Director of Evaluation Ranjani Paradise shares what she’s working on at ICH right now, the experience that prepared her for this role, and how she likes to spend her downtime. Read on to learn more!

How would you describe your role at ICH?

I am the Director of Evaluation at ICH. In this role, I lead several projects and am the senior advisor on others. I also lead the development of ICH’s evaluation portfolio, which includes doing business development in areas that are a good fit for our expertise and staying on top of evolving methods and approaches. I help train and mentor staff and ensure that our evaluation work maintains a high standard of quality.

What is your educational background?

I have an unusual background for the role I’m in now! My undergraduate degree is in chemical engineering and I have a PhD in biological engineering. I’ve always had health-related research interests, but before ICH my research was in the realm of lab and computational science. Even though my degree is in a very different field, I feel like my research training has translated well into my role at ICH.

What was your career path before coming to ICH?

I went to grad school right after undergrad, and came to ICH right after grad school. During undergrad I had some summer research jobs and in grad school I was doing full-time cancer research for my thesis. I came to ICH as a project manager, and that was actually my first “real job” outside of academia. 

What made you decide to come to ICH?

About halfway through grad school, I was starting to realize that a career in basic science research was not for me. I think that work is really important, but I wanted to have more of an immediate impact on people. I was lucky to be in an engineering program at MIT where my tuition was covered and I got paid a stipend to do my research, so I decided to finish my degree while I figured out what I really wanted to do. I did a lot of exploring, attending career panels and doing informational interviews, and started learning more about public health, which was a field I hadn’t had much exposure to before. I did some public health and policy coursework at MIT and Harvard and did some volunteer work with the City of Somerville and City of Cambridge, which solidified my interest in continuing on with public health. People kept mentioning ICH to me as a place where I could use my research skills for community health applications, and when I graduated I applied for a project manager position. It took a couple tries but I eventually convinced Emily Chiasson to hire me =). I feel so lucky that everything lined up for me to land at ICH because it ended up being an absolutely perfect fit…which is why I’m still here 14 years later!

What are some projects that you are working on right now?

I’m involved in lots of projects, and some of my bigger ones include evaluations of culturally- and gender-responsive reentry programs for people at risk of overdose funded by the MA Bureau of Substance Addiction Services; a community-based mental health care program funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation; Mass General Brigham’s Community Health Impact Fund grants, which fund housing, mental/behavioral health, food and nutrition access, and economic mobility programs in Suffolk County; and RIZE Massachusetts Foundation’s Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, which includes three different community grant programs as well as a municipal training and technical assistance program funded with opioid settlement funds.  

What are your favorite projects topics and why?

As you might have seen from the projects I listed above, most of my work focuses on behavioral health, particularly substance use disorders and overdose prevention. Behavioral health is an issue that touches every segment of society, and there are some major access and equity challenges that need to be addressed. Having worked in this area for many years, I have gotten to know so many wonderful programs that are doing amazing work for community members. I love getting to support them to do their work in the best way possible. I think our behavioral health work at ICH can make a real impact, and these projects give me a sense of meaning and purpose that was lacking for me in my graduate research.  

What are you most excited about for the future of ICH?

I think high quality research and evaluation is more important than ever, and I’m excited about the potential for our work to help shape policy and practice. I see many opportunities right now for us to publish our work, engage with leaders in the field, and create tools that will help others apply what we’ve learned in collaboration with our program partners.

What are your hobbies or things you like to do for fun?

I love to cook and try new recipes. I own more than 110 cookbooks and enjoy learning about cuisines from around the world. Luckily, my kids (ages 12 and 9) have become fairly adventurous with food as they have gotten older, so they’re game to try most of the things I make. I also love running – I’ve run six half marathons and ran the Boston Marathon earlier this year (my first full). I’m not fast but I really enjoy training and run five mornings a week year round – almost always outside. I’m currently training for the Cambridge Half Marathon in the fall. And when I have some down time I like to read – a recent book I loved was The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Do you have any plans for the holidays/summer/etc? Anything that you are looking forward to?

My family is heading to Costa Rica later this month! My husband has some family who lives there and we’re excited to have locals who can show us around. We’re all looking forward to experiencing a new place.