Insightful Inclusion Council

Welcome to 84.51° Data University, a series of quarterly insights for prospective and current data-science professionals. 

Tell us about your role at 84.51° and the Insightful Inclusion Council

I lead a team of data scientists who work on building personalized experiences for our customers in marketing channels (email, push, online display/video/audio).

I also am a committee member on 84.51°’s Insightful Inclusion Council, supporting the “People” pillar. The total council focuses on all facets of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. The People Pillar is largely focused on being more intentional about recruiting, developing and retaining diverse talent with a focus on African-American/Black, Latinx, Women in Tech and Neurodiverse persons.

Why do you think this is an important area of focus for you personally and our organization?

The more we can bring our “whole selves” to work, I believe the better our work will be. Like our customers, we all have different life experiences and perspectives. When we embrace and leverage those differences, we are better at representing the vast differences of our customer base and it helps to make our work that much more beneficial to everyone. I focus on inclusion at 84.51° because I want all employees to feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and leverage their unique experiences and perspectives in all that they do.

“I focus on inclusion at 84.51° because I want all employees to feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and leverage their unique experiences and perspectives in all that they do."

Do you have examples for how this work has helped us mitigate bias, advocate for gender diversity or champion underrepresented populations?

Absolutely! Our focus on inclusion allowed us to identify typically underrepresented groups in data science, like women and people of color, and so we have made a conscious effort when it comes to recruiting among these groups as well as beginning to build relationships with students from these groups on college campuses. We are also starting to work on building more support for managers with neurodivergent team members so they can be more attuned to different working styles and needs of employees in this group.

How do you think your experience as a data scientist gives you a superpower or unique way of thinking in this space?

We are a data science organization, so I appreciate the opportunity to bring data-based thinking into how we approach problems. I can ask questions that encourage us to make data-based decisions.