Kelly Smith
Founder Trove Talent
Kelly Smith Experience
As a member of the new field of Model Governance in Health Services, bias is top of mind to me. Our goal is to ensure that everyone has access to necessary medical services by removing bias from the artificial intelligence that makes health care decisions.
When I started to think through hiring practices from personal experience on both sides of the table, I realized I had an opportunity to fill a gap in the market and help companies find talent they may overlook due to unconscious bias.
The Beginnings of Trove
One night while out to dinner with some acquaintances, a woman was telling a story about a new customer she was signing up for one of her products. Her husband walked into the room while she was verifying the lady’s information. He heard his wife say, ‘so let me confirm the spelling of your name… a m i r a c l e… A’miracle.’ Her husband gave her a look like, really? The first thought that popped into my mind was that this lady must have trouble getting a job interview.
As someone who has worked in many fields, I’m comfortable with unique names and different ethnicities so I never thought about how personal attributes could affect hiring practices—until it happened to me. A few years ago, I left a wonderful job in a large city for a more simplistic life in a rural area to focus on raising my daughters. I now lived in a small town whose downtown could be mistaken for a highway rest stop. When I decided to re-enter the workforce, I received some interest in my skills, but many hiring managers had the same feedback: I lived so far away, how would I get to the office? I thought, how do they know I can’t be in the office, maybe I’ll relocate. No one even asked me. So I took my address off my resume and changed my zip code on the job boards to a metropolitan area, and the interviews started pouring in.
This really got me thinking about biases in the hiring practices of companies and the hiring of individuals.
Education
Masters in Operations Research and Applied Statistics
Bachelors of Science in Mathematics
Work Experience
25 year analytics professional
15 year risk management professional, 5 years marketing analytics, 2 years model governance
