Our People

Debbie Cheng, ScD, Executive Director

Dr. Cheng serves as Executive Director of the Center for Health Data Science, Professor of Biostatistics, and Assistant Dean of Data Science at the Boston University School of Public Health. She also serves as Director of Strategy and Partnerships for Boston University’s university-wide AI Developmental Accelerator (AIDA). Her research focuses on applied statistics and clinical trial design and analysis, with particular emphasis on the intersection of substance use and HIV. She leads interdisciplinary initiatives that integrate data science with public health and clinical research to advance evidence-based solutions.

Ching-Ti Liu, PhD, Associate Director

Dr. Liu serves as Associate Director of the Center for Health Data Science. His research focuses on developing and applying statistical and computational methods for high-dimensional data, including genetic, multi-omics, and biomedical datasets. He has collaborated on studies of complex diseases, particularly cardiovascular conditions and related risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, and musculoskeletal disorders, through his longstanding involvement with the Framingham Heart Study.

Kevin James Lane, PhD, MA, Associate Director

Dr. Lane serves as an Associate Director of the Center for Health Data Science. His research focuses on air pollution, built environment, urbanization and impacts of climate change on health in local, national and international settings. Dr. Lane also works on a number of projects related to climate health data management as the Chief Data Officer at the BUSPH Center for Climate and Health.