Holmes Named Director of Informatics and Data Science
Kristi Holmes, PhD has been named director of informatics and data science at the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute.
To this role, she brings nearly 20 years of experience in the development and delivery of technical infrastructure, data services, and training programs, building on a wide range of experiences over her career.
“It is a profoundly important moment for informatics and data science at Northwestern and globally. As a university-wide initiative, NUCATS is a critical catalyst to realize this promise, bringing together talented and dedicated people and their innovations to advance discovery and health,” says Holmes, who is also associate dean for knowledge management and strategy at Feinberg, professor of Preventive Medicine, director of Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, and chief of knowledge management for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. “I’m honored to support the many dedicated and brilliant people advancing this work at NUCATS and look forward to nurturing new opportunities for informatics and data science at the university.”
The NUCATS Institute was recently awarded $55 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding as one of the more than 60 clinical and translational science hubs throughout the country (UM1TR005121). This national network of medical institutions speeds the translation of research discoveries into improved care. In her role as informatics lead at NUCATS, Holmes will work closely with the MPI team of Richard D’Aquila, Sara Becker, and Clyde Yancy to harness the power of digital assets and support the development and implementation of innovative informatics solutions. She will join D’Aquila as co-lead of strategic management for the institute to ensure successful partnerships and execution of objectives.
Holmes’ research is focused on information standards and technologies to support interoperability and discoverability in research information systems, including the development of technical and social architectures to support these goals. Digital innovation serves as a foundation for this work, and she actively leverages collaboration to enable community and capacity building.
Holmes and her team are longtime collaborators with the CERN IT Department on infrastructure projects to support research and discovery. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, CERN is one of the world's largest and most respected global centers for scientific research. Together with a robust open-source community, they developed InvenioRDM, an interoperable, scalable, best-in-class software that powers the repositories of CERN (e.g., Zenodo), and dozens of universities and consortia around the world. This collaboration contributes directly to biomedical research and innovation, supported in part by the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy through an innovative program, the Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) to enhance the data sharing ecosystem for NIH-funded investigators (1OT2DB000013-01).
Holmes has played a vital role within NUCATS over the past decade on a range of data-driven initiatives through the institute, her leadership of Galter Library, and impactful collaborations. Her leadership in Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) practices, knowledge equity, and evidence-driven workflows has earned global acclaim and helps NUCATS champion NIH’s emphasis on a robust data sharing ecosystem. It has also created improved opportunities for research data impact, such as Make Data Count, where she serves as an advisor.
Holmes served on and chaired the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Board of Regents and also the Biomedical Informatics, Library and Data Sciences (BILDS) standing review committee, and currently serves as chair of the NIH Comparative Genomics Resource Work Group. She also serves in several national and international advisory and steering roles, including the InCommon Federation Steering Committee, the United States Repository Network, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) DataWorks!, the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open), and the Learning Health Systems Journal Editorial Board. Holmes was an active contributor to the development of the National Library of Medicine's Strategic Plan, serving on the strategic planning panel to explore and advance NLM’s role in advancing biomedical discovery and translational science.
Holmes, a biochemist with a background in research information systems and standards, open science, and research impact, has led Galter Library since 2014. Six months prior to her arrival, Galter became part of the NUCATS Institute in the first of several initiatives to strengthen and expand the library’s capabilities in support of clinical care and research.
Written by Roger Anderson
