Speakers:
Crystal Son - Executive Director of Enterprise Data Analytics and AI at Healthcare Service Corporation (HCSC), which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Crystal has 18 years of experience in deriving intelligence from data, first as a technical contributor and now as a leader and organizer of diverse teams. She is passionate about real-world applications of data-driven insights, storytelling through data, and building high-performance teams.
Prior to joining HCSC in October 2022, Crystal held several roles at Civis Analytics, including delivery of data science advisory services, management of healthcare and government customer portfolios, and built and new product launches. In March 2020, she led a private sector + public sector team of academic researchers, data scientists, engineers and communications experts appointed by Gov. JB Pritzker to inform decisionmaking and outreach campaigns during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois. She began her career in data as an epidemiologist first for the City of New York, then with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She now calls downtown Chicago home, where she lives with her spouse and three children.
Mechie Nkengla, PhD, Chief Data Strategist, Data Products LLC
Dr. Mechie Nkengla is the Founder and Chief Data Strategist of Data Products LLC, a data consultancy. A Ph.D. Mathematician, she has extensive experience partnering with industry, academia and government as a strategic advisor to Executive Leadership teams, building strategic roadmaps and tactical plans to ensure optimal use of technology investments. Formerly a director at EY Analytics Center of Excellence, she is a highly experienced data executive and holder of multiple patents. She enjoys hiking, dancing, and eating seafood, not necessarily in that order.
Social media accounts:
Twitter: NMechie; dataproducts
LinkedIn: mechienkengla; /company/data-products-llc
Instagram: dataproductllc