Reconnect with the San Antonio data community with activities, coffee, and conversations!

Chrystal Alexander

ARDA Steering Committee Co-Chair

Senior Analyst at United Health Group

Sarah Serpas, AICP

ARDA Steering Committee Co-Chair

PhD Candidate in Applied Demography + Lecturer, UTSA

Bexar Data Dive: A new data platform for Bexar County communities

Bexar Data Dive is a new data platform from CI:Now that allows users to see a wide range of indicators disaggregated by place and by race/ethnicity, as well as other demographic variables where available. Designed with input from our local community the platform was created for all data users from beginner to advanced.

Speaker: Jeremy Pyne

Jeremy Pyne is the Senior Program Manager at Community Information Now. He joined CI:Now in 2018 with over a decade of experience managing and supporting community based research projects including local indicator reports, online dashboards and interactive mapping tools with the focus to support equitable community change.

The Alamo Regional Data Alliance (ARDA) aims to improve the lives of people living in the San Antonio Region through the creation and support of a culture of data-driven action. In celebration of our values, we created the ARDA Data Leadership Award in 2021 to highlight projects that we feel best exemplify the vision of ARDA.

Nominations were chosen based on responses to the following questions:

• What is the problem you are working to solve with data?
• How did you solve it, or how do you propose to solve it?
• What did you find from the data, or do you hope to find from the data?
• How do you believe these findings will impact your organization's work?
• What impact do you believe this will have on the San Antonio community?

This year we are thrilled to award the 2022 Data Leadership Award to the The Material Innovation Center (MIC) at Port San Antonio by the City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation.

Keynote: The Multiplying Effect

Speaker:

Bree Soileau, Co-Founder and CEO of Alamo180 & Business Success Strategist

Bree Soileau is the Co-founder and CEO of Alamo 180, a gym in San Antonio, TX.

Her 11 years of entrepreneurial experience, coupled with a Masters degree in Organizational Development from the University of the Incarnate Word, has spurred her to form her second business endeavor as a Business Success Strategist.

Through coaching and strategy sessions, she helps entrepreneurs optimize their product or service so they can achieve their own version of success - in business and in life.

Bree will highlight the topic of how to build successful businesses through the power of relationships and building up leaders.

When she’s not running her two businesses, you can find her being a taxi service to her two kids, or indulging in a really good burger and milkshake.

Room 1

🧰 Social Impact Entrepreneurship

Social impact entrepreneurship allows you to recognize and pursue opportunities to create social value. In this session, we will explore how to craft innovative approaches to addressing critical social needs.

Speaker:

Alberto Gomez, Co-founder and COO, Irys

Beto Gomez is Co-founder and COO of Irys, a top 100 Smart City Data and Analytics technology company that improves the lives of communities through the use of technology. His work with the 311SA app for the City of San Antonio, Texas, has been recognized with a Smart 50 Award for “Community Engagement Innovation” in the public sector category. He is currently a Guest Scholar at the Urban Future Lab at UTSA and a contributor to the World Economic Forum.

Room 2

🗣 Data Storytelling for Impact

Learn top tips for telling stories with data in ways that effect or influence someone or something.

Speaker:

Travis Smith, Data Analyst and Project Manager, City of San Antonio Office of Innovation

Travis Smith is an experienced Data Analyst and Project Manager who finds joy in harnessing data to help people and organizations accomplish their goals, discover new things, and make the best decisions possible with integrity and at minimum or no cost to others.

Room 1

🏛 Using Data for Policy Change

Data analysis plays a powerful role in social justice policy change. During this session, attendees will learn how one organization uses data analysis, dashboards, and visualizations to promote policy change.

Speaker:

Coda Rayo-Garza, Research & Data Director, Every Texan

Coda Rayo-Garza serves as Every Texan’s Director of Research and Data. She is a fronteriza born and raised in Laredo, Texas. Coda has worked in the nonprofit and government sectors in various roles and is also a former Lecturer of Political Science. A first-generation college graduate and daughter of immigrants, Coda earned her M.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.A. in Philosophy from Texas State University. She is also a current PhD student in Applied Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Room 2

💻  Using Open-Source Data to Create Customized Dashboards: Making Data Easily Accessible to Decision Makers

This session will show how a data tool was created to facilitate data rich conversations around goal setting in SAISD using open-source data and data analytics and visualization tools. Quick dashboards and map creation will be used in this data analysis

Speakers:

Benjamin Reyes, Assistant Director of the Institutional and Community Based Research Department, SAISD

Benjamin Reyes is the Assistant Director of the Institutional and Community Based Research Department for the San Antonio Independent School District. He has provided data support to the district by creating and sharing ongoing data analysis. He has served in several roles including teacher, instructional coach, grant facilitator and educational systems analyst. He also provided support in district decision making and instruction by sharing reports that analyze district and state data points.

Alberto Solis, GIS Analyst, Data Operations and Services Department, SAISD

Alberto Solis is a GIS analyst for the San Antonio Independent School Data Operations and Services Department. In this role, he blends student data with spatial analytics to support district decision making. Alberto received his B.S. in Biology, a graduate certificate in GIS, both from UTSA, and currently pursuing his Masters in Geoinformatics. Prior to working at SAISD, Alberto worked for the Bexar County Appraisal District as a GIS Technician.

Room 1

📋 Using Data to Drive Action

Data alone rarely drives improvement without a process to turn it into action. In this fun and interactive session, we’ll practice the fundamental steps of using data to plan, do, study, and act.

Speaker:

Ginger Walker, Senior Data Capability Specialist, StriveTogether

Ginger Walker is the senior data capability specialist at StriveTogether. She works to build the capability of the Cradle to Career Network to use data to achieve equitable outcomes, including supporting partnerships in collecting and tracking systems indicators and promoting the effective use, communication and sharing of data across partners.

Room 2

🔎 Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) Reports with Knime Python Components

In the CRISP-DM model, the second phase (Data Understanding) drives the focus to identify and analyze the data sets that can help you accomplish the project’s goals. Come learn how to meet this goal by building EDA reports with different python packages in Knime that will help you describe and explore your data.

Speaker:

Antonio T.U. Ramsey, Lead Auditor, San Antonio Water System

Antonio currently works as the Lead Internal Auditor for San Antonio Water System and has over nine years of experience in Internal Audit. Throughout his tenure, he has gained working knowledge in the areas of data analytics, data visualization, natural language processing, machine learning, statistical sampling, risk management, operation & information technology auditing, and fraud detection & prevention. Antonio holds a Bachelor of Science from Angelo State University and holds both a Master of Accounting and Financial Management and a Master of Business Administration from Keller Graduate School. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE); additionally, he is Certified in Risk and Information Systems Controls (CRISC) and holds a Certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA).