Women in Data Science Worldwide
Leading women in data science share their work, advice, and lessons learned along the way. Hear how data science is being applied and having impact across domains— from healthcare to finance to climate change and more. Join the community at community.widsworldwide.org.
Episodes
The Future of AI Agents and the Power of Community
HighlightsGoogle’s new Agent Development Kit (ADK) (3:16)Getting production agents ready (8:33)Taking risks in career (11:10)Balancing life (13:22)How being a WiDS Ambassador impacted Shir’s career (19:31)BioShir Meir Lador leads a team evangelizing applied AI at Google cloud. Previously, she worked as the AI group Manager of the Document Intelligence Group at Intuit, where she led teams in develo
Navigating Career Transitions: From Academia to Product Management with Sohini Sakhar
HighlightsTime at Mathworks (17:27)Being a team leader (18:52)Staying in touch with the technical side (20:04)Advice (27:07)BioSohini Sarkar is a Principal Product Manager and a Senior Team Lead at MathWorks. Her career started with earning a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and then working on DOE and EPA projects as a postdoctoral researcher. She has held various positions at Dassault Systèmes, rangin
Predicting Responsibly: Claudia Perlich on AI, Bias, and the Art of Data Science
Predictive Modeling (4:15) Human judgement and processes (14:06)Imperfection in models (21:40)BioClaudia Perlich is Managing Director and Head of Strategic Data Science for Investment Management at Two Sigma, where she has worked for seven years. In this role, Claudia is responsible for developing innovative alpha strategies at the intersection of alternative data, thematic hypotheses and machine
Navigating Curiosity to Leadership in Tech
HighlightsVulnerability and honesty in leadership (12:07)Finding leaders who are willing to take risks on talent (13:48)BioMaritza is an engineering manager at Klaviyo, where she leads a team focused on creating tools that help marketers better understand and optimize their campaign and flow performance. She enjoys collaborating with her team to develop solutions that provide clear, actionable ins
From Graphs to Growth: Mentorship, Math, and the Power of Algorithms
Math and Computer Science (2:51)Graph Alignment (20:38) BioHuda Nassar is a senior computer scientist at RelationalAI working on building the graph algorithms library offered as part of RelationalAI's product. Previously, Huda obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University and was a postdoc fellow at Stanford's School of Medicine. Huda is also known for her "Julia for Data Science" cour
Beyond Borders: Elevating Women in Data Science and Leadership
Language as the access to different cultures (2:09)Career journey (8:23)People first in leadership style (23:19)BioHannah Pham is a seasoned data leader with experience building and scaling data teams at top tech companies like Airbnb and Pinterest. Hannah's expertise spans consumer and monetization domains. As the Head of Data Science for the consumer area at Pinterest, she leverages data to brin
From Internship to Impact: A Data Scientist’s Journey
Sydney Hazen, a Privacy Data Scientist at Ford, shares her journey from a college intern to a full-time role. She highlights how internships can lead to job offers and the importance of real-world experience and corporate navigation. Sydney emphasizes applying technical skills with a socially conscious approach, understanding problems before diving into data, and credits her professor and diverse
The Power of Linguistics in Large Language Models and AI
HighlightsLLMs (1:46)AI systems (3:25)The need for humanness in AI (20:17)Transitioning to independent consultant (28:31)BioKarin Golde, is the Founder of West Valley AI. She helps businesses and technical leaders navigate the rapidly developing landscape of AI and Large Language Models by sharing her expertise which has ranged from executive leadership roles at multiple startups to heading the l
Applying topological data analysis and geometry-based ML
Highlights: 00:02:25 - Colleen’s motivation for writing a book, interdisciplinary collaborations, and explaining advanced mathematical tools in accessible ways.00:08:44 - Journey from biology and social sciences to data science, and the integration of different mathematical tools in solving data problems.00:14:13 - Overcoming imposter syndrome and the value of exploring beyond one's field.00:15:0
Using Curiosity, Mentorship, and Education to Build a Career
Summary: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
Fighting Crypto Crime with Data Science
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.Highlights:What is crypto crimeTrust in stable coinMisconceptions around cryptocurrencyUsing data and data science in fighting fraud About t
Using Storytelling to Communicate with Stakeholders
Michelle Katics, CEO and co-founder of BankersLab, discusses her journey in risk management training and the importance of integrating technical skills with business and soft skills. She shares her experience in helping banks navigate complex regulations and the need for training to improve understanding and decision-making. Katics emphasizes the importance of storytelling and simplifying comple
Data Science Leadership: Creating Meaningful Impact
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.Mary’s passion for data science’s positive potential in finance shines through as she debunks misconceptions, talks about career paths, and dives into the
Kate Kolich on Mentorship, Data Ethics, and Leadership
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 intellige
Breaking Barriers to Entry & Success for Women in Tech with Telle Whitney
Telle Whitney began her career in the tech industry in 1986 after earning a Ph.D. in computer science from Cal Tech. Her journey into graduate studies was sparked by an encounter with graphics during her undergraduate studies at the University of Utah. Although she initially wasn't interested in graphics, the idea of computer-aided design fascinated her, and she was drawn to work with Ivan Sutherl
Srujana Kaddevarmuth | Opening New Realms of Data Science and AI
Srujana Kaddevarmuth began her career near Bangalore, India after completing her master’s degree in engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University. She has had a successful career in the tech industry and currently holds the position of senior director at Walmart's Data and Machine Learning Center of Excellence.In her role as senior director at Walmart, Srujana leads the AI portfolio for v
Veronica Edwards | The Bridge Between Dance and Data Science
Today Veronica Edwards is a senior data analyst at Polygence, though her educational and career background encompasses a wide range – she has delved into everything from dance and choreography to physics, sociology, marketing, and most recently, data science. Polygence is a nonprofit that offers middle and high school students a 10-week research experience under the guidance of a professional ment
Jane Lauder | Using Data Science to Create Aspirational Products
As Estée Lauder’s first-ever Chief Data Officer, Jane Lauder is combining data science with creativity to fuel the growth of the company. Jane has worked at Estée Lauder for 26 years – 24 of which she spent working on the brand and marketing aspects of the business. While working as the Global Brand President of Clinique, Jane saw the power of data to drive all aspects of the business, motivating
Priya Donti | Using AI to Fight the Climate Crisis
An expert in climate change and the optimization of power grids, Priya Donti researches how to use machine learning for forecasting, optimization, and control of power grids to facilitate the integration of renewable energy. She first became interested in climate change during high school and studied computer science with a focus on environmental analysis as an undergraduate at Harvey Mudd College
Lesly Zerna | Teaching and learning data science in Latin America (Spanish)
Lesly Zerna earned her undergraduate degree in Telecommunications Engineering at the Bolivian Catholic University and then traveled to Brussels to complete a Masters in Computer Science. After returning to Latin America, she began teaching data science and AI both in universities and virtual platforms and today her courses have thousands of online students. She brings insights from her experiences
Leda Braga | Applying data science to investment strategies
Leda Braga is the founder and CEO of Systematica Investments, a hedge fund that uses data science-driven models to support its investment strategies. Leda was born and raised in Brazil and found her way into the financial sector after getting her PhD in engineering and spending several years as an academic. Her financial career started with seven years in investment banking at JP Morgan and then s
Jessica Bohórquez | Using AI for leak detection in water pipelines (Spanish)
A Colombian engineer, Jessica is fascinated by the processes and complexity of water supply systems in urban areas.In her post doc research in Australia, she brings together her expertise on the water hammer and transient flow waves to create an AI model that is able to identify where pipeline defects are faster and more accurately than existing techniques.She explains that in data science, the mo
Karolina Urbanska | Using data science to study human behavior
As a quantitative social psychologist, Karolina has always been interested in using data to measure human behavior to try to understand it better. She has researched questions around political attitudes and polarization, particularly in light of Brexit and Trump’s election in 2016. She wanted to understand how people could arrive at completely different understandings of the world and reflect it i
Welcoming our new podcast co-host, Cindy Orozco
EPISODE NOTESWiDS Executive Director Margot Gerritsen welcomes her new co-host, Cindy Orozco, in a wide-ranging conversation about their career paths and valuable learnings along the way. Cindy is thrilled to be joining as podcast co-host and believes that showcasing women at all stages of their careers shows that we “share the same fears or experiences every day. It's just that some of us have be
Tahu Kukutai | Advocating for indigenous data sovereignty
When Tahu Kukutai’s father went to school, he wasn’t allowed to speak his native language. If he did, he would be hit by his teachers. While the situation for the Maori people in Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand) has improved somewhat since then, Tahu has dedicated her career to advocating for the rights of Indigenous peoples to preserve their native language, identity, communities, and cu
Allison Koenecke | Researching algorithmic fairness and causal inference in public health
Allison Koenecke, who received her PhD from Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), describes how her experiences in academia and industry shaped her decision to return to academia. Currently a postdoc at Microsoft Research in the Machine Learning and Statistics group, she starts as an Assistant Professor of Information Science at Cornell University next year. H
Karina Edmonds | Building bridges between business and academia
Though Karina showed an early aptitude in math, her high school counselor advised her against pursuing an engineering degree. She ignored his advice and went on to earn her undergrad degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a PhD in Aeronautics from Caltech. She landed her first job as a speech-to-text engineer at TRW where she was awarded her first patent. She then
Fatima Abu Salem | Applying data science for the public good in Lebanon
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in Lebanon and has focused her data science research on addressing critical challenges in the region, including problems around the Syrian refugee crisis, the water quality in Lebanon and their irrigation requirements for farmers. Fatima explains that her life journey is really enshrined in the conflict of the region. She was born to a Lebanese mother and a Palestinian fat
Louvere Walker-Hannon | Gaining skills and overcoming barriers to a career in data science
Louvere Walker-Hannon has worked at MathWorks (the company that makes MATLAB) for over 21 years, where she’s also a STEM Ambassador. She studied biomedical engineering as an undergraduate at Boston University and did graduate work at Northeastern University in geographic information technology with a specialization in remote sensing.She loved working with MATLAB as an undergraduate and when MathWo
Menglin Cao | Data science in fintech and financial services
After she earned her BA, MA, and PhD in economics from the University of Maryland, Menglin Cao spent six years at Fannie Mae before joining Wells Fargo. Over the past 15 years, she has seen a major shift in how financial institutions use data to drive business decisions. In the past, many business decisions were based upon the experience and judgement of senior executives, but today every decision
Karen Hao | Covering AI and Ethics Washing in the Tech Industry
Karen Hao trained as a mechanical engineer and then joined a Silicon Valley startup, thinking that technology was the best means to create social change. While surrounded by smart people who were also passionate about using technology for social change, she soon discovered there were no incentives or pathways to accomplish this. “When you're inside a technology company and you're thinking this is
Cecilia Aragon | Aerobatic Pilot, Author and Data Scientist
The multi-talented Cecilia Aragon is a data scientist, professor, author and champion aerobatic pilot. In this podcast, she explains how learning to fly gave her the confidence to pursue her career in human-centered data science and as an author.Her book, Flying Free: My Victory Over Fear to Become the First Latina Pilot on the US Aerobatic Team, is the story of how a timid daughter of immigrants
Kristian Lum | Applying Statistics to Promote Fairness and Transparency
Kristian’s interest in statistics and algorithmic fairness has taken her on a winding career path from academia to business, to public service, and back to academia. As she has made different career changes, she didn’t decide between academia vs. industry vs. non-profit, it was more about the problem she was interested in working on at the moment, and what else is happening in her life. After she
Lillian Carrasquillo | Using Human-Centric Data Science at Spotify
A data scientist by training, Lillian brings a passion for human-centric machine learning and algorithmic effects to her role leading Spotify’s Personalized Home team. She also talks about the experience of leading her team from home during the pandemic.Lillian’s team of data scientists and user researchers collaborate with a mixed-methods research approach to try to discern user needs and create
Femke Vossepoel | Applying Data Assimilation Tools to COVID Forecasting Models
After earning her PhD in Aerospace Engineering at Delft, Femke spent several years in oceanography, climate research, and subsurface modeling. She developed an expertise in data assimilation that she's now applying to improve COVID-19 pandemic forecasting models. Femke explains that data assimilation originated in weather forecasting, where a model is updated with the current day’s weather observa
Francesca Dominici + Rachel Nethery | Using Data Science to Study Air Pollution Effect on COVID-19 Outcomes
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Francesca Dominici and Rachel Nethery saw a way to connect the research they were doing on air pollution and health with the pandemic. They are studying the effects of air pollution exposure on different causes of hospitalization to see if pollution could increase a person’s vulnerability to COVID-19. While the research is at a preliminary stage, there is a
Manisha Desai | The Importance of Data Integrity in COVID-19 Clinical Trials
Manisha Desai is a professor of medicine (research) and of biomedical data science, and director of the Quantitative Sciences Unit at Stanford University. She is an expert in the design and analysis of clinical trials and epidemiologic studies across multiple diseases, including COVID-19. In this podcast, she provides some insights into the challenges and progress of COVID-19 clinical trials.When
Newsha Ajami | Improving Urban Water Systems Through Data Science, Public Policy and Engineering
Newsha Ajami is a hydrologist specializing in sustainable water resource management, water policy, the water-energy-food nexus, and urban water strategy.When she was studying hydrology in grad school, she took a water policy class that changed the trajectory of her career. “I would say that was one of the most important events in my professional career. I realized that laws and policies are what c
Andrea Gagliano | The Intersection of Arts and Technology
When Andrea was studying math as an undergrad, she was required to take an arts class in order to graduate, and soon discovered that she loved poetry. She learned that the process of writing a poem was often similar to solving a complex math problem—just starting with one part, and then doing one more, and gradually the rest is revealed. She enjoyed it so much that her first machine learning proje
Ya Xu | Using Data To Create Economic Opportunities For All Members Of Global Workforce
Ya Xu manages LinkedIn’s global team of data scientists that manage data science projects across the company’s products, sales, marketing, economics, infrastructure, and operations. She says the company takes active responsibility over the data they collect to ensure fairness and protect privacy. They are very proactive about how they maintain their members’ trust, either with how they share the d
Susan Athey | Bringing an Economist’s Perspective to Data Science
With a prolific career spanning academia and industry, Susan’s research focuses on the economics of digitization, marketplace design, and the intersection of econometrics and machine learning. She received her PhD at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and taught at MIT and Harvard before returning to Stanford. She was consulting chief economist for Microsoft for six years and the first woman to
Montse Medina | Lessons Learned Building a Data Science Startup
Montse Medina was pursuing her PhD at Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) when she realized she had a great idea for a company. She left her graduate program to found Jetlore, a prediction platform that empowers retailers with AI-driven content, which was acquired by PayPal in 2018. Montse has since moved back to her native Spain as a partner for Deloitte whe
Bonus Episode: Margot Gerritsen | How to Get More Women Into Data Science
It was in 2015 when Margot Gerritsen was asked to speak at a data conference with not a single other woman on the program that she knew that something had to be done to get women into the field.As she was then Director of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Gerritsen knew more than a thing or two about data science and became determined to change the male-dominated
Timnit Gebru | Advocating for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethics in AI
Timnit recently completed her postdoc in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research, New York. Prior to that, she was a PhD student at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, studying computer vision under Fei-Fei Li. She also co-founded Black in AI, an organization that works to increase diversity in the field and to reduce the negative impact of r
Christiane Kamdem + Lama Moussawi | WiDS Ambassadors Bring Education and Role Models to their Communities
Our WiDS Ambassadors in Paris and Beirut discuss the impact of the growing WiDS presence and communities in their countries. Christiane Kamdem, a native of Cameroon and WiDS Ambassador in Paris, is a senior data scientist at the French energy company Total where she analyzes data to create new services and improve market impact. WiDS Beirut Ambassador Lama Moussawi is an Associate Professor at the
Sherrie Wang | Applying Machine Learning to Solve Global Food Security Challenges
Sherrie brings an interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial perspective to her research that she has developed through her work in the fields of computational finance, biomedical engineering, and computer vision. Sherrie explains that about 1 in 9 people do not have access to adequate food. She is using satellite imagery and machine learning to identify and map crops around the world, see where people
Marzyeh Ghassemi | Applying Machine Learning to Understand and Improve Health
Ghassemi explains how she is tackling two issues: eradicating bias in healthcare data and models, and understanding what it means to be healthy across different populations during her conversation with Women in Data Science Co-Director Karen Matthys on the Women in Data Science podcast.
She says that there are built-in biases in data, access to care, treatments, and outcomes. If we train models on
Shir Meir Lador | Using Data Science to Keep Financial Data Secure
In addition to her job at Intuit, Lador is a WiDS ambassador in Israel, has her own podcast about data science, and is a co-founder of PyData Tel Aviv meetups.
Lador’s team at Intuit focuses on machine learning in security and fraud applications to protect customers’ sensitive financial data from fraudsters and hackers. She and her team use anomaly detection and semi-supervised methods to secure I
Natalie Evans Harris | Creating A Shared Code Of Ethics To Guide Ethical and Responsible Use of Data
During her career at the National Security Agency, Capitol Hill and the White House, Natalie Evans Harris saw that while we collected troves of data, we didn't have strong frameworks and governance in place to protect people in a data driven world. “Data has been used to intrude in our lives. Things are happening based upon data that nobody communicated to the public was actually happening,” she e
Meltem Ballan | Mission Impossible, Fingerprint Recognition, and Connected Cars
Ballan brings multiple perspectives to her current work on Connected Cars—drawing on expertise in data science and neuroscience gained during her ever-changing career in academia, entrepreneurship and consulting.
Ballan grew up in Turkey where it’s not unusual for women to pursue careers as scientists. In her youth, she was inspired by Mission Impossible TV shows where agents used futuristic techn
Chiara Sabatti | Algorithms and the Human Genome
Data science and genetics are closely linked and have been for some time. But now, data science is playing an even larger role in genetics, a trend that is prompting researchers to look hard at their ethical responsibilities, says Chiara Sabatti, a professor of biomedical data science and statistics at Stanford University.
As is the case in many other fields, geneticists have access to much more d
Elena Grewal | From Education to Head of Airbnb Data Science
Career paths don’t always follow a straight line. Just ask Elena Grewal, whose education culminated in a PhD in education, but who became the head data scientist at Airbnb.
In some ways, the leap wasn’t quite as daunting as it might sound. Grewal’s training at Stanford was interdisciplinary, including statistics and econometrics. “Often it’s more about words being different than about skills being
Sonu Durgia | Optimizing the Online Shopping Experience
Consumers know Walmart as a retailing giant that has changed the face of retail in communities across America. But with a data store containing billions of queries and items, it’s also a laboratory for the company’s data scientists and IT professionals who mine and manage it. “We have data scientists embedded in every single team within the company,” says Sonu Durgia, group product manager for se
Megan Price | Data Science and the Fight for Human Rights
Data scientists are involved in a wide array of domains, everything from healthcare to cybersecurity to cosmology. Megan Price and her colleagues at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), however, are using data science to help bring human rights abusers to justice.
The nonpartisan group played a key role in the case of Edgar Fernando García, a 26-year-old engineering student and labor acti
Eileen Martin + Nilah Monnier Ioannidis | Data in Seismology and Genomics Research
Fiber optic cables that convey data at high speeds across the globe area is a well-known feature of modern technology. Now, university data scientists have found a unique use for them: monitoring earthquakes.Distributed across Stanford’s telecom infrastructure, the cables have become a seismic array that has already collected data on over 1,000 Bay Area earthquakes, says Eileen Martin, a recent a
Janet George | The Multifaceted World of Data Storage
“Fail fast” has become something of a mantra in Silicon Valley. But Janet George, the chief data officer of data storage giant Western Digital, has an amendment to that conventional wisdom: “Fail privately.”She suggests that failing privately allows you to open yourself up to discovery and exploration in a safe setting where you are able to take risks. “Carve out time for yourself so you can fail
Jennifer Widom | Math, Computers, & Music
When Jennifer Widom began her career in computer science, it was a relatively narrow and specialized field. Three decades later, computer science has become an interdisciplinary field that touches on broad swaths of society and promises solutions to global problems such as healthcare and sustainability, she says. “Computer science used to be a niche. But (it) has become much more broadly used, bro
Caitlin Smallwood | Data-Driven Video Content
Be yourself” was just one of the many career tips Caitlin Smallwood shared during a conversation with Stanford professor and Women in Data Science podcast host, Margot Gerritsen. Smallwood, vice president of data science and analytics at Netflix, urges up-and-coming data scientists to explore “the avenues and nooks and crannies” of the discipline and avoid limiting themselves to the most obvious p
Jennifer Chayes | Eliminating Bias
Attaining tenured status at a major university is often the culmination of an academic’s career; giving it up is unthinkable for most. But after 10 years at UCLA, Jennifer Chayes was offered a job at Microsoft. The offer, she says,“scared me to death,” but she took the job and is now managing director for Microsoft Research in New England, New York and Montreal.
“There are brass rings that come al
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