Meet your community managers
SAS® software users first appeared in universities long before we incorporated as a company in 1976. That year, our first users conference drew more than 300. Many of you began collaborating via email in 1986 with the advent of SAS-L. If we asked you to raise your hand if you’ve ever subscribed, hands would shoot up around the world!
SAS users range from commercial data scientists solving mind-boggling business problems to learners who see SAS as a ticket to a lifetime of meaningful, well-paying work.
Whatever perspective you bring to the SAS Support Communities, welcome! This collection of websites, organized by product, is about helping you get the most value from our software.
That’s it.
No other agenda.
You deserve our best efforts. That’s why SAS multiplied the number of community managers to take service and participation to the next level. Our job: See to it that you get what you need when you come here.
Read on to learn a bit more about each platform admin.
Alex Beaver
Alex’s mission is to provide SAS users of any level with a seamless online experience and to ensure the valuable resources we offer are easily accessible. Working alongside SAS communities gives Alex the opportunity to integrate shared knowledge and engagement into our top-notch support experience.
Originally from Indianapolis and an alumna of Purdue University, Alex now calls Charlotte home. In her free time she likes to take workout classes, spend time with her dog, and visit new coffee shops in search of the best latte.
Beverly Brown
A former journalist and communicator at SAS since 1994, Beverly now spends her days looking after the forums under the Learn SAS category, forums under the Customer Intelligence category and handling a range of moderation duties. She also edits various SAS blogs and newsletters. A SAS programming class a few years ago opened her eyes to the power of SAS and piqued her interest in becoming one of you. She’s out to prove that a word nerd like her can be a competent programmer.
“I love the ‘human switchboard’ aspect of my new role,” she says. “To me, there’s nothing more rewarding that being a vital link in someone’s effort to achieve a goal. I can feel the endorphins kick in when a connection is made. It’s fun to think up ways to increase participation in here."
While at SAS, Beverly enjoyed varied public-relations roles, including managing corporate PR and assisting SAS executives with media interviews and speaking engagements. She was previously a reporter at newspapers in North Carolina, including the state’s largest dailies, The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer.
She has a husband and son and loves to run, which enables her chocolate habit.
Thiago De Souza
"I wish I had gotten more involved with the Communities sooner," he says. "There is just so much great information here, it would have been an especially helpful resource for when I was learning SAS in college. It’s a never-ending mission to get the word out!"
Thiago has an academic background from North Carolina State University in Media, English, and Statistics, so what better place is there than the SAS Support Communities to combine all three?
In his free time, Thiago loves to play volleyball, listen to music, and watch soccer. Visca Barça!
Janine Franke
Janine has looked after the SAS Analytics Explorers platform for several years already. It is dedicated to customers who want to join a community of SAS users and learners, act as a SAS customer advocate and increase their visibility as experts. SAS invites every customer to adventure alongside this community of peers to learn resumé-worthy skills and earn rewards.
When she's not working, you can usually find her outside in her garden, training her dog, on a hike or on a bike ride.
Joe Furbee
Joe joined the SAS Support Communities team in 2018. He oversees developer.sas.com and the Developers Community. Joe is our liaison between the developer, open source, and SAS technologies.
Joe’s goal is to make developer.sas.com a valuable, interactive resource for SAS developers, data scientists, application developers, and business analysts.
Joe has come full circle since using SAS software in his Regression Analysis class, while getting his degree in Statistics at Northwestern University. He spent two years in Gabon Africa as a teacher in Peace Corps. Upon his return and receiving a Master’s degree in education, Joe taught computer applications at a public school in Philadelphia. He then made the leap to the technology field and spent the next 18 years at IBM, holding a variety of positions including time as a training coordinator, requirements analyst manager, and software and hardware tester.
While not dreaming up the best way to utilize SAS API’s, Joe spends his spare time as an amateur backyard pit master. He also loves to watch any sporting activity he can on TV. Joe, his wife, and two teenage children reside in Cary.
Chris Hemedinger
Many of you already know Chris, who supervises the communities.sas.com management team, because he is so active in here.
Since joining SAS in 1993, Chris has been a writer, a software developer, an R&D manager, and a consultant in SAS Professional Services. He founded and led the SAS® Enterprise Guide® development team for 10 years. He is also co-author of the popular SAS for Dummies book and The SAS Dummy blog. His newest book is Creating Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide Using Microsoft .NET, and he has turned that content into a SAS Education course.
Chris frequently presents at SAS users groups around the world and participates in all of the online forums where SAS customers gather. Besides these communities, you’ll find his posts in sasCommunity.org, sasProfessionals.net, and – of course – SAS-L.
At SAS Global Forum, he hosts SAS Tech Talk, a show-and-tell video series that features SAS R&D staff.
“I like anecdotes from customers saying, ‘This community is helping me get my job done,’” says Chris. “That’s the target on the wall: We want all of our customers to have a great experience in the communities and with SAS software.”
Chris loves indie rock and science fiction, action and art-house movies. He and his wife are the parents of three.
Shelley Sessoms
Shelley is the User Group Liaison, working with local and regional user groups across the U.S. She also creates and offers best practices for our regional and private groups, as well. And she leads our Super User program - a group of community members who literally keep the community going strong.
Shelley joined SAS External Communications in 2002 and wrote and edited numerous e-newsletters and magazine articles. In 2007, she moved to SAS Press as an Acquisitions Editor. In that role, she helped many SAS customers and employees become authors of the ever-popular SAS technical and business books.
But Shelley’s a connector at heart. So when the opportunity to join the online communities team came up, she couldn’t wait to be involved. “My main goal with the communities is to allow customers to find what they need, when they need it,” she says. “I’ve been to numerous conferences and heard customers talking with each other, helping each other with questions and problems. For them to have a way to do this online? I knew I needed to be involved with it. And now, I get to work with those user groups in a formal capacity. there's nothing better!”
When Shelley isn’t finding ways to connect SAS customers, you’ll find her kickboxing, writing short stories and planning the next great trip with her husband.
Your turn!
Where do you live and work?
What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done using SAS?
Hiding in plain sight! 
Hope our paths will cross soon.
It's wonderful to get to know you all better on this thread. I particularly love the geographic spread of this community! Here's a SAS Visual Analytics geo map of community activity (posts & replies) since 2009.
And I hope to meet many of you at SAS Global Forum 2015!
Wow, what a weird projection!
Makes Alaska look half as large as the rest of the US.
A Canadian user.
