Courtney Shaw, Manager of Ecosystem Impact and Evaluation
Courtney, you were recently promoted from Business Systems Analyst to Manager of Ecosystem Impact and Evaluation—can you walk us through what your new role involves?
At BioSTL, we are very focused on building a strong innovation ecosystem. This means connecting the right people and activities to help innovation grow and to help St. Louis grow. My role is all about the data and metrics needed to do that work.
In my previous role as a Business Systems Analyst, I provided operational and systems support for BioSTL, as well as supporting the Ecosystem-building department with their data and metrics needs. My new role is expanded to a more strategic level to focus on impact and metrics on the larger ecosystem level.
Bringing partners together and tracking our progress and impact can be complicated. This work involves more partner engagement, making sure they’re invested and share our vision for how we want to see St. Louis thrive. It will include creating tools for implementation to ensure our activities are tied to our impacts—what kind of change we want to see in St. Louis. I think St. Louis is amazing. When I moved here, I said I’d only stay for two years, and now I’m going on year seven. I think this city has so much to offer, and I feel privileged to work in a role that highlights that and tries to make it better.
What do you wish more people understood about your work?
While we do have a lot of activity- and program-based work, we are really a convener; we are often the glue that holds things together. That’s been important in my work—engaging partners and unifying our mission and impact.
My work supports data-informed decision-making. I have a background in public health, and data is important in that field. We need data to make decisions. It’s also about validating the work we’re doing: is it making a change, by how much, and how can we pivot if it’s not making the change we want?
Can you share an example of success in your work?
In my recent role as a Business Systems Analyst, I helped BioSTL’s Education to Workforce team with their data metrics. They create a pipeline of employees for companies to grow in St. Louis. It’s been really exciting to see how that’s allowed the team to develop different workflows and be successful, especially in tracking talent participation and program activity. We offer different bioscience credentialing, so understanding how people are doing on these credentials is important. It’s been really impactful to connect the dots on the work people are doing and communicate that to our broader audience and stakeholders.
With a Master of Public Health, what inspired you to pursue this field?
I was a Girl Scout, so community service was always important to me. I wanted my career to incorporate that service aspect.
In college, I had a professor, this was before COVID, when public health wasn’t really a common career path people talked about. I was an applied math major, and in one of my classes, we were learning about susceptible, infected, and recovered modeling during a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He asked if I’d heard of epidemiology and public health, and I hadn’t, so I asked him to tell me more.
That was really the catalyst for me—finding a way to blend my data and math skills in a field where I felt I could make a real difference in people’s lives and communities.
What excites you about working at BioSTL?
I just feel so motivated by the people who work at BioSTL. Everyone here is so dedicated to our mission and goals. We really want to see St. Louis thrive. In previous roles, I didn’t always have that shared common goal, so it’s been special to have that here.
It’s neat to be involved in strategic planning conversations and to think intentionally about how the work gets done and how our work creates impact. Every day looks different; I get to work on different projects with different teams.
What might surprise us to learn about you?
I grew up in Denver, Colorado. But my mom and extended family all live in St. Louis. My grandpa, who’s turning 96 in August, is a St. Louis native through and through. He met my grandma at Washington University, and they got married at Graham Chapel. Even though I didn’t grow up here, I have a strong connection and passion for St. Louis.
I feel privileged to get to do this work and to live in my grandpa’s legacy. He volunteered at Forest Park regularly up until just a few years ago and was so excited when we finally got an MLS soccer team. He just loves St. Louis so much, and I think that’s been passed on to me.
Read more about Courtney and all the people who make BioSTL here.