Hi! I'm Melissa Coates. I’m a data architect, technical trainer, and consultant with 20 years of experience on dozens of projects. I am focused on bringing you accurate, practical, and timely information so you can make the best decisions about the data strategies you employ.
As the owner of Coates Data Strategies, my current professional focus is enterprise-level Power BI governance, deployment, security, and administration. My experience with designing and building data architectures to support data warehousing, data lakes, and business intelligence solutions means that I approach Power BI as one component of the bigger picture.
You’ve reached my legacy site that was retired fall 2019. To find all of my new content (including blogs, videos, presentations and diagrams), please visit my new site at Coates Data Strategies.
I'm a Data Platform MVP (formerly a SQL Server MVP before the program categories were restructured). The MVP award is granted to technical community leaders who actively share their expertise with others. I tend to joke that my day job gets in the way of my blogging! Speaking and blogging is a great way to challenge myself to learn things more thoroughly, and I am a strong believer in the value of sharing information in the data community. You can learn more about the MVP program & what other MVPs are up to here: http://mvp.microsoft.com.
The Charlotte BI Group (CBIG) is a user group that focuses on business intelligence, analytics, data warehousing, and big data topics in a casual, fun and social way. I'm one of the original co-founders of CBIG. My current volunteer role for CBIG is marketing (aka their biggest cheerleader), meeting invitations, and website maintenance.
On a personal note, I firmly believe that being called a geek is a great compliment. I shamelessly love disco music. Turtlenecks are indeed hip & cool. I'm just a little obsessed with palm trees, baskets, & office supplies. And, I find technical books to be just delightful. My motto: Life is just more fun if you're easily amused.
I live in Charlotte, North Carolina with my husband who is retired. When I step away from the keyboard, you can probably find me hiking in the woods, hanging out with my dog, stand-up paddle boarding on the lake, playing in the garden, sewing, or with my nose in a book.
Keep smiling! Keep learning!
