The Data Analyst

When Priscilla Pamela was growing up in Venezuela in the 1990s, it seemed from news reports that the biggest threat to humanity was an asteroid on a collision path with Earth.

“I told my mom that I wanted to work at NASA when I grew up, but not to be an astronaut,” she says. “I wanted to be an astronomer to do something that would help save humanity.”

Today, Pamela is a data analysis manager for Care Resource Community Health Centers, a federally qualified community health organization that assists people in the South Florida area, mostly underrepresented minorities. The center serves some of the region’s most vulnerable populations, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community, those living with HIV/AIDS, underserved and underinsured patients, unhoused or homeless people, and those living below federal poverty guidelines.

Her journey from astronomy to data analysis began in Miami, where she learned enough English to attend community college. She later transferred to Florida International University (FIU) and planned to major in astronomy. But she began to get disillusioned.

“It was too if this, then that—too out there, literally,” Pamela says, “and I needed something that was more down to Earth.” She switched to working with the nuclear and particle physics group at FIU.

“You might think, ‘Well, you can’t really see particles either, right?’” she says. “But we can build accelerators and smash things together and measure things.”

Pamela became president of the FIU’s founding Society of Physics Students chapter, leading the effort to secure funding for activities, events, and trips. “I started getting creative, and it became a community,” she says.

The chapter was even given a dedicated space, dubbed the Physics Learning Center. “The more people joined, the bigger and better it got,” Pamela says.

As Pamela was finishing her bachelor’s degree, a professor recruited her to help start the physics education research group at FIU, and she became the school’s first graduate student in what was then a fairly new field.

“And so focusing on people is where I landed,” she says. “I went from galaxies to particles to people, and I decided to remain with people because it fulfilled that original desire. I found out that I can indeed help to save humanity, even if humanity doesn’t mean all humans, even if it means a few humans or one human, even if that human is myself.”

After earning her master’s degree, Pamela took a job in health care. Though she started out knowing little about the field, she’s now passionate about her work, which involves pulling and analyzing data, preparing reports, and leading a team of staff members—all in service to vulnerable communities.

She calls it “data with a purpose.”

“We are one of the cutting-edge health centers, highly recognized at the national level for HIV care,” she says. “We had a big role to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing services and vaccination, testing, treatments, and more, especially to underserved communities in the area.”

The work has its challenges. “The political climate has a direct impact on our ability to provide care to some of our patients in most critical need,” she says. “Transgender bills introduced in Florida in recent years, as well as changes in women’s reproductive health mandates at the state and federal level, limit our ability to reach and retain patients in care. Immigration laws and changes are also very impactful to the South Florida population.”

Though more direct paths to a career in data analysis now exist, Pamela believes her training in physics and education also prepared her for what was ahead.

“Physics taught me how to be a problem solver,” she says. “That’s what I do. I solve problems.”

To students interested in entering the field of data analytics, “Data is everywhere,” she says. “There’s a strong push for ‘big data,’ but ‘small data’ is still very much out there and in strong need of problem solvers and skilled professionals—especially recent graduates.”

In addition to technical skills, Pamela says it’s important to hone abilities in teaching or training others, presenting across different levels of expertise, and communicating effectively. Being open to finding unconventional solutions to problems and having diverse interests are also essential to success, she says—as is networking. “Being part of SPS is a great first step in cultivating those connections.”