Clara A. Richter

Data Scientist ✨

Combining technical expertise with creative problem-solving to transform complex data into actionable insights. Building end-to-end solutions that empower teams and drive impact.

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About Me

Background and expertise

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Physics (Mount Holyoke College) and a Master’s degree in Data Science and Analytics (Georgetown University), and I am highly proficient in Python and SQL. For the past two years, I have worked as a contractor supporting the U.S. Air Force Acquisition team, where I have built end-to-end tools for data processing and visualization.

Much of my work has focused on qualitative data, giving me strong experience in natural language processing and applied AI techniques. As the sole technical contributor on my team, I have managed all aspects of tool development—from designing data pipelines to deploying and maintaining tools that are accessible and reliable for non-technical users.

One of my greatest strengths is my ability to communicate complex technical ideas clearly. I place a strong emphasis on visualizations and data storytelling to ensure insights are understandable, actionable, and aligned with user needs.

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Featured Projects

A showcase of my technical work and analysis

Analysis Support Tool for Portfolio Analysis Automation (2024-2026)

Built an automated portfolio analysis pipeline that processes quarterly U.S. Air Force acquisition program data, performs hundreds of schedule and cost calculations, and generates a fully formatted Excel analysis workbook with charts, heat maps, and predictive risk forecasts—reducing manual analysis time from weeks to seconds.

Python openpyxl Statistics

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Network Analysis Tool for Defense Industry News (2025)

Built an automated NLP tool to process daily defense industry news articles, extract key themes, and visualize relationships through interactive network graphs, enabling U.S. Air Force leadership to quickly identify trends and make data-driven decisions.

Python NLP Pyvis Flask Network Analysis

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Political Engagement on Reddit (2022)

Analyzed Reddit data using Apache Spark to explore sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and network analysis with interactive visualizations.

Apache Spark Azure Databricks Python Data Viz

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MedEase: Medical NLP Tool (2023)

Developed an NLP-powered tool to help non-medical professionals understand complex medical documents and transcriptions.

Python NLP Dash ML

View Code

Gender Discrimination in STEM (2022)

Comprehensive analysis of gender inequities examining test scores, labor participation, and salary disparities.

R Data Viz Statistics

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Big Data Derby ML Competition (2022)

Built neural network models using Keras to predict horse race outcomes, comparing performance against traditional ML methods.

Python Keras Neural Networks

View Report Code

COVID-19 Vulnerability Analysis (2021)

Statistical analysis of COVID-19 risk factors using probability models, hypothesis testing, and multivariate regression.

R Statistical Modeling Data Analysis

View Report Code

Experience

My professional journey and achievements

Data Scientist (CGI Federal)

U.S. Air Force Acquisition Team, Arlington, VA • January 2024 - Present

Developed the Analysis Support Tool (AST) using Python to automate quarterly report generation, processing cost and schedule data in Excel to produce calculations and visualizations, reducing customer report creation time from weeks to seconds, earning "Star of the Month" twice, multiple nominations, and a special CGI award with monetary bonus
Built the Content Analysis Tool using HTML, JavaScript, and Python's Pyvis library, leveraging NLTK and regex libraries to extract themes and patterns from reports, enabling customers to explore article-theme networks, filter data, and download reports for enhanced engagement

Founder & Platform Developer

Epic Event Solutions (EES) LLC • September 2025 - Present

Co-Founded EES and developed "EPIC," a comprehensive wedding and event planning tool featuring interactive task checklists, timeline phasing with sequence-stepped dependencies, budget tracking, multi-user collaboration, and day-of timelines
Built the application using JavaScript, Tailwind CSS, Stripe, Supabase, Netlify, and AI tools like Lovable

Data Science Intern

Thomson Reuters Special Services, McLean, VA • May 2022 - August 2022

Contributed to a U.S. government-related data project by building a convolutional neural network for facial reidentification using Python and SageMaker
Presented findings and technical work to company leaders

Digital and Data Science Team Member

Takeda, Lexington, MA • June 2020 - June 2021

Improved production yield using manufacturing data through high-volume data entry in Statistica and reviewing team work to detect and correct errors
Extracted and cleaned large datasets using SIMCA-Online and Excel to support data-driven process enhancements

Skills

Technical expertise and tools I work with

AI & Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Machine & Deep Learning
Neural Networks (CNNs, Keras, TensorFlow, PyTorch)
NLP (summarization, NER, NLTK)
Statistical Modeling
Regex for Pattern Extraction

Data Tools & Languages

Python (pandas, scikit-learn, Pyvis)
R
SQL
HTML & JavaScript
AWS (SageMaker)
Spark, Hadoop, Databricks
Dash, Command Line
Microsoft Excel, Git/GitHub

Data Visualization

Tableau
PowerBI
Plotly
ggplot2
matplotlib, Seaborn
Vega-Altair
Processing
Excel Charts, Network Graphs

Education

Academic foundation and achievements

M.S. in Data Science and Analytics

Georgetown University, Washington, DC

August 2021 - May 2023 • GPA: 4.0

B.A. in Physics — Minor in Film

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

August 2016 - May 2020 • Overall GPA: 3.8 • Major GPA: 3.8 • Magna Cum Laude