I currently lead the data team at ENGIE Energy Access (formerly Fenix International, Mobisol, and ENGIE Power Corner).  I work with a team of excellent analysts, scientists, and engineers to code and contribute to data architecture, design experiments and perform statistical tests to explore hypotheses, and use data visualization and machine learning to inform action in the field.  We work closely with the wider digital team, as well as our customer finance, customer experience, finance, product, and operations teams to ensure that data are reliable and available to all departments to help them make informed and timely business decisions.

During my transition from academia to industry, I was a data science fellow at Insight Data Science. And in my previous life I was one of two Co-Scientific Directors at the Center for Healthy Minds at the UW-Madison.

Before I became interested in neuroscience, I started out in particle physics – doing research as an undergrad at Fermilab and as a graduate student at CERN.  After a few years, I developed a new passion and began graduate school in Neuroscience at the UW-Madison.  I received my PhD in the lab of Richard Davidson, studying the temporal dynamics of amygdala BOLD activity in response to emotional stimuli (aka “what happens in the brain when we have an emotional experience”).

After having been in school uninterrupted for 24 years (from age 5 to 29!), it was high time I learned what life was like outside of academia.  I joined the Peace Corps and had the privilege of serving in Uganda, in a region that was still recovering from a 20 year civil war that had ended in 2007, five years before we arrived.

I developed strong relationships with some amazing students with visual impairments – learning Braille so I could teach them math.  In return, they taught me about not just surviving, but really thriving in an environment where disease, violence, and malnutrition were present to an extent that I had never before experienced.

As a result of one of the many conversations we had about issues facing people with disabilities in the region, we applied for (and received) a grant to construct tandem bikes to help visually impaired people be able to travel more easily to the market, the hospital, and generally around town.  We also organized a bike tour around Northern Uganda to meet with people with disabilities in towns along the way.

After I finished my service, I returned to America to work as Co-Scientific Director in the lab where I completed my graduate training.  I had the opportunity to mentor graduate students doing affective and contemplative neuroscience research, while also continuing my own research from before I left.

However, I still keep in touch with my colleagues in Uganda and have several fun projects – from introducing solar cookers in rural communities to constructing a stationary bike that can charge small electronics – that we hope to work on together over the next few years.