Lauren Charles recently took up string art as a hobby, motivated by her elementary-age daughter’s desire to hammer things. But the act of creating images by connecting many points together seems the perfect metaphor for how Charles approaches the world.
Charles is a senior data scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and professor at Washington State University’s Paul Allen School for Global Animal Health. In addition to her veterinary degree, she has a Ph.D. in fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology, and a master’s in plant biology and bioinformatics. Her bachelor’s degree is in mathematics and environmental studies.
Charles sees the world as a web of interconnections — a great strength for her role as analytics lead for BioFeed, a global bio-surveillance tool created at PNNL with support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The system helped U.S. analysts in December 2019 track what was then an unknown pneumonia sickening people in China. The virus was later dubbed COVID-19.
BioFeed requires the integration of disparate data to recognize emerging crises, using natural language processing and social media to predict disease outbreaks. Charles enjoys pulling together unrelated information, as well as people in different fields to facilitate collaboration across disciplines.
“I have always had an insatiable appetite for learning and exploring new things,” she said, “which has guided my life path.”
Charles is an advocate for One Health, an approach to addressing health issues by integrating the roles of humans, animals and the environment. The strategy is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has earned increased attention with the realization that the coronavirus that causes COVID originated in bats.
Charles traces her love of exploration and learning to her childhood. She grew up in New England in a small town, spent summers in the Appalachian Mountains and as a young adult began traveling the world and spending months in foreign countries, “immersing myself into the culture to better understand and appreciate a multitude of viewpoints and customs,” she said.
In addition to her professional roles, Charles has mentored more than 60 interns in recent years, from high school students to a post-doctoral research associate.
She recently started home schooling her two children, ages 8 and 10. Charles said her approach will emphasize time spent outside and some of her passion areas: biology, the interactions of life systems and mathematics. She takes a no-nonsense approach to education.
“I’m definitely someone who tells them straight how things are,” she said. “I don’t sugar coat it or baby it.”
We caught up with Charles for this Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for her answers to our questionnaire.
Current location: Kennewick, Wash.
Computer types: MacBook Pro
Mobile devices: iPhone 11
Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: Microsoft Teams has been the go-to for collaboration with Zoom in a close second because of the breakout room feature. I use Mural for brainstorming in multiple projects, strategy development and innovation workshops. Atlassian tools, like Confluence, Jira and Stash, are lifelines on projects to help track tasks, keep notes, reports, code, general collaborations spaces, etc. OneDrive has also been a great tool to share documents and work collaboratively.
Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? I like a couple of big monitors with a number of virtual desktops open, a window outside for natural light and a place to rest my eyes when I am in deep thought, some stickies to jot down quick notes, and my journal close by for random inspirational ideas.
I like to keep a bag of pretzels near, a big water bottle and herbal tea. On the walls, I have an oil painting or two that I did, some of my children’s artwork, as well as my degrees and other accomplishments to keep me inspired.
At home I have bookshelves with a variety of books on math, biomedical (human, animal and plant) sciences, environmental law/policy, travel, art, animal behavior and psychology, poetry and fantasy fiction. I have a comfy reading corner where I can snuggle up with a book or my laptop if I need to concentrate on one thing.
Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? Set aside separate times for work and life, but give yourself leeway if things come up unexpectedly. The lines between work and life have been blurred even more with the pandemic, especially for those of us with little ones, but that makes this even more important. Setting boundaries to keep them separate and communicating that to others helps manage expectations and makes it easier to live by them.
Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? LinkedIn is the closest I get to social network apps. I use it to network with new colleagues, past professional contacts, and recruiting for open positions. LinkedIn is where I found the posting for my initial postdoc position at PNNL five years ago. I occasionally use LinkedIn Learning to increase general knowledge on subjects and get an overview of topics of interest.
Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? Unread: 3,128 PNNL and 2,018 WSU; Unanswered is much lower. For emails that are directed at me, I aim to respond immediately or within the day either with an answer or to let the person know that I am working on a reply. I have learned that people who are responsive are the ones who I want to work with and respect more.
Number of appointments/meetings on your calendar this week? 31. Honestly, it’s too many for me to have focused time to concentrate and get stuff done during work hours. The side effect is that my mornings keep getting earlier and earlier.
How do you run meetings? Depends on the type or purpose of the meeting. The most common type is a project team weekly update. For these, I usually reserve multiple rooms because of the various locations of project team members. Even before the pandemic, video conferencing was key.
We start with brief greetings from around the “table” and then I give an update from the administrative side, relaying key information from sponsors, potential new or different requirements, and any kudos. Then we use a Jira board and go through each task. Each person gives an update and results when appropriate sharing their screen.
There is time for them to pose questions to the other team members as well as for the team members to pose questions to them. They end their turn with what their next steps are and if they have any blockers. The meeting adjourns with another round table ensuring that everyone has a task they are comfortable with and blockers are being resolved.
In terms of tasks and direction, it’s important to let the staff define their direction with suggestions and input from others. I don’t believe in telling people what to do, but rather help guide their thought process and be supportive of new and creative ideas when appropriate. I find people are more passionate and accountable when they feel like they own their work and are doing things because they want to. I trust and respect my team members and do what I can to help promote their science and give them opportunities to grow.
Everyday work uniform? Business casual — usually a blouse or sweater with pants, dark jeans, or long skirt and occasionally a dress. I will dress a bit more formal for sponsor meetings or bigger events and pull out a collared shirt or nice dress.
How do you make time for family? Family is as important to me as my career and pretty much fills up my time outside of working. I will drop whatever I am doing to make sure they are healthy, happy and safe. When they are out of school and the workday or week is over, I plan fun activities so we have something to look forward to.
Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? My best stress reliever is my kids. They help wipe away work thoughts and focus on how amazing they are. I love creating things and expressing myself through art — a hobby that I often get to do with my kids. I also spend time running and listening to podcasts on how to be a better leader and influence others so that I can have a stronger presence in helping shape the future.
What are you listening to? For music, it depends on my mood, but could be anything from folk to classic rock, indie, blues and classical to hip hop and R&B to country, pop, and international. Heavy metal and punk rock are the only ones that don’t make the cut. For podcasts, I usually choose something inspirational, including topics like leadership, realizing dreams, wildlife conservation and behavior, and anything One Health related.
Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? I often get daily emails from contact networks pointing me to the latest research advances, discoveries, strategies and reports on worldly events concerning infectious diseases, biodefense, health security and one health.
I also use BioFeeds, a PNNL-developed biosurveillance software that scans global open source data for events that are or have the potential to cause harm to humans, animals or plants. I lead the advanced analytics development for BioFeeds, which makes it an even more exciting read for me. Other likely scans are One Health Commission and Health Security Headline newsletters.
Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? I started “The Advantage” by Patrick Lencioni. I’ve been reading a lot on leadership and innovation the past few years. I believe that these key skills will help me to inspire others and shape a future where people understand that our health is intricately linked to the health of animals, plants and the environments we share.
Night owl or early riser? Early riser. I am most productive after a good night’s sleep and before anyone else in the house wakes up. My workday is often filled with meetings, which makes those quiet morning hours even more valuable. After I put the kids to bed, I am often up for an hour or so more just winding down for the day.
Where do you get your best ideas? Often it’s weekend mornings sitting outside on my back deck with a journal, sipping coffee before the house wakes up. I find writing down my thoughts on paper without judgement helps me to make sense of them and weave them together to create new, exciting ideas.
Other promising times are while running, driving to work, and the middle of the night. I have found that listening to Indian classical music has a way of focusing my mind and I become very productive.
On the other hand, I don’t do well when I am put under pressure to give a new idea, especially under time pressure to come up with one. My best ideas are usually after I’ve had some time to process on my own and think about the solution from multiple perspectives. Innovative ideas also tend to randomly pop-up when I am working on something completely different. I find I am really good at making connections between seemingly random things, which often lead to new ideas and directions.
And, of course, being surrounded by people who think differently than me and approach a problem from a different background always helps in the idea generation process and, in my opinion, is a key component to the most innovative solutions.
Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? Great leaders are those who lead by example and are passionate. People who are not afraid to lead change and stand up for what they believe in are truly admirable. I’m impressed by people with those traits and who are able to sit down at a table with others who have opposing viewpoints and influence a mindset change where together they define the next steps.
