The Basics
The following section of this introduction will provide the basics on, well me!
Early Life
I grew up in a small town in Northwest Indiana. I was the first person in my family to be born outside of Illinois. My family is predominantly from the South side of Chicago and southern Chicago suburbs. If you listen closely, you can really hear the nasally tone in my voice. Thanks Aunt Pam! I can confirm, I am one of the biggest and most loyal Bears fan you might ever meet. In fact, I placed a $20 bet for them to win the Superbowl this year.
My Only Hobby
Throughout college, I competed on the UIndy women’s golf team. Although I did suck my first few years, my last was truly the best. One of my last picture captured as a Hound was after the completion of the stroke play portion of our National Championship…
Playing golf taught me valuable life lessons that extend far beyond hitting fairways and greens. It instilled in me discipline, patience, and perseverance as I honed my skills and worked tirelessly to improve. I used to spend 8 hours on the golf course during the summer months, while also working full-time. Hence, golf also taught me the importance of time management, as balancing academics and sports required meticulous planning and organization.
Golf has made up such a large portion of both my personality and my life giving it up has been difficult. I used to have aspirations to become a professional, but the expense. As an “analytical” thinker, the calculated probability - cost ratio was a little off.
Life Outside of Golf
Academia
As mentioned previously, I attended the University of Indianapolis for my undergraduate. Although I finished with a major in Actuarial Science and minor in Finance, I was truly all over the place. I came in as a freshman with the intent to go to med-school and become a pediatric surgeon. After a single year, I realized that I hated studying for all of my science classes, but I loved MATH. It was the one subject I could sit in the library for hours on end and not realize how much time had passed. Thus, I made the switch. After a year, I thought, wow I should be a lawyer. I added a Political Science minor and a Finance major. This passion only lasted about 2 months. Again, quickly pivoting back to mathematics.
Professional
Industry Life
Before securing my current full-time role, I had a background in the service industry. Undoubtedly, this experience played a pivotal role in helping me overcome my profound shyness. My journey began at the age of 16 when I joined the team as a busser at a local restaurant, Lucrezia Cafe. This fine dining establishment, with its unique charm, required us to don rather unconventional uniforms – tuxedos that could only be described as literally the ugliest thing I have ever worn, sourced from none other than Hobby Lobby.
Following my 4 year bussing career, I began serving tables at a organic breakfast restaurant that was also in my hometown. My most recent and hopefully my last serving job was at Pier 48, a WOMAN owned and operated establishment in downtown Indianapolis. Definitely recommend if you have not been!
Career
I began my professional career this summer has a healthcare data analyst intern for Milliman. Milliman is a global actuarial consulting firm, but is approaching new fields within healthcare analytics in the Indianapolis office. This summer I had the privilege of working with Milliman’s Illinois Medicaid team. I was introduced the complexities within the system and performed numerous cost analysis on the overall program. My primary project that stretched the course of the summer dealt with prescription drug repricing. I summarized and extracted the data fields needed in SQL and then extensively analyzed said data in excel. The idea was to determine whether managed care organizations were utilizing higher cost NDCs. Which let me just say was much more complex, then one would think, wow.
After completion of the internship in July, I was offered a full-time position as an analyst and I accpeted. I was moved to the Indiana medicaid team for additional training. Surprisingly, I like this team more than the previous, which I did not think was possible. #grateful. The ultimate goal is to transition into an actuarial roll after passing SOA exams. Right now, we are developing capitation rates for a new program for aged people enrolled in medicaid called Pathways. Essentially, nearly all LTSS (long-term services and support) were paid FFS, directly by the state. Now, these recipients will be members of a Managed Care Program, the idea is to cut costs, but also provide an additional level of care that is lacking currently.
Software Familiarity
R
Throughout my undergraduate degree, I primarily utilized R for statistical modeling, evaluation, and data visualization. Generally speaking, I can normally accomplish most tasks within R, but will have to use outside sources because I am forgetful of the syntax.I completed numerous applied projects, thanks to Dr. Rafique. He was one of few professors at UIndy that I feel prepared me for higher education and also a professional career.
SQL
Nearly all data manipulation and cleaning in my current role is performed in SQL with additional analysis completed in excel. We do use an unusual version of sql.. Teredata. We utilize a database that is directly through the state, meaning we have access to all data necessary, but it is a slow operating system, very slow.
During my internship, I utilized spark SQL, although similar, it is ran on a cloud based server through Databricks, and is very fast. Previously, the final model for capitation rates would take up to 48 hours to run, and occasionally error out due to a lack of space on the internal drive. In Databricks, this code now takes a maximum of 1 hour.