We have access to more biological and health-related data than ever before. In public health practice and research, biostatisticians step in to make sense of it, analyzing data to gain insights, testing ideas and applying findings to real-world problems. Their work ensures that medical and public health professionals can make decisions based on the strongest evidence.
In the spring of 2025, the Department of Biostatistics in Brown’s School of Public Health launched a fully online version of the school’s traditional Master’s in Biostatistics program: the Online Sc.M. in Biostatistics and Health Data Science. The new program provides rigorous training in biostatistical methods to help students meet the growing demand for leaders in the field. There are currently 28 students enrolled in Brown's online biostatistics Sc.M., with the very first cohort expected to graduate in the Summer of 2026.
Among this inaugural class is Anne-Marie Feeney. A data analyst in the Center for Cancer Cell Therapy at the Correlative Science Unit of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Feeney manages and analyzes assay data, such as flow cytometry and qPCR. Essentially, she is working to quantify CAR-T cells, or genetically engineered immune cells used in immunotherapy, and to track how those cells expand over time.
A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, Feeney studied math and economics at Georgetown University before working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. We caught up with the recent West Coast transplant to learn more about her work and how Brown’s newest degree program is impacting her research.
You’re working on cutting-edge cancer research at Stanford. What motivated you to pursue an online degree at Brown?
My main motivation in pursuing a degree was to strengthen my coding skills and to build more public health and biology knowledge, since my undergraduate degree was in math and economics. I actually started out in Brown’s online MPH program and really enjoyed it, but I needed a program with a stronger focus on coding. When I learned that the Health Data Science program was launching, I transferred.
What appealed to me about this program was the opportunity to learn how to integrate coding with advanced statistical modeling techniques, domain knowledge, and communication - the skills needed to make defensible decisions from real-world data. What I love is that I can learn something in class, and immediately apply it to my work.
I also liked that Brown’s online MPH program allowed me to keep working full-time. Even after moving to the West Coast, where the live sessions often overlap with work hours, all the materials are available on Canvas, and there’s a strong sense of community.
