Valerie Ford earned her doctorate in human and organizational learning from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Her research interests comprise a broad range of topics, including how data and information technology change behaviors and processes in organizations, understanding the changing nature of organizations, teams, crowds and markets in the 21st century, effectively using decision analytics and ‘big data’ to build collective intelligence, and fostering organizational creativity and innovation to generate new processes and products. Her experience in MIS has given her a keen awareness of the technology issues in corporate environments and she feels fortunate to experience and investigate technology in organizations as both a scholar and a practitioner.