Power Session A

Data Storytelling For Scientific Communication 

Asya Spears, Rose Data Studio

About this power session

Most data visualizations designed for journal articles rely on the reader to identify and contextualize the key results of statistical analyses. This often involves synthesizing information from the methods, results, and discussion sections. Data storytelling principles provide a framework for arranging insights to highlight key results and implications so that audiences beyond the scientific community can connect with the findings, leading to opportunities for more effective dissemination and greater impact of research.

In this session, you will learn data design principles that you can use to take graphs beyond default settings to highlight the features of your research design, datasets, and results that you want audiences to recall long after the presentation ends.

By the end of this session, you will:

Understand the significance of telling a story with data.

Know four principles of data storytelling.

Transform a graph from standard publication format into one that communicates a story about the research findings.

We will use Excel to combine art and science, transforming a graph during the hands-on portion of this workshop.

Asya Spears is the founder of Rose Data Studio, a data education firm that cultivates a more diverse data workforce by building data literacy skills to enhance collaborations in population health and higher education. Through her research, teaching, and coaching services, Asya advances the statistics, data storytelling, and career design skills of people from all backgrounds who desire to advance equity in the sectors they enter.

 Known as the Chief Encouraging Officer of data, Asya's love for numbers is derived from a childhood passion for math turned into a desire to democratize data access and analysis. A firm believer that data can and should be another language we communicate with, she’s an expert in learning how to use data to creatively approach your career, pivot, and help others easily contextualize complicated concepts by teaching them what to look for in the data.

Asya received her M.S. in biostatistics from the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, her B.S. in mathematics from Spelman College, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.