FROM DATA POINTS TO STORYTIME: How Chandra Donelson Turned a Pandemic Moment into a Publishing Movement
In 2020, the world paused. For Chandra Donelson, that pause came in the form of a 600-square-foot apartment, a laptop on the kitchen table, and a four-year-old son asking the most profound question of the pandemic: What is data? At the time, Donelson was juggling a full-time role as a data manager for the Department of the Army and pursuing a master’s in data science and analytics from the University of Missouri. In between Zoom meetings and coursework, she found herself trying to explain the concept of data to her curious son an endeavor that turned out to be surprisingly difficult.
CHANDRA DONELSON IS MAKING DATA COOL – ONE CARNIVAL AT A TIME
When Chandra Donelson’s son mistook “data” for a tree, she didn’t laugh. She paused, and then she pivoted. It was a fair day in every sense of the word. Donelson and her young son William were at a local carnival, walking between food stands and rides, enjoying a moment of relief in what had been a long creative struggle. Months earlier, Donelson had abandoned her passion project – a children’s book about data after what felt like her hundredth rewrite failed to pass the most important test: understanding.