Joy Zhao, AVP of Advanced Analytics at Nationwide, shares her transformative journey in the tech world, illustrating how cultivating "thick skin," embracing self-empowerment, and mastering confidence can turn workplace challenges into career milestones and self-satisfaction into job satisfaction. She also shares her thoughts on executive presence and her path into public speaking. About Joy Joy Zhao, AVP, Advanced Analytics and High-Performance Computing. In her role in the Enterprise Analytics Office (EAO), Joy acts as a key liaison to the Telematics teams. She oversees modeling efforts for the most demanding business applications requiring extremely high-performance and/or extreme computing for statistical and machine learning models (e.g., telematics). Joy holds an MD in Preventive Medicine and a PhD in Epidemiology. She joined Nationwide in February 2017 as a Director of Data Science. Before that, she worked at Chase for 5.5 years, following the Nationwide Children's Hospital Injury Prevention Research Institute and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Joy has led and delivered projects to support businesses at NF Retirement Solutions, Investment Structured Product, Commercial Small Market Underwriting models, and most recently EAO Telematics models. Joy had a great impact in forming ONE team and fostering broad collaborations on telematics efforts. Among all the accomplishments of the team, the delivery of the new version of Nationwide’s SmartRide Mobile Model enabled the new features of the product, improved customer experiences, and adopted the advancement of technology through the deployment. She also designed and launched the Data Science Learning Curriculum, the early version of Data Science & Advanced Analytics Learning. Joy lives in Dublin, Ohio with her family. In her personal time, she spends time coaching professionals to reach their potential as a Trained and Professional Certified Coach (ICF PCC) for Leadership. She's held over 35 webinars in the last three and a half years to help people in the community, reaching an audience of more than 6,000. She likes to read, travel, watch movies, listen to music, and spend fun time with her family and friends. Relevant Links - Toastmasters - Emerging Speaker Showcase - Dare to Lead (Book) Follow Joy - LinkedIn Follow Lauren - LinkedIn - Twitter - Website Transcript CLICK HERE ________________________________ Interested in sponsoring an episode of the WIA After Hours Podcast? Visit womeninanalytics.com/podcast for sponsorship information.