School of Information - Health Informatics
Faculty

Mara Daiker, MS, RHIA, CPHIMS, SHIMSS has been an adjunct instructor for the Health Informatics program since 2020. In addition, Daiker is the Director of Professional Development at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Yi Hong, Ph.D., has been an adjunct instructor in Kent State’s iSchool since 2018. In addition to teaching, Dr. Hong works as an Integration Data Architect in a health data analytics company. She has over 20 years of practical experience working with health data to improve outcomes and efficiency of healthcare through data modeling and analysis, data transformation and standardized terminology services. She has enjoyed sharing her extensive experience with students in iSchools.

Dr. Hong holds a doctorate degree in Biomedical and Health Informatics from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Her research interests focus on big data modeling and mining, information architecture, standardized terminologies and controlled vocabularies, clinical decision support, information organization and knowledge representation. Honors include the New Investigator Award of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine and the Graduate of the Last Decade Award of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has developed courses in standardized terminologies in healthcare, information organization and knowledge management which integrate theory with real world applications.

Marcia Lei Zeng, Ph.D., is a professor in The School of Information at Kent State University. She holds a Ph.D. from the School of Information Sciences at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and an MA from Wuhan University (China). Her major research interests include knowledge organization systems (taxonomy, thesaurus, ontology, etc.), Linked Data, metadata and markup languages, database quality control, multilingual and multicultural information processing, and digital libraries for cultural objects.

Her scholarly publications consist of more than 80 papers and five books, as well as about 200 national and international conference presentations, invited lectures and keynote speeches. She was the PI and Co-PI of two National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Science Digital Library (NSDL) projects. She currently is the PI of an IMLS-funded Linked Data project. In 2014, she was elected inaugural chair of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Advisory Board. Also in 2014, Zeng was recognized by Kent State University for Outstanding Research and Scholarship, and in 2016, she received the President’s Faculty Excellence Award from Kent State President Beverly Warren.

Mary has been engaged in the practice of law for more than 25 years, and for most of that time, she has represented business owners and healthcare providers. After working in larger Akron and Cleveland law firms, Mary and her partner Mark McGrievy, Esq., founded a boutique healthcare law firm focused on the long-term care and post-acute care industry. At LM Legal Group, Mary assists clients with business and real estate transactions, sales and acquisitions, finance (including traditional and HUD financing), and regulatory and compliance issues.

In 1996, she graduated cum laude from the University of Akron School of Law, where she was a member of the Akron Law Review and Akron Law Review Editorial Board. Mary earned a BA from Saint Mary’s College at Notre Dame in 1989.

Rebecca Meehan, Ph.D., came to the iSchool in 2012, bringing an extensive background in research related to health care and health informatics, particularly focused on information technology and user experience. Her interests center on improving patient safety outcomes by improving the user experience of health information technology, and sociotechnical approaches to improving health outcomes for a diverse cultural population. Dr. Meehan bridges academic research to industry applications and standards. Her previous experience includes senior research roles with Intuit, Inc., a fortune 500 company, as well as Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Department of Sociology. She also has served as senior research scientist at Myers Research Institute of Menorah Park Center for Senior Living, and senior research associate at Innovative Designs in Environments for an Aging Society (I.D.E.A.S., Inc.). Meehan holds a B.S. in biology from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.; a master’s and a Ph.D. in sociology from Case Western Reserve University, with concentrations in medical sociology and gerontology.

*The School of Information faculty are superstars in the field. Therefore, it is impossible to list all of the great work they do on one page. Listed below is a small selection of recent work. Further information can be viewed in Dr. Meehan’s CV (found below), on her Google Scholar page, on ResearchGate, or on her personal website.

Stacy Pinkney-Peterson is a Prosci certified change management practitioner with over 15 years of experience leading Fortune 100 companies through organizational change, focusing on the people side of change. She is also a results-oriented professional with extensive background in human resources communications and change management in areas of training, project management, program facilitation, and development of company-wide practices with positive results. In addition to these experiences that bring a strong practitioner background to the iSchool, she is a versatile contributor with the ability to influence and build rapport with colleagues and staff, cultivating a team environment in which to achieve company goals.

John Sharp, MSSA, FHIMSS, has been Adjunct Faculty in the Health Informatics Master’s Program at Kent State University since 2012. He developed and frequently teaches Clinical Analytics I and II.

John recently retired as the Director of Thought Advisory for the Personal Connected Health Alliance, a HIMSS innovation company. Before working with HIMSS, Sharp had years of experience managing research informatics at Cleveland Clinic and at the Clinical and Translation Science Collaborative. In addition to producing white papers and blog posts on digital health, he advises startups through incubators and challenge competitions. He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles on digital health.

Vivian Singletary holds a Juris Master's degree from Emory Law School. She has 25 years of experience in project management, information systems business analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and operations experience in the global health, consumer packaged goods, and retail sectors with increasing responsibilities. Vivian is also a leader with a demonstrated record of achievement domestically and internationally where she has an exceptional ability to develop and engage dynamic self-directed teams and has a proven ability to analyze situations and develop strategies to immediately impact business results. These experiences have provided her with excellent leadership and interpersonal skills.