Dr. Fattahi is a post-doctoral researcher under the mentorship of Dr. Xiao Hu. His ongoing research projects involve the analysis of intracranial pressure (ICP), photoplethysmography (PPG), ECG, and EEG, with a focus on leveraging these signals for clinical applications in critical care and neurological disorders.
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Dr. Ham earned her PhD in 2023 in Biomedical Science and Engineering from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), South Korea. Her research focuses on analyzing biosignals with deep learning models to explore the relationship between physiological and psychological data. Currently, she is working with Dr. Ike Choi to develop mechanisms for interpreting biosignals to improve human learning, performance, and well-being, which will be applied to nursing education and public health.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Hamilton has over a decade of experience working in healthcare both within public health and corporate healthcare. She received her BSN from Duquesne University and her MPH with a focus in Epidemiology from East Tennessee State University. She completed her PhD in nursing science at the University of South Carolina where she was a GIS Scholar within the USC Big Data Health Science Center. Her work integrates nursing science, public health, geography, and geospatial science to examine the spatial environment and how it influences reproductive health outcomes and parental caregiving behaviors of women. She is a WISDOM postdoc, which is a T32 trainee program led by Drs. Rasheeta Chandler and Vicki Hertzberg.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Md Sanzid Bin Hossain, Ph.D., is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, under the mentorship of Dr. Xiao Hu and Dr. Siva Bhavani. His research focuses on developing AI-driven approaches to integrate complementary information from wearable and clinical data sources—including IMUs, ECG, PPG, temperature, and EHR data—to support real-time clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Dr. Hossain earned his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida, where he worked on methods for sensor distillation, multi-modal fusion, and domain adaptation to advance wearable-based human movement analysis. Building on this foundation, his current work at Emory bridges wearable sensing, machine learning, and translational healthcare, with applications in critical care, rehabilitation, and personalized health monitoring. His long-term goal is to design portable, explainable, and clinically validated systems that integrate wearable sensors with advanced modeling techniques, enabling accessible, out-of-lab assessment tools for both clinical and everyday use.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Maryam Kheirandish is a member of Dr. Ryan Suk’s research team. Maryam’s research is at the intersection of statistical modeling, machine and deep learning, and stochastic dynamic programming, with a focus on risk-based decision-making in healthcare operations. Her doctoral dissertation explored the complexities of predicting tuberculosis treatment outcomes through advanced data analytics, addressing the challenges of modeling irregular multivariate longitudinal health data, quantifying prediction uncertainty in neural networks, and developing non-stationary reinforcement learning algorithms. She aspires to contribute significantly to the fields of healthcare quality improvement and patient outcome prediction and optimization through her innovative research aiming for impactful advancements in global health initiatives.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Juyoung Park is a Postdoctoral fellow at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Jane Chung. Juyoung earned her PhD in social work and MS in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on improving the mental health and well-being of older adults through interdisciplinary approaches that integrate technology, community engagement, and mixed-methods research. Her dissertation examined the mental health impact of financial mistreatment in later life, emphasizing the roles of stress appraisal and psychosocial vulnerabilities. Juyoung's work is grounded in a commitment to culturally responsive research and close collaboration with community partners to ensure relevance and impact. At Emory, she is expanding her scholarship to include the use of digital tools to support aging in place and improve quality of life among minority older adults
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he focused on enhancing the generalization and robustness of machine learning-based network intrusion detection systems. Currently a postdoctoral researcher, his work focuses on building foundation models for physiological signal analysis, with an emphasis on ECG and PPG data. He develops scalable, generalizable frameworks that integrate multi-modal information to support a variety of downstream clinical tasks, including early prediction of critical events such as cardiac arrest and sepsis. His mentor is Dr. Xiao Hu.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Zhao obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California Merced in 2023. During her PhD studies, she focused on improving control performance through data-driven control, optimal control, and machine learning algorithms for various mechanical systems. Her research interests include, but are not limited to: dynamics and control, robotics, state and parameter estimation, reinforcement learning, and system modeling and simulation. Currently, she is working with Dr. Xiao Hu on noninvasive intracranial pressure estimation, leveraging both model-based and machine learning techniques.
Students
Doctoral Student
Honor Chotkowski is a PhD student in Emory’s inaugural Nursing and AI/Data Science program. She serves as a teaching assistant for prelicensure nursing courses, including pathophysiology and pharmacology. Her research focuses on leveraging AI to personalize patient education and establishing benchmarks for the integration of Large Language Models in clinical practice. Her advisor is Dr. Xiao Hu.
Doctoral Student
Doctoral Student
Postdoctoral Fellow
Carol is a doctoral student in the Computer Science and Informatics program within the Biomedical Informatics track. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Data Science from the University of Rochester. With prior academic and research experiences, Carol developed a strong interest in applying advanced computational informatics methods to healthcare datasets, aiming to advance personalized medicine and clinical research. She is eager to contribute to projects that apply machine learning and deep learning to biomedical and public health data. Her research seeks to bridge individual patient care with population-level health outcomes, while promoting equity and accessibility in healthcare. Carol is advised by Dr. Xiao Hu and Dr. Carl Yang, and she looks forward to building advanced computational skills, engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration, and contributing to impactful research at the intersection of technology and healthcare.
Doctoral Student
Darren earned his master's degree in computer science from Binghamton University, and his bachelor's degree in software engineering from Sichuan University. His research focuses on natural language processing on clinical data and software development.
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Doctoral Student
Andrew holds a Master of Science degree in Clinical Medicine and an Associate of Science degree in Nursing in Taiwan. He also holds registered nurse licenses in both New York State and Taiwan. His research primarily focuses on the integration of technology, data science, and healthcare. Previously, his primary area of interest was applying data science to examine mental illness and student health. Currently, his focus is on utilizing pre-hospital and electronic health record (EHR) data to study the prognosis and outcomes, as well as constructing risk models for cardiovascular diseases. Advisor, Dr. Ran Xiao.
Doctoral Student
Elizabeth was born and raised in Kenya and grew up in Gilgil. Elizabeth is the firstborn in a family of three and was raised by a single parent. She migrated to the US as a nurse, got her BSN from Aspen University, and has worked as an Infectious disease nurse, and ICU nurse and is currently pursuing her PhD nursing in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Emory University. She is a recipient of the Centennial Fellowship. Her research interest is the impact of Artificial Intelligence through machine learning.
Doctoral Student
Raul Ruiz-Perez is a doctoral student in the PhD in Nursing program at Emory University and a T32 Pre-Doctoral Fellow supported by the WISDOM Training Program. He earned his Master of Nursing (August 2025) from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Raul’s intended area of research focuses on environmental, occupational, and social determinants of health, with particular attention to metabolic syndrome and co-occurring chronic disease risk factors among historically marginalized populations.
Doctoral Student
Doctoral Student
Sheena Warner has been an obstetric certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA) for over a decade. She holds an MS with a focus in nurse anesthesia from Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia. Through her work in obstetric anesthesia, she has seen the unacceptable rise in maternal morbidity and mortality across the country, which led her to study this phenomenon at Emory. She is a T32 WISDOM grant trainee with specific research interests in maternal morbidity and mortality and the intersection of obstetric anesthesia and AI/tech/data science with faculty mentor Dr. Rasheeta Chandler.
Doctoral Student
Kaprice Welsh has worked in women’s health care for over 30 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Syracuse University, and her Master of Science degree in Nursing, a Certificate of Midwifery and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University. Her research interest focuses on using HIT as a strategy to address the key drivers of maternal morbidity and mortality in black birthing women. Her research mentor/advisor is Dr. Rasheeta Candler.
Doctoral Student
Gloria is a PhD student with a background in cardiac clinical practice and research. She holds a BSN from Emory University and has worked as a cardiology nurse, dedicated to improving patient outcomes through interdisciplinary collaboration. Her PhD research focuses on integrating machine learning algorithms into cardiovascular care, with a particular emphasis on converting physiological and clinical data into actionable insights that enhance patient care outcomes. Her faculty advisor is Dr. Xiao Hu.
Staff
Senior Research Data/Informatics Specialist
Bold is a Full-Stack developer and data engineer assisting on various research with signal processing, image processing, natural language processing and machine learning model integrations. She has a role as Cloud/Solutions architect, Full Stack Developer on NIH Bridge2AI initiative. She is also an EPIC Data Model trained BI developer.
Director, Database Projects
Ms. Govindarajan leads efforts to enhance healthcare research and incorporate data literacy into healthcare education of all levels. Merging her experience in diverse informatics areas such as bioinformatics, public health informatics and healthcare informatics, she has led the development of several unique, proprietary data science resources. She is also involved in curriculum development and teaching to incorporate data literacy in nursing education. She is currently leading the national implementation of Project NeLL, an EHR big database and suite of applications for teaching data science.
Information Technology Services, Dir | PhD
Dr. Patel has a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science, an M.Sc. degree in Artificial Intelligence, and a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering. H brings over 25 years of experience managing and supporting IT infrastructure, bioinformatics, software development, web development, high-speed networking, on-prem and cloud computing and cybersecurity. At the SON, Dr. Petal is focused on developing the SON's research IT technologies, specifically in the areas of high-performance computing, big data, simulation, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and immersive teaching and learning.
Data Scientist
Dr. Xu received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles in 2008. I am interested in big data analysis with applications in recommender systems and healthcare, especially in improving patient outcomes through the application of large data-driven insights to clinical practice and current AI innovation. My current research is related to database setting and EHR data analysis.
Contact Us
Get In Touch
The Center for Data Science welcomes all change makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. If you are dissatisfied with the status quo, and you’d like to do something about it, contact the center at cds@emory.edu.