Natalie (Nat) Benda is an expert in human factors engineering and human centered design, which are scientific approaches that investigate how people acquire, use, and interpret information. Human factors experts leverage this understanding to build tools that support cognitive work in high-risk environments, such as healthcare. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University at Buffalo and completed her postdoctoral training in Weill Cornell Medicine’s Division of Health Informatics. Dr. Benda’s program of research uses human-centered design to advance the inclusivity and equity of healthcare, with a special focus consumer information technology. Her work has spanned across various clinical domains including mental health applications for general, geriatric, and perinatal populations. Dr. Benda currently has a R00 award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to design an mHealth tool to support Black and Spanish-speaking Latina women in reporting and managing somatic and psychological postpartum symptoms. She has additional projects in global maternal health (Myanmar/India), improving telemedicine for patients with limited English proficiency, and shared decision making for early detection of postpartum depression.