Becoming a data science leader
AA: What inspired you to become a leader in data science and want to share your expertise with others? What prompted you to move down this path, and what keeps you in the field?
Christina Stathopoulos (CS): I would say that my path to where I am today has not been a straight line. I had a unique journey to get to where I am today, but I always knew that I wanted to work with data. I grew up with a love of numbers. Even as a kid, my favorite class was math and statistics, and I later went on to study for an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree with a focus on statistics, and later still, a master’s in business analytics and big data. For me, it was a very natural path to pursue a career in analytics. I don’t think that’s the case for many people today because the idea of “data science” has only recently become a hot topic; 10 to 15 years ago, its existence was limited to variations of it at the intersection of...