Karolin Rafalski

About Karolin Rafalski

I got on board with remote learning in 2016. I have always had the privilege of being able to attend school in or near NYC. This has opened up opportunities I wouldn\'t have had elsewhere. I found that the way I could contribute back from my good fortune would be to help create a means for people to take the best course for them, without causing them to leave their homes, families and communities, to relieve the potential financial burden of moving to a major city. I still go to bed thinking about \"how can we do this better?\' and woken up with \'I am so excited to do this better today!\" This is the challenge that I live to solve. I also love the word problem. I perk up when I hear that word. It is often what makes me want want to get involved in a project. During my job interview at Barnard College I was told that nothing works and my job would be get things working and I did. That’s my greatest accomplishment. I started with a total mess of mostly nothing and I worked day and night and weekends and went to bed thinking about work and woke up thinking about work. I read books, I contacted professors, I tracked down former employees, I consulted with current employees, I read more books, I spent a lot of time testing things out and I won. I succeeded. No one thought total success was possible. They were hoping for 50% and I got it all back up and running in my first year. Since then I continued to work hard to optimize and improve things at work. But often I found myself dreaming of building something from the ground up again. I started to learn how to code and build websites and I found myself immersed in the same kinds of challenges that I am passionate about working through. Since making a career change, I often find myself creating custom solutions that are scalable and practical and take into deep consideration how the implementation will help team and support the client.

Experience

1. Learning Technologist, Senior Associate Data Analyst

   New York Life

   Oct 2023 — Present · White Plains, NY, US

   I connect people, ideas, and technology.Data analysis using Excel, Power Query, and pivot tables.Custom automations using Power Automate: For example, using AI Builder to categorize emails going to a support email inbox and help the field offices generate custom letters to meet a new compliance with a few clicks inside a form. Survey design, reporting, and customization using Qualtrics, including custom JavaScript components, API calls to another data source. Docebo (an LMS), custom styling with CSS, reporting, utilizing the API for other data integrations.Researching current tools and helping the team upskill with the technology we already have. Researching new tools and technology and making recommendations.

Education

• Columbia University

  Master's degree, Biotechnology

  2008 — 2011

• University at Albany

  B.S., Interdisciplinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

  1999 — 2001

• General Assembly

  Certificate of Completion, Web Development Immersive

  2016 — 2016

Skills

• Cell
• Ruby
• Spectrophotometry
• Powerpoint
• Css
• Tissue Culture
• Primer Design
• Protein Chemistry
• Single Page Applications
• Polymerase Chain Reaction (Pcr)
• Node.js
• Public Speaking
• Teaching
• Dna Sequencing
• Microsoft Office
• Sql
• Cascading Style Sheets (Css)
• Laboratory Skills
• Elisa
• Postgresql
• Microbiology
• Research
• Laboratory
• Rest
• Protein Purification
• Ruby on Rails
• Lightroom
• Western Blotting
• Pcr
• Javascript
• React.js
• Jquery
• Express.js
• Web Development
• Html
• Microsoft Excel
• Molecular Biology
• Dna Extraction