Navya Annapareddy
Annapareddy earned a bachelor's degree in systems engineering and a master's in data science from the University of Virginia, and is now currently enrolled in UVA's Ph.D. in data science program. In 2023 she received funding from the Graduate Research Award Program on Public-Sector Aviation issues, which is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, to pursue her research on ergonomic risk analysis for baggage handling.
Whitney Cathcart
Cathcart is co-founder and chief commercial officer for 3DLOOK, an AI-first technology company whose mobile body scanning solutions provide fit data for the apparel industry and health data for the fitness industry. Cathcart transitioned to technology following a 30-year career in the fashion industry and is a top 100 Retail Tech Influencer and a winner of the 2022 Women in IT awards.
Michele Claibourn
Claibourn is an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She also serves as director of equitable analysis at The Equity Center at UVA, where she leads efforts to support community-engaged data science work that advances equity and justice in the region.
Farhana Faruqe
Faruqe is an assistant professor of data science at UVA, and her research focuses on trustworthy AI, human-centered design, and AI acceptance. She recently received a grant from Jefferson Trust to pursue a project focused on setting UVA students up for success in the trustworthy artificial intelligence workforce. Recognizing the need for equity within the tech realm, she founded AI4Equity, a nonprofit initiative that empowers young women to elevate their AI knowledge and skills.
Vannia Gonzalez
Gonzalez is a senior manager at Capital One with a background in physics. After completing her Ph.D. in particle physics at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and a postdoctoral research position at the University of California Riverside, she transitioned into a data science and machine learning engineering career, starting at Capital One where she remains. She now leads the Machine Learning Solutions teams within her organization, Data Insights.
Sunidhi Goyal
Goyal is a residential master’s student with UVA’s School of Data Science. She received a bachelor’s of science degree in mathematics from Delhi University in 2019. Goyal serves on the 2023-24 Graduate Data Science Council, which seeks to enhance the experience of all graduate students at the School of Data Science.
Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Grushka-Cockayne serves as a professor of business administration with UVA's Darden School of Business as well as a professor of data science by courtesy. Her research and teaching focus on data science, forecasting, project management, and behavioral decision-making. Grushka-Cockayne is also a frequent speaker at international conferences in the areas of decision analysis, project management, and management science.
Laura Ipsen
Ipsen, a UVA alum, is the president and CEO of Ellucian, a top technology solutions provider for more than 2,900 institutions of higher education across the world. She is a longtime technology executive, with more than 25 years of experience, including senior roles at Oracle, Microsoft, and Cisco. She has received numerous accolades over the years and was recently named a Top 100 Influencer in the state of EdTech 2022-23 Report by EdTech Digest.
Celeste Lemrow
Lemrow serves as the associate chief of program analysis & evaluation at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. An alumna of UVA’s School of Data Science, she has also worked at the United States Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Department of Labor during her government career as a program evaluator.
Karolina Naranjo-Velasco
Naranjo-Velasco is a Ph.D. student with UVA’s School of Data Science and received a master’s degree from the School in 2022. She practiced law in South America earlier in her career where she witnessed how the lack of data analysis negatively impacted policies that could help the lives of the most vulnerable. She focuses on the intersection of law and data science and how data science can be a tool to combat social injustice.
Maureen O'Shea
O'Shea works as a data consultant after earning a master’s degree from UVA’s School of Data Science in 2022. Before that she took a 30-year break from the business world to focus on her favorite job: being a mom to her six children. Earlier in her career she received a graduate degree in material sciences and engineering at the University and served in IBM’s failure analysis department.
Melissa Phillips
Melissa Phillips is a software engineering manager with a background in math education. After completing a master’s degree in data science at the University of Virginia in 2020, Phillips joined GA-CCRi, a Charlottesville-based geospatial data science company. Over the past three years, Phillips has been involved with the tracking teams, first as a data scientist and then as a team lead. Phillips also stays engaged with local outreach opportunities and likes to discuss topics in data ethics.
Jade Preston
Preston is a Ph.D. candidate with UVA’s School of Data Science and a captain in the U.S. Air Force, which is sponsoring her doctoral work. She has worked with her faculty advisor, Bill Basener, to use remote sensing and hyperspectral image classification to predict food scarcity in Africa.
Jiaxing Qiu
Qiu is a student in the Ph.D. program at UVA’s School of Data Science after previously receiving a master’s degree from the School. She decided to pursue a doctoral degree in the field so that she could use data science methodologies to help better understand and treat medical conditions and mental health disorders.
Ali Rivera
Rivera works as a data scientist with UVA’s School of Data Science after graduating from the master’s program in 2023. She became the first alum of the School to be hired on staff, and her role is expected to only grow in importance as the School adds an undergraduate major in the fall. Before pursuing data science, she worked as a high school chemistry teacher.
Rebecca Schmidt
Schmidt serves as the director of belonging operations and strategy for UVA’s School of Data Science. Before joining the School, she spent 12 years working for public health agencies, including as director of partnerships and strategic initiatives with the Blue Ridge Health District during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jessica Stroop
Stroop serves as chief of data strategy with the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division, a role she’s held since 2021. She also worked at the department from 2014-19 as a senior statistician and also served as a statistician with the U.S. Naval Academy.