Ramona L. Walls, PhD

Ramona L. Walls, Ph.D. is Executive Director of Data Science at the Critical Path Institute (C-Path). In this role she oversees multiple efforts including the development of C-Path’s Data and Analytics Platform, expansion and modernization of C-Path’s data integration pipeline to encompass new data types such real world data, and development of a rare disease knowledge graph. Walls joined C-Path in December 2020 as a Data Scientist in Ontologies, Standards, and Metadata (OSM). In 2021 she was promoted to Associate Director of Data Science, where she led a new OSM team that introduced the use of ontologies for data integration to C-Path. Before joining C-Path, Walls was Assistant Research Professor in the Bio5 Institute of the University of Arizona, where her research focused on semantic data integration, ontology design, and management of large and dispersed datasets. She has been Principal Investigator on multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and other funders and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in fields as diverse as rare diseases, environmental health, evolution, biodiversity, sustainability, and space situational awareness. Walls is on the steering committee of the Clinical Research Data Sharing Alliance (CRDSA), is a board member and active technical contributor to the Genomics Standards Consortium (GSC), and is a founding member of the OBO Foundry Operations Committee. Walls received a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Resource Management and Horticulture at Penn State and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University. After a post-doc at the New York Botanical Garden, she joined the iPlant Collaborative, now CyVerse, where she led initiatives related to integrating, managing, and publishing big data. She is passionate about data science, data integration, data management, and using those skills to make the world a better place.

Google scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=rEhRmsYAAAAJ