LEADERSHIP by Sena Christian
Sadie
St . Lawrence
Founder and CEO Women in Data
EDUCATION
Sadie St . Lawrence was working in a college laboratory at Sacramento State in 2014 on a path toward eventually earning a Ph . D . in neuroscience when she confronted an inconvenient truth : She didn ’ t want to euthanize rodents . She thought , “ There has to be a way to do science and to do what I love without doing harm to animals .”
A trusted adviser suggested she explore data science , and she was immediately fascinated by the proliferation of data creation through people ’ s digital devices and how corporate America was building the algorithms and studying the data that impacts daily life . “ I went into the lab the next day ,” she says , “ and I quit .”
St . Lawrence , 30 , grew up on an Iowa farm in a small town of about 4,000 people . She was surrounded by animals and homeschooled with her six siblings , and she dreamed of one day making her way out West to California . Her first stop was Casper College in Wyoming for a year before transferring to Sacramento State , which she chose because she wanted to study under
HEALTH CARE a piano teacher who specialized in Chopin and other composers of the Romantic era . She earned her bachelor ’ s degree in psychology in 2013 and worked for nearly a
Vanessa Walker
year in the college ’ s Neurobiology of Emotional Learning and Memory Lab .
Quitting the lab and reevaluating her career choice led St . Lawrence to earn her master ’ s degree in analytics online from Villanova University in 2016 . Not long after , she began a five-year stint at VSP
MEDICAL DIRECTOR • Sutter Health Valley Area electronic ICU
Global in Rancho Cordova , including two years as the company ’ s lead data scientist . All the while , she was building Women in Data , which she founded in 2015 with a mission to close the gender gap in technology . Those early years developing her nonprofit were sometimes lonely , she says . “ I would say probably one of the most difficult times is just showing up and no one else does . … It can be very discouraging when you have a vision of an organization and something new and a brighter future , and not everyone sees that vision yet .”
Women in Data is now an international nonprofit organization with 47 chapters in 17 countries and a community of more than 20,000 people that helps women get data jobs and advance into C-suite positions . It does this through awareness ( events ), education ( a residency program that partners with educational institutions that offer certification in data science ) and advancement ( mentorships and coaching programs ).
“ Data touches every part of our lives , and if we don ’ t have diverse people building the algorithm and providing insight to data , what we ’ re going to create is a more biased world moving forward ,” she says . “ It ’ s really important that we bring a diverse mindset into this industry .” This is also where jobs are headed — in the arena of data and artificial intelligence .
Her advocacy , she says , helps women build economic well-being , support their families and larger communities , develop a sense of worth and , in some cases , get out of bad situations . She recounts one example of a Women in Data participant who landed her first job in data science . St . Lawrence later learned that the job had given this woman the financial freedom and confidence to leave an abusive relationship . “ When I think of accomplishments ,” she says , “ it ’ s those individual stories of individual people ( whose ) lives were touched that make me wake up every morning and do it all again .”
MURAL ARTIST UNKNOWN ; STOOL DESIGNED BY TRENT DEAN
30 comstocksmag . com | July 2021