Leadership Team


Meet some of the people behind the Hub. You can learn more about our leadership team below. To learn more about our collaborators and find out how you can get involved, visit the Collaborators page.

Steering Committee

Florence Hudson
Executive Director, Co-Principal Investigator, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.

LinkedIn
Jeannette Wing
Principal Investigator, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub; Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University

Jeannette M. Wing is the Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. She previously served as Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute. She came to Columbia in July 2017 from Microsoft, where she served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research, overseeing a global network of research labs. She is widely recognized for her intellectual leadership in computer science, particularly in trustworthy computing.

LinkedIn
Yusuf Danisman
Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science, Queensborough Community College, CUNY

Yusuf Danisman received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at The Ohio State University and worked at the University of Oklahoma before joining CUNY. He is currently working on fractal geometry and its applications to the stock market. 

Yusuf provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area. Yusuf is also a member of the National Student Data Corps' Founding Committee.

LinkedIn
Laura Dietz
Associate Professor, University of New Hampshire

Laura Dietz leads the lab for text retrieval, extraction, machine learning and analytics (TREMA) at the University of New Hampshire. She organizes a tutorial/workshop series on Utilizing Knowledge Graphs in Text-centric Retrieval (KG4IR) and coordinated the TREC Complex Answer Retrieval Track. She received an NSF CAREER Award and was previously a research scientist at Mannheim University, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Laura graduated from the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science.

Laura provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area.

LinkedInFull Bio
Carsten Eickhoff
Professor, University of Tübingen

Carsten Eickhoff is a Professor at the University of Tübingen and also leads the Biomedical AI Lab at Brown University. Carsten studied AI and ML at the University of Edinburgh, TU Delft, and ETH Zurich and has written on automatic large-scale text processing and retrieval and information extraction from unstructured natural language resources. Carsten is involved in several deep technology startups that translate technological innovation to improved safety and quality of life for patients.

Carsten provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Health Focus Areas.

Forough Ghahramani
Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Sponsored Programs, Edge

Forough was previously Associate Director of the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI2), where she led the development of the outreach and educational programs focused on big data and large-scale computing. Forough previously served as associate dean and department chair, new program development, teaching, and accreditation.

Forough provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area. She is also a member of the National Student Data Corps' Founding Committee.

 
John Goodhue
Executive Director, Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center

John Goodhue is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, a data center and consortium that serves more than 20,000 researchers, students, and educators at Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, and among others. John’s interests include infrastructure for research computing and supporting the next generation of computing professionals. John was previously in management and technology leadership positions at Cisco Systems, BBN Technologies, and several early stage startup companies.

John provides support for the Hub's Responsible Data Science Focus Area.

Co-Principal Investigators

James Hendler
Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences; Director of the Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

James has authored over 450 technical papers in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high performance processing.

Vasant Honavar
Chair Biomedical Data Sciences and AI, Penn State University; Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications; Associate Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences

Vasant represents the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub on the Big Data Innovation Hubs' National Coordination Committee. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, specializing in AI. In 2013, Honavar joined Penn State University. 

Florence Hudson
Executive Director, Co-Principal Investigator, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.

Andrew McCallum
Professor and Director of Information Extraction and Synthesis Laboratory, School of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Andrew has published over 250 papers in many areas of AI, including natural language processing, machine learning, data mining and reinforcement learning, and his work has received over 30,000 citations.

Hub Staff

Lauren Close
Operations & Communications Manager

Lauren joined the Hub in June 2021. Prior to joining the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub, Lauren was the Program Manager for the Program for Economic Research (PER) in the Department of Economics. She earned her Master's Degree in the History of Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU and has a background in communications and fine arts events management.

Emily Rothenberg
National Student Data Corps Program Manager

Emily is the Program Coordinator for the National Student Data Corps (NSDC). Prior to joining the team, Emily worked as a Customer Success Manager at an education center for learners of all ages and backgrounds. She also earned her Bachelor's Degree at Hofstra University where she studied Math, Finance, IT and Data Analytics.

Seed Fund Steering Committee

David Bader
Chair, Seed Fund Steering Committee; Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science and inaugural Director, Institute for Data Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology

David is a fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, and SIAM, and advises the White House, most recently on the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI). David is interested in the real world applications of high performance computing, including cybersecurity, massive-scale analytics, and computational genomics.

Florence Hudson
Ex Officio, Seed Fund Steering Committee; Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.

Jenni Evans
Director, Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, and Professor Meteorology & Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University

Jenni's research spans tropical climate, climate change, and hurricane lifecycles in the tropics and through extratropical transition, as well as the “music of hurricanes.”

Josh Greenberg
Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Digital Information Technology Program

Josh is an active member of the broader digital library and digital humanities communities and maintains research and teaching interests in the history and sociology of information technology, the dynamics of public engagement with expert knowledge, and the methodological implications of new digital technologies for research.

Josh provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas. Josh is also a member of the Hub's Advisory Board.

Chris Hill
Principal Research Engineer, Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, MIT

Chris was a founding developer of the M.I.T. General Circulation Model (MITgcm), a numerical simulation tool used for a wide range of basic science and applied studies in planetary fluid dynamics, and helped launch the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), a major open standard for creating multicomponent models of Earth system processes. He co-leads the research, education and outreach committee of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC). The MGHPCC is a multi-university enterprise in Massachusetts, dedicated to enhancing large-scale computing infrastructure in the area.

Chris provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area. Chris is also a member of the Hub's Advisory Board.

 

Jill Jemison
Associate Dean for Technology/CIO at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine

Jill is the Associate Dean for Technology/CIO at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. She was formerly the Assistant Dean for Technology at the University of Vermont and chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Information Resources and faculty director of the GIR Leadership Institute.

Daniel Lopresti
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University

Dan is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University, having recently completed 10 years as chair of the CSE Department, and director of Lehigh's Data X initiative. His research examines algorithmic and systems-related questions in pattern recognition, document analysis, and computer security. He is also the Vice Chair of the Computing Research Association’s CCC Council. 

Renée Miller
University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Northeastern University

Renée is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada’s National Academy of Science, Engineering and the Humanities. She received the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Her work is focused on building practical data integration systems.

Advisory Board

Our Advisory Board includes regional leaders from academia, industry, non-profit organizations and government, whose insights help further the Hub’s mission and who demonstrate sustained interest in engaging with the Hub in a voluntary role. Leaders of the following Thematic and Cross-Cutting Areas are indicated below.

Ryan Baker

University of Pennsylvania

Ryan provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Mark Gerstein

Yale University

Mark provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Health Focus Areas.

Jane Greenberg

Drexel University

Jane provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.

Josh Greenberg

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Josh provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas. Josh is also a member of the Hub's Seed Fund Steering Committee. 

Chris Hill

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chris provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area. Chris is also a member of the Hub's Seed Fund Steering Committee.

Constantine Kontokosta

New York University

Constantine provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.

Tim Kraska

Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Amazon Web Services

Tim provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Amen Ra Mashariki

Bezos Earth Fund

Amen provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.

David Moses

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

David provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Chirag Patel

Harvard University

Chirag provides support for the Hub's Education + Data LiteracyHealth, and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.

Abani Patra

Tufts University

Abani provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Adam Smith

Boston University

Adam provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.

Julia Stoyanovich

New York University

Julia provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.

Stephen Uzzo

National Museum of Mathematics

Stephen provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Beverly Woolf

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Beverly provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.

Rebecca Wright

Barnard College

Rebecca provides support for the Hub's Responsible Data Science Focus Area.

National Student Data Corps Founding Committee

The NSDC Founding Committee has been instrumental in building this program.

Elie Alhajjar
Machine Learning Researcher, Army Cyber Institute; Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy; Senior Information Scientist, RAND Corporation
Ajay Anand
Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Goergen Data Science Institute, University of Rochester
Catherine Cramer
Founder and Principal, Woods Hole Institute; Associate Director, EarthCube; Director, Outreach and Engagement, San Diego Supercomputer Center
Yusuf Danisman
Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Sarah Dunton
Director, Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance
Elena Filatova
Associate Professor, Computer Systems, New York City College of Technology
Forough Ghahramani
Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Sponsored Programs, Edge
Ahmed Gomaa
Professor Operations & Analytics, University of Scranton
Meghana Joshi
Applied Scientist II, Microsoft
Leslie LaBarte
District Consultant, Seneca Library District
Cathie LeBlanc
Professor, Plymouth State University
Hoang Luong
Associate, Morgan Stanley
Thilanka Munasinghe
Lecturer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Kaylea Nelson
Team Lead of Computational Research Support Analyst, Yale University
Jennifer Oxenford
Chief Membership Officer and Director, NYC Dark Fiber Program, NYSERNet
Xingye Qiao
Professor, Binghamton University
Aunshul Rege
Associate Professor and Director, CARE Lab, Temple University
Benjamin Sango
Associate Consultant, Alvarez & Marsal Consumer and Retail Group
Oshani Seneviratne
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, and Associate Director, Tetherless World Constellation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Abhishek Sinha
AI Architect, Cybersecurity Gen AI Stealth Startup
Haleigh Stewart
Tech Consultant, Qvest US
Federico d'Oleire Uquillas
Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University; Executive Director, Founder, NeurON
Andre de Waal
Data Science and Curriculum Developer, IBM
Tony Ye
Ph.D. Analyst, L.E.K. Consulting
Emre Yetgin
Director of Center for Business Analytics, and Associate Professor of Information Systems, Rider University

NEBDHub Student Assistants

The Hub’s student leadership team is composed of undergraduate and graduate students from Columbia University, whose diverse interests and skills contribute to the facilitation of our ongoing activities and projects and the promotion of the Hub’s mission.

Anna Eggers

Anna joined the NEBDHub team in Spring 2023. She provides editorial support for the NEBDHub websites and digital publications. Anna is studying film and creative writing at Columbia University and will complete her B.A. in 2024. 

Prajna Girish

Prajna supports the National Student Data Corps (NSDC) by creating data science projects for learners of all ages, skill-levels, and education-levels. Prajna is enrolled in the M.S. Data Science program at Columbia University and expects to complete her degree in Winter 2024. 

Shikhar Johri

Shikhar supports the COVID Information Commons (CIC) Student Working Group, designing data science and healthcare related projects for members. Shikhar is enrolled in the M.S. Data Science program at Columbia University and expects to complete his degree in Winter 2024.

Julie Meunier

Julie joined the NEBDHub in Fall 2023 and supports the COVID Information Commons (CIC) transcription and translation program. Julie is enrolled in the M.S. Data Science program at Columbia University and expects to complete her degree in Winter 2024. 

Aditya Raj

Aditya joined the NEBDHub team in Fall 2023. Aditya supports the NEBDHub's cross-departmental collaborations on ethical and responsible transportation. He expects to complete his M.S. in Management Science and Engineering with Columbia University in December 2024. 

Shermaine Tay

Shermaine is studying Art History and Political Science at Columbia University and will complete her B.A. in Spring 2025. 

Emeritus Leadership

Kathy McKeown
Founding Principal Investigator, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

Kathleen R. McKeown is the Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, and was the founding Director of the Data Science Institute.