Name: Margaret Cunniff
Job title: Data scientist
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), BS 2013; University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Ph.D. 2019
Years of hockey experience: 3
Describe your job in 2-3 sentences: My job is figuring out how to use data from various sources to improve the performance of our hockey team. That can range from thinking about new ways to quantify hockey to figuring out how to best communicate insights so people throughout the organization can take advantage of them.
What was the first career you dreamed of having as a kid?
For a long time, my main dream was to be a large animal veterinarian! After that, I wanted to be a science journalist.
What sports did you play, and enjoy most or least, growing up?
In middle school and high school, I played field hockey. I was also an ice hockey fan but didn't play myself until college, when I happened to live on a dorm floor that had an intramural team. My current job owes a lot to my college roommate, a very talented hockey player and software engineer who helped me learn how to code and how to skate.
What are your hobbies and why do you enjoy it/them?
I enjoy knitting, sewing, and other fiber arts. I like working with my hands to make something tangible. There's also a lot of overlap between the kinds of patterns and math involved in crafting and what I find appealing about working in data analysis.
Are you a morning person or night owl?
Night owl
What's your favorite book?
"A Wrinkle in Time"
What's your favorite movie or TV show?
"Yellowjackets"
