Mass Insight Education & Research Announces the Appointment of 3 New Board Members

Executives representing Peloton, Sanofi, and State Street Corporation bring expertise from across the public and private sectors.

BOSTON – October 5, 2022 – Mass Insight Education & Research (Mi) announces the addition of three new members to their Board of Directors. Raolat Abdulai, Alia McCants, and Bryan Woodard were voted onto the board at its most recent meeting at the end of June.  

Their addition brings the total number of independent Mi board members to 15, helping the organization reach its goal of expanding and diversifying its board of directors to align with the growth and diversification of the staff in the past fiscal year. As of this year, Mi’s team comprises 43% staff members of color and now 40% board members of color. “It is important that our board membership be reflective of the diverse communities that our organization serves,” said Board Chairman Gary Evee of Evee Security Consulting Group. “Each of our new board members brings invaluable leadership and perspective, which are tremendous assets to our organization.” 

Raolat Abdulai MD, MMSc is the Global Clinical Lead at Sanofi, where she focuses on bringing transformational medicines to patients with severe immune-driven diseases. In addition to her role in drug development, she works to advance the Sanofi digital health initiatives. Her particular area of interest is building a platform for digital health equity to ensure that the technological evolution of clinical trials leads to improved diversity in research and better health outcomes. Dr. Abdulai is a member of the American Thoracic Society and has served on the Health Equity and Diversity Committee. 

Alia McCants is the Director of Social Impact at Peloton. Alia designs and implements strategies to leverage Peloton’s resources to disrupt systemic inequities. This work builds on Alia’s background addressing those same inequities through education, including through her long careers at Relay Graduate School of Education and the Match School. She is a proud alumna of Spelman College (’04) and Columbia Business School (’13), and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. 

Bryan Woodard is Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel with responsibility for managing the legal affairs of all bank products offered by State Street Corporation. In this role, Mr. Woodard oversees a global team of attorneys located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Mr. Woodard is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association. He is also a former executive committee member of the Financial Markets Lawyers Group sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

The new members join Evee, David Adams of the College Board, Jeffrey Davis of EY, Cecilia Frerotte of Wolf & Company, Dr. Beth Gamse of Gamse Partnership, Ernesto Gonzalez of Charles River Development, Kamau Hixon of Prudential Private Capital, Chris Horan of Horan Communications, Francis J. Kelly III of CEOVIEW Branding LLC, Paula A. Nassif of Wolters Kluwer Health, Jill Norton of Clark Street Consulting, and Dick Taggart of Taggart Advisory Group. To learn more about Mi’s Board of Directors, visit https://massinsight.org/about/board/.