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When Crevita Moody '14, ‘17, ‘18 was growing up in Ohio, she could never have known that her life would lead her to exotic locales around the world, working on Hollywood sets with household-name stars, exploring sunken ships deep underwater and, perhaps most notably, working as the first female data scientist at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
It all began with her love of STEM.
“I have always had an affinity for math,” she explains. “I found it to be the most objective of all the subject matters in high school.”
It was also the key that would unlock an exciting—and remarkable—career.
A growing passion for data science
After high school, many of Moody’s friends expected her to go into acting or sports since she had been involved in theater and basketball. She had something else planned, though.
“I went to community college to get all of my electives for college done on the cheap,” she says.
She initially enrolled in a paralegal program, but she shifted to graphic design once she was financially stable. Already a freelance photographer, this allowed her to engage her creative side, and she quickly learned that that she enjoyed coding.
“I started doing Python, which is a computer programming language popular in data science,” she notes. “It’s not only used for websites. It’s also used to create machine learning algorithms.”
She was introduced to applied statistics in her program, too. A lightbulb went off for her when her teacher started describing data science and she realized that it combined her love of programming languages with math and statistics.
“I thought, ‘Oh yeah. I’m in,’” she says.
She was living abroad with her husband who was serving in the U.S. Navy. She had the time to continue her studies and went on to earn two master’s degrees: an MBA in International Business and a Master of Science in Data Analytics, both from UMGC.
Stepping stones
As a military spouse, Moody didn’t have a work visa. With her degrees in hand, she had to find something else to fill her time. She began teaching English to children in rural parts of Japan, and she traveled around Asia, including adventures SCUBA diving at shipwrecks in Thailand.
After more than a decade of living in Italy and Japan with the Navy, she and her husband moved to California. She learned she was pregnant in January 2020, just weeks before the official start of the pandemic. Again, she would have to wait to launch her data science career.
In the meantime, she focused on caring for her son in the midst of pandemic restrictions. Eager to finally use the skills she learned at UMGC, she was able to start volunteering for the nonprofit Humanities Forward and did some data engineering for their grants department.
“I was thrilled to apply what I had learned in the real world,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I can fly.’”
A career in flight
Building on this initial success, Moody was thrilled to learn about a data scientist role at the FAA from a friend she had made during her degree program at UMGC. Intrigued by the role, she applied for the job—and got it. Initially a contract position, her FAA manager hired her for a full-time position a year later.
In her role, she takes pride in creating predictive models with precision, high accuracy and recall. A natural collaborator, she develops web scraping algorithms, user-friendly interfaces, and innovative solutions to data processing issues.
“Data scientists are called to do many things,” she explains. “The objective in my role at the FAA is always to try to improve the safety of the U.S. airspace.”
It's not all work
Moody credits her diverse range of interests with contributing to her success. She enjoys acting, which she says has helped her hone her public speaking and presentation skills. Her graphic design background helps her with data visualization so she can clearly communicate her findings to colleagues. Even her coursework in psychology helps her develop presentations that resonate with her audiences.
“I see the interconnection of everything we do. Nothing happens in a vacuum,” she insists. “The real secret to life is to expose yourself to as many things as you can. This helps to inform how you act and problem solve in a given situation.”
Words of wisdom
Moody has some words of advice to alumni and students hoping to break into the field of data science. First, she encourages them to have a growth mindset.
“This is a willingness to continue to learn and grow your knowledge as it pertains to the field of data science,” she says.
She also advises them to cultivate resilience in themselves, which will help them bounce back from any setbacks along the way, such as the many she encountered as she was starting her own career. Lastly, to thrive in data science, it’s essential to be curious when diving into data, especially when there are unexpected findings.
“[You have to be able] to respond to changes in your environment with curiosity instead of fear and dread,” she adds.
A wide-open future
In her role at the FAA, Moody is finally in her element—and she’s loving every minute of it.
“I love conveying my findings and what we do in a way non-technical people can understand,” she says. “I love demystifying and democratizing data science.”
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