Director · Researcher · Data Scientist

Zobaer Ahmed, Ph.D.

Insight-Driven Researcher · Data Scientist & Methodologist · MEL Leader · Erasmus Mundus Scholar · Harnessing R to Drive Data Analysis & Visualization
R · SQL GIS · Remote Sensing Policy Analytics Machine Learning Open Data Tools NYC Government
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Zobaer Ahmed
10+Years Exp.
327Citations
h=5H-Index
NYCBased
About Me

Turning Data Into
Policy Action

I am the Director of Research and Evaluation at the NYC Mayor's Office to ENDGBV, where I lead data-driven initiatives shaping city policy.

With a PhD in Environmental Dynamics from the University of Arkansas, an Erasmus Mundus MSc across Ghent, Pisa, and Humboldt universities, and 10+ years spanning international research, NGO management, and government analytics across 4 countries.

I build open-source policy tools and R packages including FakeDataR (CRAN published), making public data accessible to advocates and policymakers. Available for freelance consulting and research collaborations.

Featured Work

Selected Projects & Tools

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NYC Shooting Policy Explorer
Dashboard · NYC Open Data
NYC Shooting Policy Explorer
Polygon lens tool for exploring NYC shooting incidents from 2020 to the most recent available data across boroughs, police precincts, and community districts. Includes polygon lens comparison, victims and offenders summaries, and a network lens to identify bridge places in the city’s violence geography.
R Quarto Leaflet Network Analysis
NYC Open Data · 2020–Present View Tool →
FakeDataR logo
R Package · CRAN Published
FakeDataR
Generates realistic synthetic datasets mirroring original data schema, types, factor levels, and missingness, safe prototyping without exposing private data.
R Package CRAN Synthetic Data
Published on CRAN
NYC 311 Policy Explorer
Dashboard · NYC Open Data
NYC 311 Policy Explorer
Polygon lens tool for comparing 311 service request patterns across any two NYC administrative areas. Features complaint breakdown, area trends, and auto-generated policy signal briefings.
R Quarto Leaflet NYC 311
NYC Open Data · 2025 View Tool →
Expertise

Tools & Skills

📊
Data Analysis
R · tidyverseggplot2 ShinySQL Power BISPSS Machine LearningLLMs
🗺️
Geospatial & GIS
ArcGIS ProGoogle Earth Engine sf · terraleaflet NDVIUAV Monitoring
📈
Visualization
Power BIPlotly Leafletggplot2 QuartoR Shiny
🔬
Research & M&E
Program EvaluationLean Six Sigma Theory of ChangeQualtrics KoBoToolboxODK
📦
R Packages
FakeDataR (CRAN) Zashboard (dev) Reproducible Pipelines
⚙️
Engineering
GitHub · GitVS Code SQL ServerCloudflare Pages REST APIs · Socrata

Available for Consulting & Freelance Projects

Open data tools · Policy dashboards · Research design · R package development · Training

Get In Touch →