Host Dave Fiore speaks with Emily Saras, CEO and data scientist with Knowli Data Science. The self-described overachiever with a nerd persona loved field hockey in high school and was her class valedictorian in her hometown of Hopedale, Massachusetts.

Emily entered prestigious Wellesley College with plans to be a doctor, only to make a significant pivot to study anthropology and opera singing. Wanting to connect with her family heritage, she earned a scholarship to study ethnomusicology and opera performance in Lithuania under the nation’s top soprano. Emily spent two more years studying in Europe before returning home as an AmeriCorps fellow, where she worked with underserved Boston teens. It was there that Emily was recommended for a position at Florida State, which she took thinking it would be a short-term stop on her life journey. She was wrong.

Emily would go on to earn her Ph.D. in sociology from FSU, fall in love with Tallahassee and get connected to Knowli, a women-owned company that translates big data for policy makers in a variety of fields, including health and human science agencies and educational institutions across the Southeast.

Emily says her journey to CEO has been a “joyful challenge,” and she greatly appreciates the opportunity to serve as the company’s cultural ambassador.