Deb Cote
Deb Cote is an instructor at Harvard Professional & Executive Development as well as the Harvard Extension School. She teaches classes in project management and change management. She has been at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), a Harvard teaching hospital, since 2007. In her Strategic Planning & Performance (SPP) role at DFCI, she leads an organization responsible for setting standards, maintaining best practices, and measuring performance for projects and IS operations. The teams within SPP manage key projects for the institute, built and now support an established project management methodology, lead digital health and innovation initiatives, grow staff and management skills through training and mentoring, manage collaboration and productivity tools, and oversee portfolio and resource management. She co-founded the DFCI Projects in Practice and DFCI Project University enterprise training programs, increasing project management, process improvement, and change management knowledge and application throughout the institute. One of her most recent educational projects has been teaching classes to sub-Saharan hospital professionals as part of a program funded by the National Cancer Institute to support cancer research projects.
Prior to working at Dana-Farber and Mass General Brigham, Deb’s 30+ years of experience include project management and professional services implementation leadership roles in the high-tech industry. She has also worked in the software, government contracting, and publishing sectors.
In addition to her adjunct teaching role at Harvard University, she is also on the teaching staff at Northeastern University, and formerly Simmons University. She teaches project management, change management, business analysis, and leadership courses. She is a guest speaker at numerous healthcare, project management, and business analysis conferences. Deb is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), HIMSS, CHIME, MPUG, and The Standish Group. She manages the PMO Roundtable for the PMI Mass Bay chapter.
Deb earned her master’s degree in Technical and Professional Writing from Northeastern University, her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University, and her Project Management Professional certification from the Project Management Institute.
