biostatistics

‘We Want to Delight Consumers’

Master of Science in Applied Biostatistics program graduate Brittany Loewenstein (SPH’22) works on the research and development of feminine care products as a data scientist at Procter & Gamble.

While studying statistics as an undergraduate at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Brittany Loewenstein (SPH’22) thought she might become a teacher.

Instead, Loewenstein now uses her MS in applied biostatistics at Procter & Gamble (P&G) as a research and development data scientist, working on P&G’s feminine care product line.

“I really like data that has personality,” says Loewenstein. “I like being able to find something about it that that maybe wasn’t in your face before—I like data that tell a story.”

She discovered her affinity for data while working with GVSU’s Charter Schools Office to examine student progress and government compliance measures from more than 60 area schools. Her role on the project solidified her passion for data analysis over teaching, Loewenstein says. “I really enjoyed being able to dig into data and find meaningful insights.”

Loewenstein also appreciates the ways in which her work at P&G interfaces with public health. Creating and improving upon favorite products is a major part of her job, she says. “The product research that I do is [about] trying to understand how to best serve consumers. At P&G, we want to be able to delight consumers and make their lives better. This is a really big deal, especially within the feminine care business.”

“Our main goal is we want people to like our products and use them,” says Loewenstein, who, in addition to menstrual products, has also worked on incontinence products. “And by like them, I mean we want the products to serve them well. We don’t want them to feel discomfort.”

After graduating from GVSU, Loewenstein spent several years as an analyst at an ad agency in Detroit where her clients included Harley Davidson, Buick, and GMC. She later shifted to a similar role in marketing and sales at the accounting firm PwC. She says she enjoyed the work, but something was missing.

“I didn’t feel like [my work] was very altruistic in nature,” says Loewenstein. “I loved what I did, but I wanted something that was more intimately related to the product and research side of things.”

From speaking with various people in the kinds of roles she thought she might want, Loewenstein decided to make a career transition. She also concluded that the time was right to get her master’s degree, and she enrolled in the Master of Science in Applied Biostatistics program at the School of Public Health. She says it was the program’s intimate, fast-paced environment that attracted her.

“The network that we had within our little cohort was really powerful,” says Loewenstein, who estimates there were about 20 to 30 people in her class. “First semester, you’re still getting to know each other, but by second semester you’ve gone through the wringer, and you know that to succeed in the last semester—which is really heavy—you need each other. You get used to seeing all those people, so it’s nice that I can always go back to them, and they can always come to me, too. That’s special.”

Loewenstein says she also felt supported by SPH faculty and staff, particularly Yorghos Tripodis, professor of biostatistics, under whom she conducted research and Marie Daniels, director of advising and employer engagement in the Career Office, whom she used to visit before class each Friday just to catch up.

Looking to the future, Loewenstein sees herself further exploring the consumer side of research and development where she can continue to be involved first-hand in creating products that best meet people’s needs. She aims to explore clinical research as a next career step. Upon reflection on how far she has come since graduating from SPH at this time last year, she has one big take-away to share with this year’s graduates:

“Talk to people in the jobs that you want because you’ll never regret it. The thing to know is, everybody wants to talk about their job, and everybody is there to help you. There’s nobody that’s going to say no—and if they say no, it’s just because they’re really busy. It’s not because they don’t want to.”

Loewenstein says that she ended up going to P&G, and not some of the other companies she had gotten offers from, mainly because she talked to people at these companies. “I was explicit about: What’s the trajectory of this career? What am I doing day-to-day? Am I just the coder, or am I a strategic thinker? Knowing what you value in your job is really important, and asking those hard questions to people that have the role that you want is going to help you decide if you actually want it, because you’re interviewing this company as much as they’re interviewing you— I think that that gets lost with a lot of new grads.”