Read Better Be Better is excited to celebrate our Data & Impact Coordinator Shelby Nielsen’s 2-Year Anniversary of joining the team! Shelby has worked hard over the past years to develop our Salesforce capabilities, verify and clarify our student data, craft our semesterly Data and Impact Reports, and much, much more.
Keep reading to learn more about Shelby and what she has learned since starting with RBBB!
Tell us about your role and your background.
“In my current role with RBBB I am responsible for collecting and displaying the data we are able to collect on program participants. I also am the administrator for Salesforce and work to come up with any custom solutions that may be needed or explore integrations that could be beneficial to the organization. I have an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience which I think has really helped me be more analytical and set me up with the tools necessary to be able to ask questions around our data to increase accuracy and efficiencies in our data collection methods and practices.”
What excites you the most about your job?
“What excites me most is knowing that the numbers I am analyzing are directly related to a positive change in our students and the communities we serve—that even an .01% increase in the data is a child doing better in school or improving their comprehension skills or having more confidence in their own reading abilities.”
How do you prefer to start your day? End your day?
“I recently have started my day by waking up and reading about 15-20 pages in a book while enjoying my coffee, and then I take my fur babies for a walk before I plug in for the day. I struggle with being able to close my computer at a certain time at night and typically between my two jobs work until about 10:30/11:00 PM (which works for me) but I do make sure to allow myself at least 30 minutes in the evening to sit down with my husband to either catch up on our favorite tv shows, sit together and read, or just talk about the day.”
What energizes you?
“I am constantly trying to explore and see more of the beautiful world we live in, so one thing (outside of making an impact) that really energizes me is planning new trips and travel destinations. Also, coffee.”
What is something that surprised you about working at RBBB?
“I was surprised by the work culture. I would consider any one of our team members to be a close friend, if not almost family to me, and know I can talk to anyone on the team if I ever need help with work or outside of work. The RBBB team is some of the most supportive groups of people you could ever ask for and I am so fortunate to be part of such a great community.”
What is something you have learned in the past two years that you might not have working somewhere else?
“SALESFORCE. If it were not for Read Better Be Better, I would never have tried to learn or master this system. It has been one of my favorite parts of my job and I love using the system to improve efficiencies in the work we do.”
What is the best book you have read in the past two years?
“I will admit that I am not super great at consistently reading. BUT I do try to pick up a few books throughout the year. So far, my two favorites (I can’t pick one) have been “Verity” by Colleen Hoover and “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. I am a very skeptical person and often can predict the ending of a book before it’s over and these two both had endings that I was not able to predict and were very shocking.”
What are your professional goals for the next two years?
“I think having work you are passionate about is one of the main ways to provide meaning and purpose to your life, so ideally, I would like to continue my work with RBBB to continue to see the amazing achievements made by our program participants. I also think it is important to never stop learning so I would like to continue to work on learning more in Salesforce and any other systems or testing measures to make sure that I am the best that I can be at what I do.”
———
We are so grateful to have you as part of our team, Shelby!