Mahnaz Akbari – Founder & Planner & Coordinator
Mahnaz studied Math and Computer Science and has over two decades of experience in IT in different data related roles. She has shifted towards Machine Learning and data science past several years. She strongly believes in women’s potentials and in a better world by acknowledging that. She founded Seattle Women in Data Science group in 2017 with the goal of providing a safe platform for women in data science to thrive together, also to promote this field among female techies. The overwhelming response to this group affirms the need for such groups.
Leadership Team
Parvathy Nair is a senior data analyst focusing on employee experience on the People Analytics team at Zillow. She holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and two master’s degrees in Statistics and Business Analytics. She also volunteers as the PR Lead for Data Circles to find partnerships with various organizations related to data science in the Greater Seattle Area. She was excited to find a thriving data science community after her move to Seattle, particularly geared towards women. As a part of Data Circles and the WiDS PS conference, she is excited to give back to this community, and meet other women in the field of data science.
Parvathy Gopinathan Nair PR/Sponsor Outreach
Jeny is the Community Manager at Iterative.ai, a company committed to creating open-source tools to streamline the workflow of data scientists. A former Olympian in the sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics, she has drawn on the discipline she learned in her youth to develop her passion for problem-solving, project management and visual story-telling. With experience in marketing, operations, finance, accounting, estate planning, a variety of creative volunteer work managing teams, as well as running a small business and wearing all the hats that it entails, she is always eager to learn and grow. This eagerness motivated her to become a Microsoft Certified Professional in Data Science so that she can further enhance her problem-solving skills to provide data-informed insights for today’s business problems.
Jenifer De Figueiredo Branding/Website Lead
Erika Pelaez is a Data Scientist with a Biomedical background and and experience with data in all shapes or forms. Founder and organizer of the Pyladies Mexico City chapter, Erika loves to share the knowledge and python tips with all people. Helping now with Data Circles and Pyladies in study groups, projects and Hacknights, Erika continues to facilitate good long term relationships with Python and Data Science (specially Machine Learning).
Erika Pelaez Projects Circle Lead
Kelly grew up a ferry ride away from Seattle. Her path to data science started with statistical modeling and data analytics during her studies of economics and environmental science at the University of Edinburgh. After returning to the PNW, she worked in nonprofit and government roles, as a project manager, for 5 years. She took a brief hiatus to study Spanish in Chile and Colombia. Deciding to pursue her passion for data, she attended Galvanize’s data science immersive program. She discovered SeaWIDS/Data Circles while exploring Seattle’s tech communities, and was thrilled to find a diverse, welcoming group committed to sharing knowledge. Her background with nonprofits included crafting outreach strategies, and she is happy to be able to contribute to such a great community of women in data science.
Social Media Lead
Oksana has a background in statistics and worked over 5 years in various data roles. She loves collaborating with different kinds of teams and work on challenging projects. Her recent focus is Digital Marketing.
Oksana believes in the power of this inspirational community and in positive changes that data can bring to the world. In her spare time Oksana likes snowboarding, hiking and traveling.
Oksana Hanson Tech Talk Circle Lead
Sheila joined Data Circles in 2020 to combine her enthusiasm for data science, focus on life-long learning, and desire to connect with brilliant women on topics of data science. She has over 20 years’ experience leading technology teams for The Boeing Company and was honored the prestigious IBM Women Leaders in AI award in 2020 for her strategic use of AI in Boeing’s end-to-end architecture for digital transformation. Sheila recently launched The Illation Group, a woman-owned small business, that offers analytics consulting for small- and mid-sized businesses as well as support to government research projects on data analytics. She has a Doctor of Computer Science (DCSc) Big Data Analytics, a MS Information Technology, a MBA Management Information Systems, and a BS Business Administration.
Sheila Ambruster Volunteer Coordinator
Sukanya is a graduate student in Data Analytics Engineering at Northeastern University, Seattle. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering, the nearly three years she spent as a Business Intelligence Developer has diversified her perspective about the Data Science field and helped her make sense of its vastness and its never-ending potential. Her interests include Machine Learning, AI, and data warehousing. She is excited to be a part of the Sponsorship Team for the WiDS Puget Sound 2021 Conference after attending last year's conference. Speaking of passion, she enjoys running, singing, watching anime, and experimenting in the kitchen!
Sukana Aswini Dutta
PR/Sponsor Outreach
Mentoring Circle Volunteers
Shweta came to Data Circles with an education in computer science with a goal of discussing current research, graduated from University of Utah with thesis in theoretical machine learning and MCMC techniques. A former machine learning engineer and current software engineer with Amazon. She uses machine learning in her projects and remains connected to the research community. Her daily routine requires her to think about machine learning related ethical decisions in providing user security and privacy. In her spare time, she loves exploring pacific northwest, learning new things and sometimes read about genes and space. She manages the Mentoring events in Data Circles, has many ideas about book study, study groups, workshops, educational talks etc.
Shweta Singhal - Mentoring Circle Lead
Yelena is a research scientist at the University of Washington Department of Ophthalmology where she analyzes medical images and other data using machine learning. She holds a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in Experimental Nuclear Physics from the University of Washington. Yelena believes frequent collaboration and exposure to new ideas is essential to learning deeply. In addition to organizing Data Circles journal club, she volunteers with Minds Matter Seattle as an SAT test prep instructor.
Yelena Bagdasarova - Journal Club Lead
Branding/Website/Online Learning Circle Volunteers
After six years in Japan as a combat sports journalist, Tony Loiseleur returned to the US for stints in video games localization and building and selling open source 3D printers. Throughout that time however, Tony watched as big data and algorithmic decision making inexorably changed the world around him--often to the benefit of some, while at the expense of others. Tony's growing interests in data journalism and the societal implications of automation thus brought him to data science, and soon after, volunteering on Data Circles' website team. It is his hope that his contributions as as an editor encourages more voices to add their diversity to the field, so that we may all build a more just and equitable tech industry, together.
Tony Loiseleur - Editor
Dr. Arushi Prakash is a data scientist at Zulily.com, an e-commerce company that sells clothing, footwear, toys, and home products, based in Seattle. At Zulily, she helps build recommender systems that power the website and email marketing campaigns. She entered the field in 2019, after finishing a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Arushi Prakash - Content Creator
Rebecca is a Data Visualization Analyst with Amplify Consulting Partners. Although her background is primarily as a software/database engineer in the events management industry, her love of all things data caused her to pivot towards Data Science and Analytics. After completing a Data Science Certificate Program at the University of Washington, she became a member of and then a volunteer with Data Circles so that she could meet and collaborate with others in the local data science community.
Rebecca Stewart - Content Creator
Hands-On Learning Circle Volunteers
Hani is a Business Intelligence Consultant working on Data Analytics and visualization to support business problems from different domains like digital customer experience, supply chain and pet insurance with data driven solutions. She is passionate about women's empowerment through technology and financial freedom. She holds a MS in Software Engineering and BE in Computer Science. Hani also enjoys reading books, photographing, hiking and any outdoor activities. Connect with Hani on LinkedIn
Hani Patel - Interview Prep Lead
Nathaniel is an AI Developer on the Semantic Machines team in Microsoft Research, building new features for a next-generation conversational AI. He has an unconventional background, having taken a few years of dedicated self-study to learn Software Engineering, Data Science, & ML. He came from a career in Property Management after external life events prevented him from finishing his bachelor in Mechanical Engineering. But through excellent resources like Bootcamps/MOOCs, Hackathons, personal projects, Meetups & more; he was able to transition into a fulfilling career working on projects that help people at a wider scale. Among those, Data Circles encouraged him by teaching highly technical content while empowering diverse voices, which resonated with his non-traditional journey, so he happily helps volunteer. Nathaniel is passionate about tech’s opportunity to shape our future but knows that we need a multitude of perspectives contributing for it to be our best future.
Nathaniel Watkins Tensorflow Workshop
Projects Circle Volunteers
Houda is a computer science graduate student at Georgia Tech College of Computing specialising in Machine Learning. She has a background in Applied Finance and she worked as a Financial Analyst in Morocco prior to moving to Seattle. In 2019 she transitioned her carrier into Data Science and Machine Learning and joined Data Circles.
Houda Aynaou - Projects Circle
Erin has enjoyed volunteering with this diverse group of female data scientists over the last year.
Erin Orbits - Projects Circle
After earning a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, I worked as an assistant professor at a university in Wisconsin for three years before moving to Seattle. My research has centered around understanding the link between social relationships and mental health, and I have done a lot of longitudinal analysis and modeling to predict social and emotional well-being in youth. In general, I’m passionate about using research and data to improve people’s everyday life. Seattle has been treating me well, and I enjoy playing violin in a tango band for Argentine tango dancers in the city!
Niwako Sugimura - Projects Circle
Sowmya Vasan is currently a Statistician at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with a background in Electrical Engineering & Statistics. At Fred Hutch, she applies statistical and machine learning models to understand disease risk and factors influencing the risk in postmenopausal women and is a lead analyst on over 12 published manuscripts. She strongly believes in the power of data to change and improve the world. Her role in Data Circles is to develop projects for the data science community in PNW focuses on the importance of handling and analyzing data responsibly to answer impactful questions.
Sowmya Vasan - Projects Circle
Tech Talk Circle Volunteers
Kat has 9+ years of diverse industry experience across engineering and data science roles, with bachelors in Civil Engineering and masters in Applied Economics. Curious learner who has expanded data science and ML knowledge based on professional work as well as personal projects ranging from simple algorithms to applying DNN on large datasets. Proven track record of working backwards from customer value and applying novel approaches to ambiguous problem space. Led efforts ranging from inception to full life cycle by influencing divergent viewpoints across functional roles.
Kat Gomozova - Tech Talk Circle
WiDS Puget Sound Conference Leads
(Head here for more info on the wonderful volunteers for the WIDS Puget Sound conference!)
Mengyuan is a Senior Data Scientist at SAP Concur working on building AI solutions to revolutionize expense management and reporting. Before joining Concur, Mengyuan obtained a PhD in bioengineering from the University of Washington, specializing in applying machine learning and computer vision technologies to medical imaging. Mengyuan is passionate about supporting women in technology and has been an Ambassador and Lead Organizer for the Women in Data Science Puget Sound Conference for 2 years. Outside work, she is also enthusiastic about environmental issues, ethical fashion, animal welfare and enjoys traveling and good food.
Shivani is a Data Scientist at SAP Concur where she works on developing machine learning algorithms for the ExpenseIt Product. She holds two bachelor’s degrees (speech and hearing sciences and math), as well as a master’s in statistics from Oregon State University. Shivani is passionate about equity in public education and she is a member of the Renton Schools Foundation Board where she focuses on supporting an equitable curriculum of elementary STEM education. Shivani believes that movements like WiDS are invaluable in supporting the career development of women in technology which is why she is a Regional Ambassador for the WiDS conference.
Data Circles Builders
Elyse is a senior decision scientist at Starbucks corporation where she uses data to improve the customer and partner experience. She moved to Seattle from the Bay Area to get a masters degree in epidemiology at University of Washington. She has close to 10 years of experience working in nonprofit and public health practice settings. She feels strongly about using data to make the world a better place. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, baking, crafting, and making things she can share with her friends and family.
Elyse Kadokura - Volunteer Coordinator
Rong Li is a member of the Coordination Circle
Rong Li - Coordination Circle