Alumni Spotlight: Ryan Walls

May 31, 2024

Former Honors Program Student Council President Ryan Walls has turned his Honors Diploma in Mathematics into a fascinating career as the Senior Data Scientist at Articulate Global. His hard work and dedication have taken him far, and he has some fantastic advice for our current Honors students. Meet Ryan!

 

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m Ryan Walls from Murray, Kentucky. I graduated with an Honors Diploma in Mathematics in 2009. After several years away in Oklahoma City and Nashville, I returned to Murray where I live with my wife Dr. Molly Williams, an Associate Professor in the Murray State Math Department. We have two children: Lucy, 3, and Helen who will turn 1 this summer. I am the Senior Data Scientist at Articulate Global, where I have worked since 2018 helping the business use data to make better decisions. Articulate is a technology company which makes the world’s top e‑learning platform for creating workplace training. It is a 100% remote company (even before the pandemic) and it is committed to being a Human-Centered Organization.

 

Why did you choose Murray State?
Murray State wasn’t my first choice. I had dreams of attending an historic private college in New England and, as a Murray native, I resisted attending the hometown university. However, thanks to encouragement from Mr. Glenn Leckie, my attitude changed in the summer of 2004 when I participated in the Commonwealth Honors Academy. CHA was a transformational experience and showed me the rich educational and social opportunities Kentucky’s Public Ivy had to offer. I decided to pursue a degree in Mathematics within the Honors Program at Murray State.

 

What have you been up to since graduation? What exciting or fulfilling things are happening in your life?
After Murray State, I pursued PhD studies in Mathematics at Louisiana State University. I soon realized I was more interested in using math to solve problems in the real world. Thanks to encouragement from Dr. Renee Fister, I returned to Murray State to work on my Master’s in applied math. My focus was Operations Research, a discipline which helps organizations make better decisions. With the guidance of my advisors Dr. Maeve McCarthy and Dr. Donald Adongo, I completed my master’s in 2012 with a thesis which determined the optimal location of fire stations within the City of Murray.

Around the time I graduated, the Harvard Business Review declared data scientist to be “the sexiest job of the 21st century”. Data science is the practice of gathering, organizing, and drawing insights from data. It is deployed to help organizations be more efficient and make better decisions. I knew this was the career I wanted, but I wasn’t sure how to get started. The economy was still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis and the job market was tight. I finally caught a break in 2014 when a former MSU math graduate classmate, Even Trevathan, referred me for a data analyst position at an oil company in Oklahoma City. This was a great opportunity where I learned SQL and used data to help improve business operations. A few years later I got my first data scientist job when I joined fellow Honors alum Dr. Eli Hooten (MSU ‘09) at a tech startup in Nashville. I have been working and growing in data ever since.

 

How has the Honors experience made a difference in your life?
The liberal arts education and seminar courses of the Honors Program prepared me for the interdisciplinary field of data science. Data sits at the interface between business objectives and technical solutions and it is necessary to translate and communicate complex problems to both technical and non technical colleagues. Data has its greatest impact when it can influence changes to business practices which result in improved outcomes.

 

What’s your favorite Murray State memory?
One of the most meaningful parts of my Murray State experience was my involvement with the Honors Program Student Council.  It was the cornerstone of my social activities and I had the honor to serve as HPSC President my last year of college. Each week a group of twenty or so fellow Honors students would cram into the Honors office in Wells Hall. We planned social events and fundraisers to pay for them. We prepared for All Campus Sing. We revived the philanthropy committee and organized a basketball tournament called Ballin’ for Books to buy books for Waterfield. Most importantly we dreamed about the future of Honors at Murray State. We debated the goal of Honors on campus: should it focus on preparing students for future graduate education or should its members be student leaders on campus or both?  We hoped one day to become an Honors College complete with proper facilities and housing. The progress made over the last 15 years, under the leadership of outgoing director Dr. Warren Edminster, has been incredible. The dreams have become a reality.

 

What advice would you give to current students?
To current Honors students, I offer the following advice:

Cherish your time at Murray State. College really is a unique opportunity to live and work amongst a community of friends that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

The sweet spot for economic success is figuring out a function which is difficult to learn but is in high demand. This helps establish your value to an organization.

Be able to articulate how your work contributes to your organization’s goals. This further defines your value and will help you grow and advance in your career.

Advocate for what you're worth. Don’t work for free.

 

If anyone is interested in learning more about Data Science, feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to chat. You can find me on LinkedIn.