Meet the Dashboard's Newest Members

We’re excited to introduce some of the behind the scenes members of the City Health Dashboard: Associate Research Analyst, Farhana Haque, Senior Data Analyst, Yuruo Li, and Data Analyst, Isabel Nelson. They support the analytic and programmatic priorities of the City Health Dashboard.

Name: Farhana Haque Dashboard Role: Associate Research Analyst Hometown: Atlantic City, NJ

1. Tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to the Dashboard? I joined the City Health Dashboard in May 2021, after graduating from Rutgers University with my MPH. Growing up in a low-income community, I saw how disparities in wealth often translated to disparities in health, education, housing, and opportunities. I became passionate about addressing the social determinants of health and advocating for marginalized communities. I was first introduced to the Dashboard during a course in graduate school when my professor presented and encouraged students to explore the website. It was my first time accessing health data at such a local level and I especially appreciated the ‘Take Action’ tab, which provided users with resources to go a step further and use the data to facilitate change in their communities. I feel very fortunate to now be part of this team and contribute to this work.

2. What are you excited to learn while working at the Dashboard? I am excited to learn more about the data acquisition process. From assessing data quality to thinking about the timeliness of events, it’s fascinating to see all of the influencing factors and thought work considered before a new metric is added on the Dashboard. I’ve noticed that I am more critical of survey instruments and ponder about the information that is not asked/collected, and how that could mask the experiences of certain populations.

3. Tell us something that will let us get to know you outside of your work experience and interests. Any interesting hobbies or talents? I am a full-time foodie, food enthusiast, whatever you’d like to call it! I love visiting local restaurants to try food from different cultures. I enjoy speaking with the chef and servers to hear their stories and ask for recommendations. It’s contributed to a long list of countries I want to travel to one day, but until then, you can probably find me treating myself to some borma (Turkish sweet).

Name: Yuruo Li Dashboard Role: Senior Data Analyst Hometown: Beijing, China

1. CHDB: Tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to the Dashboard? I joined CHDB in April 2021 after finishing my PhD in Social Epidemiology from University of Maryland. My general interest is to leverage complex data to improve the health of cities and communities. I am passionate about social science and causal inference methodology. I can’t wait to play around with CHDB data!

2. Tell us something that will let us get to know you outside of your work experience and interests. Any interesting hobbies or talents? I’ve probably watched too much anime and played too many video games outside of work when I was younger. I am now trying to explore healthier hobbies such as swimming and reading!

3. What’s your ideal metric? My ideal metric is the average COVID vaccination rate within a person's social network. Basically, among the people you have daily interaction with, what percentage of them are vaccinated? This more granular view can tell us if we've reached herd immunity at a community level, which can be important to understand to prevent local outbreaks, even if we've reached herd immunity at a national level.

Name: Isabel Nelson Dashboard Role: Data Analyst Hometown: Olympia, WA

1. Tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to the Dashboard? Before coming to the Dashboard I was at the Mailman School of Public Health, where I recently graduated with an MPH in Epidemiology and Applied Biostatistics. My concentration was focused on different methods for working with data, and I became particularly excited about the potential to apply the insights we learn from data exploration towards changes in local policy and practice. This interest was influenced by my previous experience working in a community clinic in NYC where I saw how important social determinants are for driving health outcomes, and how essential it is for community leaders to have access to high quality data on the social determinants to improve health on a larger scale. I was really excited about the potential to work on a tool such as the Dashboard that is being applied in interesting ways by local communities to improve health.

2. What are you excited to learn while working at the Dashboard? I’m excited to learn about new ways to work with data, particularly spatial and administrative data if the Dashboard decides to add any new metrics that could utilize that type of dataset. I’m also excited to learn more about the nuances of creating metrics to make sure they are capturing exactly the health or social construct that we intend, and how different cities use our data for their own work.

3. Tell us something that will let us get to know you outside of your work experience and interests. Any interesting hobbies or talents? I love theater, so as soon as things are back up and running I’m excited return to my favorite hobby. I’ve seen 70 productions so far in New York and can’t wait to see more!