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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.

Jason Moss

President and Founder
Global

Jason, President and Founder of Metis, aspires to improve everyone's data science skill set.

For almost 20 years, Jason has worked in education. From founding a nonprofit organization in New Orleans to working at companies such as McKinsey & Company, Scholastic, Kaplan, and now Metis (a part of Kaplan), he has sought opportunities to build businesses and work with exceptional teams on creating transformative learning experiences and products.He spends most his time at Metis (1) ensuring the quality of the student experience and outcome; (2) developing the roadmap and building the team to grow the business; and (3) engaging with data scientists around the country with whom Metis can collaborate.He has been married for 12 years and has two kids. In his spare time, he enjoys kickboxing, participating in obstacle courses, and blogging about billiards movies and television shows.

Check out content by and/or featuring Jason:

Article: Congrats, You Finished Your Bootcamp! Now What?

Article: The three leagues of data literacy – and how to play to win 

Video: Going Where the Unicorns Roam - Entering the Field (ODSC West 2015)

Interview: Data Science Bootcamp Founders Interview

Debbie Berebichez

Chief Data Scientist
Global

Debbie, Chief Data Scientist at Metis, uses her "physics glasses" to solve challenging real-world problems and promote critical thinking.

Deborah Berebichez is a physicist, data scientist and TV host. She has expertise in scientific research and advanced analysis and she has helped automate decision-making and uncover patterns in large amounts of data. Her passion lies in merging critical thinking skills with practical coding skills. She specializes in drawing connections between the approaches used in data science and the challenges organizations face. Deborah has a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford and completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University's Applied Math and Physics Department and at NYU's Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences. She is a frequent mentor of young women in STEM. Her work in science education and outreach has been recognized by the Discovery Channel, WSJ, Oprah, Dr. Oz, TED, DLD, WIRED, Ciudad de las Ideas and others.

Check out content by and/or featuring Debbie:

Podcast: Becoming a Data Scientist with Renee Teate

Talk: Keynote Speech at Grace Hopper Celebration 2017

Caryn Pochron

Chief Operating Officer
Global

Caryn enjoys helping students unlock their potential and achieve their goals.

Caryn comes to Metis with over 20 years experience in education, operations, and delivering great student experiences. Caryn began her career in education with Kaplan Test Prep. She held various roles including Regional Director and Executive Director of Classroom Operations where she had the opportunity to help thousands of students get into their top choice colleges and graduate schools. In 2015, Caryn joined Dev Bootcamp where she had the opportunity to help students achieve their dreams to become web developers. She has her business degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Caryn enjoys international travel, experiencing different cuisines, and drinking great wine.

Michael Galvin

Executive Director of Corporate Training
Global

Michael enjoys using data to create new things and solve previously "unsolvable" problems.

Michael oversees the data science training and curriculum development for all of Metis’s corporate clients, including Wells Fargo, Intel, and Fortune 500 companies across industries. He comes to Metis from General Electric where he worked to establish their data science strategy and capabilities for field services and to build solutions supporting Global operations, risk, engineering, sales, and marketing. He also taught data science and machine learning for General Assembly. Prior to GE, Michael spent several years as a data scientist working on problems in credit modeling at Kabbage and corporate travel and procurement at TRX. Michael holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a Master's degree in Computational Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology where he also spent 3 years working on machine learning research problems related to computational biology and bioinformatics. Additionally, Michael spent 12 years in the United States Marine Corps where he held various leadership roles within aviation, logistics, and training units. In his spare time, he enjoys running, traveling, and reading.

Check out content featuring Michael:

Video: Practical Data Science (Accelerate AI West 2018)

Article: How to Break Into the Data Science Industry

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)

Vinny Senguttuvan

Senior Data Scientist
New York City

Vinny, a Metis data science instructor, views data as a facet of perception.

Vinny comes to Metis after leading a team of Data Scientists at High 5 Games. Prior to that he taught Machine Learning at General Assembly and built tools for Animators and Effects Artists at Blue Sky Studios (the company that made Ice Age, Rio and The Peanuts Movie). He has a Masters in Computational Engineering and another in Creative Writing. He enjoys the nexus of mathematics, computer programming, human perception and arts. Over the past three years, Vinny has been knee-deep in large distributed data -- aggregating, building recommendation systems, measuring popularity and predicting Lifetime Value. In that time, he also finished a first draft of his novel. An avid programmer, Vinny has won various programming contests including the Regional ACM Collegiate Programming Contest. He has taught at the University of Miami and has given talks and presentations at various colleges and conferences.

Check out content by and/or featuring Vinny:

Article: The Data Science Pipeline - Analytics Week

Alice Zhao

Senior Data Scientist
Chicago

Alice, a Metis data science instructor, enjoys making complex things easy to understand.

Alice comes to Metis from Cars.com, where she started as the company's first data scientist, supporting multiple functions from Marketing to Technology. During that time, she also co-founded a data science education startup, Best Fit Analytics Workshop, teaching weekend courses to professionals at 1871 in Chicago. Prior to becoming a data scientist, she worked at Redfin as an analyst and at Accenture as a consultant. She has her M.S. in Analytics and B.S. in Electrical Engineering, both from Northwestern University. She blogs about analytics and pop culture on A Dash of Data. Her blog post, "How Text Messages Change From Dating to Marriage" made it onto the front page of Reddit, gaining over half a million views in the first week. She is passionate about teaching and mentoring, and loves using data to tell fun and compelling stories.

Check out content by and/or featuring Alice:

Podcast: Data Science for Beginners (Learn to Code with Me Podcast)

Talk: Support Vector Machines: A Visual Explanation with Sample Python Code

Article: Geek of the Week (GeekWire)

Joe Eddy

Senior Data Scientist
New York City

Joe loves tackling unusual problems with the tools of data science and has a passion for effectively communicating quantitative ideas.

As both a math enthusiast and a former competitive debater, Joe was drawn to data science by its place at the intersection of statistics, computing, and communication. He has worked on projects ranging from quantifying and comparing story plots to building a Bayesian model of human rights abuse rates that accounts for informational bias. Before transitioning into data science, he worked in various data analytics roles, most recently as an Equity Research associate on Credit Suisse's portfolio strategy team. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Columbia University, and is also a Metis alumnus. He currently coaches NYU's parliamentary debate team, and in his free time he enjoys playing piano, reading, and playing board games.

Check out content by Joe:

GitHub Repository

Article: Safety in Numbers: My 18th Place Solution to Porto Seguro’s Kaggle Competition  

Javed Ahmed

Senior Data Scientist
Global

Javed enjoys exploring the intersection of econometrics, traditional analysis, and machine learning to develop useful operational insights.

Javed is an economist and data scientist with experience in banking, finance, forecasting, risk management, consulting, policy, and behavioral economics. He has led development of analytic applications for large organizations including Amazon and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and served as a researcher with the Office of Financial Research (U.S. Treasury). He holds a PhD in financial economics and MA in statistics from U.C. Berkeley, as well as undergraduate degrees in operations management and systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In his spare time, Javed enjoys tennis, squash, and reading.

Kevin Birnbaum

Senior Data Scientist
Global

Kevin comes to Metis from Munchkin, a global baby products company, where, as the first data scientist, he was able to incorporate machine learning, statistical testing and data visualization for marketing and demand planning.

Kevin established the first Data and Analytics team at Munchkin where, as manager, he continued to evolve the company culture by integrating data science into everyday decision making. Kevin went to UC Berkeley where he received his BA in Applied Mathematics and his MS in Information and Data Science. During his free time, Kevin enjoys traveling, soccer, and spending time with friends and family.

Kimberly Fessel

Senior Data Scientist
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

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.

Chris Bruehl

Data Scientist
San Francisco

Chris Bruehl, a Data Science Instructor, enjoys empowering others to turn data and algorithms into clear business results.

Chris has always had a passion for business and mathematics, which led him to his undergraduate degree in Economics at Cal Poly. After working in international supply chain management for several years, he realized the best part of his day was sitting down with a cup of coffee and crunching data, so he returned to school to get his Masters Degree in Analytics at North Carolina State University. He brings 4 years of data science experience in the insurance industry, working on a wide array of projects from customer conversion modeling to fraud detection. In his spare time, he is a dog dad, gamer, and vinyl record hunter.

Joan Wang

Data Scientist
Chicago

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.

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)

Josh Shaman

Senior Admissions Manager
Global

Josh is a career education professional who is passionate about creating meaningful relationships with students and helping them take the next best step in their education and career.

Josh started his career in education by spending nearly 4 years in South Korea as a teacher. After returning from South Korea, Josh launched an online school teaching ESL to business professionals around the world. He also earned his M.Ed. from the University of Cincinnati. After those undertakings, Josh worked at Hack Reactor as an admissions and program manager. He joined Metis at the beginning of 2017 and has been developing innovative programs which help students prepare to apply and creating sincere relationships with students to help them take their skills to the next level.

Check out content by Josh:

Article: Metis Helps Us Understand the Value of a Data Science Bootcamp Education

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 Purdy

Career Advisor
Global

Ashley is a passionate 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.

Caroline Csernus

Program Manager
Chicago

Caroline is passionate about forming meaningful relationships with students and helping them reach their greatest potential.

Caroline comes to Metis with four years of experience providing student support and serving as a Designated School Official to international students. She thrives on providing excellent customer service and creating a comfortable learning environment. Caroline graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from Illinois State University and a Master of Arts in Intercultural Communication from The University of Manchester. She enjoys traveling, animals, and learning about different cultures.

Stephany Bittar

Program Manager
San Francisco

Stephany is a numbers girl with a passion for statistics, social entrepreneurship, and education.

Stephany is an action oriented behavioral economist with a passion for education. She comes to Metis from Florida State, where she earned her degree in Economics with concentrations in Psychology and Math. Her college experience included a run as the youngest Student Body President at a Florida State campus, and she's excited to use her energy and experiences to shape the student experience. Out of the office, you can count on Stephany for a trip to the local bookstore, music venue, or brunch.

Jane Durand

Executive Director of Marketing
Global

Jane is a data-driven marketer committed to growing the Metis student and graduate community.

Jane's passion lies in working with talented teams to implement measurable, integrated marketing plans that make a positive impact on businesses she believes in. She comes to Metis from the digital marketing agency Blue Fountain Media, where she worked as a Marketing Director to create and execute on strategies that addressed clients' brand and business goals. Prior to that she worked as a Senior Marketing Project Manager at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, an online school that certifies health coaches. This was her first exposure to the power of non-traditional education, and she saw its life-changing capacity first-hand. Jane is a graduate of Wake Forest University down south, but is a New Yorker who loves staying active and finding ways to get her hands dirty.

Shaunna Randolph

Marketing Manager (B2B)
Global

Shaunna is a creative and strategic marketer who skillfully translates technical jargon into approachable concepts and compelling stories that inspire people to act. 

Shaunna comes to Metis with extensive B2B marketing experience.  She is skilled at collaborating with cross-functional groups to develop and manage strong and impactful marketing campaigns for both small businesses and Fortune 500 brands. Her experience includes working for companies like Deloitte, Google, Citi and First Data, all helping them convince clients to embrace a new, groundbreaking technology. When she's not finding ways to inspire and educate audiences about emerging technology, you can find Shaunna volunteering for Black Girls Code and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, or running in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Carlos Russo

Marketing Manager (B2C)
Global

Carlos is a creative digital marketer who strives to challenge traditional approaches and spark innovation.

Carlos believes in the power of data and its ability to tell stories. During his career, he’s always advocated for the use of data analysis to influence strategic campaign planning and development. He comes to Metis with a varied background, having worked at two creative agencies and two EdTech SaaS startups during the past seven years. A graduate of CUNY’s Baruch College, with a passion for learning, Carlos continuously seeks out opportunities to grow his skills; Whether that be in marketing, writing, or in the kitchen.

Sophie Searcy

Executive Director of Product
Global

Sophie loves extracting representations and understanding from data and pushing data science to be a more positive and inclusive discipline.

Sophie Searcy comes to Metis from Elektra, a wearable startup that is replacing haptics with electricity. At Elektra she was cofounder and CTO, designing everything from the electronics to the framework for analyzing data. Before that she worked in the CoDaS lab at Rutgers where she combined cognitive science and theoretical computer science to build models of how people and machines teach and learn. She holds masters degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Psychology. She is passionate about teaching, both in theory and in practice, and about making sure that data science is primarily a tool that is used to improve people's lives.

Check out content by and/or featuring Sophie:

Article: Deep Learning from Scratch with Python

Article: A Case for Diversity

Article: Why Data Scientists Should Make a Commitment to Diversity

Alex Bannon

Lead Engineer
Global

Alex is a team-oriented software engineer who enjoys tackling new and interesting problems head-on.

Alex has multiple years of experience building large-scale web and mobile applications for startups in the DC and NY regions. Prior to joining Metis, Alex led on numerous projects at Blackbook and Mobile Posse, creating and maintaining websites that reached tens of millions a day. Most recently, Alex was a consultant in the NYC area helping small-scale organizations establish proper architecture and product management for long-term growth. Outside of work, he enjoys finding the best food spots, running, swimming, and old-school video games.

Kenny Lehr

Full Stack Software Engineer
Global

Kenny is both an eager learner and excited developer that loves to use his skills to transform complex challenges through code.

Kenny is a Cooper Union graduate with over 3 years of mechanical engineering experience in the construction industry. As an engineer, he has collaborated with a variety of teams throughout the NYC area to bring simple solutions to difficult engineering problems. As a developer he strives to think creatively about the projects he works on, and to continuously learn from the ideas he encounters. As a Flatiron School alum, Kenny is especially interested in working with Metis to shape the data science industry. In his free time, Kenny combines his long time love for video and board games with his equal passion for craft beer. 

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".  

Gordon Dri

Instructor

Gordon is currently a Data Scientist with Oracle.

Gordon has also worked in research at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy and Booth School of Business and interned as a quantitative analyst in commercial real estate investment at Magnolia Capital. He has a Master of Science in Analytics from the University of Chicago and a Bachelors of Applied Science and Engineering from the University of Toronto. Gordon thoroughly enjoys teaching and, in addition to course design and teaching at Metis, acted as a Teaching Assistant for Statistical Analysis, Data Mining and Linear and Non Linear Models in the MScA program at the University of Chicago

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).

Nathan Grossman

Instructor

As a former engineer, Nathan enjoys data science because it allows him to apply the mathematical skill set he developed designing algorithms for individual products to optimize the behavior of entire organizations.

Nathan began his career developing signal processing algorithms for wireless communications at Qualcomm. He subsequently worked in data analytics for intellectual property applications, and in data science for telecom applications. Nathan is currently a data scientist at Wells Fargo, working on machine learning for FinTech applications. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, as well as certificates in data science and data analytics from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. When not working, Nathan enjoys skiing, cycling, playing tennis and spending time with his wife and three sons.

Garrett Hoffman

Instructor

Garrett gets most excited about approaching data problems from a people-first perspective – employing empathy for the end user and using what we know or can learn about complex systems to drive optimal experiences and outcomes.

In his current role as Director of Data Science at StockTwits, Garrett leads efforts to use data science and machine learning to understand the network’s social dynamics and develop research and discovery tools that are used by over one million investors. A self-proclaimed “recovering actuary”, he started his career at Xerox, building probabilistic life contingency models for healthcare and retirement plans, designing liability driven asset management strategies and using Monte Carlo techniques to value executive option plans. He holds a BA in Mathematics from the The College of New Jersey and is currently working towards his MS in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also an alumni of the Metis Data Science Bootcamp. When not working Garrett enjoys playing basketball, going to the gym, keeping up with tech news and working through MOOCs to stay on top of the latest development in AI.

Michael Jancsy

Instructor
Remote

Michael is an experienced data scientist and machine learning engineer, currently developing AI-powered iOS apps for musicians at Aleatoric.

Michael has been a data scientist in Silicon Valley since 2011, where he’s worked in a variety of domains, including business analytics, music information retrieval, natural language processing, and computational biology. He is also an experienced instructor of data science, having taught in Galvanize’s data science bootcamp. In 2017, he founded Aleatoric Technologies, which builds AI-powered educational apps for musicians. He earned his BA from the University of Rochester, where he triple-majored in mathematics, economics, and music.

Lara Kattan

Instructor
Lara is a data science educator and curriculum writer. She’s currently developing curriculum for places like the University of Chicago and data science learning startups. She was previously a bootcamp instructor at Metis and was involved in teaching seven cohorts. Metis is where she got introduced to teaching and she’s now hooked. Prior to getting involved in curriculum development, she was a consultant in the risk practice at McKinsey & Co. She has a master’s in public policy with a concentration in econometrics from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Northwestern. She’s a lifelong learner and is pursuing a master’s in Computer Science and one in Math from DePaul University.

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.

Summer Rankin

Instructor

Summer is currently a lead data scientist in the Strategic Innovation Group at Booz Allen Hamilton.

She works on projects that involve a range of techniques including: deep learning, NLP, anomaly detection, and performance measurement. She is the technical lead on Project Shakespeare with Dr. Roselie Bright, an Epidemiologist at the FDA where she is using machine learning and NLP  techniques to identify indicators for adverse events based on free text (notes) from electronic health records.  

She holds a PhD in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and completed a postdoctoral fellowship (5 years) with Charles Limb, MD at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where she studied musical creativity, auditory perception (fMRI) and human coordination with 1/f-type (fractal) auditory signals.

She is a proud Alumnus of the Metis Boot Camp (Chicago) where she learned how to apply and hone her academic skillset to the field of data science.

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.

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 Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer at Bond Financial Technologies, Inc. 

Bobby Hughes

Senior Financial Advisor
Global

Bobby leads the finance and accounting functions for Metis, in part with the greater Kaplan Test Prep finance department. 

After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor's degree in Finance, Bobby worked as a financial analyst at Abercrombie & Fitch in Columbus, OH, in their Financial Planning & Analysis team.  Having worked in the retail sector for several years, he happily joined the Kaplan family in 2017 due to a shared desire of democratizing education across the globe through technology and innovation, and has found great fulfillment doing his part to help Kaplan and Metis improve the careers and lives of others through advanced education and life-long learning.  He works closely with all parts of the Metis team, and in his free time enjoys reading, going to the movies, and performing improvisational comedy in New York City.

Karen Benson

Executive Director of Human Resources
Global

Karen is energized by creating an environment that provides dignity and respect, authenticity and constant learning to empower and inspire employees to do and be their very best.

With more than 20 years of experience in hospitality and education, Karen Benson serves as the Executive Director of Human Resources for Kaplan Test Prep and Metis. Karen is a forward-thinking, non-traditional HR professional with a real passion for operations and technology, with an insatiable enthuthiasm for improving how we work.  Karen thrives in a creative environment where she can build relationships, learn from others and utilize her strategic mindset and diverse skill set to effectively accomplish goals. Karen has strategically developed and tactically implemented a myriad of training programs to support employees in meeting and exceeding  their career dreams. Karen joined Kaplan 11 years ago and holds an M.S. in Clinical Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, Karen is a Certified Human Resources Executive (CHRE), has a Gallup Certification, a Talent + Training Certification, and a DDI Interaction Management Training Certification. Karen enjoys reading, traveling, exploring New York City and enjoying fine cuisine.

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.

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.

Eric Kuennen

Head of Sales
Global

Eric is an education industry veteran who has stayed on the cutting edge of new business models and growth markets for over twenty years in sales and sales leadership roles.

He is passionate about lifelong learning due to the impact education can have on an individual’s life. He has been fortunate to work for leaders across K-12, higher education, professional learning and corporate training including Pearson, Follett, Cengage Learning, VitalSource, and Area9. He is a student of the industry, constantly immersed in understanding the key dynamics of his markets and the needs of his customers. Eric is a believer that in order to be successful in sales, you must have a strong work ethic fueled by curiosity, all while maintaining a growth mindset. He is a member of numerous industry organizations such as the Association for Talent Development, T3 Innovation Network / US Chamber of Commerce Foundation & The Society for Human Resource Management. Florida has been home for the last eighteen years with his wife and two children, but he is originally from Iowa. He attended St. Ambrose University and is an avid Iowa Hawkeye sports fan.