Amanda LaForest

Arvada, CO ¡ (269) 953-3057 ¡ amalaforest@gmail.com

Hi! 👋 my name is Amanda (nÊe West) and I'm a Lead AI/ML Engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton.

I specialize in machine learning, data engineering, and AI solutions with a focus on healthcare and national security. In my current role, I lead a team of data engineers and AI specialists within the FDA Data Modernization program, where I serve as a strategic AI advisor to executive leadership and oversee the professional growth of data science professionals.

Previously at FDA, I led illegitimate product detection efforts within the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, where I developed machine learning models to strengthen U.S. healthcare supply chain resiliency. I'm a certified Databricks Generative AI Engineer and Data Engineer, combining technical expertise with a passion for mentorship and knowledge sharing.

I hold an M.S. in Data Science from the University of Virginia and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Michigan (go blue!). I'm passionate about using AI to improve lives and advance healthcare, while maintaining a strong commitment to ethical AI practices and collaborative innovation.

Experience

Lead AI/ML Engineer, Associate

Booz Allen Hamilton

Lead a team of data engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists within the FDA Data Modernization program. Serve as strategic AI advisor to executive leadership, delivering technical recommendations for enterprise-wide AI adoption. Oversee professional growth of six data science professionals in a managerial role and provide technical and professional mentorship.

  • Led migration of enterprise-wide data warehousing modernization initiative processing 70TB of FDA regulatory data from legacy Oracle on-prem servers to AWS GovCloud and Databricks Delta Lake Platform
  • Architected key data ingestion validation workflows in Databricks using Python and PostgreSQL, decreasing manual deployment verification time by over 40 hours per monthly release
  • Spearheaded development of comprehensive data dictionary handling 16,500+ columns across 1,500 tables, significantly reducing data ingestion errors
  • Established weekly data science learning sessions fostering cross-team collaboration and accelerating adoption of AI through topics such as federated learning and modern data engineering architectures
January 2024 – Present

Senior Data Scientist

Daybreak, LLC / U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Led a team of four data scientists within the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Product Authentication Program. Synthesized eCommerce data using Python, SQL and Tableau to identify vulnerabilities threatening healthcare supply chain resiliency.

  • Piloted anomaly detection initiative focused on identifying illegitimate products at FDA, guiding the project through its entire lifecycle, from initial requirements gathering from SMEs to development in Python and visualizing findings in Tableau
  • Created, optimized, and measured KPIs for machine learning model designed to augment existing FDA import screening systems, resulting in a projected 33% reduction in hourly manual reviews
  • Led the development and implementation of numerous user-facing solutions in Tableau, allowing for quick internal review of millions of medical device records by FDA SMEs across shortage prevention and illegitimate product detection efforts
June 2022 – December 2023

Data Scientist

Daybreak, LLC / U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Streamlined flight trajectories for government aircraft by leveraging a faster-RNN deep learning pipeline in Python, automating the categorization of millions of vertical obstructions across dozens of distinct object classes in satellite imagery
  • Generated geospatial layers encompassing key environmental factors using Python, PostGIS, and QGIS to aid search and rescue teams in discerning relevant terrain for dozens of missing person investigations
  • Designed and optimized PostgreSQL queries to efficiently retrieve big data from AWS RDS and S3 and analyze in scalable EC2 instances, enhancing query performance through optimized indexing strategies
  • Designed company interview framework for all new data science applicants and conducted interviews to assess candidates' suitability for data scientist and senior data scientist roles
July 2021 – June 2022

Course Grader

University of Virginia, School of Data Science
  • Provided detailed feedback and mentorship to graduate students in Practice & Applications of Data Science in Python
  • Evaluated student projects focusing on data manipulation, visualization, and machine learning implementations
  • Held office hours to assist students with Python programming concepts and data science best practices
June 2021 – August 2021

Data Visualization Consultant

Clark Data Labs
  • Developed interactive data visualizations and dashboards using D3.js and Tableau
  • Created user-friendly interfaces for data exploration and analysis tools
  • Implemented geospatial visualizations for location-based data analysis projects
October 2019 – April 2020

Research Assistant

University of Michigan, Department of Economics
  • Conducted data cleaning and analysis using R, Excel, and Stata for economic research projects
  • Assisted professors with literature reviews and data collection for academic publications
  • Created reproducible data processing pipelines for research datasets
October 2017 – December 2019

Education

University of Virginia

Masters of Science in Data Science

GPA: 3.97
Student Class President
Coursework: Bayesian Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Data Visualization, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Data Ethics

July 2020 - May 2021

University of Michigan

Bachelor of Science in Economics (High Honors)

Minor in Mathematics
Honors Thesis: How Has the TRIPS Agreement Affected Intellectual Property Adherence?
Coursework: Intermediate Econometrics I & II, Linear Algebra, Calculus I-IV, Probability, Public Finance

Sept 2016 - May 2020

Beijing Language and Culture University

Intensive Mandarin Study
Department of State Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar
Sept 2018 - Dec 2018

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
Technical Skills
  • Tools: Python, SQL, AWS, Databricks, Cursor, Git, Bash, Excel, Tableau, QGIS, R, LaTeX, HTML, CSS
  • Topics: AI/ML, LLMs, Data Engineering, Natural-Language Processing, Deep Learning, Statistics, Data Visualization
Certifications & Professional Development
  • Databricks Generative AI Engineer Associate (March 2025)
  • Databricks Data Engineer Associate (December 2024)
  • Artificial Intelligence Engineer Expert, Booz Allen Hamilton (November 2024)
Technical Writing
  • Writer for Medium's Towards Data Science publication (2020-2022)
  • Over 100,000 views across articles about getting into data science
  • Portfolio: amalaforest.medium.com

Volunteer Experience

  • InnovateEDU

    Data Schema to Formalize Education R&D Using Natural-Language Processing

    • Published research: Data Schema to Formalize Education R&D Using Natural-Language Processing
    • Explored underlying structural differences in educational interventions using topic modeling and latent Dirichlet allocation
    • Collected and cleaned data from 100,000+ research articles using the ERIC API and processed results in Amazon SageMaker
    • Followed Agile methodology to meet objectives on time and presented deliverables to stakeholders at the end of each sprint

    August 2020 - May 2021

  • Virginia Department of Wildlife

    Predicting Chronic Wasting Disease in White-Tailed Deer using Neural Networks

    February 2021 - May 2021

  • Code for Charlottesville

    Understanding Racial Disparities In The Virginia Court System

    • Project: Understanding Racial Disparity In The Virginia Court System
    • Utilized PySpark's SQL and ML functionalities to calculate the predicted likelihood of being charged with a crime in Virginia for the Legal Aid Justice Center
    • Created interactive dashboard in Tableau to display which Virginia subpopulations experienced the largest racial disparities
    • Presented findings and obtained feedback from stakeholders at the Legal Aid Justice Center and Code for Charlottesville

    February 2021 - June 2021

  • MSDS Student Council President

    University of Virginia

    Class President of 72-Member Data Science Graduate Cohort. Led student initiatives and organized community service activities.

    October 2020 - May 2021

Interests

Besides learning all things data science and AI, I am a big fan of my adopted state of Colorado and love any opportunity to explore the nearby mountains. In the winter, I am an avid skier. During the warmer months, I enjoy hiking, camping, and most recently, running (as I had previously decided running "just wasn't my thing", this came as a big surprise). I try to absorb a new book or two a month, usually via audiobook, and so if you have any life-changing self-help or fantasy novel recommendations please send them my way!

In general, I think the hobbits know how to enjoy life and try to take direction from them. :)



Colorado Mountain View
Breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains
Skiing in Colorado
Winter adventures in the Colorado Rockies
Temple in China
Exploring ancient temples in Beijing

Achievements

Publications & Research
  • Coauthor, Data Schema to Formalize Education Research & Development Using Natural Language Processing, published in IEEE 2021
Speaking Engagements
  • Presenter, Mapping the Flow of Products Through the E-Commerce Supply Chain, INFORMS Business Analytics Conference 2023
  • Panelist, Women in Data Science (WiDS) Charlottesville 2022
Academic Honors
  • Class President, UVA School of Data Science Residential Student Council
  • 2nd Place, University of Chicago Econometrics Competition 2019
  • Recipient, Department of State Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar 2018
Athletic Achievements
  • 1st Place, Inaugural World University Games held in Muju, South Korea 2018
  • 1st Place, Collegiate National Taekwondo Championships 2017, 2018, 2019
  • All-American and Scholastic All-American, Collegiate National Taekwondo Association 2019

Credit: I used the ✨ Start Bootstrap Resume Theme ✨ by the talented David Miller, augmented by my own additions and Cursor. Thanks for reading!