curriculum vitae
Wendy de Heer, PhDMission Driven Data Leader
|
Download a PDF of Wendy's resume
Wendy's full work history is also available at linkedin.com Contact Wendy here for contract or full time opportunities |
approach
Every person, every group, every company has an authentic core that can lead to developing a mission that energizes and inspires. I love cultivating authenticity, vision, creativity, connection as people and companies develop and fulfill their mission. With over a decade of academic and industry data expertise, I believe that vision, mission and decision-making should be informed — not replaced — by data, and remain centered around people.
data / analytics / leadership
|
Head of Data & Analytics
Virta Health, San Francisco February 2020 – present |
In my first 90 days, established vision & roadmap for Virta to use data to its strategic advantage, increase its membership and iterate on and refine its treatment while proactively communicating and building trust with company leadership & stakeholders.
Within first 6 months, updated company-wide KPIs & aligned Virta’s Data Infrastructure, Engineering, Treatment, Growth, Research and Commercial teams & leadership to the new data roadmap, enabling Virta to prove its value in a data-driven way to customers and expand its business. Rapidly recruited, hired & trained my Insights & Analytics team & developed team processes from the first hire to a world-class team of 5 direct reports servicing the entire organization, taking into account cross-functional priorities and data needs, and enabling teams at Virta to grow the business through data-driven decisions. Collaborated with Virta’s Data Infrastructure team to migrate analytics pipelines and dashboards from Redshift to BigQuery, enabling Virta to leverage Google’s Cloud Healthcare API and sustainably scale its data architecture. Currently developing Virta’s commercial research strategy with Virta’s new CMO, including consulting on research design & updating leading indicators to enable swift treatment & product decision-making. |
|
Data Scientist
Clover Health, San Francisco November 2016 – May 2019 |
Initiated, developed and led the social determinants of health program at Clover, uncovering mission-driven opportunities that would increase health equity & allow Clover to earn millions of dollars in plan quality bonus payments. This work included collaboration with Clover executives, data scientists, engineers and external academic researchers, and presentation of findings to top officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Honed the ability to recognize and recruit top Data Science talent by interviewing hundreds of data scientists, focusing on creating great candidate experiences in partnership with Clover’s recruiters. Collaborated on interview process design to build out the Behavioral Science team. Scoped and led the first comprehensive survey of all Clover members, focused on behavioral change experimentation and interventions. Designed experiments and developed health strategies impacting 30k members, working directly with Clover’s executive team and Chief Behavioral Officer. |
|
Data Scientist
Wanelo, San Francisco March 2016 – July 2016 |
Conducted experiments and analyses to provide actionable data insights to CEO and VP of Growth for strategic and tactical business decisions and outward facing presentations.
|
research / machine learning / statistics
|
PhD Researcher
University of California, Berkeley 2009 – 2015 |
Conducted groundbreaking research in the neuroscience of language resulting in a Nature cover article (2016), currently cited over 300 times. Led the initiative to bring auditory fMRI capabilities to UC Berkeley. Research included extensive use of statistical and machine learning techniques. Co-wrote NSF grant funded at over $800,000. Presented at international conferences.
|
|
CS Masters Thesis
University of California, Berkeley September 2014 – August 2015 |
Used unsupervised clustering and supervised classification techniques to understand statistical features of Classical music.
|
|
Guest Lecturer / Grad. Student Instructor
University of California, Berkeley 2010 – 2012 |
Taught research methods, statistics and data analysis. Guest lectured several courses ranging from 30-200 students, including neuroscience of music and neuroscience of emotion.
|
organization / communication / business reform
|
Co-founder
Wanderlight, Alameda August 2016 – present |
Co-founder of consulting company providing leaders with perspective and tools necessary to fulfill their authentic mission.
|
|
Ascent Program Member
Ascent, Sequoia Capital, San Francisco August 2018 – October 2019 |
Selected to participate in Sequoia Capital’s year-long leadership and mentorship program.
|
Languages: English, French (fluent), Dutch (proficient)
select publications
Huth A., de Heer, W., Theunissen, F., Griffiths, T., Gallant, J. (2016)
“Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex.” Nature, 532, 453-458
de Heer, W., Huth A., Griffiths, T., Gallant, J., Theunissen, F. (2017)
“The hierarchical cortical organization of human speech processing.” Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 6539-6557
“Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex.” Nature, 532, 453-458
de Heer, W., Huth A., Griffiths, T., Gallant, J., Theunissen, F. (2017)
“The hierarchical cortical organization of human speech processing.” Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 6539-6557
education
MS Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley (August 2015)
PhD Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley (May 2015)
MA Cognitive Science, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (August 2008)
BA Liberal Studies with emphasis in Mathematics (summa cum laude), Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (May 2002)
PhD Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley (May 2015)
MA Cognitive Science, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (August 2008)
BA Liberal Studies with emphasis in Mathematics (summa cum laude), Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (May 2002)
passions
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|