James Schlitt

James Schlitt, PhD, MPH, is a Staff Data Scientist II specializing in Computational Epidemiology at Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc., where responsibilities include planning and developing simulation libraries for measles forecasting in low- and middle-income countries with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, James served as a Senior Data Scientist for the AI Bias & Ethics Team at Phenom People, where the development of an AI/ML bias detection algorithm significantly impacted annual audit processes for 650,000 applicants. Academic experience includes roles as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the UVA Biocomplexity Institute, where James created a COVID-19 cluster tracking dashboard and developed a forecasting model for SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. Additional expertise was gained at The Fralin Life Sciences Institute, where James worked on ML algorithms for disease response and social media analytics for public health. Academic qualifications include a Ph.D. in Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, and a Master of Public Health focused on Infectious Disease.