CFHN Board Member, Dante Haywood, Becomes New Director of Data Science at Cape Fear Collective!

CONGRATULATIONS DANTE!

From Cape Fear Collective:

We’re so excited to announce our new Director of Data Science, Dante Haywood! Haywood has been with CFC since January ’21. He was originally drawn to the organization because of its commitment to using data to make unique positive impacts. Haywood reflected, “It was not just that CFC had a data mission, it was how that data would be collected, store, and used. Too often, data is an inaccessible and mysterious field of work, but during my interviews and conversations, CFC was breaking down those barriers to demonstrate that we can make more impact by humanizing the story of data in our everyday lives.”

Haywood’s proudest accomplishment at CFC was engineering the programming scripts that keep the Community Data Platform running. He notes, “Part of what you don’t see behind the scenes at CFC are all the programs that run on our laptops and in the cloud. They provide the data team with a base to remain nimble so that we can quickly get data into people’s hands. Without them, we would not be able to affect as many organizations as we do. Shoutout to all the updates to these scripts by our data team over the past couple years.”

When Haywood speaks with a new community member, nonprofit leader, or public official, he loves seeing their eyes light up with possibilities. His favorite part of his job is the ability to remove technical barriers, secure funding, and collaborate with people to achieve more than either party initially thought possible. “We have direct effects on the community at CFC, but adding inspiration where we can is one of the most rewarding impacts for me,” Haywood says.

Looking into the future, Haywood’s goal is to use his new role to further strengthen CFC’s data science capabilities and social impact measurement. He says, “Data science is a swiftly moving field with new technologies always around the bend. We have a huge horizon for bringing these technologies to the public. I want to rally our partners in a way that creates the most systemic impact.”