About

Now

I'm a data scientist at Essentia Health.

Before

I have a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota, where I studied American political institutions — mostly Congress, and how race and power shape the policies it produces. After finishing my degree I taught as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where I ran courses on American government, political methods, and voting behavior.

The switch

Political science trained me to ask well-specified questions, be skeptical of clean narratives, and back claims up with data. That turned out to transfer well.

Off the clock

I'm a recovering academic who still can't turn off the instinct to ask "what's your identification strategy?" In my non-work life, I cheer for midwestern sports teams, explore state parks, and watch a healthy amount of PBS.

Elsewhere

Some of my old academic and technical writing — R tutorials, congressional-politics commentary, conference slides — lives on in the archive and theblog.

Contact

The most reliable way to reach me is adam@adamolson.org. I'm also on GitHub andLinkedIn.