Meet the Nightingale Editors

Ever wondered who’s working behind the scenes to get your articles ready for publication at Nightingale? Over a few issues of The ‘Gale, republished here, we introduced you to our editorial team. We’re the ones encouraging you to write that article you’ve always dreamed of writing, urging you to add more detail to your discussion, and fixing pesky stray commas.

To keep things fun (always a goal at Nightingale!), we are going to introduce ourselves through the game Two Truths and a Lie. Which of these fun “facts” is not true for each editor? Read to the end to find out! Portraits were drawn by Yifan Luo.

Jason Forrest, Editor-in-Chief. Jason is a dataviz designer, father, and history obsessive.

I once had a machine gun brandished at me by the Russian military.
I have performed on six continents.
I own over a thousand dataviz books.

Mary Aviles, Managing Editor. Mary is a multi-sector human experience strategist, researcher, and sense maker. Check out her website and connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

I love to snowshoe in the woods and on frozen lakes.
Heidi Klum asked me for my opinion on her autobiography on a flight back from St. Maarten when I got upgraded to first class.
I have interviewed ALL kinds of people, including data security professionals from the FBI, the DOD, and the NSA.

Claire Santoro, Sections Editor. Claire is an environmental analyst and information designer with a passion for energy, sustainability, and the outdoors. Find her @ClaireESantoro on Twitter.

As a teenager I performed with a circus, tap dancing and juggling at the same time.
I have a pet lizard named Athena.
In 2018, I traveled to 13 countries while living in France.

Senthil Natarajan. Senthil is known for doing data things and Red Pants Fridays, but not necessarily in that order. Find him @SENTH1S on Twitter.

I’ve eaten sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.
I have a stuffed turtle that is autographed by members of the New Orleans Saints 2009 Super Bowl winning team.
I only own three pairs of shoes.

Noëlle Rakotondravony. Noëlle is a PhD student in computer science, doing research on the intersection of data visualization and human languages. Find her @curiouslemur on Twitter.

I speak eight languages and do translation as a side job.
I grew up on an island.
My very first D3.js graph ever was a pie chart and it took me three hours to get it done.

Alyssa Bell. Alyssa is a product manager in healthtech with a boundless enthusiasm for learning new (and often trivial) things.

I was a rugby player for over a decade.
I am one of six siblings.
Friends and I created 35 weeks of virtual quizzo during the pandemic.

Georges Hattab. Georges is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Marburg, Germany. His main focus is developing algorithms and software solutions using Data Analytics and Visualization to solve applied research problems in bioinformatics. Check out more of his work on his website.

I enjoy the algorithmic aspect behind origami. Seeing origami fold into wondrous shapes is both satisfactory and magical.
I am fond of physical records, e.g, vinyl, cassette tapes. Owning a musical record as a physical medium is an entirely different experience than clicking on a link or using an app. The intricacies of the storage medium become apparent and are taken into consideration.
I didn’t never hike more than 70 km in one day

So, did you guess which of the fun “facts” were actually lies? Here are the answers:

Jason: 3, Mary: 2, Claire: 2, Senthil: 3, Noëlle: 1, Alyssa: 2, Georges: None! All three of Georges’ facts were true… but he wanted to keep us on our editorial toes by throwing in a tricky double negative.

Claire Santoro

Website

Claire Santoro is an information designer with a passion for energy and sustainability. For 10 years, Claire has worked with governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and higher education to accelerate climate action by communicating complex information in an engaging, approachable way. Claire holds an M.S. in environmental science from the University of Michigan.