Kelly Cronin Krein

Data Analyst

Kelly Cronin Krein is a data analyst who works with arts and culture, higher education and healthcare organizations across North America. She helps clients uncover insights in their data to inform strategy, drive revenue and deepen engagement. Her projects include customer behavior analyses, pricing studies, custom segmentation projects and surveys. Kelly is a Tableau Certified Consultant and has extensive experience with Tableau, Tableau Prep and Power BI.

Prior to joining JCA, she worked at Lyric Opera of Chicago in various roles across the organization, most recently serving as the Associate Director of Development Analytics. Kelly earned a Master’s degree in Business Analytics from the Mendoza College of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Music (vocal performance), both from the University of Notre Dame. She is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Kelly lives in Chicago with her family and two cats, and enjoys balcony gardening, shower singing and crafting.

MORE ABOUT KELLY

Where do you work? Where are you from?

I work from Chicago, Illinois, where I’ve lived since 2015. I grew up in Wisconsin and Texas, so I am not afraid of cold winters but also have a deep appreciation for sweet tea and good brisket. I love the vibrancy of the arts and food scenes in Chicago, especially during the colder months, and nothing beats Chicago in the summer, with long walks along the lakefront and plenty of street fairs.

What do you do at JCA? 

I am a Data Analyst on the Professional Services team. I partner with consultants to develop BI solutions, such as dashboards and reports, that help leaders monitor mission-critical indicators. I enjoy learning about a team’s priorities, goals, and pain points so we can create an effective solution. The puzzle-solving part of my brain also enjoys digging into clients’ data for customer behavior analyses, pricing studies, and custom segmentation projects to find the hidden gems of insight. Those insights allow my clients to make smarter decisions that advance their missions.

What is your background? What brought you to JCA? 

I have spent much of my career integrating data with creativity, from my undergraduate studies in both economics and classical voice to building dashboards for an opera company. When I graduated from college, I applied my love of singing and numbers by working in arts administration at an opera company. I started at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2015 and held various roles in ticketing and fundraising for more than six years, most recently in fundraising operations and analytics. I am excited to be a part of JCA because I’ll be able to help a larger variety of non-profits utilize their data in effective and efficient ways so they can focus on what they do best — serving and engaging their communities.

What do you do outside of JCA?

As a classically-trained shower singer, I love seeing great vocalists perform in operas, musicals, and concerts. I picked up cross-stitch as a hobby and meditative exercise during graduate school, and these days I mostly cross-stitch while watching truly bad reality television. I treasure gardening on a small balcony off my living room, learning about new plants and tending to them over the summer (Chicago winters are not kind to potted plants).