Kaskada data scientist Charna Parkey likes to work in areas that can ‘dramatically change the world’ May 15, 2021 at 8:13 am Be a Geek of the Week! Fill out our questionnaire to be considered. Charna Parkey is the data science lead for Seattle startup Kaskada. (Photo courtesy of Charna Parkey) Growing up, Charna Parkey was always the “tech person” in her house. In high school she started getting IT certifications, and by the time she got to college, she took as many engineering classes as she could. On a referral from a professor, Parkey, who grew up in Florida, landed her first job when she was 19, at a small startup in the defense industry. The professor had introduced Parkey to signal processing, which she quickly realized was the intersection of everything she wanted to do.