Marie Plaisime, PhD, MPH

Dr. Marie Plaisime is a medical sociologist specializing in health, artificial intelligence, and the societal impacts of emerging technologies. Her research examines how structural and algorithmic biases embedded in data systems, and reinforced by broader social inequities, shape decision-making, risk identification, and harm across healthcare, public health, and digital safety environments, including child protection systems. As an FXB Research Associate and National Science Foundation (NSF) fellow, Dr. Plaisime investigates how AI-driven tools shape clinical care, policy, and child protection systems, with particular attention to inequities, risk identification, and unintended harms. She employs critical computational, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to evaluate AI systems, identify gaps in safeguards, and design equitable, human-centered interventions. By examining the health and training needs of frontline responders navigating technology-enabled harms, her work bridges research, policy, and practice to strengthen trust, resilience, and systemic protections for populations worldwide. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Sociology from Howard University and holds an MPH from the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. She is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Research Scholar.