Hello! I’m Jana (🎵). Between working as a data scientist and running a longform interview series, I spend my days building frameworks for understanding complex questions. The medium changes, but the core principle remains the same: thoughtful inquiry leads to meaningful insight.
I’m an expert in data-rich systems thinking — ask me about my doctoral dissertation and I’ll be glad to tell you all about it. What this means is that I’m trained in using statistical models to analyze complex patterns in human behaviour, from how users act to how companies function. Mostly, I work on unstructured problems that lack a clear definition or straightforward solution.
In the past year, I’ve given a talk at MIT and ranked among the top 10% of my peers in academic excellence. A few other recent professional highlights:
- I’m an award-winning scholar whose research has garnered over a quarter of a million dollars in funding from leading institutions across North America and the UK, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
- I’m the founder of Women of Letters, a longform interview series creating spaces for women’s stories of professional success to be seen, celebrated, and shared.
- I’ve earned a total of four academic degrees, including a PhD in Information Science and two Master’s degrees — an M.S. and an M.A. My expertise extends across disciplines to yield the unique analytical frameworks which characterize my approach.
- I’m the developer of Airtime, an open source Python-based project management tool that uses natural language processing to foster more genuinely collaborative work environments.
- My forthcoming book, co-authored with Miranda Dunham-Hickman, will be published by Routledge.
Working with me accelerates growth. With nearly a decade of experience leading human-centred research, I excel at managing multiple concurrent projects — and, rather than relying on chance, I know how to build systems that create the conditions for success.
You can get in touch with me here and learn more about the kinds of opportunities I’m interested in taking on here.