Mihai is a junior web developer living in Chicagoland. If he’s not dreaming of working with data, he’s off somewhere actually working with it. He also has a thing for 90s Japanese cooking shows.

Vitor Baptista is a data visualization developer at the Open Knowledge Foundation working on the CKAN data portal platform. He sees the access, consumption, and interpretation of data of all kinds as an exciting way to help people understand the world and make it better.

Petr is an expert in Data Modeling, ETL Architecture and Development. He’s currently focused on agile business intelligence, including automated testing and data vault modeling. Always eager to share and expand his knowledge, Petr is a regular speaker at TDWI conferences in Switzerland and Germany.

Jessica works in psychiatric clinical research and has a passion for building databases and queries. She also enjoys opportunities to write and edit presentations and publications on the subject. She recently began work toward a degree in epidemiology and biostatistics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Marit’s interest in data is fueled by her support for transparency and open access to information. She holds a Master’s degree in quantitative sociology and regularly contributes to projects in the cultural, educational, and scientific spheres. She loves traveling, connecting, and writing about self-improvement, society, and, of course, (open) data.

Amanda works at the intersection of global health monitoring, evaluation, and communications. She loves how well-designed visualizations can make data accessible and even help improve health programs. Co-founder of the datavizhub.co community, she enjoys connecting with other viz enthusiasts to share ideas.

Alberto teaches infographics and visualization at the University of Miami School of Communication. He also serves as director of the visualization program in the University’s Center for Computational Science. Author of The Functional Art, Albert has led workshops and consulted media and educational institutions in more than 20 countries.

Currently working toward a PhD in human physiology, Michael Castello researches Alzheimer’s disease and creates downright fascinating scientific presentations on the subject. Outside the lab, Michael writes, builds things, plays computer games, and hypothesizes about the future.

Michelle is currently dabbling in the business world, so learning how to work with data has been an interesting journey. She is set to start her MBA in Fall 2014 and hopes to be able to use the e-book to help her throughout her courses. In her spare time, she likes to read, play videogames (N7 at heart!), and learn about the world.

The daughter of immigrants, Kathy remembers when NYC subway trains were covered in graffiti and kind of misses that. Nowadays she rides her trusty Brompton wherever she can. She loves bacon, hates cilantro, and enjoys learning about learning.

Jeana designs, develops, and implements online training programs to support employee development at the corporate and national level. She is currently working with a team at the Franchise Support Center to establish learning and development metrics that evaluate the effectiveness of learning outcomes and make changes as needed.

Trina is the co-founder of Infoactive and a fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute where she works to make data visualization more accessible for journalists. She enjoys turning numbers into stories and making data more human.

Howard leads the experienced, talented, ambitious, and (mostly) good-humored New York team at Sapient Global Markets, which focuses on data visualization and user experience design.

Ellen has extensive experience designing, implementing, and managing market research studies. Twenty years ago, she launched Quadra Research to provide qualitative and quantitative research studies for industries including utilities, non-profits, packaged goods, real estate, and finance. She is a Certified Advertising Agency Practitioner, corporate member of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, and Certified Marketing Research Professional.

Bill Coppinger has over 30 years’ experience in Education and Training. He co-founded the I*EARN Network in Australia and chaired the International I*EARN Management Team for 3 years. He has a passion for supporting the uptake of evidence-based planning and data visualization. He owns and operates WhaleSongServices.

A graduate student in Library & Information Science at Simmons College in Boston, MA, Colleen is interested in the effects of open access on resources for education, research and scholarship. She also studies the relationship between digital literacy and learning.

Alistair works in web performance, big data, cloud computing, and startup acceleration. Co-founder of Networkshop and Coradiant, he’s helped create several startups, accelerators, and conferences. He chairs various tech events, including O’Reilly’s Strata conference and the International Startup Festival, and has written four books on analytics, technology, and entrepreneurship, including Lean Analytics.

Jared is a scientist and innovator working in emerging technology, energy, and big data. He is the co-founder of NOURI—an “out of this world” food company with the mission of making the world a better place by ending child hunger—and the author of several children’s books.

Ersin lives a double life, well sort of. He’s a researcher in the management and organization department of a national university and also a business developer for investors in the mining and energy industry. He digs being able to present any sort of investment opportunity clearly and quickly with inspiring and simple data visualizations.

Mizel is a Senior Product Manager in the mobile tech industry. He builds tools that use big data to tell stories effectively and allow users to make better, data-driven business decisions.

Candice’s love for putting words together beautifully began early in her life. Her love for photography came next. Today, she is paid to chat on social media, capture light through her camera lens, and help people translate their message into words for the rest of the world to read.

Quite the globetrotter, Steve lived in New York and London before moving to South Africa in 2007 where he bought a Burgundian-sized vineyard and farm house five minutes from the Franschhoek village center.

Oz is a Chicago-based freelancer who has been working with Excel and data for 15 years. He’s a passionate speaker and trainer devoted to data literacy. When Oz isn’t elbow-deep in data, he’s known for sriracha, bowties, and good bourbon.

Kate helps organizations build websites that both deliver against business objectives AND look good. Kate also trains people on methods and models for integrating content strategy, user experience, and web design. She’s co-authored two books: Return on Engagement: Content Strategy and Web Design Techniques for Digital Marketing, and O’Reilly Media’s The Civic Apps Competition Handbook.

With a background in user-centered design, Jane has experience in systems testing (including integration and usability), systems implementation, UI Design, and training. She credits an undergraduate course on environmental psychology with prompting a lifelong interest in human-computer interaction and the impact of technology and visual design on everyday activities.

Philipp is an environmental scientist and communication expert with a passion for knowledge, people, and the environment. Dedicated to communicating the importance of sustainability, he turns data into drama, numbers into narrative, and stats into stories, translating knowledge into practice to change institutions.

Collin stumbled upon the art and psychology of design while working as a mechanic in the Air Force. He went on to found a few award-winning startups and now works as a startup consultant, UX designer, and freelance web developer.

Dyanna is a librarian and biostatistician who has been obsessive about data cleaning since the age of 13 and loves to teach statistics to people of all ages, especially those who think they hate math.

Creator of and inspiration behind Local America, Tom is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years’ experience. His previous gigs include: editor at the Washington Post, managing editor of AOL local news, founder of a chain of community newspapers in metro Washington, and consulting Web editor at the World Bank.

Nidhal is pursuing a national degree at The Higher School of Statistics and Data Analysis in Tunisia (ESSAI). His current and past projects include PCA analysis, tree-based models, and network analysis. His thesis project focuses on market share prediction in the airline industry.

Margie’s relationship with data began in college when she nearly failed her first statistics class and decided the subject was a beast to be conquered. When she’s not cranking out reports and crunching numbers, Margie addresses the growing need for evidence-based decision making and performance measurement among organizations in the arts, culture, and commercial creative sectors.

Camilo serves as research consultant and strategic advisor to more than 100 brands. He has authored academic articles on microeconomics, cultural capital, and marketing, including several on the Columbian consumer.

Melissa is an integrator, collaborator, innovator, and relationship builder. She has 20 years of successful marketing experience working with industry leaders and 8 years in entrepreneurial electronic marketing and CRM for small businesses.

Saurabh is an analytics lead for one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world. On a typical day, he tackles tough big data in order to improve decision management, predict and influence consumer behavior, and optimize business results.

Kate coordinates community building and project development for the NSF EarthCube Initiative, a data and knowledge management system that will allow for cross-discipline data sharing across the geosciences. She comes to her work with a background in journalism, science reference publishing, and online media.

Ginette collects, explores, and reports data for companies and organizations, including the World Economic Forum, ictQatar, Huawei, and the World Wide Web Foundation. When not geeking out over data, Ginette enjoys the finer things in life… like ice cream.

Born and living in South Central Vietnam in the time of Facebook and Twitter, Thanh An is an engagement leader at the global consulting firm Officience. He’s driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a fascination with mass data digitization.

As a graduate of Parson’s School of Design, Bonnie designed handbags & accessories in New York. After moving back to Montreal, she is applying her passion for designing and making a difference to her practice as a socially conscious real estate broker.

Tom is a product manager, software geek, and athlete who lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts.

Callie was born in Aspen, Colorado, before movie stars discovered it. She’s worked at various startups, software companies, and design firms, and as a senior interaction designer at NPR. She now works with some of the best engineers in the world creating data visualization and visual analytics tools.

Sanjit is Deputy Editor of IndiaSpend, a non-profit organisation and India’s first Data Journalism initiative which utilises open data to empower citizens decision making process. He likes creating stories around data with the help of free to use tools and believes that story telling is the way forward. He has worked with PaGaLGuY and Firstpost.com. He lives in Mumbai.

Tara the Technology Matchmaker is a business automation and strategy expert whose passion is helping coaches, entrepreneurs, and small business owners use technology to save time and money, create more meaningful relationships with clients and prospects, and achieve greater success in business.

Kiran provides data science training at Jigsaw Academy, an Online School of Analytics based in Bangalore, India. He holds a dual degree in engineering from IIT Madras, India, and his technical expertise spans SAS, Python, Hadoop, and Tableau. Outside of work, Kiran writes, travels, and cheers for his favorite club, Manchester United in EPL.

Christine’s passion is communicating complex topics in simple and approachable ways, empowering people to perform at their highest level. She is a National Clinical Educator at Teleflex Medical Australia, specializing in designing learning resources to support the sale and use of complex medical devices and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.

Sarah likes translating complex ideas into good stories. A fan of civic tech and mass collaboration, she’s an alumna of NASA’s Open Innovation Program and a volunteer at Code for DC and Code for Houston. She led communications for the 2013 International Space Apps Challenge and helped organize the TechLady Hackathon + Training Day.

Adam Robbins works with communities in the Midwest and East Asia to achieve LGBT equality. He helped Minnesotans United for All Families achieve the first victory against an anti-marriage constitutional amendment, trained with the New Organizing Institute, and is currently working with a startup in Beijing to measure and develop the LGBT market in China.

Anastasia is a senior copywriter by day and freelance writer in her off hours. She received a bachelor’s degree in Literature & Writing from UC San Diego and is grateful/relieved/ecstatic that she gets to use that education at work. After writing, her favorite things are traveling, backpacking, and trying new foods.

Alfredo has a diverse professional background that includes working as a consultant for information retrieval and linked data, teaching programming languages, and designing soundscapes. You can follow his various pursuits on his “designed to be unfinished” website.

Christina is a longtime tech nerd and founder of Dumblebee, the advice-based social network. Her never-ending curiosity has led her to work in many fields, including anthropology, photography, graphic design, museum research, and real estate.

Ian knows big data. He’s worked with it for more than two decades, doing everything from UK TV rating calculations to fraud protection for Australian banks to health datasets for hospitals. His team of data experts is small but powerful, known for producing good data and presenting it well.

Kevin has spent the past 15 years in Business Intelligence, focusing primarily on the effective delivery of information and insight. Downright passionate about visualization, he finds beauty in simplicity and loves reading and following the pioneers of the industry. Outside the 9-to-5, he enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife Katherine and their two beautiful twin daughters, Kaseyleigh and Kennedy.

Jessica develops communications plans and thought leadership platforms for clients in architecture, engineering, design, higher education, and the arts. She enjoys translating technical jargon into plain language and believes in the power of good design to communicate even the most complex information.

Alex Wall is a digital marketing strategist in Coral Gables, Florida, and freshly addicted to data visualization.

A New Orleans native, Beatriz currently lives in Pittsburgh, working as a Visiting Professor at Duquesne University. She helped implement digital storytelling for children exposed to family violence in rural Missouri and is currently working with University of Missouri Professor Berkley Hudson on a project that explores photographs of the South.

Christopher is a PhD student in Virginia Tech’s Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program. He also enjoys cat yodeling on the side.

Gregory Zobel lives in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. He collects books and loves budgies (better known as parakeets to the uninitiated).