new team members and a new program
Back in 2010, when I started storytelling with data while working at Google, I would happily travel and talk to any group that was open to learning how to communicate more effectively with data. Doing that over and over (and over and over) helped me hone my presentation skills, presence and style. It also demonstrated to me that the audience for this content is wide, diverse, and located in many different types of organizations all around the globe.
Over the years, as the SWD side project became my sole (perhaps soul?) project and an actual business, demand outpaced supply and budget size became—fortunately and unfortunately—a means to keep pace. While this helped us build a sustainable business, it didn’t necessarily allow us to serve the widest audience. Much of SWD content is free but our in-person workshops are where incredible progress is made.
I want what we teach at SWD to be within reach for all types of organizations. As you may have heard in podcast Episode 16, we recently conducted a search to expand our team. The response was amazing and we conducted a thorough hiring process through which we met a fantastic group of people. At the end of it, the SWD team was positively unanimous in the decision to offer roles to two outstanding and passionate data storytellers: Mike Cisneros and Alex Velez. I couldn’t be happier to welcome both to the team!
Mike Cisneros joins us from the federal contracting world, where he spent the better part of two decades analyzing and communicating complex data for public and private sector clients. In looking for other ways to express his interests, he discovered—and become deeply involved in—the worldwide community of public data visualization practitioners, gaining a reputation for combining unique design aesthetic with insightful, thought-provoking analysis. The quality of his creations and commitment to the greater data visualization community led to his selection for the Zen program at Tableau. Mike, believes everyone has the ability to communicate more clearly and we are incredibly excited for him to join the team and help others hone their data storytelling skills.
Alex Velez has a background in statistics, which she has put to use in a number of data engineering and analysis roles across the finance, insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Her broad exposure to various stages of the analytical world led over time to a profound realization: many everyday challenges can be overcome through better communication. Alex has developed this important skill through a lot of practice—both on the job in her analytical work and through motivating people by teaching energizing Zumba classes! While she no longer spends her time in a gym studio, we’re ecstatic that she’ll continue helping others in her new role with storytelling with data, sharing her learnings and passion for data visualization and effective, thoughtful communication.
With this welcome addition of two new talented data storytellers, we are now in a position to serve a greater audience, including those who may not have been able to access workshops due to limited budgets. Today, I’m pleased to announce a new program aimed at non-profits, educational institutions and other organizations where learning and development budget may be limited: SWD reach.
SWD reach is an application-based program that brings the in-person half-day workshop to organizations for a fraction of the cost. The application process for SWD reach is open now and we will accept applications through the end of July.
Mike and Alex are joining a small but mighty team. Elizabeth has been busy in recent months delivering short presentations and custom workshops to organizations around the US (and soon the world!). Behind the scenes, Jody plays point with clients, keeps us on schedule, plans events like the upcoming Chicago public workshop, and manages our (growing) programs, including SWD reach. Randy wears many hats—in addition to being my incredible and supportive husband—he makes sure we have the right technology, systems, and processes; he pushes us to innovate and try new things; you may recognize his voice from the SWD podcast or his face and friendly banter from the recent live stream event. We also have a number of partners who play critical roles to support our growth.
Honestly, I couldn’t be more pleased that today, we have the right team in place to truly inspire positive change through the stories we tell with data. With more people and new programs, I’m thrilled that we’ll be able to spread effective data storytelling more broadly.
Please join me in welcoming Mike and Alex to the SWD team!
SWD team at our Milwaukee offsite this week. From left: Randy, Alex, Elizabeth, Mike, Jody, and Cole.
