Born and raised in Brazil, Adriana Beal has been working in the U.S. since 2004 helping Fortune 100 companies, innovation companies, and startups gain business insight from their data, make better decisions, and build better software that solves the right problem.
During this period she has designed various machine learning models to improve operational and decision processes in IoT, mobility, agriculture, energy, healthcare, human services, and more.
Her passion for social justice led her to work as Lead Data Scientist for Social Solutions, a company developing case management software for non-profit organizations. There she designed machine learning models to improve the allocation of resources for families experiencing housing insecurity and children in low-income schools, with emphasis on fighting racial disparities in outcomes.
Adriana has performed extensive research on Ethical AI and helped promote good practices on the responsible use of AI/ML through articles written for other data scientists and the public in general.
She is also the author of a Disparity Evaluator tool used by her and other data scientists to ensure that predictive models supporting decisions with real consequences for humans don’t come at the expense of discrimination or bias that cause real harms to individuals belonging to a specific group.
Adriana has a degree in Electric Engineering and an MBA in Strategic Management of Information from two top graduate schools in Brazil and two IT strategy books published in her native country. In 2017 she received a certificate in Big Data / Advanced Analytics from the University of Texas. She is frequently invited to speak at events sponsored by professional organizations like IIBA and IEEE and has work internationally published by IEEE and IGI Global. Prior to becoming a U.S. citizen, she received an O-1 (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) visa from the American government.