Heather Mattie, PhD, SM, MS

Biography

Dr. Heather Mattie is a Lecturer on Biostatistics, Co-Director of the Health Data Science Master’s program, and Director of EDIB Programs in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She teaches several Data Science and Biostatistics courses each year including Core Principles of Data Science, Collaborative Data Science in Healthcare, and Core Principles of Biostatistics and Epidemiology for Public Health Practice.

Dr. Mattie’s research centers on network science and statistical machine learning approaches to improve human health and equitable healthcare, with a special focus on detecting, mitigating, and preventing algorithmic bias. Her work has found links between unhealthy weight control behaviors and the use of mobile dating applications, particularly in racial and ethnic minorities. She has developed methods that predict tie strength in a network, which assists in modeling the spread of disease and information. Additionally, her work has examined the potential for artificial intelligence to improve inference from data for care and population health, as well as the challenges related to bias and scalability in such models and the data they are built with.  

Dr. Mattie earned a BS in mathematics from the University of La Verne, an MS in mathematics from Claremont Graduate University, and both an SM and PhD in biostatistics from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Mattie also serves as an Associate Editor for PLOS Digital Health.

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