Team Members Archive - Page 2 of 4 - Center for Integration Science

Andrea Fleurant

Born and raised in Boston by Haitian immigrant parents, Andrea Fleurant has been deeply motivated by a passion for service, particularly in improving healthcare and educational outcomes for underserved communities.

Fleurant holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, with a concentration in psychology, from Lasell College. After graduating from college, she gained research experience at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Mass General Hospital, where she focused on chronic conditions such as pruritus in patients with kidney disease. She later served as a Research Assistant in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she gained valuable clinical experience and contributed directly to patient care, further strengthening her commitment to advancing health equity.

Most recently, she served as a Project Assistant at Ariadne Labs, where she contributed to global health initiatives aimed at improving healthcare access. These experiences have reinforced her dedication to addressing health disparities.

Rachel Gasana, MBA

Rachel Gasana is the Senior Director of Advancement for the Center for Integration Science. She oversees partnerships, advocacy, marketing, and communications for the Center, the PEN-Plus Partnership, and the NCDI Poverty Network. Gasana brings 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, mobilizing $200M+ for high-growth, mission-driven organizations in a variety of contexts. While at Partners In Health, she expanded programming and partnerships across 11 countries and 3 continents, including support for the initial implementation of PEN-Plus. She started her career establishing a grassroots literacy nonprofit in New Haven, Connecticut, and building public and private sector support for a Tony-award-winning theatre company in the state’s Capitol. Gasana holds a BA from Dartmouth College (2006) and an MBA from the Yale School of Management (2021).

Apoorva Gomber, MD, MPH

Dr. Apoorva Gomber is a physician from India with an interest in global health centered around pediatric diabetes, health equity, disease epidemiology, and improving access to care in low- and middle-income countries. She graduated with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in the Department of Global Health and Population from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Gomber has worked on various advocacy initiatives with global organizations to improve access to insulin and understanding childhood diabetes. Her research interests focus to overcome health disparities in diabetes care globally and looking for solutions to complex problems using evidence-based data and cross-sectoral collaborations. She also serves as one of the WHO Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Diabetes to further WHO’s leadership and coordination role in promoting and monitoring global action against diabetes.

Apoorva served as the South East Asia Regional Representative-elect from 2017-2019 for the Young Leaders in Diabetes Program by International Diabetes Federation and also for the Young Leadership Program at NCD Child.

Apoorva advocates for overcoming stigma among people living with diabetes and the prevention of diabetes-related complications. Outside of research, she spends her time traveling, hiking, and running marathons.

Neil Gupta, MD, MPH

Neil Gupta, MD, MPH, is the Senior Director of Policy for the NCDI Poverty Network, where he plays a lead role in facilitating and supporting National NCDI Poverty Commissions and the NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee.

An internist and pediatrician by training, Dr. Gupta was previously the Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health in Rwanda, where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of clinical programs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. He later joined the NCD Synergies team of Partners In Health and supported the development of the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Gupta is also the Primary Investigator for the Simplifying Hepatitis C Antiviral Therapy for Elsewhere in the Developing World study, which aims to promote access and availability of hepatitis C treatment.

Dr. Gupta is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health, and he completed his residency training at Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s hospitals. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Yogesh Jain, MD

Dr. Yogesh Jain is a public health physician who earned his MD in Paediatrics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He founded and runs the community health program Jan Swasthya Sahyog (People’s Health Support Group) which operates in rural Bilaspur, India and Sangwari in northern Chhattisgarh. Indigenous people that call more than 2,500 of the most marginalised villages home access the services of Jan Swasthya Sahyog for their health care needs. Dr. Jain helps address the technical, operational, economic or political issues that affect health care for the rural poor through clinical care, careful documentation, observational research studies, developing appropriate health related technology, training, and lobbying. Since observing health and illnesses through the lens of hunger and extreme poverty, Dr. Jain has become an advocate for the state as the primary provider of social services and believes that unbridled privatization while not rectify the inequities in global access to health care.

Sheila Klassen, MD

Sheila Klassen, MD, an adult cardiologist with subspecialties in echocardiography and structural heart disease, serves as the Assistant Director for Cardiac Integration at the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that role, as part of PEN-Plus, she leads programs for decentralizing and integrating care for people with advanced cardiovascular disease at the rural district hospital level across the Network’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 implementation countries.

Dr. Klassen has had extensive experience carrying out heart failure and echocardiography training related to PEN-Plus implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and has chaired or directed sessions at international conferences related to heart failure care in limited-resource settings. She also manages cardiology fellowships supported by the Center for Integration Science.

In addition, Dr. Klassen serves as a Lecturer in the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Klassen earned her MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, in 2011. She completed a residency in internal medicine at McMaster University, followed by an Adult Cardiology fellowship at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Dr. Klassen completed a fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography and Clinical Research with Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography, and an Emerging Leader within the World Heart Federation.

Gene Kwan, MD, MPH

Dr. Gene Kwan is a cardiologist and global health researcher with expertise in the intersection between these two fields. His primary goal is to push the frontier of global cardiovascular disease epidemiology and health service delivery research through the development, implementation, evaluation, improvement, and dissemination of integrated chronic care programs targeted to overcome specific barriers in rural low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). He leads heart failure and cardiovascular disease initiatives to support the PEN-Plus strategy with the NCDI Poverty Team. This includes training providers in echocardiography, patient management, as well as identifying and eradicating barriers to care faced by our patients.

Mike Lawrence, MA

Mike Lawrence, MA, is the Communications Manager for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Lawrence joined the team in September 2024 after spending three years in local government for the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, as administrative manager in the Health Department and city spokesperson in the Mayor’s Office. He spent the previous four years on the marketing and communications team for Partners In Health. As a senior writer, he focused on the organization’s work to strengthen health systems and advance health equity in Rwanda, Malawi, and Lesotho.

In the fall of 2022, Lawrence had a significant medical scare involving heart disease, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. While his experience was a fraction of the lifelong challenges faced by the people whom the NCDI Poverty Network serves, the world-class care he received at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—and the fact that he was able to be med-flighted there from his hometown—made global inequities even more apparent. Everyone should have access to high-quality care, in emergency situations and in daily life. The experience has made him even prouder to advocate for that care in places where it does not exist, or is not accessible.

Earlier in his career, Lawrence spent more than 12 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Colorado; Shenzhen, China; and his native New England. He has a bachelor’s in philosophy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a master’s in journalism from the University of Colorado.

Maryam Mansoor, MHS

Maryam Mansoor is the Research Coordinator for the Center of Integration Science. She earned a Master of Health Science degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a certificate in Evaluation of International Health Programs. Her prior work includes managing a program related to social determinants of health and mental health and research on maternal and child health in Pakistan, and quality of care in Guinea Bissau.

Ryan McBain, MA, ScD

Dr. Ryan McBain is the Health Economist for the Center for Integration Science and a faculty member of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ryan holds a secondary appointment at the RAND Corporation—a global policy think tank. Dr. McBain received his Doctor of Science and Master’s degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health and his Bachelor’s degree from Gordon College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

A central focus of Dr. McBain’s work pertains to health program and policy evaluation. He combines econometric analysis, costing and simulation methods to assess the efficiency, equity, and cost effectiveness of interventions. Routinely, Dr. McBain has applied these tools in the context of health system strengthening and reform—at local, regional, and national levels.

Dr. McBain has published over 80 articles in top tier journals, and he has led projects sponsored by organizations ranging from the National Institute of Mental Health and Department of Defense to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Skoll Foundation. Dr. McBain’s work is also featured in news outlets such as the New York Times, U.S. News, and NPR, and he has written opinion editorials for outlets such as LA Times and The Hill.