LATROBE, PA – Dr. Mary Regina Boland, C’10, an assistant professor of data science at Saint Vincent College, was presented with the Quentin Schaut Faculty Award on Wednesday, April 22, during the 2026 Saint Vincent College Spring Honors Convocation inside the Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica.
“It has truly been a pleasure working with Saint Vincent students these past few years,” Boland said. “I am honored and deeply grateful for this award.”
Named in honor of Father Quentin Schaut, O.S.B., an English professor and the seventh president of Saint Vincent College, the award recognizes the contributions, leadership and achievements of a junior faculty member to the curriculum and life of the College.
“Saint Vincent College remains the first and only Catholic school I have ever attended as a student,” Boland said. “While I was here as an undergraduate student, I forged relationships with several members of the monastic community that lasted for the remainder of their lives here on Earth and shaped me into the person I have become. As a deeply religious person, I am honored to be able to teach at this institution that is near and dear to my heart.”
Boland holds a master’s degree, Master of Philosophy and PhD in biomedical informatics from Columbia University. Her undergraduate degree is in bioinformatics (with history and computer science minors) from Saint Vincent College. Boland spent seven years at an academic medical center in Columbia University and six years at a similar center in the University of Pennsylvania.
Boland is a nationally recognized leader in the field of clinical research informatics, specifically using phenotypes from electronic health records linked to external resources to include information on environmental exposures. She extensively researches the role that environmental exposures play in human development and disease.
She helped to establish the Saint Giles Scholarship for Data Science students, and she has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications in a variety of top-tier journals. Her recently published textbook, “Health Analytics with R: Learning Data Science Using Examples from Healthcare and Direct-to-Consumer Genetics,” is used in over 30 countries and also in several of her courses taught at the College.
Boland is also the principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants at Saint Vincent.
