J. Gakii Masunga, MBE, is a Research Scientist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she is a Co-Principal Investigator (PI) for a study using big data tools to collect and analyze large volumes of social, behavioral and health data to further understand the determinants of cardiometabolic disease and mental health outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa. She is designing the bioethics research arm of the study to analyze important research questions related to the impact of ethical data collection, analysis and sharing. She is also a PI of a study investigating the barriers to Research and Development (R&D) of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), with a focus on the impact of the Priority Review Voucher program on small biopharmaceutical companies. Her objective is to use evidence generated from this study to advocate for policy changes and develop innovative solutions to increase R&D for NTDs. She received her BS in Biology from Capital University, her Master of Bioethics from Harvard University and her Master of Science in Global Studies and International Relations with a concentration in Global Health and Development from Northeastern University. While a student, she studied the models employed by Kenya and Bangladesh to eliminate Visceral Leishmaniasis, to better understand what contributed to disparate outcomes over the last decade. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked with research groups studying chronic disease epidemiology, cardiovascular disease and cancer, managing large longitudinal cohort studies that have contributed to massive public health gains in the last few decades.