Elizabeth (Liz) Umberfield, Ph.D., RN, NI-BC

Elizabeth (Liz) Umberfield, Ph.D., RN, NI-BC, is a research informatics program manager in ODSS, where she supports NICHD staff and researcher communities to implement a human-centered strategy to facilitate sharing and analysis of NICHD research datasets; advises on the collection, harmonization, linkage, sharing, and responsible use of research, administrative, and real-world datasets; and works to operate and modernize the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH). Her work focuses on advancing the responsible use of data in support of NICHD's mission and promoting interoperability across the NIH research data ecosystem. 

Prior to joining NICHD, Dr. Umberfield was a nurse scientist at the Mayo Clinic. Her research aimed to amplify patients’ and research participants’ choices by making information about these choices machine-interpretable and interoperable. She led or participated in standards for expressing consent, advance care plans, and portable medical orders. She also worked toward harmonizing inpatient nurse-generated data to advance learning about nursing care delivery and patient outcomes at scale. 

Dr. Umberfield earned her Ph.D. and certificate in nursing education from the University of Michigan School of Nursing, where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar. She completed postdoctoral research training in the Public and Population Health Informatics Training Program (T15LM012502) at the Regenstrief Institute Center for Biomedical Informatics, funded by the National Library of Medicine’s University-Based Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Research Training Programs. She obtained her B.S.N. from Saginaw Valley State University. In addition to her academic accomplishments, Dr. Umberfield is an experienced neurocritical care nurse and is board certified in nursing informatics.