Neale Batra

Executive Director, Applied Epi 

Originally from Michigan, I served as an epidemiologist tackling outbreaks from measles in Santa Clara County to Ebola in D.R. Congo. I found the data analysis program “R” extremely useful, and sought to help my peers adopt this free and open source tool. I convened volunteers to write a free online handbook that is used by 1 million people, and we launched Applied Epi.

In four years, we have scaled into a global nonprofit that provides practical training courses, a 24/7 support desk, and scholarships to 500 agencies worldwide, including two dozen California counties, US CDC and most state governments, Doctors without Borders, and nearly all low-income countries. Participants often describe learning R as “getting a new superpower”. My favorite aspect is the global community we create: US epidemiologists learn from peer instructors worldwide, and vice versa. It has been challenging to manage our rapid transition from volunteer initiative to global organization. This Harvard nonprofit strategy course will help us navigate our next expansion – including setting priorities and leveraging the wide appeal of our services into financial sustainability. In a turbulent era for public health, we will continue upskilling ground-level disease detectives to improve outbreak response worldwide.