Our Team

Jody Hoffer Gittell is Professor at Brandeis University's Heller School, Faculty Director of the Relational Coordination Collaborative, Co-Founder and Board Member of Relational Coordination Analytics. To understand how diverse stakeholders achieve their desired outcomes in coordination with each other, Gittell developed Relational Coordination Theory, proposing that highly interdependent work is most effectively coordinated through relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect, supported by frequent, timely, accurate, problem-solving communication. The Relational Model of Organizational Change shows how stakeholders can design structural, relational and work process interventions to support more effective coordination of their work. Gittell is currently exploring the relational dynamics of multi-stakeholder change in ecosystems.

Dr. Gittell currently serves as treasurer for Seacoast NAACP, on the board of trustees for Greater Seacoast Community Health, on the editorial board of Academy of Management Review, on the leadership team of the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management, Academic Fellow at MIT Center for Information Systems Research, Chair of the Brandeis University Faculty Senate, and on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee on Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change. She received her BA from Reed College, and her PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Trained as a Journalist and a Public Relations expert, Benedict has been working as a Sports Journalist for over 13 years and is also passionate about helping the poor in the community and the general development of society. He has covered major international sporting events including FIFA World Cups and contributed to global networks like the BBC, Aljazeera, etc, and won awards for producing compelling documentaries. He has successfully combined his work as a journalist and a social worker since 2019 when he worked with the National Health Insurance Authority, a pro-poor health system designed by the Ghana government to take care of the health needs of Ghanaians as their Digital Media Manager.  Benedict is now pursuing a Master’s in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management, while serving as Digital Media Coordinator for the Relational Coordination Collaborative.

Masami Tabata-Kelly is a PhD student studying health policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. As Director of Community Engagement, she is responsible for developing and organizing events that bring researchers and practitioners together to create new knowledge and positive change. She has also served as the Senior Project Manager at the Center for Surgery and Public Health and the Center for Geriatric Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As a health services researcher and medical anthropologist who engages with surgeons and geriatricians to conduct research to improve surgical care for older adults, the overarching goal of her research is to use patients’ and family members’ voices and apply relational coordination to reimagine an equity-, patient- and family-centered healthcare system that leaves no one behind. Tabata-Kelly earned her MA in medical anthropology from Boston University School of Medicine, her MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, and her BA in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Emily Su Ni Thoman is a Social Policy PhD student in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration at Brandeis University. As Director of Strategic Communications, she is responsible for partnering with internal stakeholders to develop and drive forward a strategic communications plan, and serves as a point person on communications related topics for external stakeholders.  Prior to her doctoral studies, Emily worked as a college advisor with College Advising Corps at Charlestown High School in Charlestown, MA. Emily currently works as a Project Manager for the Second Chance Act Grant with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services and as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity (IERE). She is also a Future Education Leaders Network Research Fellow with the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. Emily received her MA in Social Policy from Brandeis University, her MS in Criminal Justice with a sub-concentration in Strategic Management and her BA in Political Science and History with a minor in Education, both from Boston University.

Kartik Trivedi is a policy researcher and currently a PhD student at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Kartik's work focuses on algorithmic fairness and inclusion of people with disabilities. Broadly, he is interested in understanding the role algorithms and humans play in building fairer institutions.

In his other work, Kartik has produced econometric analysis on policy issues such as the inclusion of people with disabilities in the housing market; analyzed data for understanding minimum wage policies using real-time job posting data, and studied vocational employment policies concerning people with disabilities.