Where did you grow up?
I grew up around Southeast Michigan. I spent most of my childhood in Redford and then spent my high school and college years around Ann Arbor.
What is your degree in? Why did you choose that degree?
I have a degree in English. I chose it because I love to read and collect books, and I love learning about language structure.
Tell us something about yourself that would surprise us.
I was part of a team that worked all night Thanksgiving-eve replacing the carpet in a busy diner in Livonia so they could have a fresh look for their annual turkey dinner.
What is your history with Detroit?
I’ve been living in Detroit for about 10 years, and have lived in a few parts of the city.
What did you do before working at D3?
I worked at Gleaners Community Food Bank, most recently on a food box program distributing food to seniors.
What do you like about working at D3 so far? How do you think the work you are doing benefits the city/region?
Everyone here has been very helpful and supportive as I’ve been getting up to speed on our systems and everything we do here.
When people or organizations are trying to make sense of important issues in their community, or make complex decisions, they need access to high-quality, organized information. D3’s work is key in providing that, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to help in that effort.
What are your favorite types of data?
I really like language data. One of my favorite courses in college went into detail about the extensive data analysis that goes into creating word definitions for dictionaries. I’ve spent tons of time exploring Wordnet, a lexical database that was developed in the 80s. I’ve also spent a lot of time messing around with word embeddings and language models, much newer natural language processing technology. I’ve recently been using the Python library Spacy to parse raw text from novels and local news websites to build relationship graphs.
Who or what inspired you to take the path to Detroit, data, or both?
I started learning Python a few years ago, mostly pursuing the interests in language analysis that I mentioned earlier. I really came to love writing code. At my previous job, I used Python to create a couple of key tools to aid in our work. I learned that when you understand a problem and the context in which you’re trying to solve it really well, simple tools can be hugely beneficial.