Kevin has spent years developing methods to improve population estimation and public health surveillance. At the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Kevin has led technical teams working on epidemiology, statistics, demography, survey methodology, informatics, and geography. Over the past two decades Kevin has served as Senior Scientific Advisor, Director of Methodology in the Epidemiology Division, and Director of Data Science and Research for Family and Child health. His responsibilities have included developing the current system for the city’s neighborhood-level population estimates, directing the GIS center, acting as technical privacy officer, leading in-house technical consulting efforts, and serving in multiple data governance roles. Kevin leads the development of Apriqot’s core products.

Ken Shapiro is a results-driven leader with a track record of driving innovation in public and private sectors. At Apriqot, he leverages deep expertise in health and human services, operational strategy, and organizational growth. His career includes leadership roles at the local, federal, and executive levels, including helping lead Marin County's COVID-19 response, establishing a Medicaid innovation waiver program, and serving as an Analyst in the Office of the President and Executive Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With experience managing complex systems and fostering cross-sector collaboration, Ken delivers effective, lasting solutions to complex challenges.

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Tejas has always been passionate about finding answers to meaningful questions through data. He holds a Master's in Data Science from Northeastern University and has previously worked as a data analyst in both the healthcare and finance industries. While at the Roux Institute, Tejas led the Data for Social Good student group, where he helped organizations use multiple data sources and develop data-driven dashboards. Always eager to work with mission-focused organizations, he has completed projects with Arbor Analytics, the Locker Project, the United Way of Southern Maine, and Aperture Space. Tejas brings his diverse experiences building reliable, reproducible, and meaningful analytical solutions to Apriqot, where he conducts statistical modeling and contributes to developing our core data infrastructure. 

Alfredo Vergara, PhD, MS, BSE is an applied public health epidemiologist with 30 years of experience, including 26 at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He began his career as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer and has worked across environmental health, emergency response, refugee and border health, and infectious diseases, including HIV. Dr. Vergara’s portfolio spans field epidemiology, global migration, humanitarian crises, and building public health systems in Africa, as well as experience in academia.

Nicole has spent her career focused on making information clear and compelling to diverse audiences and developing organizational systems that support joyful and efficient production of meaningful work. As Chief Operating Officer at Apriqot, she oversees company operations, leads project management, spearheads data visualization, and manages stakeholder engagement and communications. Nicole joined Apriqot in January 2024 as a student co-op while pursuing her Master's degree in data analytics and held a variety of technical and cross-functional roles within the organization prior to becoming COO. Previously, she served in public education for a decade, working with learners across the full developmental spectrum, from preschool to college. Whatever the domain, Nicole is driven to bring clarity and actionable insights to projects and organizations serving the public good.
 

Shivam Thakker is driven by a passion for using data and intelligent systems to address complex public health challenges. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Northeastern University, where he specialized in machine learning and large-scale data systems. At Maine-based start-up Survue, Shivam developed and optimized Machine Learning models for vehicle detection and tracking systems on edge devices. As a Research Assistant under Dr. Qingchu and Dr. Raimond Winslow, he led projects on real-time disease prediction, leveraging large-scale patient and insurance databases, AWS cloud infrastructure, and advanced statistical modeling to support clinical decision-making. Shivam brings his expertise in predictive modeling, scalable data pipelines, software engineering and healthcare analytics to Apriqot, helping advance its mission to build intelligent, data-driven solutions that improve lives.

Paul is passionate about actionable analytics to support better decision making. He earned a Master’s in Public Administration degree from New York University’s Graduate School of Public Service where he focused on policy analysis and advocacy. Prior to joining Apriqot, he worked on policy and strategy projects spanning federal Medicaid policy, nonprofit advocacy, and health technology innovations. At Apriqot, he focuses on building partnerships that expand the use of data-driven tools to improve health outcomes and public sector decision-making.

Rafael G. Ramos, Ph.D. is a geospatial researcher with extensive experience in mapping and analyzing human & environmental data. He has a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California Santa Barbara, MS & BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Campinas and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). He has proposed and implemented new methodologies to improve data quality in geospatial applications and conducted studies on urban & environmental crimes, deforestation & conservation, health demographics, and vulnerability to extreme weather events. Dr. Ramos is currently affiliated with INPE, a collaborator at the Center for Studies on Violence at the University of São Paulo (NEV-USP), and a consultant at Apriqot, Inc.