Karen Hildebrand

I am inspired by the passion my family shows for agriculture and am excited for the opportunity to extend agriculture. My two boys and I reside in Minnesota, spending most of the summer on my parents farm in Manitoba. This time in Manitoba, along with my travel for my off the farm job gives me the opportunity to learn about other perspectives. As we reach a unique time in which agricultural data is becoming more available and accessible, it is an opportunity for data science and innovative technology to intersect with farming.

As a young girl growing up on the farm with my sister, I learned how hard working and physical farming can be. I often was not strong enough to complete jobs without my Dad, but I never let that stop me. I may have had to do things differently, but I was always trusted to find a way to make it happen. This taught me that we can all play different roles in what makes a farm successful. Be that driving a combine, hauling grain, feeding livestock or managing operations, finances or cooking meals we all have a unique niche that makes us undisputable contributors to farm life. I hope FarmFemmes continues and extends the conversation around what we can all contribute to maximizing farming operations.

I have worked off the farm in Data Science and leading Data Science teams across industries learning how big data can provide unique competitive advantages. I am excited to continuously learn, which means I have spent a lot of time in formal education! I hold an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, Management and Marketing as well as a Masters in Information Systems and a PhD in Information Systems specializing in Data Mining. All of this hard work in the classroom has continued to challenge how I think, and how data can be recombined and utilized to drive change. Finding new data that makes a difference to farming operations motivates me. I look forward to sharing my perspectives and some cool data tools and visualizations that help to improve your farming operations.