Meet Our Team: Q&A with Director of Data Analytics & Visualization, Lindsay Betzendahl

How did you become interested in working in healthcare and data visualization? Why did you choose this path?
My journey into this field began with a foundation in liberal arts. I earned undergraduate degrees in Psychology and English, followed by a master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy. I was always interested in the mind, body, and spirit and the connection between them, so I focused my early years doing mental health work. I provided direct behavioral health care as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) to youth and families on Medicaid or who were in state care.

My transition into data-focused work started during my role at an Administrative Service Organization (ASO) as a Regional Network Manager. In this position, I worked closely with hospital executives and community leaders to review quality outcomes and performance measures such as length of stay, readmissions, and connection to care. This early exposure to data analysis, initially through spreadsheets and reports, sparked my interest in using data to uncover insights and inform care strategies and outcomes.

Interestingly, the organization hired Kathy Rowell in 2014 to teach a course on data visualization best practices, which I attended. The training confirmed what I had been questioning all along: there is a better way to communicate data. I just didn’t know what the solution was. Immediately after the class I downloaded Tableau Public (a free version of the software) and began teaching myself how to create visualizations every night at home. It didn’t take long before I was able to show the value of using an improved analytic tool and quickly worked to transform how my entire organization used, visualized, and communicated data. Clearly, I have never looked back as this year marks the 10^th year I’ve been working in healthcare data visualization.

What is your special area of expertise?
My special area of expertise is my ability to take an idea and create an innovative solution that captures people’s attention, solves their problem, and is enjoyable to use. I have a natural eye for design (my mom is an artist) and when paired with my background in psychology and my analytic, detail-oriented mindset (my dad is in the sciences), it seems that I innately know what visual presentation of the data will be best for analyzing complex information with an enjoyable user experience.

What is your superpower and what is your kryptonite?
My superpower is my intensely creative imagination. I’m a highly visual and tactile person which means I’m often writing, drawing, crafting something to get what’s in my head out through my hands. Aside from “drawing” visualizations, I often write poetry, draw sketches, and even sew quilts.

My kryptonite, like many, stems from a similar place as my superpower. My mind has two speeds: hyper-speed-hyper-focus and tangential-day-dream speed (aka ADHD). While both are ideal for certain types of tasks, unfortunately, I don’t get to choose the speed when I need to. They both can be a superpower and also a terrible weakness depending on what speed of thought/action I need in the moment.

What types of clients do you typically serve?
I have the privilege of working with a diverse range of clients across various sectors within healthcare. My experience includes collaborating with large hospital systems, government agencies, foundations, public health departments, pharmaceutical companies, Administrative Service Organizations (ASOs), health tech start-ups, non-profits, hospital associations, and risk-sharing partner organizations, among others. This variety allows me to bring a broad perspective to each project, and I’m inspired by the shared commitment to improving health outcomes across the board. The opportunity to contribute to such impactful work is both rewarding and energizing.

What is a project that you’ve worked on that you’re especially proud of?
I am grateful for the opportunity to design and develop impactful data visualizations for a wide array of clients. One project I’m particularly proud of is my work with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs on the Malaria Behavior Survey (MBS) dashboard. This public-facing tool visualizes unique survey data from over 63,000 individuals across 12 African countries. The MBS is unique in that it goes beyond merely measuring behaviors. It gathers data on the behavioral factors that influence people’s use of malaria prevention and treatment interventions and provides decision makers, country officials, and program planners with easy access to these results so they can develop evidence-based malaria programs and strategies to prevent malaria through behavioral change. This project not only expanded my knowledge of malaria prevention but also presented a unique design challenge. A core requirement was that the dashboard functioned seamlessly on both desktop and mobile platforms and could display dynamic, plain-language explanations of survey results plus recommendations. It was incredibly rewarding to create a tool that supports data-driven decision-making and contributes to the fight against malaria.

What do you enjoy most about your role at Sellers Dorsey? What is most rewarding?
I’ve been genuinely thrilled to meet so many amazing, kind, and incredibly talented people here who share my passion for making a difference in health and healthcare. The fact that I already consider many of them friends speaks volumes about the kind of people Sellers Dorsey brings into the firm. I’m also truly excited to be part of an organization that’s ready to grow, innovate, and make a real impact on health in powerful ways. This mission has been close to my heart for over 20 years, ever since I started as a behavioral health clinician after graduate school—working toward improving health for everyone, equally and holistically.

What are the biggest challenges you predict for clients in the next few years? What solutions do you hope will become more prevalent?
Understanding and effectively using data will continue to be a challenge. Because data is now a part of everyone’s daily life, the technology to process, analyze, visualize, and interpret the data is evolving at warp speed. It may feel hard to keep up. Clients will have a harder time deciding what data solution will truly answer questions and solve complex problems. Innovations like AI are quickly integrating into our world and clients will still need people with subject-matter expertise, including data visualization skills, support decisions using these solutions. Data technologies are still only as good as those who are developing them and rely on experts still creating content and knowledge to feed those complex algorithms.

Why is improving healthcare quality important? What does impact mean to you?
By improving the quality of healthcare we can reduce waste, increase resources, and decrease cost, which ultimately improves patient experience and outcomes. I believe better quality care will lead to increased access.

What is one fun fact that people would be surprised to learn about you?
I absolutely love Lego sets and may have developed a bit of an obsession over the past five years. When you think about it, it’s probably not that surprising because building with Legos is very relaxing and gives me that joy from creating something bigger than simply the sum of individual parts. Although, I’m at the point where I may need a Lego room, but my husband continues to look at me like I’m crazy when I mention it.

What was your very first job?
I worked at a “Pack & Ship” store where I literally did just that – packed up items people brought in and shipped them off. It taught me a lot about organization, effectiveness, timeliness, and customer relations. The shipping industry has a lot of moving parts, and they all have to work together on the right schedule to get things where they need to go, as we all know very well these days.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Outside of work, I love creating personal data visualizations—I might sound like a data geek, but I’ve created over 200 of them on Tableau Public! I’m also an art and music enthusiast, so you’ll often find me exploring craft shows and local galleries (even though I’m running out of wall space!), at concerts, or walking around the house with headphones on deep in another world. Being outdoors is another passion; we frequently visit local farms, breweries, and nature preserves with friends in the summer, giving the kids plenty of space to run and play, and we hit the slopes in the winter to snowboard. If it’s warm out, you’ll find me running on the beautiful country backroads. Running is my way to recharge, and there’s nothing like a quiet stretch of road to keep me grounded and inspired.

Name your all-time favorite movie or book.
I love the cathartic human experience of laughter so much that most of my favorite movies are comedies. In fact, I created a visualization about a few of my favorite comedic actors. While it’s impossible to pick just one movie, there are a number that I could watch repeatedly – Caddyshack, Ace Ventura, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Dumb and Dumber, Men in Tights, Anchorman, Elf, Tommy Boy, and Happy Gilmore. I know, it wasn’t just one, but hopefully remembering one of these at least made you smile!

Want to learn more about Lindsay’s role at Sellers Dorsey?
Click here to explore how she helps the Firm enhance impact for clients.