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Meet OurTeam

We provide outstanding data science training programs to help individuals and businesses gain in-demand skills. Meet the talented people who make this possible.

Roberto Reif

Executive Director of Data Science
Global

Roberto is a scientist with a strong background in data analysis and image/signal processing.

Roberto comes to Metis from Sensoria Inc., where he led the signal processing team. He has worked in applications in the healthcare, internet of things, and business intelligence markets. He received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, and has co-authored several scientific publications, book chapters, and patents. He enjoys hiking and soccer.

Check out content by and/or featuring Roberto:

Talk: Visualization: Simplified

Article: Displaying Images in Tableau (with some help from Python)

Article: What can ordering pizza teach us about good visualizations?

Kimberly Fessel

Director of Data Science
New York City

Kimberly uses her background in applied math to discover data's what, why, and how.

Kimberly joins Metis from MRM//McCann, a leading digital advertising agency, where she focused on helping clients understand their customers by leveraging unstructured data with modern NLP techniques.  She is passionate about data storytelling and the power of compelling data visualizations to challenge pre-conceived assumptions.  Kimberly's enthusiasm for teaching comes from her days as an academic.  She holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in math biology at the Ohio State University.  In her spare time, Kimberly likes to stay active and particularly enjoys swing dancing, rollerblading, and jogging with her dog.

Check out content by Kim:

Blog

Video: Intro to Seaborn Series

Video: Math for Data Science Webinar with Course Report

Video: Tutorial: Kimberly Fessel - It's Officially Legal so Let's Scrape the Web

Article: Measuring Statistical Dispersion with the Gini Coefficient

Podcast: The Real Python Podcast, Episode 12: Web Scraping in Python: Tools, Techniques, and Legality

Talk: "Great Scott! Delorean for Datetime Manipulation in Python" - PyOhio 2020

Richard Chiou

Data Scientist
San Francisco

As a former teacher assistant for several courses at Columbia, Richard is excited to share his knowledge of data science, academic and industrial, with aspiring data scientists of all backgrounds.

Richard Chiou holds a BA in Computer Science and Economics-Mathematics from Columbia University and a Master of Engineering degree in Data Science and Systems from UC Berkeley. He joins Metis from Signifyd, where he worked on machine learning models for online e-commerce fraud prevention. In his spare time, he is a board game enthusiast, a frequent escape room artist, and an intrepid traveler who seeks to uncover the mysteries and pleasant surprises hidden in life.

Leon Johnson

Data Scientist
San Francisco

Leon is a creative deep thinker who has made it his mission to bridge the gap between application and aesthetic in data science.

After serving six years in the Air Force as a data analyst and then ROTC instructor, Leon decided it was time to move on, and he began his data science career in New York City. He is a graduate of the Metis program, and holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mathematics from Purdue University and Texas A&M University, respectively. He has volunteered as a machine learning research assistant at Rutgers University - Newark, and spent the last few years working in the burgeoning tech space in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he built sales estimation models and unsupervised optimization algorithms for small companies. As a data scientist, he is passionate about designing interactive visualizations to demystify esoteric concepts and communicate hidden insights. Leon is an avid musician and active composer who loves to write music and do philosophy.

Brian McGarry

Data Scientist
Chicago

Brian joins Metis from Flatiron School where he was a data science instructor and curriculum developer.

Before Flatiron he worked at Seattle Gymnastics Academy on customer segmentation and geographic analysis problems.  His main interests in Data Science are interpretability and bayesian statistics. He received his BS in Chemistry and BA in Philosophy from the University of Vermont. When not working Brian enjoys doing gymnastics, camping, and reading books.

Rita Biagioli

Data Scientist
Global

Rita loves diving into difficult analytical problems and seeks to uncover insights about the world, making conceptual and practical sense of ambiguity.

Rita holds a PhD and master's in cultural psychology and psychological anthropology and a master’s in history of religions, both from UChicago, and a BA in psychology from Northwestern. In 10+ years as a researcher, analyst, and teacher of research skills, she's taught subjects ranging from writing to power in organizations to data analytics. She has worked in market research strategy consulting and in consultative research and design positions in UChicago’s Provost’s Office and Booth School of Business. A Metis bootcamp grad, Rita is always looking for the best method to solve a problem, which is what brought her to data science. She's particularly excited about NLP, data visualization and storytelling, and statistics, but given enough time, she finds pretty much everything interesting. When she isn't wrangling data, she is probably making art, baking, traveling, or reading philosophy.

Brian Spiering

Data Scientist
Global

Brian is a passionate data science educator who blends best practices from academia and industry to deliver cutting-edge curriculum.

Brian has been a professional coder for 20+ years and has been an instructor of computer science, software engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) for 6+ years. He has taught in a wide variety of settings, including bootcamps and traditional academic programs. His teaching style is rooted in his psychology and neuroscience background. When Brian is not teaching, he gives back to the tech community through volunteering and mentoring.

Amy Ramnath

Director of Admissions
Global

Amy is dedicated to creating meaningful relationships with students as they navigate through the Admissions process and beyond.

With over eight years in higher education, Amy is passionate about developing an engaging and effective Admissions process, while using data to gain insights and drive decision-making. She is lauded for her ability to work cross-functionally and her focus on customer service. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring New York City and spending time with her two dogs.

Check out content by and/or featuring Amy:

Article: How to Get into the Metis Data Science Bootcamp (CourseReport)

Nathan Vermeiren

Admissions Advisor
Global

Nathan is passionate about the student experience and new trends in continuing education.

Nathan builds relationships and nurtures them while helping students along in the Admissions process. Nathan started with Metis helping build their data science community in Chicago, where he lives. He helped build on Metis’ already established nationwide tech network and is now working to engage an effective Admissions process. He previously built bilingual English/Spanish communities for over five years at a language events for a start-up company in both Argentina and Spain. Nathan is a Louisiana State University graduate whose passion is traveling the world.

Jennifer Raimone

Director of Career and Student Support
Global

Jennifer enjoys creating individualized career plans designed to breakdown the job search process and distinguish you from your competition.

Jennifer comes to Metis with close to 8 years of experience in career development. Her tenure at TheLadders included managing a team of sourcers dedicated to connecting talent with employers. With a double certification in Career Coaching and Resume Writing coupled with a keen sense of the recruitment process, Jennifer is eager to share her experience and knowledge on how to successful gain employment. Jennifer has her BA in English and Language Arts. During her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and dancing with her husband and new baby boy.

Ashley Gitar

Senior Career Advisor
Global

Ashley is a passionate Senior Career Advisor who enjoys helping job seekers realize their full professional potentials and assisting them with finding their dream careers.

Ashley has 5 years of experience as an employment professional. She started her career as a technical recruiter, and most recently worked at DeVry University as a Career Advisor supporting the technical programs. Working in both a recruiting and advising capacity has given her a strong understanding of the recruitment process and what employers seek in a quality candidate, especially in the technical industry. Ashley is excited to be a founding member of the Chicago Metis team. She can't wait to get started working with students and graduates to assist them with identifying what they want out of a career and helping them find the career they are looking for. Outside of work Ashley enjoys staying active through rec sports and running, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and traveling.

Check out content by and/or featuring Ashley:

Talk: Data Science Job Search 101 #ProTips

Podcast: Tech Scene Chicago

Talk: Data Science Job Search 101 #ProTips (ChickTech Act-W Conference)

Leah Nicolai

Director of Program Operations
Global

Leah is passionate about connecting to people and helping them achieve their educational goals.

Leah started her career first managing a children's enrichment center and then in the finance world, before joining Kaplan Test Prep in 2012 and transitioning full-time to Metis in 2014. After overseeing the NY location as Program Manager and additionally Metis' other locations and Program Managers, she moved into her Director role in March of 2017. She also acts as Designated School Official for our M-1 visa assistance and School Director for NY BPSS. Leah graduated with a degree in Art History and Spanish and in her spare time she enjoys any craft-based project, traveling, hiking and Jeopardy.

Jesel Roosevelt

Program Manager
New York City

Jesel enjoys using every possible resource to help others recognize their talents and improve their outcome for success.

Prior to joining Metis, Jesel previously worked in non profit and healthcare settings cultivating relationships and increasing engagement to shape culture and drive business goals. Jesel has a Master's degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and her days off will usually include looking for a sunny spot to relax and meditate.

Jaclyn Hanley

Marketing Manager
Global

Jaclyn is passionate about marketing and communications and enjoys developing creative campaigns to build brand awareness. 

She comes to Metis with over 10 years of experience in the education and technology sectors where she's generated digital, PR, and print campaigns. She holds an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University and a BA in Communications from The Ohio State University. During her free time she enjoys hiking, cooking and spending time with her husband and three young children.

Pradeep Narava

Lead Engineer
Global

Pradeep believes technology can make your life happy with less coding skills and rapid fast development.

For almost 14 years, Pradeep has worked in Information Technology, including working with more than 500 startups on various projects across EdTech, E-Commerce, FinTech, Travel, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Video Streaming, Video Telephony, Marketing, APIs, Payment Gateways, Mobile Apps and more. He has founded three startups in the past and has a patent for inventing a Portable Electric Scooter, which launched in India. Pradeep holds a Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Borås in Sweden. Beyond his many accomplishments, Pradeep believes a smile is the driving force to make people bring more energy and to know more about a person. He believes technology can make your life happy with less coding skills and rapid fast development. His passions include architecting and building applications from scratch, travel, food, nature, and mingling with open-minded people from different cultures.

Menachem Aber

Software Engineer

Hailing from Australia, Menachem (pronounced men·nah·khem) spent the last few years in the States studying and working in tech. You might not hear his Aussie accent, but he'll assure you it's still there. As a bootcamp graduate himself, he went on to do engineering for companies in the medical and not-for-profit fundraising sectors. He's an avid soccer fan, and loves playing piano, reading and travelling.

Susan Sun

Instructor

Her expertise is in data-related training and education, conscientious application of data science for business, and data consulting for social change.

Susan Sun, a part-time Metis instructor, is a freelance data scientist. Susan works in a variety of fields, from academia to industry, corporate to nonprofit, including notable data leaders like New York Times, Google, CUNY, Columbia University, and DataKind. Susan holds a Masters in Statistics at Columbia University and a Bachelors in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School.

Kevin Chiv

Instructor

Kevin is a data scientist with a background in physics and programming, currently working on full-stack data at Doximity.

Kevin has a formal background in physics and programming from UC Berkeley. For three years, he built data pipelines for interdisciplinary research labs on and off campus. He previously attended the Metis Data Science Bootcamp in San Francisco and then served as a teaching assistant for three cohorts. He currently works on full-stack data at Doximity while freelancing as a data science consultant.

Alison Cossette

Instructor

Alison is a Director of Data Science in Research and Development at the NPD Group, a global Market Research firm.

At NPD, Alison leads Data Science projects focusing on classification, data imputation, customer segmentation.  She is also repsonsible for analyzing and integrating third party data sources that support modeling initiatives for NPD's omni-channel product, Checkout.  Alison previously was a Data Scientist in the Healthcare industry after transitioning from a 10 year career in clinical care of Oncology patients.    Throughout her medical and analytics experience, Alison has consistenly been an educator and mentor including teaching positions at The University of Vermont Medical Center, The Swedish Institute of Allied Health Sciences and Northeastern University.  Alison's Masters' studies in Data Science were completed through Northwestern University and is a proud Alum of Metis' Data Science Bootcamp.  She lives in Vermont with her husband, 2 young boys and an energetic Chocolate Lab named "Gracie".  

Sergey Fogelson

Instructor

Sergey Fogelson is the Vice President of Analytics and Measurement Sciences at Viacom.

Sergey began his career as an academic at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he researched the neural bases of visual category learning and obtained his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience. After leaving academia, Sergey got into the rapidly growing startup scene in the NYC metro area, where he has worked as a data scientist in alternative energy analytics, digital advertising, cybersecurity, finance, and media. He is heavily involved in the NYC-area teaching community and has taught courses at various bootcamps, and has been a volunteer teacher in computer science through TEALSK12. When Sergey is not working or teaching, he is probably hiking. (He thru-hiked the Appalachian trail before graduate school).

Heather Hardway

Instructor

Heather is a Data Scientist at iHeartMedia.

Heather started her career studying mathematics, specializing in modeling applications to biological systems. After receiving a PhD and leaving academia, she transitioned to data science, working in a variety of industries, including finance, consulting, retail, and government. Getting back to her roots, she enjoys combining her love teaching mathematics with her experience of applying data science to real-world problems.

Anastassia Kornilova

Instructor

Anastassia is currently a Research Scientist at FiscalNote.

As a research scientist, Anastassia uses Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to create insights from legislative and regulatory data. Over her four and a half year tenure, Anastassia has run a number of projects ranging from forecasting if legislation will pass to identifying key words and topics in text. In addition to building platform features, Anastassia has authored several papers for top-tier Natural Language Processing. Previously, she received a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She loves to spend her free time outside, hiking, climbing and skiing.

Julia Lintern

Instructor

Julia, a Metis data science instructor, loves using data to study and explore phenomena.

Julia is a Data Scientist at The New York Times after having spent the previous 3+ years as a Metis Data Science Bootcamp instructor. She combines her love of mathematical modeling and theory with her data science skill-set. She developed this breadth of knowledge teaching both theoretical math as well as practical engineering and has a unique ability to combine disparate techniques in order to develop creative solutions to business problems. Curious, autonomous, hardworking, outgoing, and balanced, Julia also studies improv and dance in her free time.

Samiyeh Mahmoudian

Instructor

Samiyeh (Sami) is currently a Senior Data Scientist with Intertrust, where she works on industry-leading machine learning algorithms in IOT to optimize the operation of the “vertical industry,” such as energy and insurance.

With her teaching experience and knowledge, Sami is leading the Data Science internship program for Interturst. Sami has a doctorate in Theoretical Physics from Florida State University and the National Hight Magnetic Field Laboratory. During her PhD, she worked on advanced statistical analysis to understand the nature of disordered systems—such as glasses. Prior to joining Intertrust, she was an adjunct lecturer at San Francisco State University. Teaching is her passion and she enjoys sharing her experiences with anyone willing to learn.

Don Perkus

Instructor

Don is a Senior Data Scientist at Insulet, a medical device company.

Don started out as a Software Developer and Manager.  Then after working as a Program Manager for several years at MathWorks, he decided to move his career back in a more technical direction. He attended Metis' Data Science Bootcamp in fall of 2015 and has been working as a Data Scientist since then.  Don also enjoys teaching and mentoring.  He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from Boston University, and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Dimitri Theoharatos

Instructor

Currently, Dimitri applies advanced statistical and machine learning modeling techniques at Scribd, a subscription service for ebooks and audiobooks.

Dimitri received both a BS and MS in electrical engineering with an emphasis in signal processing from Arizona State University.  While integrating deep learning algorithms and analyzing their performance at Intel in Phoenix for 3 years, he decided to make the jump into data science and attended the Metis Data Science Bootcamp in San Francisco before joining Scribd. In his free time, Dimitri enjoys tennis, guitar, reading, taking courses, and sharing his knowledge with others.

Lisa VanderVoort

Instructor

Lisa is currently an Associate Data Scientist at US Foods. 

At US Foods, Lisa works on the forecasting team, helping to engineer and develop time series analyses to support internal business partners.  Prior to her work as a data scientist, Lisa was a high performing and award winning math teacher and administrator in Chicago. Lisa is passionate about making complex things easy to understand.  She has a BS in Mathematics and Psychology from St. Lawrence University, and a MAT in Secondary Mathematics Education from National Louis University.  She is a proud alumnus of the Metis Chicago Bootcamp. In her free time, Lisa enjoys reading, baking, and spending time with her husband and cat.

Joan Wang

Instructor

Joan is a data scientist who specializes in the intersection of data, policy, and society.

Joan comes to Metis from Omelas, where she built machine learning models and data pipelines that map the online information environment around geopolitical actors. She used data analytics to explore challenging policy questions about digital technologies at the Urban Institute and EducationSuperHighway. Prior to her transition into data science, Joan worked with PwC Forensics Advisory to serve technology firms in the Bay Area. Joan received her M.S. in Computational Analysis and Public Policy from the University of Chicago and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, with B.A.’s in Economics and Operations Research & Management Science.

Check out content by and/or featuring Joan:

Workshop: One Hour at Bootcamp: Classification and Regression Trees (CART) Workshop

Adam Wearne

Instructor

Adam is passionate about teaching and is excited to share his industry experiences with students.

With a background in physics and quantitative finance, Adam has applied data science and machine learning solutions in a wide variety of research settings ranging from recognizing and clustering behavioral patterns to applying natural language processing techniques to help build superior equity portfolios. Previously a Senior Data Scientist at Metis, he is now a Data Scientist at Scribd.

Neer Asherie

Instructor
Neer Asherie is a part-time instructor at Metis. Neer has worked with numerous Metis clients, including teaching data science and machine learning to members of a global consulting agency; and delivering data science and analysis skills training to a boutique consulting firm. He is a professor of physics at Yeshiva University where his research focuses on experimental and computational biophysics. Neer holds a bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences (Physical) from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark Fenner

Instructor
Mark Fenner is a part-time instructor at Metis. Mark has delivered training to top-tier financial companies and boutique consultancies.  He has developed curriculum in deep learning and computer vision for Fortune 50 clients. Mark earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh while specializing in artificial intelligence.  He also has a graduate degree in mathematics. Mark has been teaching these subjects to varied academic and corporate audiences for 20 years. Mark works across the data science spectrum from C, Fortran, and Python implementation to statistical analysis and visualization. Over the past few years, he has focused on training and curriculum development for the Python data science community.  Most recently, Mark completed a forthcoming Pearson title introducing machine learning to non-specialists.

Brian Lucena

Instructor
Brian Lucena, a part-time Metis instructor, is Principal at Lucena Consulting and a consulting Data Scientist at Agentero. An applied mathematician, he is passionate about applying modern machine learning techniques to understand the world and act upon it. In previous roles he has served as SVP of Analytics at PCCI, Principal Data Scientist at Clover Health, and Chief Mathematician at Guardian Analytics. He has taught at numerous institutions including UC Berkeley, Brown, USF, and the Metis Data Science Bootcamp.

Alex Nathan

Instructor
Alex is co-founder of Aventrix Analytics and an expert in big data analytics and data science. Prior to Aventrix, he received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, where he studied applied and methodological aspects of large-scale machine learning with an emphasis in social networks and marketing. Throughout his academic career he collaborated with large companies, including Viacom, Baxter International, and CME. He also taught numerous courses in analytics. He holds a BS in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from Johns Hopkins University.

Connell Boyle

Sales Director of National Accounts
Connell has 14 years of account development and account management experience at Kaplan that includes K12, corporate and higher education. Starting at Kaplan in 2004, Connell was responsible for creating relationships with human resources managers in charge of development for large groups of employees. This resulted in establishment of on-site Kaplan classroom programs for GMAT and LSAT prep delivered at investment banks, consultancies, technology and law firms across Manhattan.

Connell has also spent time on Kaplan's pre-college team developing relationships in the New York City Department of Education and with school districts around the country to expand access for high school students providing Kaplan Test Prep for SAT and ACT exams.