Data Science: Career Exploration

Jo Christine Miles

Dr. Terence Lester

Dr. Terence Lester is a storyteller, public scholar, speaker, community activist, and author. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Love Beyond Walls, a nonprofit organization focused on raising awareness about poverty and homelessness and on community mobilization.

Additionally, he serves as the Director of Public Policy and Social Change and as a professor at Simmons College of Kentucky (HBCU).

His campaigns on behalf of the unhoused and those facing poverty, have been featured in USA Today, CNN, Black Enterprise, Essence, and Reader’s Digest. They have been viewed by millions of people globally on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS News, NBC, Upworthy, and “The Bright Side” with Katie Couric. He was named by Coca-Cola as one of their History Shakers.

His forthcoming book with InterVarsity Press is set to release Spring of 2025, tentatively entitled, “From Dropout to Doctorate: What it Takes to Break the Chains of Systemic Injustice.”

Dhani Jones

Entrepreneur, philanthropist, NFL linebacker, author, host, explorer – are a few of the many words used to describe Dhani Jones. Jones began his career as an NFL linebacker, playing with the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Cincinnati Bengals. For most, the NFL is a career, but for Jones, it was just a jumping-off point. Dhani is a co-founder and advisor for marketing data analytics company Petram Analytics, as well as an advisor for Suzy, a consumer insights platform utilizing AI-powered research.

Timothy Wise, Analyst, Baseball Information for the New York Mets

Tim Wise is an accomplished Research and Development analyst for the New York Mets, where his work plays a vital role in the baseball operations decision-making process. Utilizing a diverse set of techniques and tools, Tim discerns key insights from a multitude of baseball data sources and disseminates these findings throughout the front office.

The foundation of Tim’s analytics background was established at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a master’s degree in Business Analytics. In addition to his academic pursuits, Tim was an active member of the campus community. He competed as a decathlete on the Varsity Track and Field team, was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, worked in the Admissions department, participated in research, and was a member of Greek Life.

Beyond his professional commitments, Tim is deeply passionate about the intersection of sports and data. He believes that these domains offer vital opportunities to foster community engagement and develop critical life skills. Tim utilizes his enthusiasm for using data to create compelling narratives and his dedication to his community to inspire and educate young students and professionals as they embark on their own professional and personal journeys.

Annika Jersild, Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Annika Jersild is a research scientist working at NASA Goddard in the Earth Sciences division. Her research focuses on applying data analysis and statistical methods to answer questions about climate science and oceanography. She works to improve understanding of ocean dynamics and reduce uncertainty in predictions of climate change. She earned a PhD at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany. She’s now living in Maryland where she enjoys taking long walks with her dog and exploring the nearby Washington, DC.

Tyrone Brooks, Sr. Director, Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program

Tyrone Brooks is the Senior Director of the Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program for the MLB, an initiative that seeks to identify, develop, and grow the pool of qualified minority and female candidates for on-field and baseball operations positions throughout the industry.

Brooks, a veteran of 20 seasons working with major league clubs, previously spent six years working for the Pittsburgh Pirates where he assisted the club in their pursuit of three consecutive playoff appearances. Brooks also spent three seasons as a Professional Scout with the Cleveland Guardians and eleven years with the Atlanta Braves, most recently as their Director of Baseball Administration in 2006. He also served the Atlanta organization as a Baseball Operations Assistant, Area Scouting Supervisor, Assistant, Player Personnel and Director of Baseball Operations. Brooks is the founder of the Baseball Industry Network (@tbrooksBIN), a baseball networking group on LinkedIn that includes over 45,000 members from around the world, covering the full gamut of people working within or connected to the baseball industry.

Brian Chan, Data Product Manager

Brian has ten years of working experience as a data product manager, having worked in the supply chain, logistics, and ed-tech industries at Google, Flexport, and Everfi. He loves analytics, visualizations, and telling an immersive data story for all things in life. Off the job, he’s a community leader and operations director at Project by Project.  He loves to cook and play piano, and also loves picking up his saxophone when he can. Most recently, he’s been traveling the world as a digital nomad before landing in NYC and starting his journey of self-discovery and growth on the East Coast.

Lauren Bernstein, Head of Enterprise Partnerships, CI

Across 20 years, Lauren has partnered with Fortune 500 and 1000 institutions to build and implement innovative community-based solutions that bolster deeper connections with communities, drive measurable and scalable impact, and tell a differentiated story. Lauren has spent nearly a decade helping to build and scale EVERFI’s Financial Capability Network, which today represents over 700 financial institutions across the globe and provides financial education solutions to over 6 million learners annually from grade school to the senior population. Lauren is a member of EVERFI’s Executive Team and speaks regularly on key education trends in the U.S., Impact-as-a-Service™, financial inclusion, and scalable education programs. Lauren is a graduate of the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband, two sons, and a third furry child.

February 2024: Chris Fonnesbeck, Principal Quantitative Analyst, Phillies

Chris is the Principal Quantitative Analyst in Baseball Research & Development for the Philadelphia Phillies and an Adjoint Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His research interests include computational statistics, machine learning, Bayesian statistical methods, and applied decision analysis. He hails from Vancouver, Canada and received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.​

December 2023: Natasha Singh-Miller, Data Scientist, City of Norfolk, Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence

Natasha Singh-Miller studied Computer Science and earned her Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. Since then she has worked as a researcher at Sandia National Labs, a data scientist for the City of Virginia Beach, and is currently a data scientist for the City of Norfolk. She is passionate about the impact of data science and AI on our community.

October 2023: Matt Lozier, VP, Finance and Analytics @ Frndly TV

Matt Lozier, VP of Finance and Analytics at Frndly TV, discusses how data science has transformed the industry of entertainment, from audience engagement to business strategy.