Biography
Alyssa Smith started at the College in Fall 2026 as an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science. Before coming to Holy Cross, she earned her PhD in Network Science from Northeastern University; her PhD work was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in Social Sciences - Computationally Intensive Research. She earned an interdisciplinary B.S. from MIT in Humanities and Engineering with Computer Science and Comparative Media Studies. She spent four years working as a data engineer and data scientist in industry before beginning her graduate studies.
Her current research focuses on information flows and attention dynamics online, primarily on social media platforms. While her research is primarily grounded in computational social science and network science, she also makes use of qualitative methods to better understand the nuances and deeper contexts of the phenomena she observes. Broadly speaking, she is interested in figuring out how to make online information environments more safe, equitable, and vibrant. Outside of work, she enjoys powerlifting, knitting, and baking.