Holmes Named Interim Director of Data Analytics and Informatics
Kristi Holmes, PhD, director of Northwestern’s Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, has been named interim director of data analytics and informatics at the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute.
Holmes, a biochemist with a background in research information systems, digital scholarship, 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.
“It’s an exciting time for informatics and data science at Northwestern. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work across so many exciting initiatives, support the wonderful work of NUCATS, and nurture new opportunities for informatics and data science at the university,” says Holmes, who is also associate dean for knowledge management and strategy at Feinberg, professor of Preventive Medicine, and chief of knowledge management for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. “Informatics is fundamentally a team sport, so this role aligns well with my collaborative nature and will support numerous synergies across campus.”
NUCATS is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Grant Number UL1TR001422, as one of the approximately 60 clinical and translational science hubs throughout the country. This national consortium provides resources to support investigators and research teams working to apply new knowledge and techniques to patient care.
It’s an exciting time for informatics and data science at Northwestern. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work across so many exciting initiatives, support the wonderful work of NUCATS, and nurture new opportunities for informatics and data science at the university.”
In this interim role, Holmes will serve as a coordinator to support enhanced communication about NUCATS goals and foster awareness and collaboration about informatics across the Northwestern campus. She will also connect NUCATS to consortium-wide collaboration and funding opportunities.
“I consider informatics and data science to be not only a strength, but also a point of incredible opportunity for Northwestern. Feinberg’s mission of ‘advancing collaborative research and education that improves health and well-being for all individuals and their communities’ spans our impact across research, clinical, and educational efforts,” Holmes says. “The impact of informatics and data science can be seen every day across our enterprise. It is an exciting time on campus, and I look forward to nurturing this important area of work until a permanent director is named.”
Holmes has played a vital role within NUCATS over the past decade, combining her expertise in evaluation and data, with her leadership as director of Galter, to create a dynamic knowledge hub for NUCATS through the library’s robust resources and expertise. She and her team have made several major contributions to information infrastructure, workforce development, and ethics in artificial intelligence. Her leadership in Open Science, Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable (FAIR) best practices, and evidence-driven workflows is enabling more equitable access to knowledge. Her meaningful impact in these areas has earned global acclaim and helps NUCATS champion NIH’s emphasis on a robust data sharing ecosystem, creating improved opportunities for research data assessment and impact, such as Make Data Count, where she serves as an advisor.
The Galter team also partners with CERN, one of the world's largest and most respected centers for scientific research, on InvenioRDM, an interoperable, scalable, next-generation software that powers the repositories of dozens of universities and consortia around the world. CERN’s Zenodo repository is also built upon the InvenioRDM software and houses more than 4 million records.
In recognition of Holmes’ leadership in responsible open practices, she and her team have been engaged nationally and internationally on Open Science policy discussions, most recently shown by her Advisory Council role in the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open), and active participation in events such as the CERN/NASA Open Science Summit, and the recent Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Open Science meeting to exchange experiences, ideas, and expertise towards advancing the global adoption of Open Science policies and practices.
If you have questions, requests, or ideas related to data analytics or informatics at the NUCATS Institute, please email our team.
Written by Roger Anderson
