I’m Prayag Gordy, a Tobin Center / Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellow working with Professors Jacob Wallace and Chima Ndumele on a series of Medicaid projects at the Yale School of Public Health. My interests span data science, journalism, policy, and politics. I’m an avid R programmer and package developer.

You can contact me at prayaggordy@gmail.com.

Education

I graduated cum laude from Rice University in May 2024 with a B.S. in Statistics, a B.A. in Mathematics, and a minor in Data Science. While at Rice, I received the following recognition:

  • Most Distinguished Senior, Rice University School of Engineering
  • Most Outstanding Senior, Rice University Department of Statistics
  • Distinction in Research and Creative Works
  • Induction into Phi Beta Kappa

My coursework included analysis, measure theory, Bayesian statistics, probability theory, machine learning, and causal inference.


Selected experiences

Yale University Tobin Center for Economic Policy / Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow July 2024 – Present

  • Pre-doctoral research fellow under Professors Jacob Wallace and Chima Ndumele at the Yale School of Public Health.
  • Using >50 TB of Medicaid claims data (T-MSIS) to investigate roadblocks in Medicaid and to research the American healthcare system at large. Working on a high-performance computing cluster to clean, analyze, and manage large amounts of data.

Naval Health Research Center / Data Scientist January 2022 – Present

  • Conducting data analysis and creating tables and figures for multiple ongoing large-scale research projects on sleep and fatigue. Ingesting raw sleep device data. Developing an R package for measure comparison. Automating key reports and building a data pipeline.
  • Authoring and contributing to multiple academic papers, sponsor reports, and briefings to senior Navy officials. Attended posit::conf(2023) on behalf of NHRC.

The Washington Post / Data Journalism Fellow June – October 2023

  • Data journalist on Home-school Nation, a flagship Washington Post project investigating the rise of homeschooling in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Published “Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education” Oct. 31, printed front-page Nov. 3. Reported this story with a novel collection and analysis of state- and district-level enrollment, demographic, and testing data. Worked closely with non-technical journalists.
  • Appointed via the Dow Jones News Fund and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

The Rice Thresher / Editor in Chief May 2023 – May 2024

  • Co-editor-in-chief of Rice University’s student-run newspaper, printing weekly. Managed more than 100 students and a $66,000 budget. Weekly time commitment of 20-30 hours.
  • Led multiple recurring staff meetings and production nights, meeting tight print deadlines, working with campus stakeholders. Winner of and finalist for multiple awards during my tenure at the Thresher: First Place: In-Depth Reporting, Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (2023); Finalist: Best Special Section, Best Multimedia Feature Story, Best News Package, College Media Association (2023); Honorable Mention: Best Sports Multimedia Story, College Media Association (2023).

Shoot me an email to connect.