Ragon Institute Executive Director
Kristen Massimine, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard. In her role, she helps lead the day-to-day administration and operations of the Ragon Institute, including business development, education and outreach, facilities management, grants administration, human resources, information technology, internal communications, and regulatory compliance. Massimine, a mission-driven healthcare executive, also supports the Ragon’s strategic planning efforts, serves as an executive sponsor for the Ragon Culture Committee, and guides the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She comes to the Ragon with more than 15 years of progressive experience spanning strategic planning, business development, process improvement, and alliance management.
Prior to joining the Ragon, Massimine was most recently Senior Director, Relationship Management for the Network Development and Integration department at Massachusetts General Hospital / Mass General Brigham, where she worked for nine years. In this role, she supported institutional strategic planning efforts, managed the departmental budget, and developed new standardized tools and procedures to streamline operations between MGH and other hospitals throughout New England. In addition, Massimine assisted with the merger of Wentworth Douglas Hospital into the MGB system and also served as an alliance manager between MGH and York Hospital in Maine, where she led efforts to launch over 20 clinical, advisory, and educational programs in three years.
Before that, she was the Director of Network and Marketing Strategy and Financial Planning at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she supported institutional planning and strategy implementation efforts. Massimine was recruited to Boston Children’s from her role at The Chartis Group, an advisory services firm that provides management consulting and applied research to leading healthcare organizations. As a consultant, she contributed to a variety of engagements including operational process improvement, physician alignment, strategic planning, and the design and implementation of a project management office. In addition to her client work, Massimine also spearheaded the development and implementation of an innovative training curriculum for new hires at Chartis.
Massimine worked in drug discovery at Yale University before becoming a consultant. Her main research focused on the development of novel strategies for the treatment of two parasitic diseases, toxoplasmosis and malaria. Her research provided the first direct evidence for the existence of a novel nutrient pathway in the parasite that inflicts toxoplasmosis. She subsequently demonstrated the importance of the pathway in the successful treatment of the parasitic infection. Massimine’s research also includes the characterization of a novel anti-malarial drug, and her work has been published in several prominent peer-reviewed journals. Massimine holds a PhD in pharmacology from Yale University and a BS in biological chemistry from Bates College.
