Last month I left my comfort zone.
After 30 years of working as an engineer, developer, and technical leader at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO at UC San Diego), I started a new career as a Senior Product Manager and Research Data Specialist with UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library. While it may sound like a big change, it was more of steady evolution.
Although my projects at SIO were initially focused on scientific instrumentation, software development, and engineering specifications, I found the curation of the in situ data to be fascinating and better aligned with my skills and preferences. This led to service opportunities which included leadership positions within national and international data initiatives, and those projects allowed me to collaborate with members of UC3.
Joining their team was the next logical step.
The transition from being part of the technical staff in a research setting to being a hands-on data advocate in UC3 has been an invigorating challenge so far, and it provides an excellent opportunity to build on my foundation of knowledge and grow in new areas.
It’s an honor to pick up where my predecessor, Daniella Lowenberg, left off. I’ve long admired her approach to all things data. I am grateful for the extraordinary measures that she and John Chodacki have taken to bring me up to speed as soon as possible.
Data publishing is a dynamic young field and my colleagues and I will be able to help shape the conversations, initiatives, and tools that serve the international research community. I look forward to working with my new colleagues as we advocate for open data and help build and implement infrastructure to make data more discoverable, interoperable, and reusable.
