Mary St Jean

Now an experienced statistical programmer and data analyst, my professional journey from makeup artist to data professional exemplifies resilience and determination. Hailing from Nashua, New Hampshire, I am inclined to research and innovation; I am also an active community member, real estate investor, and single mom of two. Born and raised in Rhode Island, I have always had a passion for learning, a trait I imbue in my children. I have two children who consistently excel academically and place at the regional and national levels in academic competitions. Balancing my role as a single mom and enabling my children to explore their potential speaks to my skills and passions. Before my current role, I worked as a makeup artist, emphasizing confidence and personal expression in all clients. Trading makeup brushes for a MacBook Pro, I started a graduate program in data science at Harvard in 2019 with zero prior experience, driven by the purpose of creating a meaningful life for my children. I studied MIT OpenCourseWare to learn the math skills needed to succeed in my courses and pulled innumerable all-nighters to learn R, statistics, and Python at the level and pace required for the program. This fierce determination and passion led me to graduate from Harvard in 2022 with a number of academic accolades. I was hired at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) four months before graduation, illustrating my exceptional caliber of multi-tasking as any single mom does best. To deepen my field of expertise, I was accepted to Dartmouth for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Health Data Science. Pursuing a second Ivy League quantitative master’s degree, I enrolled full-time on campus while continuing to work at MGH—perhaps the only single mom and nontraditional student who’s even attempted to do so.