The Data Storytelling Awards

Over the past 5 years, David Ciommo‘s contribution towards data storytelling and visualization at Humana has been incredible. It’s been said that his way of presenting data is like telling a bedtime story to the kids.

David is very persistent within his deliveries, and leaves no room for questions or limbo. He has gone above and beyond to showcase his growing skillset, as well as assisting partners form an absolute understanding of his content. He makes reading data digestible, comprehensible, and visually pleasing to say the least. David flipped the script of the typical “gather data, visualize it and then tell stories from it” into a “What story will be needed to drive action and change? Do we have the data to tell that story? Let’s get it, then visualize it in the way users will most understand.” David has grown exponentially within data storytelling, and has a lot to show for it.

Equilo is using data to tell the story of the gender equality context in 132 low and middle-income countries. This is used to empower decision makers at humanitarian and development agencies to make more impactful decisions to improve the lives of women and girls. Utilizing a combination of big data, deep analytics, and machine learning, Equilo is providing a better, faster, and more cost-effective means of performing social and gender analysis. 

Equilo has effectively made a business case as to why gender equality matters, because gender inequality constraints and economic growth are inextricably linked. In turn, they are creating a happier, more just world through the power of data.

As a young Filipina woman working in construction, Noelle Rivera has made strides in bringing both diversity and data storytelling to a change-averse industry. 

In her first six months of working full-time for Beck Technology, she has helped clients understand their data and how they can leverage different tools to tell compelling stories that old-school reports cannot. Beyond helping build out data storytelling tools for them (mostly using Power BI), she is about to launch a Lunch & Learn series so that she can empower them to tell stories with their data without her help. 

Outside of work, she is an advocate for women in data. She participates in a panel discussing Diversity in the Workforce, organizes in-person networking events for the Dallas chapter of Women in Data, and is an active member of DFW’s Alliance of Women and Technology.

Domo brings together all your people, data, and systems into one place for a digitally-connected business. As a part of the company’s mission, Ben Schein (VP,  Data Curiosity at Domo), and his team are dedicated to researching and understanding how to spark the fire of data curiosity in enterprises large and small. They support the rest of the company’s data storytelling and data literacy journey.

Aisha Memon is a data enthusiast, passionately continuing to learn and adapt in this constantly evolving world. She strives to shift the mindset of data users, and lives in a paradox between process and structure. She considers herself an empath who advocates for Data Centricity. Her technical background is infused with her passion for human behaviors and relationships; in her spare time, she studies various mindsets and phenomena, such as growth vs. fixed mindsets, team building strategies, and the concept of human vulnerability.

According to Aisha, creating a community is no short of starting a revolution. It takes courage and resilience to dedicate oneself to achieving the vision of increased Data Literacy and Data Democratization. She’s built and grown a safe community for data users to ask questions, receive guidance, share insights, and further develop their data knowledge.

Formed in 2020, the Kennebunkport Climate Initiative may be a young organization, but its leaders maintain a dedication to a data-driven culture in order to grow in both numbers and impact. Since it is creating this culture from the ground up, KCI is not bound by legacy tools or practices and seeks to find the best ways of communicating data from a variety of sources to a variety of stakeholders.

Whether it’s to board members, volunteers or other stakeholders, KCI recognizes the importance of data storytelling to streamline operations and more effectively communicate internally and externally. Improved efficiency ultimately helps further its mission.

Brandee Sanders is a marketing rockstar. She’s lived across two vastly different hemispheres of the mind, one side of logic and quantitative, statistical analysis and the other, human elementals driven by emotional, heart moving creatives. The deeply embedded world of data storytelling she’s had the pleasure of working in has afforded her the opportunity to collaborate alongside Emmy award nominated multimedia creators and has done her time in the trenches at startups going to IPO. She’s run the gamut from analytics to filmmaking and back again to demand gen and data science Ops.

She takes places that are in the Stone Age operationally and data wise and brings them into the light. She doesn’t use massive buzzwords or a lot of the hyped up vernacular which is so important especially when there’s such a huge cultural barrier in tech. She rips down barriers point blank.

Chris Wagner is an Analytics Architect at Rockwell Automation and Microsoft Power BI MVP. He is the founder of Kratos BI, and has created several videos, presentations and conference talks about the power of telling stories with data, in an effort to help others become their own “Data God.” His experience and focus span many sectors, including Insurance, Banking, Risk, Finance, Marketing, and more. 

Chris’s strategic leadership skills have afforded him numerous partnerships in a variety of industries, making him an adaptable (and perhaps rebellious) analyst. His numerous contributions to the data and analytics space make him a credible educator, contributor, and leader to know.

At a time when government agencies are just beginning to understand the value of measuring communication efforts, Justin Breaux has been collecting, analyzing and communicating-out this information to his leadership for over three years. As a social media manager and digital analyst, Justin has single-handedly (borrowing from others in the industry) built Argonne National Laboratory’s data collection and reporting system. 

A consummate networker, he meets regularly with individuals throughout the laboratory and at partner organizations to identify goals and communication challenges to develop strategic plans that meld the latest in communication tactics with the organization’s goals. A passionate advocate for using data to make better decisions, Justin is a leader among colleagues and clients within the Department of Energy lab system which includes 17 tax-payer funded labs.

Jordan Morrow is on a mission to close the data skills gap and establish a data-centric culture by bringing data literacy to the masses. He’s passionate about delivering a human touch to a world of numbers and gets the greatest satisfaction when he can help people see and understand the power that data analytics can bring to their careers, their businesses, and their personal lives.

Currently, Jordan leads Pluralsight’s data and design/management across various channels. The program is designed to help people learn and improve their data capabilities and gain an understanding of how to effectively use these skills to handle the large amounts of data found in modern organizations.