Dr. Elena Savoia
Principal Scientist, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Founder, Community Safety Evaluation Lab
2024
Dr. Savoia is a Principal Scientist in Biostatistics and a medical doctor by training. During the past twenty years, she has been leading research and training activities at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health focused on public health emergency preparedness. She is the co-director of the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation & Practice (EPREP) Program and founder of the Community Safety Evaluation Lab (CSE-Lab). The CSE-Lab is focused on the evaluation of violent extremism prevention programs. She has devoted her professional life to the use of evaluation methods to measure systems’ capabilities in response to large-scale emergencies. Her work has focused on the advancement of evaluation science to assess the elements of a public health system that lead to a successful response and the population-based factors and workforce training and characteristics that may improve the capacity and resiliency of public health systems and communities. Dr. Savoia’s portfolio of activities includes projects sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Justice, World Health Organization, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization among other governmental and non-governmental organizations.
At the Summit
The Summit was more than empty words – it made clear that a solution-driven approach is the only way to fight hate. That’s why the working group activities, which are results driven are going to be critical in defeating violent extremism. The Summit brought together the best minds in government, private sector, academia, and civil society. Being surrounded by these experts sparked new ideas – some of which I’ve already implemented or have written about.
