Data x Direction

Welcome to Data x Direction: A New Lens on Data Science, Ethics, and Decision-Making. A JOPRO project.

Why This Newsletter Exists

We live in a time when data ands application influences nearly every domain — from healthcare to policy, education to entertainment. But as this influence grows, so does the need to think critically about how data is collected, analyzed, and applied. The consequences of data-driven decisions reach far beyond technical teams, shaping organizational strategy, public trust, and the lives of individuals.

Data x Direction exists to explore this intersection:

• How data science practices shape real-world decisions in leadership, policy, and product development.

• How ethical principles and responsible AI practices must evolve alongside technical capabilities.

• How interdisciplinary perspectives — from fields like psychology, design, and social science — can enrich the work of data scientists.

This is not a space for technical tutorials alone. Instead, it is meant to be a practical, reflective, and applied guide for data scientists, students, un-siloed investigators, and leaders who want to make data-driven decisions with a clearer understanding of their consequences. It is also for those who want to build data products and processes that are credible, and hopefully, “human-centered.”

Who Am I, and Why This Focus?

As a founder, I’m Jes, recent graduate with a Master’s in Data Science - this project originated during my capstone project for the program at University of California, San Diego, within its School of Computing, Information, and Data Science. Yet, my path to this point has not been purely technical. Before pursuing this degree, I spent several years working across startups, academia, research, and the nonprofit sector — often in roles where data was not just a technical tool, but a key input shaping teams, projects, and strategic decisions. I’m particularly interested in development, and what influences, across many fronts, from biology, to human development, to evolution of fields of study, to what we call machine intelligence or AI nowadays, as well.

My experiences have lead me to a particular sobriety relative to its functional power, and the power that is generated through its insight:

Data science does not exist in a vacuum. Its outputs inform leadership decisions. Its methods encode biases. Its choices become strategy; these choices matter, particularly relative to the speed of “everything else in the world”, relative to the rapidity of technological advance.

In short, data direction matters: in one sense, we’re all data scientists now - or at least, we need to be. Understanding how to steer it responsibly is as much a leadership challenge as it is a technical one. This newsletter is where I will build and share that perspective, bridging data science, data ethics, and applied decision-making for those working at the intersection of data and leadership.

What to Expect

Each week, I will share content focused on one or more of these themes:

• Data Science and Ethics in Practice
  Case studies of ethical challenges in real-world data work
  Applied frameworks for ethical decision-making in data projects
  Analysis of key trends, controversies, and research papers

• Reproducibility, Transparency, and Trust
  Practical tools and workflows for building reproducible, trustworthy data pipelines
  Lessons from research and industry on creating credible data work

• Human-Centered AI and Interdisciplinary Insights
  How social science, design thinking, and ethics shape better AI systems
  Interviews (eventually) with experts across disciplines

• Career, Leadership, and Decision-Making with Data
  Skills and mindsets data scientists need to influence ethical decisions
  Personal reflections from my own path — from interdisciplinary research to data science

Why Subscribe

Whether you’re a data scientist looking to develop a sharper decision-shaping skillset or ethical compass, a student aiming to build a relevant and impactful career, or a leader trying to make sense of the data shaping your decisions, this is meant for you.

The goal is to provide practical insights informed by both technical practice and the human side of data work.

Subscribe if you want

• Clear explanations of important technical and responsibility-related challenges in data science

• Case studies, frameworks, and tools that bridge theory to practice

• A voice that takes ethics, leadership, and decision-making as seriously as code, models, and pipelines

Building This Together

I am not positioning myself as a finished expert, and perhaps more so, I am most interested in the questions where there is not a certified expertise within. I am a practitioner and researcher in progress, sharing both insights and ongoing questions - and I am someone deeply interested in understanding the role of data in how we discern the present, and prospect the possible paths ahead.

If this resonates, I hope you will follow along and be part of this evolving conversation.