Beyond the Statistics Class: Inside the Day-to-Day Work of Data Analysts in Evaluation

Many organizations that are engaged in evaluation have departments or individuals tasked with carrying out quantitative data analysis. Yet, the day-to-day work of these positions often looks different than what we would expect, and can vary substantially depending on the organization's mission and context. 

During this online panel, three data analysts will share details of their work, including:

• The type of analysis tasks that take up most of their time at work
• The skills they rely on the most and the experiences that best prepared them to do their work
• Advice they have for other evaluators who are interested in going a quantitative route with their career 

There will be an opportunity to submit a question ahead of time when you register, and the event will also include a Q&A session at the end.

Presenters:

Walker Bosch – Research Analyst, Wilder Research 

Walker received his master’s degree in public policy, focusing on policy analysis, from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Individualized Studies from the University of Northern Iowa, focusing on economics, education, and political science. Walker has worked at Wilder Research for 9 years on a wide variety of projects, specializing in projects with complex data structures, intense data management, and customized reporting needs. This includes cleaning and restructuring large datasets, managing and working in databases, and creating large sets of production ready tables. He has been trained in the use of Social Network Analysis and also has a firm understanding of statistical procedures such as ANOVA, ANCOVA, and OLS Regression.

Becky Lien - Director of Statistics and Research, 
Professional Data Analysts 

Becky Lien is Director of Statistics and Research at the consulting firm Professional Data Analysts, where she has worked since 2008. Her team is responsible for quantitative analysis supporting both program evaluation and research clients. She enjoys working with colleagues and clients to understand and apply the most appropriate methods for each study. Becky spent the first 12 years of her career in software development. She has extensive statistical programming experience in SAS and SPSS and received her master’s in public health (Epidemiology) from the University of Minnesota.

Kate Diamond – Data Scientist, Minneapolis Public Schools