Accelerate: Data for Social Impact Conference

Dr. İlkay Altıntaş is a research scientist at the University of California San Diego, is the Chief Data Science Officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) as well as a Founding Fellow of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute.

Salima Monorma Bah is the Minister of Communication, Technology and Innovation in Sierra Leone.

Dr. Balsari’s research and teaching are focused on complex humanitarian emergencies and digital health implementation science in resource-poor settings. He has worked with populations affected by disaster, war, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq, South Sudan, Jordan, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and across South Asia.

Dr. Symone Campbell, a native of Syracuse, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Buffalo State University, a Master of Arts degree in Africana Studies from the University at Albany, and a Ph.D. in Communication, Culture, and Media Studies from The Howard University.

Dr. Mercè Crosas currently leads the Computational Social Sciences program at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, a new program to facilitate the use of data and supercomputing in social science and humanities, foster collaboration between social and computer scientists, and conduct cutting-edge research in these areas.

Shanna leads the Center’s mission to build the field of impact data science, engaging data scientists, academia, nonprofits and other relevant organizations to accelerate progress.

Zulma M. Cucunubá is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia.

Dr. Partha Pratim Das is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Computer Science and the Director of the Center of Data Science and Analytics at Ashoka University.

Francesca Dominici, Ph.D. is the Faculty Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative and the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the International Society of Mathematical Statistics.

Danielle Getsinger is the co-founder and CEO of Community Lattice, a consulting firm specialized in using data science to overcome environmental barriers to community revitalization. Danielle is a licensed Professional Geologist with about 15 years of experience working on complex environmental issues ranging from technical assessment and cleanup of brownfields to community-wide strategies for addressing environmental injustice, climate adaptation, and resiliency.

For more than 25 years, Nelson Gonzalez has worked to leverage technology, entrepreneurship, public policy, research, and capital markets to drive social and environmental impact at a systemic scale.

Daniel Grzenda is currently an NSF Fellow studying Computer Science at the University of Chicago. He is a member of Globus Labs advised by Ian Foster and Kyle Chard. His work is focused on building systems to make AI-driven discovery faster, cheaper, and more resource-efficient.

Suhani Jalota is the Founder and CEO of Myna Mahila Foundation, an organization working on women’s health and employment in slum communities in India for the last six years that has a reach of 1 million+ women.

Perry Hewitt is the Chief Marketing and Product Officer of data.org where she oversees the marketing and communications functions, as well as digital product development.

Dr. Alicia Karspeck is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at [C]Worthy, a non-profit research organization developing open-source software for the quantification of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal. 

Linet Kwamboka is a leading practitioner in data policy and sustainable development.

Liz Langdon-Gray is the inaugural Executive Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative (DSI). In this role, she is responsible for implementing the academic vision of the Initiative, engaging closely with Harvard schools and the Office of the President and Provost.

Bree McEwan is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University Toronto – Mississauaga, the UTM Associate Director of the Data Sciences Institute and holds an affiliation with the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

Danil Mikhailov, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of data.org. He has over 20 years of experience setting up multiple start-ups and leading work across a range of diverse sectors, always investigating and innovating in the space where technology, culture, and society converge.

Daniel Newton Obaka has been working for over 20 years in the nonprofit sector and over 25 years in the public sector.  He is the President/Co-Founder of the Global Integrated Education Volunteers Association (GIEVA) and served as Executive Director (2010-2022) with three offices in Nigeria.  

Dr. Victor Odumuyiwa is a dynamic and visionary leader in the field of Information and Communication technology (ICT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a passion for driving innovation and fostering collaboration.

David C. Parkes assumed the deanship of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) on October 15, 2023. He is also the George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science.  

Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume, affectionately known as Dr. A, is a daughter of Africa, a scholar, filmmaker, data scientist, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University.

Esther Rolf, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow with the Harvard Data Science Initiative and the Center for Research on Computation and Society, and an assistant professor of computer science at CU Boulder (starting in Fall 2024). 

Samuel V. Scarpino, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Pathogen Surveillance at The Rockefeller Foundation and a member of their Pandemic Prevention Institute.

As Chief Data and Technology Officer, Uyi Stewart oversees all of data.org’s programmatic initiatives which today include the Generative AI Skills Challenge, Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge, the Capacity Accelerator Network, and Epiverse.

David Uminsky joined the University of Chicago in September 2020 as a senior research associate and Executive Director of the Data Science Institute.

Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is Co-Founder of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab), an action research center focused on transforming decision making using advances in science and technology – including data and collective intelligence.

Sophie Woodward is a second-year Ph.D. student in Biostatistics at Harvard University investigating the intersection of spatial statistics and causal inference to inform data-driven decision-making.