I’ve worked with data and databases for many years. I love data. It’s that simple. Despite how many disparate sources are available and how messy data can be, I believe there are “treasures” to be found – one just has to know how to look for them. The wealth of information that can be obtained by analyzing the data (in context) can be used to help make informed business decisions and drive product direction. Data visualizations can also be used to simplify complex data making it easier to comprehend. The attached diagram is a prototype of a visualization depicting currently available funding based on related discipline keywords. I collected the necessary data, over time. Then my team and I were able to use one of the visualization snippets available from D3 (https://d3js.org) to show which disciplines have the most funding available. Each circle size is an indicator of funding available for the given discipline. The visualization allows the user to drill-down to see the funding available in the related sub-disciplines. This prototype demonstrates how I believe data driven tools and data analysis can be used to improve the customer experience. Our next step is to use the same data set to depict how the funding available per discipline is changing over time. I believe that data, when presented properly, can “tell a story” and prove to be an invaluable tool. I love to learn new techniques and to explore new technologies. I have had the opportunity to use everything from file system databases, to relational databases (Sybase, Postgres) and more recently, NoSQL databases (CouchDB). I have found that no one technology is the solution to everything but that each technology serves a particular need. My desire to continue to learn, to use and explore new technologies and to grow professionally has led me to working toward my M.S. in Data Analytics. I consider myself detail-oriented, analytical and dedicated to customer focus.