Katya completed her Ph.D. in AI at the University of Guelph, while working with Prof. Sutton, a founder of modern computational approaches known as reinforcement learning. She currently holds the position of Director of Engineering working on NLP and AI products, such as Intelligent Assistant and Intelligent Search at Ceridian, who is a leader in the Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises. Prior to Ceridian, Katya built her career working on products in the corporate world and building her own startups; she built two AI-based startups: Cultura, a behavioral analytics software company and UDIO, a software company that used AI to optimize water usage in agriculture. Katya also holds an M.B.A. from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. In her spare time Katya is a yogi, surfer, and volleyball player.