Emily Richmond Enriches ACEP With Her Statistical and People Skills

July 21, 2023
By Yuri Bult-Ito

Behind the quiet smile of Emily Richmond resides a powerhouse of statistical knowledge and willingness to learn new skills. Since joining ACEP in 2022 as a data science analyst, the scope of Richmond’s work has been rapidly expanding.

While hired for her statistical skills, Richmond jumped on a queue of more pressing projects as a data analyst. Her initial work involved data visualization for the Eielson Resilience Microgrid Data Archive project. She worked with data engineers on the project, bridging tech stacks — short for technology stacks, or lists of the technology services used to build and run a single application — to create meaningful visuals for the client. Their teamwork provided data, documentation, and reproducible code for the client to use for research. Richmond admits that adapting to automation and reproducible code was not easy and a new territory for her. However, she was happy to tackle the challenge using her preferred programming language R — a program used for statistical computing and graphical presentation to analyze and visualize data — and reflects that she now has a richer perspective on how to obtain and process data.

Among several recent projects including statistical analyses is the Electric North project, where she gathered population and energy data from remote Alaska communities to create an estimator for energy usage within the state. Another project is the Alaska Fuel Cost Study led by ACEP’s Dominique Pride, which seeks to understand human behavior regarding fuel usage among Fairbanks residents. Richmond is excited to have more statistically oriented projects coming her way in the near future.

In addition to statistics, Richmond loves wildlife. She earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and resource management with a minor in mathematics from the University of Washington. While an undergrad, she spent her summer months in the field, collecting data as a technician on various wildlife and forestry projects. She spent a few years in Fairbanks doing wildlife fieldwork in summer and sled dog touring operation in winter, then returned to school for her master’s degree in statistics at UAF. She completed her degree, with her research on Poisson point process models of intensity, shortly before joining ACEP.

Richmond is also a great people-person and enjoyed being a lab teaching assistant during her master’s degree studies. In fact, the strong organizational skills she demonstrated during her TA-ship were very attractive to the ACEP team.

Richmond treasures the quiet and vastness that Alaska offers, and you will likely find her at home in the hills with her family and three dogs. She is an avid skijorer and bikejorer. If you are new or a veteran to either sport looking for a buddy, look no further! You can join her and her dogs who love running and working alongside other dogs.

Recently joining a wonderful world of motherhood, she feels rewarded as a new parent and at the same time finds the hard reality of juggling work and family. As adventurous as she is, however, Richmond looks forward to outdoor fun with her new baby this summer.