“I had the pleasure of working alongside Colleen at Starburst. During our time there, she was not just another co-worker but a force that continuously improved the dynamics of our team. Colleen was genuinely well-liked by everyone, which is a testament to her approachability and teamwork skills. She thought about her people while still hitting our goals. She made a great sounding board and assisted me with both product strategy and tactics by playing the devil's advocate and helping the team think more deeply. Collen also played an important role in the creation of Data Products, one of our most well-known features. What stands out for me about Colleen is her passion. She isn't someone who just "does the job"; she actively seeks out ways to make things better. This was evident when she implemented strategies that greatly enhanced the efficiency between the engineering and support teams. Colleen isn't one to clock in and clock out. She consistently went above and beyond her defined role. She invested additional time and effort in collaborating with the Marketing, HR, and Product teams on numerous projects. This work generally wasn’t part of her official responsibilities, but it showcased her commitment to the company and her drive to contribute however she could. Her willingness to take on these additional tasks not only demonstrated her dedication but also added significant value across departments. Finally, Collen is good (no, great) people. She honestly cared for those around her and that showed in what she said and did. I hope to work with her again someday!”
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Contact Info
5K followers
500+ connections
Activity
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Let’s cut the bullshit. People don’t stay up late because they think their company is their family. They put in long hours to be the best in the…
Let’s cut the bullshit. People don’t stay up late because they think their company is their family. They put in long hours to be the best in the…
Liked by Colleen Tartow, Ph.D.
Experience & Education
Volunteer Experience
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Boston Chapter Leader
ELC
- Present 9 months
Working on building a solid engineering leadership group in Boston, as an outpost of the SF ELC group. Planning and sponsoring events, working with other international chapter leaders, and driving interest.
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Mentor
Data Angels
- Present 1 year 1 month
I am a mentor for women in the data and analytics space. I assist mentees with specific career challenges, growth patterns, and advice at all experience levels.
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Mentor
Shine Bootcamp
- 1 year 5 months
I am a mentor for women in the Speaker Accelerator program within the Shine Bootcamp. I assist mentees with slide design, scripting/copywriting, and speaking strategy via one-on-one sessions.
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Mentor
Plato
- 3 years 6 months
I am a mentor for engineering and product leaders through Plato, working with mentees on developing soft skills, building better teams, and navigating leadership challenges through one-on-one sessions and AMAs.
Publications
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Engineering Leaders Personal Brand: Does it inspire and drive team results?
LinkedIn Live with Evolution Recruitment Solutions
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Democratized data governance can boost diversity, equity in tech
silverliningsinfo.com
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Breaking Down the Buzzword: What Data Mesh Really Means for Organizations
Modern Data Stack Podcast
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Data Mesh or Data Mess?
MIT CDOIQ Conference 2022
(Content starts at 23 minutes into the video.)
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Using Data to Drive Innovation and Business Transformation (panel discussion)
Women Data Leaders Global Summit
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Keynote - Data, Diversity & Culture: Building the Best Engineering Teams
Women Who Code Connect Forward (annual conference)
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Developing Your Personal Brand: A Brief Guide to Creating an Elevator Pitch
Plato
Colleen Tartow, Ph.D., Director of Engineering at Starburst Data, outlines how to create your own elevator pitch and how building a personal brand can benefit your career.
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Avoiding the Gossip Trap at Work
https://www.platohq.com/resources/avoiding-the-gossip-trap-at-work-42592846
Colleen Tartow, Ph.D., Director of Engineering at Starburst Data, explains the detriments of unprofessional interactions via gossip at work and shares a simple rule that helps her avoid “the gossip trap."
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Measuring the Morale of a Team
Plato
Colleen Tartow, Ph.D., Director of Engineering at Starburst Data, shares her approach to measuring the morale of a team while emphasizing the importance of regular check-ins and one-on-ones.
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Up Your Strategic Game (Moderator)
She+ Geeks Out
One of the most significant barriers to growing into leadership is whether or not we're perceived as strategic. Often we focus so much on executing and driving results that we get labeled as operational and not strategic. It's an unfair perception, and this panel is dedicated to helping you increase your strategic contribution and move into the leadership role you want.
In this panel, you'll learn what it means to be strategic, how that affects your career progression, and how you can…One of the most significant barriers to growing into leadership is whether or not we're perceived as strategic. Often we focus so much on executing and driving results that we get labeled as operational and not strategic. It's an unfair perception, and this panel is dedicated to helping you increase your strategic contribution and move into the leadership role you want.
In this panel, you'll learn what it means to be strategic, how that affects your career progression, and how you can overcome some common barriers to being in a strategic role. This is a timely topic as recently research has shown that the pandemic has been particularly bad for women's career progressions. We'll be focusing on the actions you can take in your career to become more strategic and make sure your strategic contributions propel you forward! -
Data, Diversity, and Culture: How to Build Great Engineering Teams
Shine Speaker's Conference
The secret is out - more diversity in leadership leads to more innovation and more revenue, period. This is particularly true in engineering, although harder to achieve in practice. Even those companies championed for inclusivity in engineering are still largely homogeneous at the leadership levels.
In this talk I will present a concrete plan of action to help you build a more diverse engineering leadership team, based on 15+ years of my own research and experience. By embracing a wider…The secret is out - more diversity in leadership leads to more innovation and more revenue, period. This is particularly true in engineering, although harder to achieve in practice. Even those companies championed for inclusivity in engineering are still largely homogeneous at the leadership levels.
In this talk I will present a concrete plan of action to help you build a more diverse engineering leadership team, based on 15+ years of my own research and experience. By embracing a wider array of the human experience across engineering leadership, businesses have been shown to innovate more, move faster, and handle complexity better than competitors. In fact, innovation revenue can be 10% higher solely based on increased gender diversity. Potential leaders from all walks of life are out there, let’s bring them into the game! -
Playing to Win: Fostering a Culture of Data Literacy
Startup Boston Week Conference
Part of the Our Data is Our Superpower: How to Build a Data-Centric Startup Culture panel of speakers.
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Building an Inclusive Meritocracy at Starburst Data
Starburst Data blog
A blog co-published with Starburst Data CEO Justin Borgman.
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Practical Ways to Combat Imposter Syndrome
She+ Geeks Out
You might be familiar with the concept of imposter syndrome, that nagging feeling that you aren’t good enough at something so you don’t deserve it (that job, that raise, that promotion). Hear from our incredible lineup of speakers who will break down not only what that looks like from a variety of different perspectives and why it can be both harmful (and sometimes helpful!) to your success, but also how to actually effectively combat those feels.
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From Zero to Hero: Veracode's Analytics Revolution
Veracode Customer Webinar
The ability to determine the success of your application security program depends on visibility into your data. Whether you are trying to capture your current risk posture, assess the secure coding skill level of your development teams, or gain assurance that you are meeting compliance – having the right data in a consumable format is critical.
During this webinar, you will hear from members of Veracode’s product management and engineering teams. They will discuss how they approach these…The ability to determine the success of your application security program depends on visibility into your data. Whether you are trying to capture your current risk posture, assess the secure coding skill level of your development teams, or gain assurance that you are meeting compliance – having the right data in a consumable format is critical.
During this webinar, you will hear from members of Veracode’s product management and engineering teams. They will discuss how they approach these types of goals and challenges for customers and provide examples of key value metrics and best practices in using application security analytics for reporting. You will walk away with a better understanding how Veracode’s Analytics supports the ability to capture informative data so that users can assess their current state and take action to improve their risk posture. Specifically you will see how Veracode Analytics helps your organization:
•Measure the current state of the security of their development, based on adherence to security policy and their Veracode usage
•Gain insight on program improvements by measuring their responsiveness to resolving security findings as well as comparing the different types of security findings in their portfolio
•Create custom data visualizations from scratch to target what is needed for managing their program -
Introducing Veracode’s New Analytics Capabilities
Veracode Customer Blog
A blog post introducing customers to Veracode's new analytics offering, including insights into the engineering underlying the platform.
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Kinematics of Interstellar Gas in Nearby UV-selected Galaxies Measured with HST STIS Spectroscopy
The Astrophysical Journal
We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in 8 of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., C II, Si II, Al II), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies…
We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in 8 of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., C II, Si II, Al II), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), and we confirm that their outflow speeds (ranging from -100 to nearly -520 km s-1, with an accuracy of ~80 km s-1) are intermediate to those previously measured in dwarf starbursts and LIRGs. We do not detect the outflow in high-ionization lines (such as C IV or Si IV); higher quality data will be needed to empirically establish how velocities vary with the ionization state of the outflow. We do verify that the low-ionization UV lines and optical Na I doublet give roughly consistent outflow velocities, solidifying an important link between studies of galactic winds at low and high redshift. To obtain a higher signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we create a local average composite spectrum and compare it to the high-z Lyman break composite spectrum. It is surprising that the low-ionization lines show similar outflow velocities in the two samples. We attribute this to a combination of weighting toward higher luminosities in the local composite, as well as both samples being, on average, brighter than the "turnover" luminosity in the v-SFR relation.
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Feedback in nearby dwarf starburst galaxies and giant extragalactic H II regions
University of California, Santa Barbara
Giant extragalactic H II regions in nearby normal galaxies are similar to dwarf starburst galaxies in luminosity/star formation rate, physical size, and stellar population, although they differ in gravitational potential, star formation rate per unit area, and surrounding environment. This dissertation compares feedback processes in these two types of star-forming regions.
Feedback, the cycle which regulates the relationship between star formation, the interstellar medium, and the…Giant extragalactic H II regions in nearby normal galaxies are similar to dwarf starburst galaxies in luminosity/star formation rate, physical size, and stellar population, although they differ in gravitational potential, star formation rate per unit area, and surrounding environment. This dissertation compares feedback processes in these two types of star-forming regions.
Feedback, the cycle which regulates the relationship between star formation, the interstellar medium, and the intergalactic medium, is empirically measured via observations of interstellar gas in star-forming regions, where stellar winds and supernovae create galactic-scale outflows of interstellar gas and dust which in turn may heat and enrich the intergalactic medium. These kiloparsec-scale winds are most directly probed via the supernova-heated hot gas. However, the cold and photoionized warm interstellar gas from the disk is entrained in the flow and also traces large-scale motions of outflowing matter. I investigate this via optical and ultraviolet absorption-line spectroscopy of the cold neutral medium, as well as emission-line studies of the Hα recombination in the warm ionized gas.
The H II regions in disks initially seem physically similar to dwarf starburst galaxies; shell fragments of ionized gas are found in both environments via high-resolution Hα emission spectroscopy. However, while complex Na D absorption profiles trace outflowing cold, neutral gas accelerated to near the escape velocity, no such counterpart is detected in the H II regions in outer disks. The lack of large-scale outflows of cold, neutral gas from the H II regions indicates that while dwarf starburst galaxies and the giant H II regions in normal galaxies may have similar properties, yet the feedback cycle in these regions is different. -
Kinematics of Interstellar Gas in Nearby UV-Selected Galaxies Measured with HST/STIS Spectroscopy
The Astrophysical Journal
We have obtained high-resolution Echelle spectra (R=30,000-50,000) of the Na D absorption doublet (λλ5890, 5896) for six dwarf starburst galaxies and two more luminous starbursts: M82 and NGC 1614. The absorption features were separated into multiple components and separated into stellar and interstellar parts on the basis of kinematics. We find that three of the dwarfs show outflows, with an average blueshift of 27 km/s. This is small compared with the highest velocity components in NGC 1614…
We have obtained high-resolution Echelle spectra (R=30,000-50,000) of the Na D absorption doublet (λλ5890, 5896) for six dwarf starburst galaxies and two more luminous starbursts: M82 and NGC 1614. The absorption features were separated into multiple components and separated into stellar and interstellar parts on the basis of kinematics. We find that three of the dwarfs show outflows, with an average blueshift of 27 km/s. This is small compared with the highest velocity components in NGC 1614 and M82 (blueshifted by 150 and 91 km/s, respectively); these two brighter galaxies also show more complex absorption profiles than the dwarfs. None of the outflow speeds clearly exceed the escape velocity of the host galaxy. Sight lines in NGC 2363 and NGC 4214 apparently intersect expanding shells. We compare the shocked gas velocity (vNaD) with the ionized gas velocity (vHα) and interpret the velocity difference as either a trapped ionization front (NGC 4214) or a leaky H II region (NGC 2363). The dwarfs show N_NaD=1011.8-1013.7 cm^2, while the Na D columns in M82 and NGC 1614 are 1013.7 and 1014.0 cm^2, respectively. The mass of expelled gas is highly sensitive to outflow geometry, dust depletion, and ionization fraction, but with a simple shell model we estimate neutral outflow gas masses from ~10^6 to ~10^10 M_solar.
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HIRES Measurements of Cold Gas Kinematics in Galactic Winds
The Astrophysical Journal
Honors & Awards
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Finalist - Innovator of the Year 2022
Women In Tech Excellence Awards
https://womenintechexcellence.co.uk/womenintechexcellenceawards2022/en/page/2022-finalists
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Finalist - Data Leader of the Year 2022
Women in IT Awards USA
https://www.bonhillevents.com/EN/WITUSAAwards2022/Shortlist
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President's Club "Friends of Sales" Award
Starburst
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Finalist - Team Leader of the Year 2021
Women in Tech Excellence UK
https://womenintechexcellence.co.uk/womenintechexcellenceawards2021/en/page/2021-finalists
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GAANN Fellowship
University of California
Languages
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French
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