Brief Bio

Vicky Tam is a Principal Data Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). With more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of geospatial analysis, data science, and public health, she leads advanced spatial analytics initiatives within CHOP’s Data Science and Biostatistics Unit. Her work focuses on developing innovative approaches to understanding pediatric health outcomes through geospatial methods, combining traditional GIS techniques with modern data science and machine learning to address health disparities and inform evidence-based decision-making.

Vicky also serves as faculty in the Master of Public Health (MPH) program, where she teaches Geography & Health (PUBH 517). This course introduces students to the critical intersection of geography and public health, examining how environmental and social factors influence health outcomes while providing practical experience with GIS applications in epidemiologic research.

In addition, she teaches Modeling Geographic Space (MUSA 632) in the Master of Urban Spatial Analytics (MUSA) program. The course focuses on raster-based GIS analysis, covering foundational spatial concepts, remote sensing and imagery analysis, spatial modeling, and advanced geospatial machine learning techniques.