Data Driven Leadership

Every AI hallucination, every bad output, and every broken dashboard traces back to the same root cause. Your data was never ready in the first place.   In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Mark Marshalek to talk about why data governance is having a major comeback in the age of AI. Drawing on his leadership experience at Farmers Insurance and his work as a Senior Lecturer at The Ohio State...

In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Nicola Smith , senior AI advisor at Southwest Airlines, to explore how organizations can operationalize AI strategically and build a workforce ready for the future. Nicola shares her insights on AI literacy, human-centered design, and creating a mindset of abundance that empowers employees rather than creating fear.    In this episode, you'll learn: How...

How can business and IT leaders align on AI and make smarter decisions together? Jess Carter reflects on conversations with business, IT, and data leaders across industries, sharing common themes she has observed around AI adoption. She discusses the disconnect between technical teams and business stakeholders, and offers practical advice on how to bridge that gap, build confidence with AI, and fo...

When times get tough, we rely on leaders to make the hard decisions. That's why their character is so critical—it can make or break a team, a company, or even an entire organization.  In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Ernest O'Boyle to explore the "dark triad" of leadership and how these toxic traits can quietly sabotage a workplace. Professor Ernest shares his research on how these trai...

AI can make decisions fast. But weak data foundations still slow everything down. In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Senior Director of Data Platform & Governance at Hungryroot Ben Ganzfried to discuss what it takes to build trust in data as companies grow. At Hungryroot, data does more than support reporting. It informs recommendations, recipes, and inventory decisions. Ben shares lesson...

Some moments define the kind of leader you are. When the stakes are high and the data is incomplete, your character becomes the strategy. In this episode, former FBI agent Herbert Stapleton joins Jess Carter to explore the role of integrity, decision-making, and leadership in high-stakes environments. Drawing from his two decades of experience in federal law enforcement, Herb shares his insights o...

Many organizations are adopting AI tools at record speed. Few are stepping back to ask whether they are meaningfully transforming how work gets done. In this episode of Data-Driven Leadership, Jess Carter sits down with Sindhu Venkata , Vice President of Technical Delivery at Resultant , to discuss what intentional AI leadership looks like. Sindhu introduces the idea of the "AI speed trap" — the c...

Data can point to the right answer, but negotiation determines whether it happens. In this episode of Data Driven Leadership, Jess Carter sits down with Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow , Clinical Associate Professor of Business Law and Management at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University .  They discuss why negotiation is a core leadership skill that transforms the way you approach tough...

How can leaders make better data-driven decisions? Jess Carter shares some of her recent reflections on leadership, from improving workflows within the organization to navigating AI. She talks about how leaders can stay hands-on, spot problems before they turn into bigger issues that impact the business, and earn their team's trust. In this episode, you'll learn: The questions leaders need to ask...

"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." This saying rings true when it comes to AI adoption in today's fast-paced world. While everyone seems to be rushing toward the next big AI breakthrough, the reality is that hasty decisions often lead to costly mistakes. In this episode of Data-Driven Leadership, Jess Carter sits down with Patrick McQuillan , global head of AI and data governance at a Fortune 500 c...

2025 was a breakthrough year for AI adoption, with new tools enabling seamless integration between business and technical teams. Organizations leveraged AI to improve operations, enhance decision-making, and unlock growth opportunities, though not without challenges. In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Michael Schwarz , Senior Vice President of Professional Services at Resultant , to refle...

With the right data foundation, hospitals can better support medical staff and improve patient outcomes. Tony Pastorino , commercial health strategy lead at Resultant , joins Jess Carter to discuss how data-driven insights are transforming hospital efficiency. Tony shares his experiences from overseeing information systems at IU Health. He also highlights the critical role of predictive analytics...

What can we learn from the leaders shaping the future of tech, health care, and cybersecurity? In this solo episode, Jess Carter reflects on recent conversations with industry leaders across various fields. Each discussion reveals how mission, people, and structure drive key leadership decisions and strategies. Jess invites listeners to pause and consider their own leadership: How clear is your mi...

In today's fast-paced world, organizations can't rely on static, long-term plans. Strategies must continuously evolve to stay relevant. In this episode, Resultant EVP of Professional Services Mike Hughes shares his insights on leading through rapid change. He discusses how to maintain organizational health, align culture with strategy, and foster clarity and accountability across teams. Mike also...

AI is everywhere, but it can't succeed without the judgment, creativity, and collaboration of real data science. In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Alexa Myers , senior data science manager at Resultant , for a conversation about building successful data science teams. They discuss how isolation can hinder even the most skilled data scientists, and what happens when organizations pursue o...

Organizations are racing toward digital and AI transformation, but the same problem keeps showing up: people aren't ready. In this replay episode, Jess Carter revisits her conversation with Allison Grayson , Senior Director of Organizational Change Management at Resultant . They explore the fundamentals that ensure change is well implemented in an organization. Allison explains why strategy and te...

Private companies can be mission-driven. And in today's market, they have to be.  Rob Seaman , Chief Product Officer at Slack , joins Jess Carter to discuss how leading with purpose helps build better teams and better products. Rob shares lessons from Slack's integration with Salesforce, including the importance of staying close to customers, balancing speed with quality, and accepting that produc...

From TikTok skits to tech leadership, Kelly Vega shows why project managers are more than task trackers. As program director at VML and the creator of Not the Worst PM , Kelly has built a following by turning the chaos of project management into relatable, entertaining content. In this episode of Data-Driven Leadership, she joins Jess Carter to share what she's learned leading complex digital proj...

A single error in a medical record can change a child's life.  Theresa Meadows has spent her career making sure that doesn't happen. In this episode, Jess Carter talks with Theresa, who recently transitioned from CIO at Cook Children's Health Care System to a new role at symplr . Theresa recalls her unlikely path from transplant nurse to technology leader and shares how those dual perspectives inf...

Most data projects don't collapse because of the tech. They collapse when stakeholders aren't involved in the right ways. In this episode of Data-Driven Leadership, Jess Carter sits down with  Veronika Durgin , VP of data, to explore why stakeholder engagement makes or breaks a data strategy. Veronika also shares lessons from two decades in data, from troubleshooting transactional databases to lea...

One phone call. One click. That's all it takes. In this episode, Jess Carter talks with Jeffrey Foresman , VP of Cybersecurity at Resultant , about why today's most dangerous breaches don't start with technical flaws, but with people.  With over 30 years in the field, Jeffrey shares stories of social engineering attacks that bypass sophisticated defenses, explains why traditional compliance measur...

Regional workforce boards often have access to labor market data but lack tools to make it usable for the communities they serve. In this episode, Jess Carter talks with Executive Director Phedra Redifer and Workforce Research Analyst Jacob Jimenez from Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas about how their team created interactive dashboards tailored to local needs across 14 counties. Phedra...

Public sector leaders are sitting on a wealth of valuable data. But too often, they can't act on it.  In this episode, Jess Carter talks with Jeremy Bhatia , founder and CEO of Eddi , about how his platform helps government-funded organizations make sense of scattered financial and performance data. Jeremy shares what led him to start Eddi, how the pandemic brought long-standing issues in grant fu...

From writing better emails to helping her son learn the alphabet, Jess Carter is using AI in unexpected ways. In this Q&A episode, Jess shares how she's integrating AI into both her professional and personal routines, with real examples that span leadership, data storytelling, parenting, and everyday problem-solving. She offers practical advice for getting started with AI, from building stronger p...

Most people know Duolingo as the fun language app with the green owl, but behind the scenes, it's a data science team using AI and analytics to transform how we learn. In this episode, Jess Carter sits down with Bilal Zia , head of data science and analytics at Duolingo , to discuss what it takes to lead with data within one of the world's most popular edtech platforms. Bilal shares how his team b...