What degree did you receive from Illinois and when?
PhD, 2017

What have you been doing since you graduated? What is your current title/position? How long have you worked there?
I completed a postdoc at the University of Arizona in cognitive neuroscience of language. After that I transitioned to work in industry with a position in the University of Arizona's University Analytics and Institutional Research Department, where I served as subject matter expert in statistics. I then took a position at Kohl's Corporate offices here in Wisconsin as a customer relationships measurement analyst. I now work as a data scientist at Rogers Behavioral Health. I've been here since September 2020.

What are you working on right now?
I am currently utilizing patient data to build predictive models for patient outcomes. I work with cross-functional teams to determine best test design and research hypotheses for our research projects. This new role is a perfect intersection of my academic interests and training, and the corporate research experience I gained at Kohl's.

How has your degree from Illinois helped you in your career?

My PhD work helped me learn how to be a scientist. I studied psycholinguistics at Illinois, so I learned about the scientific method; how to formulate research questions and hypotheses; and how to select a statistical model for my data. This has translated well to data science.

Posted: 11/04/2020