26: Data Equity with Heather Krause

"The scientific method is objective. The application of the scientific method is NOT objective," says today's guest, Heather Krause of We All Count. This is the heart of data equity, the concept that unexamined, unconscious decisions we make around data, analytics, and science can have unequal impacts and even result in inaccurate or misleading findings. It isn't about getting rid of data or giving up on science. Data equity is about strengthening our science and our data by becoming conscious and transparent with the decisions at every level - and opening the door to the possibility of different decisions.

She has built an extraordinary company around her passionate mission of bringing our unconscious decisions into the light. We All Count offers training, support, and resources to anyone looking to improve their data equity.

Heather Krause, PStat, is a data scientist with 20+ years in the field. She’s a cross-sector thought leader in data equity issues. She works on government, social sector, education, and corporate data projects. Her first company Datassist Inc. works globally with national governments, trans-national corporations, and the largest players in the NGO space. Her cutting-edge approach to project design, data collection, analysis, reporting and visualization have placed her in high demand as a project lead, a crisis consultant and a speaker on the subject of data equity. 

How Heather would put it: "I’m someone with the curse of having seen too much and the privilege of getting to do something about it. If you’re like me, you might not put too much stock in degrees and institutions and awards when it comes to equity. The best thing I can say about myself is that I really, really care about data and I really really care about people. I want my kids (and my dogs) to live in a world where they’re not afraid of data, where they feel like their data is valued and most importantly that they themselves are valued. It breaks my heart to hear stories where data isn’t solving problems but is causing injustice."