Benefits Data Trust’s new chief technology officer, Leona Thomas, is committed to helping people access public benefits as easily and quickly as possible with technology guiding the way.

Thomas’ strategy for supporting the nonprofit’s mission, which connects residents of six U.S. states with benefits such as SNAP and LIHEAP through machine learning that supports its call center staffers, comes from her engineering background as well as lived experience: She’s a Drexel University alumna with a BSE in electrical and computer engineering and an executive masters in business administration, as well as someone whose family once relied on benefits like food stamps when she was growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts.

“I am actually one of those people 40 or years ago whose family needed that help,” she told Technical.ly. “We didn’t have Medicaid back then. These social programs are critical for those who need a helping hand. That’s not a ‘hand out.’ It’s a hand up.”

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