My name is Jason Romans, and I’m a Microsoft MVP based in Nashville, Tennessee, with a passion for data and the Microsoft BI stack—especially Microsoft Fabric.
My journey with computers started early. My first machine was a Commodore 64, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I started out in database administration. Over time it pulled me toward what I love most: business intelligence, data modeling, and helping people make sense of their data.
These days I spend a lot of time on the road—or in the air—sharing what I’ve learned at conferences across the country. Speaking has become one of the most rewarding parts of my work. PASS Data Community Summit in Seattle. FabCon in Atlanta. Day of Data in Jacksonville and Albany. User groups from Austin to Washington D.C. I’ve been recognized as a Sessionize Most Active Speaker three years running — which is just a fancy way of saying I really like talking about this stuff. I’m also the Most Active Speaker at home, which is why my wife has noise-canceling headphones. If you’re curious about the early days of that journey, I documented it in a series called A Speaker’s Journey.
The topics I keep coming back to: Microsoft Fabric, Power BI semantic models, Semantic Link Labs, TMDL, DAX Studio, Tabular Editor, and increasingly Apache Spark in Fabric. The thread connecting all of it is helping data professionals work smarter. That might mean diagnosing a slow report, automating model governance, or getting comfortable with tools that used to feel intimidating.
When I’m not at a conference or in front of a laptop, you might find me at CrossFit Donelson. The coaches and community there are helping me become the person I want to be. The rest of my free time goes to experimenting in the kitchen.
My wife Sheila holds the title of Chief Travel Officer. She handles the logistics that keep our conference trips running smoothly, and she tracks it all in Microsoft Excel — the world’s #1 database, as any data professional will tell you. She’s also the creative force behind the custom shirts I show up in at events. The “Clippy is my Copilot” shirt? That’s my idea and entirely her hard work.
I owe a lot to the Microsoft data community. They’ve shaped how I think, pushed me to keep learning, and made this career genuinely fun. This blog is my small way of giving some of that back.
If you want to talk shop, invite me to speak, or just say hello — email me at jason@datashepherd.dev or find me on LinkedIn.
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