By Austin Carroll ’26
Three Bucknell alumni working in data-focused roles—Elise Perazinni ’15, Lauren LeoGrande ’21, and Thomas Okonak ’97—joined Professor Kelly McConville, Director of the Dominguez Center for Data Science, for a virtual panel discussion streamed to a packed classroom of Bucknellians. The conversation explored their career paths, the impact of their Bucknell education, and how artificial intelligence is transforming their work.
The panelists unanimously agreed that their time as Bucknell students prepared them to tackle complex problems in their careers. Ms. Perazinni, Data and Audience Strategy Lead at L’Oreal, expressed appreciation for the problem-solving skills she developed as a political science student, which prepared her for the challenge of marketing L’Oreal’s array of skincare products to new demographics. While pleased with the skills their education provided them, they expressed regret over not taking advantage of the wide-range of courses offered by Bucknell–with statistics and marketing courses marked for their potential utility.
When the discussion turned to AI, Mr. Okonak, Vice President of Data, Analytics, and AI at Avaap, described building a predictive model to identify Ohio communities at high risk of overdose incidents. Ms. LeoGrande and Ms. Perazinni shared how they use AI tools to enhance everyday tasks—writing emails, creating presentations, and automating reports.
In their concluding remarks, panelists offered career advice relevant to all, data enthusiast or otherwise. Mr. Okonak advised the crowd to let their imaginations riot: ask questions, seek answers, and explore unbounded territory, noting that it’s his most curious employees that make the most attractive candidates for promotions. He suggested that attendees start learning about LLMs and how to responsibly leverage ChatGPT. Echoing Mr. Okonak, Ms. LeoGrande observed that her colleagues that stand out are the ones who best understand their company’s evolving technologies. Ms. Perazinni’s final remarks emphasized the value of communicating technical analyses to a non-technical audience. In an increasingly technical economy, there’s a great demand for people who not only understand complex methodologies or technology but can make them intelligible to decision makers.