Lisa Elkin

Lisa is a Senior Principal Computational Toxicologist at Pfizer where she builds R Shiny applications that help scientists analyze complex datasets, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions faster and with greater confidence. Prior to her role at Pfizer, she spent almost 20 years as a bench scientist in drug discovery where she led teams and conducted research in discovery biology, assay development, high-throughput screening, and ADME-Tox profiling. Realizing her passion for data, she made the leap from bench scientist to data scientist almost 8 years ago, shifting her focus from generating data to unlocking its insights.

Lisa is passionate about designing tools that truly make scientists’ work easier, drawing on her own laboratory experience to create solutions that fit real-world needs. Beyond her technical work, she is dedicated to learning, teaching, and fostering a collaborative data science community—believing that shared knowledge accelerates innovation and ultimately brings new medicines to patients sooner. Outside of work she enjoys pottery, pilates, and paddle boarding, and learned to crochet after last year’s posit::conf!

Lisa received her PhD in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Yale University prior to her work in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.

I'm a data science educator and community builder who wants to help you cultivate a community of practice for yourself. I talk a lot about the benefits of making genuine human connections, the power of vulnerability, and why we all benefit when we show up as our whole selves. I'm also the host of the Data Humans podcast where my motto is: data science is not one thing.

I love connecting people across the data science community to share what they're accomplishing with data and help others do the same through community discussions, industry meetups, and more.