Resume

Chris Swenson

I am an experienced data scientist and statistician, with successful professional achievements using statistics, machine learning, algorithms, and AI to accomplish organizational goals. I have practical knowledge in databases, data modeling, algorithm development, automation, communication, and collaboration. I am capable of full-stack development, beginning with no data or raw data and ending with analytical insights and presentations to top organizational leaders.

Sections: Professional Experience | Education | Credentials | Skills | Major Achievements

Links: Printable Resume | LinkedIn Profile


Professional Experience

Data Scientist 3 (Mar 2021 – Jul 2025)

Promega, Fitchburg, Wisconsin, United States

Statistical modeling, machine learning, and forecasting.

  • Matched $1.25 billion in sales transactions to contact records, improved from 48.6% to 83.8% (SQL)
  • Attained 6.4% forecast error in over 370,000 subcategories of sales transactions over 12 months (SQL)
  • Achieved 83% reduction in daily runtime for a series of text searches (SQL)
  • Identified at least £30,000 of potential annual savings by simplifying a promotional campaign (SQL, R)
  • Found over 39,000 discussion threads similar to targeted documents (Python, R)

Data Scientist (Apr 2020 – Feb 2021)

SSM Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Data modeling, forecasting, and reporting on COVID-19 for leadership.

  • Achieved 99.8% improvement in COVID-19 hospital admission forecasting (SQL, Python, R, Stan)
  • Accomplished 99.7% uptime on self-developed COVID-19 data model, used in all reporting (SQL, Python)
  • Identified 847 at-risk patients (1.3% of total) for targeted COVID-19 treatments (SQL, R)

Senior Healthcare Analyst (Sep 2017 – Apr 2020)

SSM Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Statistical analyses on EMR and health insurance claims data.

  • Demonstrated $0 increase in costs while reducing BMI by 7 points due to weight loss program (SAS)
  • Collaborated with leadership to review patient care concerns by gender, race, and other categories (SAS); for example, found a 56% higher risk of emergency visits for black patients than white patients
  • Achieved 40% increase in model accuracy by integrating social determinants of health (SAS)

Data Analyst Consultant (Jul 2017 – Sep 2017)

Great Wolf Resorts, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Consulted with Great Wolf on an analytical project.

  • Matched $13 million of credit card transactions to reservations (SQL Server)

Senior Lead Informatics Analyst (Jun 2014 – Jun 2017)

Health Data & Management Solutions, Chicago, Illinois, United States

ETL, report, and analytics developer for a business intelligence tool.

  • Decreased time and simplified ETL process for large, external medical claims data sets (SAS)
  • Reduced costs for clients by identifying low-value services (SAS)
  • Decreased time and simplified ETL process for large, external medical claims data sets (SAS)

Data Scientist (May 2012 – Jun 2014)

Healthgrades, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Analyzed website, call center, and medical encounter activity data.

  • Automated market configuration tool based on interviews with users (PostgreSQL, Excel)
  • Drove sales by providing sales team with market analytics and projected ROI (SQL, Excel)

Programmer Analyst (Jul 2011 – May 2012)

UW Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Data architect and EMR ETL developer for research data model.

  • Automated and simplified ETL, and improved patient medical home assignment logic (SAS)
  • Propelled research on complex medical topics by providing accurate data sets (SAS)

Clinical Data Analyst (Jul 2010 – Jul 2011)

UW Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Analyzed medical record data on patient quality measures.

  • Automated pay-for-performance reporting pipeline based on interviews with users (SAS, Excel)
  • Salvaged historical quality measure data for data warehousing and reporting (SAS)

Health Care Analyst II (Sep 2008 – Jul 2010)

Dean Health Plan, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Provided analytical insight on medical claims data.

  • Managed HEDIS data ETL project / analyses, coordinating activities with another analyst (SAS)
  • Developed a complex algorithm for identifying primary care provider in an open network (SAS)

Researcher (Sep 2005 – Jul 2008)

Renaissance Learning, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Conducted quasi-experimental research on product use and student achievement.

  • Demonstrated efficacy of products in improving achievement on a state standardized test (SPSS)
  • Communicated research results to teachers and administrators

Education

Master's Degree in Applied Statistics (Sep 2020 – Dec 2024)

Pennsylvania State University, World Campus (Online), United States

  • Coursework: Regression, Experiments, Epidemiology, Machine Learning, Mulitvariate, Time Series
  • Programming Languages: Python, R, SAS

Bachelor's Degree in Psychology (Sep 2000 – May 2005)

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin, United States

  • Graduated with Honors and Summa Cum Laude
  • Psychology: Statistics, Research Methods, Independent Study, Honors Thesis
  • Additional coursework in mathematics and science
  • Thesis Title: Academic Performance and Study Behaviors of Traditional and Non-traditional Aged College Students
  • Cofounded and lead the Whitewater United for Peace student organization

Professional Credentials

  • Manager Boot Camp from Wisconsin School of Business (2022)
  • Certificate in Machine Learning (Python) from Enthought (2020) 
  • Certificate in Machine Learning (Octave) from Stanford University (2013)

Skills

  • Platforms: Azure Databricks, VS Code
  • Languages: SQL, Python, R, SAS, Bash
  • Reporting: Power BI, PowerPoint
  • Databases: SQL Server, SQLite, Oracle
  • Data Formats: Spark, Parquet, Excel, CSV
  • Machine Learning Techniques
  • Statistical Analyses
  • Design of Experiments
  • Causal Analyses
  • Algorithms and Automation
  • Reporting and Presentations
  • Data Transformation (ETL)

Volunteer Work

Founder and Lead of the Neurodivergent Support Group (Feb 2023 – Jul 2025)

Promega, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

I established a support group for parents of neurodivergent children. Over time, the group expanded to neurodivergent employees. I lead the group by scheduling regular group meetings, administering the online chat group, and maintaining a registry of members.

Foster Parent (Oct 2012 – Mar 2014)

Dane County, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

  • Cared for an infant foster child

Awards and Honors

Building Connections (2023)

"This award for Building Connection recognizes your commitment to uniting groups within the company to improve relationships, reduce conflict, and ensure that everyone's voices are heard and validated." I won this award for my efforts with the neurodivergent support group, along with two others, one of whom supported me in setting up and running the support group.


Major Achievements

Creative, full-stack data scientist using Python, R, SQL, and SAS. Skillful with statistical modeling and automation. Technically adept, always learning.

  • Identified forum threads similar to peer-reviewed journal articles and news articles related to a specific topic, using text analytics and clustering in Python and R. Assessed cluster independence with an ANOVA in R.
  • Assessed the efficacy of various programs, like a weight management program and an online sales promotion program, using observational data analysis techniques in SAS and R, including logistic regression and propensity score matching, with downstream MANCOVAs to assess efficacy. Assessed health care equity among various groups using similar techniques.
  • Extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) COVID-19 electronic medical records (EMRs) daily using SQL Server and Python. Developed COVID-19 admissions predictive models in Python, R, and Stan. Reported on predicted and actual data using Power BI. Identified patients at-risk of COVID-19 hospitalization to receive monoclonal antibody treatment. Replicated public COVID- 19 data on a personal database in PostgreSQL and used the data to develop a complex analysis of trends in race/ethnicity and the rate of spread for an epidemiological analysis methods course.
  • Created multiple algorithms for matching records across different systems or applying complex logic using SQL and SAS. Matched $13 million of credit card transactions to hotel reservations in SQL Server. Identified the primary physicians for patients in an open-network health insurance plan with SAS.
  • Automated several processes in SAS, SQL, and Python using various meta-programming techniques. Interviewed users to identify automation points and implemented techniques that improved data quality and downstream analytics.
  • Adept with communicating complex analyses to varied audiences, including colleagues, leaders, sales staff, and non-technical people.

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)