Renata Rawlings-Goss, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the South Big Data Innovation Hub and oversees the strategic direction of the South Hub including its programs, operations, and staff. She is also the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Georgia Institute of Technology- Institute for Data Engineering and Science. Formerly, Dr. Rawlings-Goss worked with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to create the National Data Science Organizers Group, which facilitates data science groups to address national “Grand Challenge” problems. She also sat on the NITRD interagency Big Data Senior Steering group charged with strategic planning for big data research funded by the federal government. She was awarded as a founding AAAS Big Data Science and Technology Fellow to work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE-OAD)  on the big data research program, as well as data science policies and priority goals for the foundation. Rawlings-Goss is a biophysicist by training, and her research interests include data-driven analysis of genetic/expression variation among worldwide human populations.