Table of Contents

Professional Experience

1. Woodspark Labs 🪵, Boston, MA

  • Founder & Lead Data Scientist (2024 - Present)

    • Develops human-centered apps that simplify health tracking and promote wellness habits.
    • Leverages predictive modeling to provide accessible, personalized insights and recommendations for overall well-being.
    • Integrates wearable technology with gamified experiences—turning health and wellness activities into rewarding personal quests.

2. MassMutual, Boston, MA

  • Data Scientist (2019 - 2024)

    • Designed, implemented and maintained end-to-end data science pipelines encompassing data ingestion, exploration, modeling, and validation using R, Python, and SQL.
    • Leveraged machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and generative AI (GenAI) to implement predictive models that galvanized decision making throughout health and wellness, life underwriting, marketing, and finance related projects.
    • Collaborated with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to provide data science insight necessary to develop and deploy business and client-facing products.
    • Independently developed and delivered high-impact research, presentations and reports that effectively communicated complex project insights to diverse internal and external audiences.
    • Established and led mentorship initiatives that provided career guidance and support to rising professionals and students through structured programming, external events, group mentoring sessions, and one-on-one appointments.
    • Planned and led cross-functional committees, initiatives, and events that cultivated a collaborative and inclusive work environment.

  • Generative AI Technical Product Management (2023 - 2024)

    • Steered the cross-functional development plans that supported the successful launch of three business-facing GenAI projects.
    • Led daily Scrum ceremonies (sprint planning, sprint retrospectives, backlog refinement, and stand-ups) that supported timely project deliveries, the integration of stakeholder feedback, and the evolution of project requirements across four GenAI projects.
    • Developed extensive training manuals, documentation, and user acceptance testing (UAT) sessions to establish trust and confidence among business stakeholders, compliance partners, and AI governance regulators.

3. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

  • Informatics Major Peer Advisor (2018 - 2019)

    • Produced resources pertaining to career planning and academic journey navigation to comprehensively support undergraduate informatics major peers.
    • Conveyed experiences pertinent to the informatics curriculum to aid peers with course selection and career planning.
    • Galvanized participation, ensured peers were aware of what they could accomplish, and shared relevant opportunities—available at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and beyond—to enable peers to take advantage of them.
    • Conducted tabling events to inform and answer questions from prospective students, educators, parents, and university stakeholders.

Education

  1. M.S. in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  1. B.S. in Informatics & Data Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Skills

  • Strong programming skills in R, Python, and SQL
  • Effective written, presentation, and data-driven storytelling skills that enable communication with diverse stakeholders and large audiences
  • Demonstrated ability to independently design and execute experiments
  • Experience with leading all stages of common data science pipelines on a cross-functional basis
  • Capable of managing projects and developing their scope and delivery timelines in a product management capacity
  • Actively incorporates accessible and human-centered design in technical efforts
  • Knowledgeable of agile software development practices, Git, test-driven development, and configuration as code

Research Experience

  1. Insurtech Research & Mortality Modeling: Life Insurance & Wearable Technology: The Wearables Bridge, MassMutual, (2022-2023)

    • Analyzed the predictive value of accelerometer and biological lab data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in random survival forest (Ishwaran et al., 2008) driven mortality modeling using R, Python, and SQL.
    • Generated personalized reports that featured mortality risk stratification, cohort focused mortality risk comparisons, survival probability via Shapley contributions, and gamified physical activity milestones to explore client-facing mortality modeling engagement.
    • Established the baseline and direction for future wearable technology oriented analysis and exploration.

    Overview:

    This work utilized random survival forest (RSF) models informed by wearable device derived accelerometry, laboratory data, and survey-derived information to assess individual mortality risk via personalized client reports. These data originated from the publicly available 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 waves of the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The client reports included risk stratification, cohort comparisons, survival probability via Shapley contributions, and gamified milestones based on physical activity data. It was hypothesized that the use of accelerometry data in conjunction with biological lab data would add significant predictive value (measured by the c-index). The inclusion of such data however, did not improve model performance. Despite this, the availability of modern wearable technology provides potential for richer data sources beyond NHANES accelerometry data. Future work will explore additional data to better capture individual health and wellness for mortality modeling.

  1. Insurtech Research: Life Insurance & Wearable Technology: Wearables in the Life Insurance Formula, MassMutual, 2021

    • Investigated health and wellness informed by wearable technology from the perspective of insurtech—the crossroads of insurance and technology—to explore how health and wellness data can supplement life insurance underwriting processes and produce new avenues for obtaining life insurance.

    Overview:

    Wearable technology, from brands like Fitbit, Apple, Samsung, and Garmin, offer consumers advanced health and wellness tracking in accessible devices. As the industry evolves, the data they track will increasingly become more sophisticated and accurate across day to day physical activities. This project explores how leveraging health and wellness data from wearable devices can enhance risk assessment for life insurance companies—leading to improved accuracy, reduced risk, and more equitable, accessible products for healthy and active customers.

  1. Mortality Modeling: Standardizing Time Series Lab Data, MassMutual, 2020

    • Implemented generalized additive model (Wood et al., 2017) based standardization and lab data processing adjustments to improve risk class recommendations, minimize age-related biases, remove data drift, and handle changesets using R.
    • Addressed the detrimental impact of temporal data drift and changesets to improve downstream mortality modeling.

    Overview:

    The underlying data used by survival models can unintentionally encode information that impacts modeling outcomes over time. In time series lab data, information is naturally encoded as medical treatments improve, prescription recommendations change, and health overall—throughout age groups—fluctuate over an observed period. Mortality models that use such data are sensitive to data drift caused by these gradual changes. And changesets (man-caused artifacts or natural, but sudden, shifts in a time series) that occur during an observed period can also influence survival modeling detrimentally. Ultimately, accounting for data drift and changesets via standardization acts as a corrective mechanism that counteracts static model assumptions to improve survival modeling outcomes over time.

  1. Undergraduate Honors Thesis: Step Count and Intensity in Virtual Reality (VR) Exergaming & Traditional Physical Activity (PA), University of Massachusetts Amherst, (2018 - 2019)

    • Developed award-winning research that analyzed step count and step intensity differences between virtual reality (VR) exergaming and traditional physical activity. VR exergaming consists of gamified exercising paired with VR; traditional PA is what one can carry out in a typical gym.
    • Demonstrated how exergaming with compelling entertainment technology like VR headsets and handheld controllers can be used to foster meaningfully engaging and productive physical activity among six college-age study participants.

    Abstract:

    It is commonly known that physical activity (PA) is beneficial to health. Unfortunately, despite the apparent benefits, obtaining consistent and adequate PA is not feasible for all people. Fortunately, a burgeoning alternative option is virtual reality (VR) exergaming (i.e. gamified exercising). It is often conducted with VR and/or modified exercise equipment. It can be done in short bouts at the user’s convenience and the necessary technology is accessible. Data produced by six recruited study participants showed that VR exergaming elicits PA that is less intense compared to traditional PA in terms of step count and step intensity. Additionally, subjective data showed that VR exergaming is more enjoyable than traditional PA for some. Ultimately, although VR exergaming is not as intense, it is far more enjoyable and can supplement PA needs alongside traditional PA.

    Thesis Video Overviews:

    • #MyHonorsThesis
      • The #MyHonorsThesis competition requested that participants to submit a 45 second clip that described their research.
      • My thesis was selected as the winner and has been used to showcase the standard for honors thesis research.
    • W.E.B Du Bois Library Digital Media Lab (DML) Virtual Reality (VR) Competition
      • The DML VR Competition prompted participants to envision how VR can be meaningfully used in their research.
      • My thesis was selected as the winner and I was awarded a VR headset.

    Thesis Presentations:

    • Invited Speaker: The VR/AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality) Working Group, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2019

      • Presented to active VR and AR stakeholders, professionals, and investors to demonstrate how exergaming could be used to engage in novel physical activity via VR and AR driven means.

    • Poster Presentation: Mass. Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC), University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2019

      • Engaged with hundreds of students and educators alike to showcase the benefit of using VR exergaming in conjunction with traditional physical activity.

    • Invited Poster: Research Art Science Exhibition (RASE), University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2019

      • Produced artwork to exhibit the beauty of physical activity and health and wellness in the context of virtual reality.
  1. Volunteer Kinesiology Research Assistant, UMass Amherst Physical Activity & Health Lab, (2018-2019)
    • Facilitated data collection, literature reviews, and manuscript writing pertaining to physical activity and sedentary behavior assessment using wearable sensors.
  1. User Experience Design Researcher, Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, (2017 - 2018)
    • Partnered with the ECEP Alliance to produce National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored usability research.
    • Implemented human-centered design approach to create an accessible website for ECEP Alliance members throughout the United States.
  1. Evolutionary Genomics Research Assistant Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst, (2016 - 2018)
    • Conducted high-throughput computing analysis on hippocampus genes of a deceased ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).
    • Carried out gene ontology (GO) and enrichment analysis on human and primate (Pan troglodyte) genes.
    • Leveraged R programming to support data analysis and processing efforts.
    • Assembled gene transcripts into novel transcriptomes via de novo RNA-seq assembly.
    • Aligned transcriptomes to the human genome to investigate novel transcripts and isoforms using bioinformatics software.

Talks & Presentations

  1. Featured Speaker: Research Brown Bag: “Wearable Tech in the Life Insurance Industry”, University of Massachusetts Amherst (College of Social and Behavioral Sciences), 2021
    • Presented independent research focused on how health and wellness data can supplement life insurance underwriting processes and produce new avenues for obtaining life insurance.
    • Showcased how insurtech i.e. the crossroads of insurance and technology, can transform underwriting and lead to product innovation.
  1. Featured Panelist: NSDC Data Science Career Panel, Northeast Student Data Corps, 2021
    • Discussed strategies focused on how to leverage undergraduate resources and curriculums for a successful career launch upon graduation.
    • Shared my personal journey in data science and how I set and reached my goals.
  1. Poster Presentation: DACSS Homecoming Research Symposium, University of Massachusetts Amherst (College of Social and Behavioral Sciences), 2021
    • Presented independent research that introduced how wearable technology can meaningfully supplement underwriting processes in the near future.
    • Discussed the traditional life insurance process and showcased the areas where wearable technology could be beneficial.
  1. Invited Speaker: MassHire Greater Brockton Workforce Career Panel, 2021
    • Spoke to freshman to college-bound high-school students to help raise awareness about the different types of jobs that are available in the tech industry.
    • Provided data science career insight and job searching strategies.
  1. Featured Speaker: Navigating the STEM Pipeline: Finding Your Career in a Sea of Opportunity, STEM Ambassadors Program (STEM AP), 2019
    • Organized an event to support undergraduate STEM students with career mentorship and job searching strategies.
    • Presented methods for how to best make use of time and resources to prepare for prospective careers during school and after graduation.
    • Participated in a panel of professionals to answer submitted questions regarding careers, interviews, and applying for jobs.
  1. Poster Presentation: Using Bioinformatics to Explore Novel Genomes, STEM Ambassadors Program (STEM AP), 2017
    • Presented independent computational biology research on the Black lemur (Eulemur macaco flavifons).
    • Showcased the uses and benefits of cutting-edge bioinformatics tools.
  1. Poster Presentation: Facilitating Expanding Computing and Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance Collaboration, REUMass, 2017
    • Presented usability research that resulted in an accessible and functional website for the ECEP Alliance.
    • Developed human-centered design approach to incorporate the varied perspectives, opinions and needs of stakeholders.

Honors, Awards, & Recognition

  1. MassMutual
    • 1st Place in Generative AI Hackathon (2023)
      • Led a team to first place in a GenAI focused hackathon throughout ideation, development, and presentation phases to demonstrate the utility of GenAI technology at MassMutual.
      • Collaborated closely with team members across timezones to implement GenAI components, coordinate contributions, and ensure effective communication during the hackathon period.
  1. College of Information & Computer Sciences (CICS)
    • CICS Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Award recipient (2019)
      • This award is the highest honor that CICS undergraduates can receive. It recognizes the commitment of serving one’s peers, the university, and the community.
    • CICS Leadership Certificate for Excellence in Peer Mentorship recipient (2019)
      • This award recognizes leadership and one’s commitment to serving their peers and uplifting their development via mentorship.
  1. Commonwealth Honors College (CHC)
  1. CHC Honors Thesis: Step Count and Intensity in Virtual Reality Exergaming and Traditional Physical Activity (additional details in Honors, Awards, & Recognition under Honors Thesis)
    • CHC Honors Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2019)
      • This award recognized my cutting-edge CHC Honors Thesis for demonstrating excellence in research.
    • UMass Magazine: Seen
      • I had the opportunity to be featured in the printed and online versions of UMass Magazine’s Seen series for my honors thesis work.
    • #MyHonorsThesis (1)
      • The #MyHonorsThesis competition requested that participants to submit a 45 second clip that described their research.
      • My thesis was selected as the winner and has been used to showcase the standard for honors thesis research.
    • W.E.B Du Bois Library Digital Media Lab (DML) Virtual Reality (VR) Competition (1, 2)
      • The DML VR Competition prompted participants to envision how VR can be meaningfully used in their research.
      • My thesis was selected as the winner and I was awarded a VR headset.
    • W.E.B Du Bois Library DML Honors Thesis Collaboration
      • The W.E.B Du Bois Library formally recognized the collaboration I established with the DML to carry out my honors thesis.

Community Development & Engagement

  • Alumni Mentorship Program (AMP) volunteer, University of Massachusetts Amherst, (2023 - Present)
    • Connects with a undergraduate and graduate students to provide career mentorship and job searching strategies.
  • Peer Mentor, (2018 - Present)
    • Readily supports rising students and peers interested in pursuing computational careers with career guidance.
  • STEM Ambassador Graduate Mentor, STEM Ambassadors Program (STEM AP), (2015 - 2022)
    • Provided STEM peers with support to ensure their academic progress and future goals were on track.
    • Promoted STEM outreach to encourage students to consider majors and careers in STEM.
    • Cultivated STEM peer networks by developing workshops and community building activities focused on professional development and meaningful STEM involvement.
    • Presented research to engage students and make them aware of research opportunities.
  • Invited Speaker, MassHire Greater Brockton Workforce Career Panel, 2021
    • Spoke to freshman to college-bound high-school students to help raise awareness about the different types of jobs that are available in the tech industry.
    • Provided data science career insight and job searching strategies.
  • Hackathon Judge, HackHolyoke, 2021
    • Judged HackHolyoke hackathon submissions for the “Best Use of Data” award sponsored by MassMutual.
  • Professional Recruitment @ AFROTECH World, AFROTECH Conference, (2020-2021)
    • Engaged with STEM professionals and students interested in applying to data science positions at MassMutual.
    • Connected candidates with resources and recruiters that resonated with their career goals.
    • Organized a panel of professionals to interact with prospective candidates.
  • Hackathon Volunteer, HackHer 413, (2019-2020)
    • Volunteered to support HackHer 413 hackathon staff with set-up, clean-up, and event operations.
    • Engaged with undergraduate hackathon participants interested in pursuing data science careers.
    • Reviewed resumes and provided feedback to students applying to internships and full-time opportunities.
    • Conducted tabling sessions to inform and answer data science career questions from prospective students, educators, parents, and other stakeholders.
  • Event Organizer & Host, The STEM Ambassadors Program “Ask Me Anything” Event, STEM Ambassadors Program (STEM AP), 2019
    • Led the organization of a university-wide networking event to foster connections between undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and STEM professionals working throughout computational career pathways.
    • Facilitated Q&A sessions to encourage STEM students to consider potential opportunities that resonate with them and ultimately, pursue computational careers academically and professionally.
    • Showcased the broad variety of computational careers that STEM professionals can pursue.
  • HackUMass Volunteer, HackUMass, 2019
    • Engaged with undergraduate hackathon participants interested in pursuing data science careers.
  • Information Technology Student Advisory Committee Member, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2018-2019
    • Collaborated with IT administrators and student peers to discuss and implement solutions to serve salient campus community needs.
    • Proposed ideas to positively impact and engage network stakeholders via campaigns.
  • Student Representative, The Massachusetts STEM Summit, 2018
    • Represented the informatics major at a state-wide conference focused on STEM Education in Massachusetts.
    • Bolstered awareness of the informatics major’s multi-disciplinary curriculum and career opportunities among STEM stakeholders including educators, rising students, parents and education investors.
  • Student Representative, The Massachusetts STEM Summit, 2018
    • Represented the informatics major at a state-wide conference focused on STEM Education in Massachusetts.
    • Bolstered awareness of the informatics major’s multi-disciplinary curriculum and career opportunities among STEM stakeholders including educators, rising students, parents and education investors.
  • Volunteer Speaker, University of Massachusetts Amherst Majors Fair, 2018
    • Disseminated information about the informatics major, its multi-disciplinary curriculum, and relevant career opportunities to galvanize awareness and interest in computing among prospective students.
  • Student Representative, Computer Science Education Week, 2018
    • Represented the informatics major during Computer Science Education Week, an annual event meant to celebrate and foster increased participation in computer science and computing-oriented fields.