Nicole Danaher-Garcia, PhD

Nicole Danaher-Garcia is an assistant professor in the School of Healthcare Leadership at MGH Institute of Health Professions. She teaches quantitative analysis and predictive analytics courses in the Master of Healthcare Data Analytics program and the Master/PhD of Health Professions Education. She is a biologist with interests in animal behavior, conservation, and quantitative analysis. Nicole completed her doctorate at UMass Dartmouth in collaboration with a nonprofit organization called the Dolphin Communication Project; her dissertation applied quantitative methodology to the study of the social behavior of a wild population of Atlantic spotted dolphins in The Bahamas. The publications that resulted from her dissertation have recently garnered a lot of media attention, including interviews with the New York Times, Science Magazine, and Newsweek.

Nicole has a particular interest in network analysis, having used it in her study of dolphin social behavior. Using social network analysis, she uncovered a more meaningful approach to social relationships using observed physical interaction, rather than simply presence in the same social group. She is currently working on expanding on her previous work in social network analysis. Nicole is also interested in applying Bayesian techniques to the study of social behavior and will begin these new methods in the coming months.