Get to know the women behind the data science. Leading women in data science share their work, advice, and lessons learned. Hear about how data science is being applied and having impact across a wide range of domains. Join hosts Margot Gerritsen and Chisoo Lyons in the open and informal conversations with our many inspiring guests.
Episode 33
Allison Koenecke, currently a postdoc at Microsoft Research and soon to be assistant professor at Cornell, discusses her decision to pursue a career in academia focused on algorithmic fairness and causal inference in public health.
Episode 32
Karina Edmonds, Global Head of Academies and University Alliances at SAP, has spent her career building bridges between business and academia. She is passionate about promoting fairness in data science by bringing more young people, women, and underrepresented groups into the field.
Episode 13
Marzyeh Ghassemi, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, is focused on Healthy ML—applying machine learning to understand and improve health.
Margot Gerittsen speaks with Colleen Farrelly, Mathematician at Post Urban Ventures and Author of The Shape of Data: Geometry-Based Machine Learning and Data Analysis in R. Colleen is known for network science, topological data analysis, and geometry-based machine learning. This podcast covers the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary work and her journey in the discipline of data science.
TOPICS: Data Science as a Career, Leadership/Management
Listen to the incredible and inspiring journey of Avalon Baldwin’s career journey. A self-described data nerd, she was not only the first in her family to attend college, she went on to get a graduate degree. Today she is an entrepreneur running her own consulting company. In conversation with Chisoo Lyons, Avalon shares how curiosity, mentorship, and coaching made a difference in her life.
TOPICS: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Science as a Career
In this episode, Margot Gerittsen speaks with Kim Grauer. Kim is the Director of Research at Chainalysis, where she examines trends in cryptocurrency economics and crime. Listen as she talks about her obsession with fighting fraud in the cryptocurrency market.
TOPICS: Business Intelligence, Data Science as a Career, Digital Strategy
Michelle Katics, CEO and co-founder of BankersLab, emphasizes the integration of technical, business, and soft skills in risk management training. She also promotes women in data science and entrepreneurship, encourages ongoing learning and collaboration, and advocates embracing diverse skills for better results, all while discussing her volunteer work.
TOPICS: AI, Business Intelligence, Data Science as a Career, Leadership/Management
In this episode, Mary Krone explores her career shift from a PhD in chemistry and biochemistry to data science, where she builds financial credit models. She highlights her work’s tangible impact and discusses the challenges of work-life balance.
TOPICS: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data Science as a Career, Data Warehousing, Digital Strategy, Information Management
Kate Kolich serves as the Assistant Governor and the General Manager of Information Data and Analytics at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. With an extensive background in the financial sector, she also has significant public sector experience. Throughout her impressive career, she’s delved into areas like data analytics, digital strategy, information management, data governance, business intelligence, and data warehousing, among others.
Soon after the launch of Women in Data Science (WiDS) at Stanford, Kate became an active WiDS ambassador. She has organized numerous WiDS conferences in New Zealand, spotlighting nearly 100 female data scientists. Beyond this, Kate is a passionate mentor and supporter of many professionals in New Zealand.
In our episode, we discuss Kate’s role at the Reserve Bank, the role of her team, highlights from her career, and her insights on being a successful woman leader in her field.
TOPICS: Data Science as a Career, Foundations (Mathematics/Statistics), Values
In this podcast episode, Margot interviews Telle Whitney, a highly accomplished woman in the tech industry. Telle is best known for her 15 years as CEO of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, also known as AnitaB. Anita Borg was a close friend of Telle’s, and when Anita fell ill, Telle stepped in and made AnitaB into the world-renowned organization focused on advancement for female technologists that it is today. Before running AnitaB, Telle was a well-known engineer, then a leader and executive in software and product engineering. During their conversation, Margot and Telle explore the vital work of organizations like AnitaB and WiDS, which aim to support women in overcoming systemic barriers to entry and success in the tech industry.
TOPICS: Data Science as a Career
Srujana Kaddevarmuth is the current senior director of the Data and Machine Learning Center of Excellence at Walmart. She has had an illustrious career in the tech industry, having also worked as manager of data and machine learning and AI at Accenture and Hewlett Packard. In this episode, we talk about her career, her aspirations for data science and AI, and the challenges she met and still meets along the way.
TOPICS: Data Science as a Career
Veronica Edwards is a dancer and choreographer who, after finding that physics was not in fact the major she wanted, studied sociology at Princeton University. In her words, she stumbled into her first job after graduation, which was with the company ReadWorks, and recently joined Polygence as a senior data analyst. In this podcast episode, she talks about Polygence, her wide-ranging educational and career background, the advice she has for others, and how dance has been an important part of her life and learning.
Margot Gerritsen was born and raised in the Netherlands, and after getting her PhD at Stanford, she.spent time in New Zealand in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Auckland, returning to Stanford in 2001 as faculty member in Energy Resources Engineering. Margot specializes in the development of computational methods for renewable and fossil energy production. She is also active in coastal ocean dynamics and yacht design, as well as several other areas in computational mathematics including search algorithm design and matrix computations. Margot also Chairs the Board of Trustees for SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).
Chisoo was born in South Korea and grew up living in Indonesia, Germany, and Jordan, before moving to the US. She attended University of California Berkeley and received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research and continued with her master’s focusing on Operations Research. Living in different parts of the world cultivated her ever-present curiosity about people and cultures. Chisoo worked for FICO, a global analytic and decision management company, applying data science to developing, consulting, and implementing decision support solutions for her clients. Her corporate career culminated in leadership roles managing innovation and lines of business. Now, as the Chief Program Director of Women in Data Science, Chisoo is thrilled to be in service of a global community of amazing women doing extraordinary work in the field of data science.
