5 Questions With … Kemdy Lawson

Kemdy Lawson’s journey to AAA Northeast began in Nigeria where, as a boy, he dreamed of being a doctor.

Lucky for us, Kemdy’s medical path never materialized. As he grew up he found he had a natural acumen for the numerical rather than the biological, and so he shifted his career focus.

After graduating from Claflin University in South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, he made his way to Warwick, R.I. There, he began a three-year stint as a data analyst with the international analytics firm Kantar.

Kemdy joined AAA Northeast in August 2015 and is now a senior data analyst in marketing. We recently sat down with him to find out his aspirations, favorite dessert and who he’d have dinner with if he could have dinner with anybody.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?  

I would visit Nigeria. My parents live there and since COVID it has been hard for them not to move freely and interact in their social circles. I would just love to see them in person and spend time with them.

Q: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to become a doctor ( my mom did, too). Growing up, everyone wanted to be either an engineer, lawyer or doctor. However, I struggled with biology classes and apparently I am no good at understanding human or animal anatomy. In fact, as I got older, that fact was made very clear to me in a traumatizing incident involving ritual rite of passage and a chicken. Some folks at the club are well aware of this story and I won’t bore you with the gory details. Suffice it to say, back in Nigeria, I never successfully passed the test of going from boy to a man and thus vanished my doctor dreams. I am loving the data analyst life so I am not complaining.

Q: If you could have dinner with any famous person, living or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Samuel L. Jackson. I would want him to say the Ezekiel 25:17 lines like he did in “Pulp Fiction.” It is my favorite movie quote of all time.

Q: You just won the lottery! What’s the first thing you buy?

Nothing. I hate making spur-of-the-moment decisions about money. I would stare at my bank account for weeks.

Q: What’s your favorite dessert?

It’s a toss up between New York-style cheesecake and doughboys.

Check out past profiles: 

• Andrew Rosen, vice president, Brand & Content Marketing
• Dana Laverty, copy editor, Publications
• Liz Eaton, member retention counselor, Outbound Contact Center
• Damond James, senior manager, Membership Experience
• Stephanie Tomasso, business line manager, Human Resources
• Ashley Janke, project manager, Marketing Operations 
• Sarah Cholewa, marketing specialist, Financial Services
• Dan Pegg, email marketing specialist, Marketing