Maya Mascarenhas, MPH, PhD

As the Project Strategy Lead in the Analytics and Operations Tools Branch, I drove the adoption strategy of our branch's software products (Data Ingestion Building Blocks (DIBBs) and SimpleReport) to help state, local, tribal and territorial health departments access, transmit, and make better use of critical health data. My position was terminated after 3 weeks due to mass termination of federal probationary employees.

• Conducted deep dives into public health infrastructure.
• Identified key success factors for DIBBs and SimpleReport adoption: infrastructure capacity alignment, burden reduction, and multi-stakeholder engagement.
• Collaborated with product owners, developers and partner organizations (APHL, CSTE).

As a Senior Strategy Advisor, I provided guidance to the founder on product development and growth initiatives for Grouper, an engagement platform for older adults that reduces social isolation through group activities.

• Authored comprehensive white paper on social isolation in older adults that synthesized current research on health impacts and presented Grouper's solution to health plans.
• Developed strategies for demonstrating value to health plans, including lowering benefit expenses and improving STAR ratings.
• Advised on growth strategies to expand Grouper's existing network of 10,000+ community-based groups and 4,500+ online groups.

As the founder and CEO of Movejoy, I successfully raised venture capital to translate my PhD research into a behavioral health platform that increased healthy behaviors. We established partnerships with five academic institutions covering over 6,000 employees. I recruited and managed a diverse team of engineers, designers, marketers and sales professionals to build and develop software and launch web and mobile apps. We used an iterative design and building software process that incorporated qualitative data from customer interviews and quantitative analyses of data pulled in from our databases to create data visualizations of customer behavior.

Company formation and management

• Raised a pre seed round of $500,000 from venture capital and angel investors.
• Recruited and managed a team of 6 full time employees.
• Worked to ensure that we met product deadlines and that good working relationships were maintained between co-workers through daily team stand ups, weekly 1:1s, and quarterly planning meetings.

Product development

• Through extensive research collecting user data, we iteratively developed a software platform (web and application) that increased healthy behaviors, such as exercise and mindfulness, and fostered social connections among employees.
• Analyzed data using APIs from our databases to evaluate and improve our product using visualization dashboards which increased effectiveness and efficiency of our product development.
• Created and evaluated product design schedule to ensure the system was sound, efficient, and within budget. Reviewed documentation to ensure it represented the planned system.
• Tested the system and software at each development step. Presided over implementation process to make sure systems and software were launched appropriately.

User-centered design

• Tracked pilot user statistics and engagement, demonstrating 90% of pairs connected daily, 75% reported increase in daily wellness behaviors and 80% forged ongoing connections post pilot.
• Created a sales process targeting wellness coordinators at universities, emphasizing the platform's potential to improve employee health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
• Set up regular meetings with customers to convey findings and recommendations that impacted product decisions prior to launch. Obtained user/customer acceptance of completed product before launch.
• Monitored and reviewed project process, served as a liaison with customers and identified and resolved issues as they arose.

As a Technical Officer at the WHO, I modeled a set of mortality, morbidity, and risks with input from global teams of experts for the Global Burden of Disease project which informed global health priorities.

• Co-wrote Global Risks Report, highlighting the potential impact of various risks on mitigating global morbidity and mortality, a report with over 6,400 citations.
• Managed a team of global disease experts to guide modeling assumptions for analyses of hearing loss, infertility, vision loss, and intellectual disability for the revision of the Global Burden of Disease Project.
• Led the first-ever analysis of global, regional, and country trends in infertility prevalence, developing a new algorithm for the estimation of global infertility. First authored 2 papers leading to over 3,000 citations, significantly advancing the understanding of the burden of infertility globally.