MOVER: LAURA MADSEN
Lancet Software's Practice Leader, Laura Madsen, is featured in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about her new career at Lancet.
What is your new title?
Business Intelligence Practice Leader, specializing in health care, Lancet Software, Burnsville.
Tell us about your responsibilities.
I am responsible for creating products for Lancet's Business Intelligence, or BI, delivery services.
What is your educational background?
I have a master's degree in Applied Psychology.
What experiences have prepared you for this new position?
I have spent my entire professional career in BI for health care, in some form or another. I have worked with some of the largest and smallest BI consulting firms, so I know what a good product looks like.
Have you had any mentors during your career?
Many, but my most important mentoring moment came between my undergraduate and graduate work with Lou Milanesi, who, at the time, was the program director for the Master of Science in Applied Psychology degree at UW-Stout. It's an applied research-focused degree and when I shared my concerns with him that I wasn't sure that I could handle the heavy statistics that was required, he said, "Don't let what you think limits you stop you from doing what you know you can do." He was right. That experience also has helped me be more sensitive to people who get paralyzed by numbers.
What song title would characterize your life right now?
"Maniac" by Michael Sembello.
What is the best part of your job?
It is the opportunity to help companies understand the value of data, so they get a measurable return on data.
My idea of a perfect vacation would be ...
a trip to Disney World.
Outside of my career, one of my life goals is to ...
be waiting for my son when he gets off the bus.