We’re beyond grateful to welcome yet another stellar member to the DataKind team. Please join us in celebrating Gwen Hopkins as DataKind’s new Director, Operations.
Gwen is a master at process and workflows and will work closely with our Chief Operating Officer to develop and implement systems that promote organizational growth over the next several years. She’ll help to drive interconnectedness across DataKind by supporting our Global Volunteers team with legal support, designing and ensuring progress against our dashboard, co-leading annual planning processes, and much more. With her passion for increasing the efficacy of social sector talent and organizations, Gwen will also ensure that our day-to-day activities run smoothly in pursuit of our mission. Needless to say, we couldn’t be more delighted to have her aboard, and we know she’ll do great work here.
Learn more about Gwen below, and please give her the warmest of DataKind welcomes!
What were you up to before DataKind?
Prior to joining DataKind, I was Director of Operations at Global Health Corps (GHC), working across offices in New York, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia to recruit and support emerging leaders in global health. During my time at GHC, I supported the design and rollout of two strategic plans, streamlined programmatic and administrative work streams through process and systems improvement, and created a series of interventions to mitigate unconscious bias in fellowship admissions. Previously, I’ve worked in public health at the service delivery level, providing technical assistance to community clinics and public hospitals, as well as the policy level, coordinating civil society convenings at conferences like the UN and WHO annual assemblies.
Why are you excited to join DataKind?
I love social sector organizations: our work is critical, difficult, and meaningful. I believe we need to realize our vision through strong management, support our colleagues to be effective and satisfied, and recruit anyone who likes solving problems to join us. At DataKind, I look forward to ensuring we have the right goals, infrastructure, and processes in place to be effective, so we can help data scientists join our growing movement and maximize the impact of the sector overall.
What do you like to do in your free time?
As a Brooklynite, I love walking, running, and biking in the borough, especially Prospect Park. As an English major, I love discovering great books. And, as a quality improvement nerd, I love finding new frameworks about making things – like teams, systems, processes, and change – work better, and attempting to train my dog, Bean.
