Katie Jolly

Geographer, Data Scientist, Information Designer in Seattle

Currently

Data Analyst at Ookla

Research and professional interests

Cartography and information design, Bayesian spatial modeling, data science education, data communication, active transportation & public transit planning, public policy evaluation, statistical computing, neighborhood development

Technical Skills

R/RStudio, ArcGIS, QGIS, GitHub, Excel, Python, SQL, HTML5/CSS, LaTeX, Tableau, Django, Jekyll, R Shiny, Adobe Illustrator & InDesign, Leaflet, Inkscape, Markdown

Education

2015 to 2019 Macalester College | Saint Paul, MN

B.A. Geography, B.A. Applied Mathematics and Statistics (honors) cum laude

Honors Thesis Digitizing, Districting, and Data: Creating an open-source precinct shapefile for Ohio

Professional Experience

October 2019 to current Ookla | Data Analyst

May to October 2019 Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities | Data Science Intern

• Found and implemented an algorithm to aggregate census block groups according to contextual and compositional variables in order to create larger geographies with lower standard errors that are still contextually meaningful to local planners

• Wrote an R Shiny app to help nonprofits locate apartment complexes that are likely to be sold and flipped in order to help them prioritize their housing affordability work

• Designed Bayesian hierarchical models and ecological inference models to study regional park visitation patterns using location-based services data

• Used Public Use Microdata Survey data to create a series of visualizations about the intersection of race and disability in the Twin Cities for use by the Council for transportation equity planning

January to May 2019 Macalester College Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department | Saint Paul, MN | Teaching Assistant, Machine Learning and Statistical Computing (MATH 253)

• Attended class to assist with activities and lectures

• Held four office hours per week to answer homework and general course questions

• Served as a mentor for students interested in data science and statistics beyond the course

• Graded in-class activities, homework, and quizzes promptly

• Met regularly with the professor to discuss my work and ways to improve

June to August 2018 Voting Rights Data Institute at Tufts University and MIT | Somerville, MA | Undergraduate Summer Fellow

• Managed a team to build an open source shapefile of 2016 voting precincts in Ohio using digitization of PDF maps and computational methods to approximate boundaries in counties without maps

• Designed and wrote a handbook for digitizing precinct maps using QGIS aimed at volunteers with limited GIS background

• Wrote a map design guide aimed at mathematicians to explain concepts like projection, classification schemes, and color choices

• Presented updates weekly in an informal session with other fellows and mentors

• Pair-programmed an interactive Shiny app showing the output from the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that creates millions of potential districting plans by mapping district flips of individual precincts for use by other researchers

August 2017 to December 2018 Macalester College Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department | Saint Paul, MN | Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Data Science (COMP 112)

• Attended class to assist with activities and lectures

• Held four office hours per week to answer homework and general course questions

• Served as a mentor for students interested in data science and statistics beyond the course, particularly the first-year students

• Graded in-class activities and homework promptly

• Met regularly with the professor to discuss my work and ways to improve

June to August 2017 BlueLabs | Washington, DC | Data Science Intern

• Worked on the data science team doing projects related to political analytics

• Created maps for use in professional presentations

• Wrote Python scripts to scrape web data

• Created a database of influential political donors and potential donors

January to May 2017 Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota | Saint Paul, MN | Statistical Consultant

• Built logistic regression models to predict no-shows based on previous appointment data and contextual variables

• Applied network analysis and spatial modeling to determine the optimal clinic to open for late hours

• Communicated findings to Planned Parenthood staff in formal presentation to inform changes in scheduling procedures

Publications

2019 Curious City: In, Out, Above, Beyond, Saint Paul, a cultural atlas

Digitizing Precinct Maps: A How-To Guide

R Packages

Jolly, K.; Kelly, K. (2019). approxprecincts: Approximate Voting Precinct Boundaries Using Voterfile Addresses. R package version 0.0.0.9000. https://github.com/ykelly/approxprecincts

Jolly, K. (2018). advicegiveR: R Wrapper for the Advice Slip API. R package version 1.0.0. https://github.com/katiejolly/advicegiveR

Awards

2019 Student Educator of the Year, Macalester College

Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award in Geographic Science, American Association of Geographers (AAG)

2018 Student Educator of the Year, Macalester College

Undergraduate Statistics Research Project Honorable Mention, The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education

Daniel Kaplan Award in Statistics and Data Science, Macalester College Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department

David A. Lanegran Award in Geography, Macalester College Geography Department

Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference Best Video Presentation, The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education

Student Scholar & First Place in Undergraduate Presentation Competition, Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium

Community Engagement

2019 Saint Paul Public Libraries, Panelist at the Open Data Party series, part of the Civic Switchboard Project

RLadies Twin Cities, Co-organizer

Macalester Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department, Student Representative

2018 Macalester Women in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Committee, Committee Member

Talks

2019 Spatial Data Science in R, rNorth Conference

Digitizing, Districting, and Data: Creating an Open-Source Precinct Shapefile for Ohio, Honors Defense, Macalester College

2018 Digitizing, Districting, and Data: Creating an Open-Source Precinct Shapefile for Ohio, eUSR Conference

GIS as a Civic Engagement Tool: The Geography of Voting Rights, Macalester Geography Department Seminar

Digitizing, Districting, and Data: Creating an Open-Source Precinct Shapefile for Ohio, MN GIS/LIS Conference

2017 Political donations from STEM community: Learning dplyr!, RLadies Twin Cities

Writing narratives with data: An introduction to ggplot2!, RLadies Twin Cities

Proud leaders: How women in tech talk about themselves on Twitter, eUSR Conference

Proud leaders: How women in tech talk about themselves on Twitter, Hack and Tell DC