Emma O'Neil

I am currently a Clinical Research Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital. I graduated in December 2022 with a dual degree from University of Pennsylvania, where I pursued studies in three schools (Wharton, College, Engineering); I majored in Statistics, Cognitive Science, and Computer Science and minored in Mathematics. I completed pre-medical postbaccalaureate coursework at Harvard Extension School.

My research experience lies across health services, health equity, AI ethics, human-computer interaction, machine learning, natural language processing, and computational social science. At Mass General Cancer Center, I managed a study of a virtual cancer and mental health tumor board, focusing on health disparities among individuals with serious mental illness and cancer. My honors thesis involved the use of natural language generation with the goal of aiding peer counselors in generating messages incorporating reflective listening. In 2021, I conducted research at CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, developing a platform for training nurses in motivational interviewing and framing the evidence-based design of the prototype.

I have spent time at non-profits, startups, and a software company. Currently, I help support the care of patients at the MGH street team clinic of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Prior to moving to Boston, I worked on building the member relationship management system MVP for Vanna Health, a company focused on providing psychosocial rehabilation at scale to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. While at Penn, I was involved in search and selection of entrepreneurs at Endeavor, building a curriculum to empower the next generation of social entrepreneurs at Fulphil, and underscoring customer value in enterprise software at ServiceNow. Over the years, I have volunteered as a crisis counselor at hotlines, formerly at Teen Line and since then, at Crisis Text Line. I am committed to supporting people and their health.

Research

Massachusetts General Hospital | June 2025 - Present
Designing national street psychiatry survey with Dr. Katherine Koh and applying AI to draw insights from street outreach and home visit notes of our Boston street team (BHCHP).

Mass General Brigham | May 2024 - Present
Collaborate with Dr. Lisa Lehmann on research on ethical considerations of ambient clinical intelligence (risks, benefits, recommendations).

Mass General Cancer Center | Dec. 2023 - May 2025
Led virtual cancer and mental health tumor board trial with Dr. Kelly Irwin to increase reach of person-centered cancer care for adults with SMI and cancer to community oncology settings. Poster presentations: DF/HCC Celebration of Early Career Investigators in Cancer Research 2024, Harvard Psychiatry Research Day 2025, 2025 MGB Public and Community Psychiatry Symposium.

UW Design, Use, Build Alliance REU | June 2022 - Aug. 2022
Developed project applying computational language analysis tools to explore relation between health apps' user reviews and One Mind PsyberGuide expert ratings of credibility and user experience. Advised by Drs. Gary Hsieh and Tanu Mitra.

Honors Thesis Research | June 2021 - Dec 2023
Applied language generation to draft messages for peer counselors using skill of reflection. Gathered cross-institutional support and resources from current CMU and Stanford faculty. Advised by Dr. Lyle Ungar. EMNLP GEM 2023 paper. First recipient of Glushko Award at Penn.

CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute REU | June 2021 - Jan 2023
Developed prototype to train nurses in motivational interviewing and iterated on design through user testing. Researched and wrote on design rationale, e.g., application of role-playing, peer feedback, and reflection. Advised by Drs. Laura Dabbish and Robert Kraut. CHI 2023 paper.

MindCORE Fellowship | June 2019 - Aug. 2019
Designed and executed study examining whether people predict others exhibit the false consensus effect and accuracy of people's predictions for people like them and different from them. Presented 15-minute talk at research symposium. Advised by Dr. John McCoy.

USC Brain and Creativity Institute | June 2016 - June 2018
Conducted literature review of the effects of musical training on early reading development. Advised by Dr. Assal Habibi. Brain and Music Program.

For-profits and Non-profits

Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program | Nov 2024 - Present
Volunteer at street team clinic at MGH, which integrates the care on the streets within the mainstream of the hospital. Take vital signs, distribute harm reduction supplies and care products, and talk with patients.

Vanna Health: Software Engineering | Feb. 2023 - June 2023
Worked as front-end engineer to build core features of member relationship management system to support coaches who work with members with serious mental illness.

Endeavor: Entrepreneur Selection & Growth | Dec. 2020 - May 2021
Wrote business profiles to inform evaluation in International Selection Panels. Jump-started project to target female and minority founders with high-potential technology applications.

ServiceNow: Value Management | May 2020 - Aug. 2020
Created executive summaries on customers across industries. Mined metrics from Knowledge 2020 conference to gather insights from customer presentations.

Fulphil: Project Management | Aug. 2019 - June 2020
Managed research for social entrepreneurship curriculum and was one of earliest content developers. Brainstormed with CEO on curriculum, marketing, and partnerships. Curriculum.

Teaching

Penn Engineering: CIS 7000 Teaching Assistant | Jan. 2023 - May 2023
TA for Algorithmic Justice graduate-level seminar at Penn taught by Dr. Danaé Metaxa. Developed course website for Penn's HCI course used by both professors.

Penn Engineering: CIS 3990 Teaching Assistant | Aug. 2022 - Dec. 2022
TA for first Human-Computer Interaction undergraduate offering at Penn taught by Dr. Danaé Metaxa. Held office hours, graded assignments, designed rubrics, and guided and graded a subset of team semester projects.

Music

Violin and Songwriting
Playing violin for 19 years. Also write, perform, and produce music. Recognized as a semifinalist in 2019 in the International Songwriting Competition. Apple Music. Spotify.