Event: September 2024 with Robert Reny (#128)

Author: AnthonyRollins

_data/speakers.yml

@@ -347,4 +347,10 @@ Joe Nicchitta:
     name: "Joe Nicchitta"
     photo: "../images/joe-nicchitta.jpg"
     title: "Chief Deputy CEO"
-    org: "County of Los Angeles" 
+    org: "County of Los Angeles"
+
+Robert Reny:
+    name: "Robert Reny"
+    photo: "../images/robert-reny.jpg"
+    title: "Associate Resource Specialist"
+    org: "Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)" 

_posts/2024-09-26-data-donuts-44.md

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+layout: post
+
+#event information
+title:  "Building a Data Science Community"
+date:   2024-09-26 08:00+0800
+start_time: "08:00am"
+end_time: "10:00am"
+
+location: LACI
+cover: ../images/la-kretz-campus.jpeg
+
+#event speaker details
+speakers: 
+ - "Robert Reny"
+eventbrite: "https://eventbrite.com/tickets-external?eid=989273031267&ref=etckt"
+slides: ""
+video: ""
+---
+
+## Starting a Data Science Community within a Public Agency
+
+As data science has become more widespread and accessible our team saw an opportunity to begin a more formal practice or community within Metropolitan Water District. Come hear about what this has looked like, what we mean by a data science practice, some lessons learned along the way, and where we are at now.
+
+### About Robert Reny
+
+Robert is an Associate Resource Specialist within the Water Resources Management Group at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). At MWD Robert works on projects that involve spatial data including understanding crop water use and landscape area trends in Southern California. Related to this work, the team at MWD is also in the midst cultivating a data science community on the floor. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Engineering from Northern Arizona University and a Master’s of Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Environmental Health Science. He previously worked at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board as a Water Resources Engineer but he left in 2020 to start an Environmental Science and Engineering Doctorate at UCLA.
+