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me
river

"You cannot step into the same river twice"
~ Heraclitus

A bit about me...

Monica Kay Royal

When I am not sitting in front of my laptop, I like to enjoy the outdoors (when it is not blazing hot in the AZ sun).  There are an abundance of hiking trails to choose from around the valley, all with the best views!

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I am a general health/fitness nut, so I also enjoy cooking.  I experiment often and do not have any limits to what I will try.  However, I always enjoy spicy dishes the most!  â€‹One other activity I enjoy is dancing.  I danced all throughout my childhood, into college, and still today.

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Professionally, I like to think that I'm like Liam Neeson. I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Just over 14 years (ok, maybe not that long...)

My formal education is in Accounting and Management Information Systems. This allowed me to start my career as an IT Auditor and get my CPA, CISA, and CISM certifications.

Throughout my career, I made sure to participate in all the varieties of projects available to me. Information Security, Logical/Physical Security, Cybersecurity, Application Controls, Change Management, Social Engineering, Vulnerability scans and Pen testing, Data Privacy, Financial Analysis.

Once I was introduced to Data and Analytics, I was hooked and on the move. I progressed to areas where I was able to be more involved with data, specifically data governance, data management, data literacy, and data visualizations. I advanced into enterprise analytics where I was exposed to programming and data science. I even briefly served as a system administrator, which was probably my most unique experience. Well, besides my first job in Food Management.

At one point, I moved back into cybersecurity where I could focus on my passion for data overlapped with security, risk, and compliance; specifically related to behavioral analytics by obtaining formal training in Behavior Design and the art of measuring anything in cyber risk with FAIR.

And now we've arrived in present times...

 

My current mission involves helping others in the data community learn and grow 🌱

 

I'm working for myself at nerdnourishment offering Data Career Coaching and Audit Analytics & AI Consulting. I'm an instructor with LinkedIn Learning and edX where I enjoy sharing all my knowledge I have collected thus far about data. I also have a very fun podcast called the Data Podcast for Nerds! 🤓

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Tools Used to Assist in my Journey
- Typical data related skills

- A set of adjustable dumb bells

- Propane and propane accessories

- Knowledge of awesome nerd related topics 

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