The Firm
Harborside Data Analytic Advisors is a boutique consulting practice founded on one principle: clients deserve advisors who have actually done the work.
Michele Schaeffer is a data management and analytics professional whose career spans the full spectrum of data work — from hands-on audit analytics and control testing to executive-level reporting, governance program design, and digital transformation advisory.
She began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she spent eight years in the Technology Forensics & Analysis practice managing audit analytics and technology-enabled audit support for more than 70 clients. That foundation — rigorous, evidence-based, and always tied to client outcomes — shapes every engagement Harborside takes on today.
Since founding Harborside in 2017, Michele has continued to deliver consulting across healthcare, pharmaceutical, federal government, and financial services environments. She has built dashboards that earned adoption at the leadership level, designed data quality programs aligned to GAGAS standards, led cross-functional teams through complex system implementations, and helped organizations translate messy technical problems into clear business action.
Most recently, she served as Audit Analytics Specialist at NASA's Office of Inspector General — promoted to lead the Analytics for Management & Planning team — where she delivered Power BI dashboards, co-developed Earned Value Management and cost reporting tools, and was recognized with a 2024 OIG Award for leadership in the Data Champions Group.
Michele's strongest value comes in environments where the data is complex, the stakes are real, and the people she's working with need a partner who can both get into the weeds and communicate clearly with leadership. She's equally comfortable writing ACL scripts, facilitating stakeholder working groups, and presenting findings to executives.
She's CISA-certified with additional credentials in ACL data analysis, and is actively expanding her practice into AI governance — pursuing ECornell's AI Solutions program and DAMA's CDMP certification, with a focus on responsible AI adoption, GenAI use case assessment, and model risk controls.
"I built Harborside because I saw how often organizations were sold data solutions by people who had never actually worked in the systems, dealt with the audit implications, or sat in front of a leadership team trying to explain a bad number. I've done all of it — and that's the difference I bring."
— Michele Schaeffer, Founder