Broomfield, Colorado, United States
I am an earth scientist, an analyst, geochronologist, statistician, and data visualization wizard. I am a Ph.D. candidate and research scientist at the University of Colorado where I developed and executed innovative and original research on kimberlites (diamond-bearing volcanoes) and deep-time landscape evolution using thermo/geochronology (mainly apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He and U-Pb). My interests are developing new methods to tackle complex problems in the Earth Sciences and discovering innovative, creative, and understandable ways to share those results both orally and visually. I won 2nd place at the 3 Minute Thesis competition--if you have 3 minutes and want a quick and understandable summary of my doctoral research, give it a watch: https://youtu.be/K9leE15xHZY?si=Qi_p1adeDay4x7FM&t=3629 I am interested in continuing to do geoscience research, especially in geochronology or mineral resources. I would love to apply my data analysis, statistics, research, and data visualization skills to problems small and large across a variety of fields. Nothing makes me happier than clean data that can be easily interrogated to yield practical and actionable insights. I am adaptable, dependable, goal-oriented, a quick-learner, and always here to lend a helping hand. I enjoy spending my free time biking, reading horror novels, baking (and eating!) sweet gluten free treats, and lounging in the sun with my rescue cat.
Senior Data Scientist/Statistical Analyst III with the DOR-Marijuana Enforcement Division (Data Analytics team)
• Expected May 2025 • Advisor: Dr. Rebecca Flowers • Certificate in Data Science Statistics Relevant coursework: - Geochronology and Thermochronology | Professor Becky Flowers - Statistical Methods and Applications I and II | Professor Brian Zaharatos - Data Visualization | Professor Seb Kopf - Statistical Collaboration and Advanced Statistical Collaboration | Professor Eric Vance
• Collected apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He, U-Pb, and trace element using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and a noble gas extraction and measurement line (ASI Alphachron). • Complied and integrated preexisting geochronologic, sedimentologic, petrologic, and thermochronologic data from a variety of published and unpublished sources with newly collected geochronologic and thermochronologic data. • Organized and managed of hundreds of rock and mineral samples sourced from international collaborators, personal collections, private corporations, and geological surveys. • Created and managed geochronologic databases in Excel, R, and QGIS. • Characterized and synthesized volcanic, economic, and sedimentologic deposits and resources for my study region. • Communicated with government agencies, private companies, and individuals external to the university to collect data and information unavailable through public sources. • Synthesized information in the form of visual, oral, and written technical abstracts and journal publications. • Created publication worthy figures, diagrams, and schematics for visual, oral, and written modes of communication for both experts and non-experts. • Secured over $5,700 in travel grants from conferences and the Department of Geological Sciences at CU Boulder.
These projects were completed for course credit while taking Statistical Collaboration (Professor Eric Vance) during academic year 2022-2023. This was not a paid position, but the experience of working closely on statistical projects as a collaborator was invaluable. A small selection of the projects I worked on are listed below: • Assisted a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering create and interpret linear models and effective data visualizations in R for her dissertation, which was successfully defended in November 2022. • Created a data pipeline for a post-doctoral researcher in R that extracted data from a Raman spectrometer, combined it with observational data, and output a clean data table and a series of plots. • Worked with a professor at CU Boulder to analyze survey data. This included: 1) performing sentiment analysis, 2) creating dummy variables, and 3) using various model selection techniques for categorical data while controlling for a number of different variables.This data analysis was used to publish a white paper within the department. • Attended a series of virtual R short course modules attended by > 50 participants and assisted with coding questions and errors. Led a virtual workshop on regular expressions during the "Working with Text Data" module.
• Scheduled tutoring sessions online and in-person with students in middle school through adulthood. • Tutored geological sciences including structural geology, petrology, and introductory classes. • Acted as a mentor for students struggling to adapt to college-life and classes.
• Managed the collection, security, and verification of campus-wide election data for positions within the Graduate and Professional Student Government. • Organized, visualized, synthesized, and communicated insights from data to Graduate and Professional Student Government officers and university administration. • Oversaw the proper storage and organization of data collected over the past 5 years so that it remains accessible and understandable for years to come. • Restructured election procedures, wrote and clarified documentation, and collaborated closely with the Administration team throughout the year. • Spearheaded website creation and management through WebExpress. • Coordinated a system-wide move from the Google workspace and Slack to a Microsoft based system (including OneDrive and Teams). This required constant and close contact with 15 different account holders to successfully transfer >6 years’ worth of documents, data, and sensitive financial records.
• Effectively communicated and collaborated with the project manager to understand the details of the project, share definitions and interpretations of statistical jargon with non-experts, and present results in a timely manner. • Researched cutting-edge statistical methods to efficiently and robustly answer the statistical questions and deal with the unique structure and type of data. • Executed a robust statistical analysis of complex geochemical data in R (programming language) and delivered a plain-language report on the methods and results. • Organized the data, code, and report for effective sharing between stakeholders in the project. • Familiarized myself with Colorado state guidelines for environmental remediation and geochemical limits on a variety of soil and groundwater samples.