CDO Magazine celebrates women in data science, machine learning and analytics with our special International Women’s Month Series. Featuring known women data leaders in the industry.

Q. Tell us about your personal journey in the world of data.

I’ve had a Swiss-Army-knife journey when it comes to data. It began with a large-scale data transformation initiative to add structure to narrative, unstructured content. From there, I segued into data architecture, which was all-encompassing for creating conceptual, logical, and physical data models, business glossaries, data mappings, data transformation, and data quality validations for a wide variety of customer-facing legal content across the globe. From there, I branched into data governance and solution architecture, before joining American Express to build a finance data management platform. Having joined enterprise data governance as VP of Data Architecture, I feel like I’m back to my roots!

Q. What advice would you give to women having to handle being the only woman in the room?

Don’t doubt yourself, don’t be afraid to speak up and state your opinions. Despite the commonly accepted stereotype that women talk more than men, there have been multiple studies that show the opposite — men talk more than women, particularly in business settings. Don’t let them talk over you.

Q. Why do you think more women should consider a career in data, analytics, and AI?

These are interesting, challenging, and rewarding disciplines that offer a lot of career growth and avenues to explore, with new jobs being created that weren’t around 20 years ago.

Q: What are some of the biggest strengths that women bring to this field?

Resilience, fortitude, collaboration, and empathy.

Q: While the number of women in data is increasing along with the number of women in CDO roles, what else needs to happen to get more women to the C-suite? Is it more mentoring? More support? Skillset?

I think it goes beyond mentoring, support, and skillset — women need advocacy just to overcome the unconscious bias born out of cultural stereotypes that have been accepted and ingrained for thousands of years.

Q. The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #breakthebias. What’s your perspective on that?

I think most people wouldn’t acknowledge that bias still exists. They need to be reminded of the facts; the Harvard Business Review noted that at large U.S. companies, there are more CEOs named John or David than total number of female CEOs. And it’s not just corporate America; it’s everywhere.

Q. Who have been your most influential mentors and guides throughout your career? What lessons did they teach you to help shape your leadership style today?

I’ve had only two female leaders in my entire career, but I’ve been fortunate to have some male leaders who were great mentors and advocates. However, I find inspiration and influence not just with my own direct leaders but others around me, including peers and direct reports, and historical figures. My leadership style hasn’t been modeled after anyone in particular, but has grown organically based on my own experiences, figuring out what worked for me, and observing people who were truly comfortable with their individuality.

Q. Finally, what words of advice do you have for female data professionals this International Women’s Day 2022?

We’ve come a long way from the first data conference I attended, feeling like a unicorn in the room not just because I was the only woman in many sessions, but because I was very visibly pregnant. We shouldn’t have to be like men to be invaluable contributors, thinkers, and innovators. Be a great advocate for another woman pay it forward.