Jarrod Olson, MPP
Director, Health Analytics
Quick Facts
EMAIL
jolson[at]karna[dot]com
CALL
(678) 861-4134
CONNECT ON
LinkedIn
EXPERTISE
- Requirements gathering and analysis
- Software design and implementation
- Automated testing
- Continuous integration and deployment
- Agile planning and development methods
- Research design
- Econometrics
- Simulation and forecasting
- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- Natural Language Processing
- Graph analysis
- Data visualization
- Analytics platform development
- Policy science
- Behavioral economics and decision-making
Jarrod Olson serves as Karna’s Director of Health Analytics. In this role, he is responsible for strengthening Karna’s analytics capabilities and executing the analytics strategy. He is an experienced project leader who has implemented and driven adoption of data science development operations. He is leading the integration of non-traditional analytics into Karna’s solution offerings to help health organizations better organize and utilize the vast amounts of data now available to them.
He specializes in designing and implementing Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and analytics platforms to fit decision-making needs. He applies these capabilities to:
- Identify patterns in public and clinical health data (ML)
- Establish automated decision tools that help organizations make data-driven decisions (AI)
- Recognize emerging health challenges on social media, within health records, or other text-based data (NLP)
- Streamline and improve data analysis for scientists and other key stakeholders (analytics platforms)
Jarrod has more than 10 years of experience in policy and data science. Before joining Karna, he served as a Senior Software Engineer at Battelle, where he contributed to new capability development within discrete event simulation, NLP, and ML/AI offerings in health analytics. In addition to technical contributions, he led a mixed data science and software engineering team and served in a business development capacity for the analytics systems he and his team developed. Before joining Battelle, Jarrod was a Research Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, for six years.
Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed Manuscripts
Vernon, CR, Zuljevic, N, Rice, JS, Seiple, TE, Kintner-Meyer, MCW, Voisin, N, Kraucunas, IP, Chunlian, J, Olson J, Schmidt, L, Morris, SL, Patel, Pralit. CERF – A Geospatial Model for Assessing Future Energy Production Technology Expansion Feasibility. Journal of Open Research Software. 2018, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.5334/jors.227
Olson J and Stone D. Suspense Optimal College Football Playoffs. Journal of Sports Economics 2014. 15(5): 519-540. doi:10.1177/1527002514541040
Lesperance AM, Olson J, Stein S, Clark R, Kelly H, Sheline J, Tietje G, Williamson M, and Woodcock J. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice and Science. September 2011, 9(3): 280-287. doi:10.1089/bsp.2011.0031.
Publicly Available Technical Reports
Olson, J., Chen P.H.A, White, M., Brennan, N., and Gong, N. (2019). State Drug Policy Effectiveness: Comparative Policy Analysis of Drug Overdose Mortality. arXiv:1909.01936 [Stat]. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.01936
Olson, J., Rahimi, A., Chen, P. H. A., Jackson, J. E., Coy, T., Cocci, A., McMillan, N., Geppert, J. (2018). Rapid Prototyping Model for Healthcare Alternative Payment Models: Replicating the Federally Qualified Health Center Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration. ArXiv:1812.03940 [Stat]. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1812.03940
Olson J. “Food Safety.” In Steel, Brent (ed.). “Science and Politics: An A-to-Z Guide to Issues and Controversies.” 2014. (Thousand Oaks: CQ Press).
Olson J. “Food Fight: The Effect of Food Availability on the Probability of Violent Conflict Onset.” 2013. Oregon State University Master of Public Policy Student Research Papers [Thesis]. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38868
Judd KS, J Olson, SL Stein, and AM Lesperance. Economic Impacts of a Wide Area Release of Anthrax. 2009. PNNL-18448, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
Presentations
Olson J, JM Rose, M Sitaker. “A Novel Heuristic for Assessing Social Network Data Reliability with Survey Non-Response.” 2017. Southern Political Science Association 87th Annual Conference. New Orleans, Louisiana.
Olson J, JL Barr, ER Burtner, and CL West. “Policy and Technology Readiness: Engaging the User and Developer Community to Develop a Research Roadmap.” 2015. In ISCRAM 2015 Proceedings. PNNL-SA-107855, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.