Image of Leah Wasser generated from a headshot using an AI tool.

Hi there! I'm Leah :)

I’m a Remote Sensing Ecologist by training. Data scientist and educator by passion. I develop and lead programs that support open science through community building, outreach and education. I am also an avid long distance mountain trail runner.

I build programs that support open reproducible science

Banner with green leaves in the background that says Open Reproducible science allows scientists to build upon each others work.

Helping scientists build upon each other's work...

I build programs that help scientists process their data more efficiently using open reproducible methods.

Why re-invent a wheel that has already been painstakingly created?

Open and reproducible workflows allow scientists to build upon each others work. When scientists can reuse existing workflows, they focus more of their time in developing new analyses that in turn advance science more quickly.

Data science education should be open and available to everyone

customizable

Building maintained and tested open education resources for learning earth and environmental data science

Everyone should have access to in-demand data science skills. Publishing consistently maintained lessons and course materials online allows everyone with access to materials that will help them develop in job market demand skills.

Blog coming soon...

Image of people working at a computer.

We don't have to all suffer from imposter syndrome when learning data science.

Imposter syndrome is real in the science community when it comes to learning data science. I am passionate about helping people gain these valuable skills which are in high demand in today’s job market.

I designed and use a blended online & in-person teaching method which empowers students to chose the learning approach that best suits their needs. All of my courses ultimately are published online as open education resources because not everyone has the resources to attend a college to learn these skills.

Learn more

I design programs that support diverse groups pursuing careers in STEM

Supporting groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) is core to all of the programs that I have developed. This work inspires me to do more, every day.

To support programmatic diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility I:

  • Apply adaptive, evaluation-driven program design.
  • Let communities drive the program design based upon their needs.
  • Try my best to always listen and support.
  • Work to empower individuals when I see motivation and interest.
  • Create content that is accessibility to a broad audience.

Blog coming soon…

Empowering students at tribal and hispanic Serving schools with Earth and Environmental Data Science Skills

The Earth and Environmental Data Science Corps (EDSC) was a funded NSF-HDR program that I designed and developed. The goal: to build build capacity to teach and to learn earth and environmental data science skills at tribal and hispanic serving institutions. While training and a summer internship were one part of the program, I believe that training alone is not enough. The program sought to empower faculty at institutions to add data intensive curriculum to their courses. The core of the program included a summer program where we provided training to faculty and students in open, reproducible earth and environmental data science skills. The program supported faculty in both learning the skills and adding it to their existing courses.

Read More about the EDSC program

I development tools and build community around the open source tools that enable and drive open science

Free and open source software (FOSS) refers to free tools that make their code available to the public online. These free tools are critical as they drive an enable open science, by:

  • simplifying scientists workflows and
  • allowing scientists to more easily build upon each other’s work given the tools to run the workflows are freely available.

Over the past decade i’ve dedicated a significant amount of my time to learning best practices associated with using building open source tools.

And more recently I decided to dedicate my current career path to building community around open source software.

Imaging showing a person holding a yellow sticky note that says Python.

pyOpenSci: Open Source Python Software for Science

I founded and am now the Executive Director of pyOpenSci - a diverse, global community that supports the Python tools that drive open science through open peer review, training and mentorship. I am incredibly excited to be building this community and look forward to writing about the experience as I learn.

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