I started my career over 20 years ago working as a geographic information systems analyst on a Digital Alpha system linking models from various disciplines to support the comparative analysis of an oil spill in an ecosystem hundreds of miles away. I taught myself to use Unix, C, FORTRAN, ARC/INFO 6, and a quirky little scripting language called awk to tie hydrological, ecological, toxicological, fate, and transport models together to explore the effects an oil spill would have in Tampa Bay, Florida. Since then, I have worked on GIS/remote sensing, data integration and consolidation, process improvement, and scientific data analysis projects to my hearts content. Little did I know this would eventually be known as Data Science.
I am incredibly fortunate that, under the guidance of a wonderful mentor, I picked science over engineering in that critical moment in college when the decisions you make have lasting effects in your life. Being a scientist has afforded me the opportunity to be curious, innovative, and fearless. Consistently creating novel approaches to solving problems utilizing a systems perspective to tease out how all the parts fit together. Along the way, I have acquired some valuable technical, analytical, and leadership skills. In short, I am performance-driven, results-oriented, tenacious to a fault, and won’t stop until the mission has been accomplished.