Women driving innovation

Learn more about the featured Trailblazers below and register for the Trailblazers in Science seminar series at Beacon Hill Seminars to hear directly from them.

This series is a part of the special 25th anniversary curriculum for Beacon Hill Seminars.

Follow Beacon Hill Seminars on Instagram @beaconhillseminars

Go to the Beacon Hill Seminars Fall 2025 course
Learn about BHS's special event with Kate Zernike, author of "The Exceptions."

Profiles of the featured Trailblazers

Dr. Irini Albanti - Executive Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Lecturer, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Lecturer, Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Irini Albanti, DrPH, MPH, MA

Executive Director at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative | Lecturer in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health | Lecturer of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School

October 17, 1-2pm

“Leading the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative”

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Dr. Gilda A. Barabino - second President and Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering of Olin College of Engineering, National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elect

Gilda A. Barabino, PhD

Second President and Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering of Olin College of Engineering | Elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences

October 17, 2-3pm

“Engineering Approaches to Sickle Cell Disease”

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Dr. Lilit Garibyan - board-certified, practicing dermatologist and Associate Professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Physician-Scientist-Innovator at Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH, National Academy of Inventors elect

Lilit Garibyan, MD, PhD

Board-certified Dermatologist | Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School | Physician-Scientist-Innovator at Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Mass General Hospital

October 24, 1-2pm

“From Immigrant to Innovator: “From Bench to Breakthrough: How to Translate Invention into Impact”

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Shannon Tessier, PhD - Associate Professor and Director of Surgical Research, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital

Shannon Tessier, PhD

Associate Professor and Director of Surgical Research at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital

October 24, 2-3pm

“Stopping Biological Time of Organs and Tissues for Transplantation”

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Ludy Shih, MD, MMSc, Clinical Director, Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Ludy Shih, MD, MMSc

Clinical Director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

October 31, 1-2pm

“Parkinson's disease: the science of aging and implications for community health”

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Dr. Kaori Oshima - Instructor in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Director of Translational Glycoanalysis at Mass General Hospital

Kaori Oshima, PhD

Instructor in the Department of Medicine at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School | Director of Translational Glycoanalysis at Mass General Hospital

October 31, 2-3pm

“Predicting patient survival with blood vessel sugar-layer”

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Dr. Brittany Seymour - Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Harvard School of Dental Medicine,

Brittany Seymour, DDS, MPH

Dentist | Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Harvard School of Dental Medicine

November 7, 1-2pm

“Diary of a Dentist- Confronting a Silent Global Crisis”

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Carla Brodley, PhD - Founding Executive Director of the Center for Inclusive Computing at Northeastern University

Carla E. Brodley, PhD

Founding Executive Director of the Center for Inclusive Computing at Northeastern University | Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence & American Association for the Advancement of Science

November 7, 2-3pm

“Broadening Participation in Computing and AI”

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Dr. Sudeshna Das - Associate Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Sudeshna Das, PhD

Associate Professor at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School | Lead of the Data Core of the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the ADRD Pilot Core of the Massachusetts AI and Technology Center

November 14, 1-2pm

“AI for Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias”

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Dr. Jamie Maguire - Professor of Neuroscience, Tufts University School of Medicine

Jamie Maguire, PhD

Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor of Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine

November 14, 2-3pm

“Understanding and treating postpartum depression”

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Dr. Immaculata De Vivo - Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71 Faculty Codirector of the Sciences at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health

Immaculata De Vivo, PhD, MPH

Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71 Faculty Codirector of the Sciences at Harvard Radcliffe Institute | Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School | Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health

November 21, 1-2pm

“Molecular Epidemiology: Bridging the Gap Between Biology and Public Health”

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Dr. Heidi Rayala - Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a Urologic Surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Heidi Rayala, MD, PhD

Urologic Surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School

November 21, 2-3pm

“Innovating With Purpose: Patient Experience of Pain and AI-Driven Academic Medicine”

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