(US and Canada) Jennifer Bachner, Director, Data Analytics and Policy Program, The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), speaks with Michael C. Fillios, Founder & CEO, IT Ally, about preparing students for opportunities, transformation for SMEs, and congressional redistricting.

Bachner says that students with a substantive area of interest or expertise are best prepared to do well in their careers. She mentions that students taking the courses at JHU become experts at using a variety of sophisticated statistical techniques and can apply the most appropriate method to a particular policy or governance challenge. They also have a passion for solving real-world problems and for analytics. 

It’s impossible to conduct a strong analysis without a firm understanding of the issues at hand, adds Bachner. She encourages her students to continue developing their knowledge while in the program so that they can use it to make good judgments when performing analytics.

Bachner goes on to share advice for small businesses on their approach to using data to prepare and grow their business for the future. She highlights four key suggestions:

• Create an enterprise analytic strategy. 

• Implement self-service models. 

• Focus on communication when developing their analytic teams. 

• Start thinking about how they can leverage AI and machine learning tools in the future. 

She also advises organization leaders to think about new approaches to education and training for their staff in the area of data literacy.

Speaking on using data and analytics to inform congressional redistricting, Bachner mentions that among the key challenges is agreeing on a criterion for defining a good versus a bad congressional district.