Hello! Welcome to Margaret Furr’s site.

Short Biography

I am Margaret Furr, a graduate of the University of Virginia with a BA in History and MS in Data Science. I am also currently a part-time student with Virginia Commonwealth University, pursuing the interdisciplinary studies of Education and Product Innovation. While not taking classes, I complete part-time training to become a virtual literacy tutor with Ignite Reading.

Previously, I have worked as a Corporate Services Analyst and Data Analyst with Richmond National, an excess and surplus insurance business and pivoted back into the field of data analytics and technology. Before that, I worked as a Literacy Tutor with The Literacy Lab, as part of a second AmeriCorps service year, though The Literacy Lab’s program discontinued after my second year. While I was not tutoring, I worked as a Substitute Teacher Assistant with Horizons Hampton Roads and as a Glee Club and Cabin Counselor with Camp Nakanawa. Also previously, I worked as a Data Analyst with EVERFI, an educational technology company, which provides courses that help students to become financially and digitally literate, engage civically, and develop healthy relationships. I then worked as a Freelance Researcher for the social sector.

I have enjoyed working as a pro bono strategic alignment consultant for The Welders, Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, and Jubilee Jumpstart through Compass to revitalize the DC community, and I have worked as a proposal reviewer, project manager, data ambassador and data analyst with DataKind. It has been fun to interview people experiencing homelessness with Design for the Homeless.

And currently, I am volunteering with Podium RVA as the Vice Chair of the Young Professionals Board, and getting involved with RVA’s Warm Data Labs and Pollinators for Change. Also, outside of work, I have been volunteering as a Cinematographer’s Assistant with Silver Streak Media, an Videographer at RVA RestFest, and possibly an Photographer with The Children’s Museum of Richmond or other organizations like Chesterfield County Fair in Richmond. Previously, I volunteered as a Photographer with Horizons Hampton Roads and The Elizabeth River Trail Project in Norfolk, VA.

In the long term, I am seeking roles either in UX/CX qualitative research, associate product management, or photography and videography. But most of all, every day of my life, I hope to seek to learn something new to stay alive.

Skills

Data Analytics: data-driven storytelling, analytical dashboard development, data wrangling and management framework development, statistical analysis (clustering analysis, association rules), geospatial analysis, survey analysis

Systems Practice, Design Research, and Mission-Driven Consulting: systems analysis, systems practice and design for social justice, ethnographic interviewing and focus groups, systems mapping and systems narrative development, requirements facilitation, user story and requirements writing, chatbot systems design; nonprofit strategic alignment; strategic foresight analysis

AI: AI governance analysis

Writing: white paper writing, blog writing, user story writing, historical writing

Project Management: project proposal review, project scope analysis, project roadmapping, and project progress reporting

Software and Programming Languages: R, Python, SQL, ArcGIS, QGIS, Periscope, Anaconda, Weka, Git/Github, Jira, Trello; familiar with Tableau, MapReduce, Java, AWS, SAS, Ruby on Rails

Soft: cross-functional teamwork, international teamwork; familiar with Spanish language

Training: ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems, SCRUMstudy Scrum Master (expired), Human-Centric Leading, Systems Practice, Civil Dialogues, Machine Learning

Educating: tutoring, virtual tutoring, teacher assisting

Media Management: Twitter, Instagram; Photography, Videography

Interests

World Affairs, Organizations and Cultures: communities, world affairs, learning organizations, theory of emergence, network science, international cultures, creative process, democratic process, community building

Technology/Information: algorithmic biases and prejudices, neural patterns, patterns in data, flow-based programming, technological and social change, technological ecosystems, interactions between technology and humans, participatory design, public infrastructure, effective information flow, data integration, technology policy and governance

Social Impact: impact investing, sustainable development goals, inclusive economic growth, double bottom line

Spirituality: collective consciousness, natural systems, meditation and expressive practice, roots of spoken languages