Overview
Across government agencies, public officials are engaging in activities to facilitate building and using evidence to inform decision-making for improving business decisions, program outcomes, and day-to-day operations that affect the American people. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act) set expectations for government agencies to improve their capacity to engage in data-driven and evidence-informed decision- making. A core feature of the Evidence Act is establishing the leadership positions for data, evaluation, and statistical officials, staffing infrastructure, and processes that enable government agencies to increasingly construct and use evidence to inform policy decisions. The first three years of Evidence Act implementation were focused on developing multi-year learning agendas with key learning priorities, the establishment of senior-level officials like chief data officers and evaluation officers, and conducting capacity assessments, to understand the agency’s infrastructure and its ability to produce and use evidence for decision making.
The Data Foundation’s 2022 Virtual Research Symposium, in partnership with George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School for Public Policy and Public Administration, provided the opportunity for researchers, data analysts, evaluators, program managers, and other experts from across the data and evidence community to share knowledge and innovative practices. The Research Symposium highlighted strategies that increase the use of data and evidence for decision-making and a better-informed society. The 2022 Symposium theme focused on assessing capacity for using data to build actionable evidence, aligning with the new publication of assessments federal agencies published in Spring 2022 about their own capacity for engaging in evidence-building activities and other major initiatives of Evidence Act implementation underway in government today.
The Data Foundation invited members of the data and evidence community—including those in academia, non-profits, industry, and government—to submit proposals that align with the conference theme, with preference given to those that focus on the following topics:
Analysis of agency capacity assessments
Reviews of Agency Evidence-Building Plans and Learning Agendas
Workforce for evidence-building activities
Novel uses of data for decision and policymaking
Day 2
Agenda
Day 1: June 22, 2022 (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.)
10:00 a.m. - Opening Remarks
10:10 a.m. - Informing Infrastructure Improvement Decision-making with the Best Available Science
Ed Kearns, Chief Data Officer, First Street Foundation and former Chief Data Officer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
10:25 a.m. - An Iterative Approach to Developing, Conducting, and Using the Department of Homeland Security Capacity Assessment
Rebecca Kruse, Assistant Director for Evaluation, Department of Homeland Security
Brodi Kotila, Senior Political Scientist, RAND HSOAC
Coreen Farris, Senior Behavioral Scientist, RAND HSOAC
11:25 a.m. - BREAK (5 minutes)
11:30 a.m. - Understanding Human Capital Needs for Expanding Data and Evidence Culture Using a Federal Data and Digital Maturity Survey
Maddie Powder, Research Associate, Partnership for Public Service
11:45 a.m. - An FAA Experience: Applying Intervention Research as a Change Management Approach to Implement Evidence-Based Management
Robert Young, Senior Advisor, Strategy, Risk & Engagement, Federal Aviation Administration Security & Hazardous Materials Safety Organization
12:00 p.m. - BREAK (30 minutes)
12:30 p.m. - Welcome Back
12:35 p.m. - Advancing Equity through Evidence-Building, Data Integration, and Research Partnerships: A Local Government’s View from “The Other Washington”
Claire Evans, Research Specialist, King County Metro Transit
Truong Hoang, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 2 , Community Services Division, Economic Services Administration, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Maria Jimenez-Zepeda, ORCA Reduced Fare Project Program Manager, King County Metro Transit
Christina McHugh, Housing and Adult Services Evaluation Manager, King County Department of Community and Human Services, Performance Measurement and Evaluation Unit
David Phillips, Associate Research Professor, Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, University of Notre Dame
1:35 p.m. - Assessing the Quality of Impact Evaluations at USAID
Irene Velez, Director, Monitoring Evaluation Research Learning and Adaptation (MERLA), Panagora Group
1:50 p.m. - BREAK (5 minutes)
1:55 p.m. - Approaches to Assessing Agency Capacity for Evidence Building
Christina Yancey, Chief Evaluation Officer, U.S. Department of Labor
Susan Jenkins, Evaluation Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Tania Alfonso, Senior Evaluation Specialist, U.S. Agency for International Development
Danielle Berman, Senior Evidence Analyst, Office of Management and Budget
2:55 p.m. - Opportunity for Partnership – A Budget and Program Perspective on the Learning Agenda and Evidence Building Activities
Courtney Timberlake, President, American Association for Budget and Program Analysis (AABPA)
Ed Brigham, Executive Consultant, Federal Consulting Alliance & AABPA Board Member
Jon Stehle, Councilmember, City of Fairfax VA
Darreisha Bates, Federal Portfolio Manager, Tyler Technologies & Former Director of Intergovernmental Relations, U.S. Government Accountability Office
3:55 p.m. - Closing Remarks
Day 2: June 23, 2022 (10 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.)
10:00 a.m. - Opening Remarks
10:10 a.m. - Education Research-Practice Partnerships: Innovative Structures to Build and Use Evidence
Rachel Anderson, Director, Policy and Research Strategy, Data Quality Campaign
10:25 a.m. - Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and Predictive Analytics: Understanding, Measuring, and Predicting K12 Outcomes
Nancy Sharkey, Senior Program Officer, Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program, National Center for Education Statistics
Robin Clausen, Stakeholder Liaison and Research Analyst, Statewide Longitudinal Data System, Montana Office of Public Instruction
Chris Stoddard, Professor, Montana State University
Mathew Uretsky, Professor, Portland State University
Angie Henneberger, Research Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work
11:25 a.m. - BREAK (5 minutes)
11:30 a.m. - Using Linked Administrative Data to Connect Families to Pandemic Stimulus Payments
Aparna Ramesh, Senior Research Manager, California Policy Lab, UC Berkeley
11:45 a.m. - Using a Framework for Evidence Capacity to Strengthen Federal Program Offices
Heather Gordon, Managing Consultant, Mathematica
12:00 p.m. - BREAK (30 minutes)
12:30 p.m. - Welcome Back
12:35 p.m. - Critical Factors for Building Successful Data Science Teams
Robin Wagner, Senior Advisor, Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health
12:50 p.m. - Advocating for and Applying COVID-19 Equity Data: The Black Equity Coalition's (Pittsburgh, PA) Efforts to Improve Public-Sector Health Agencies' Practices
Jason Beery, Director of Applied Research, UrbanKind Institute & Member, Black Equity Coalition Data Working Group
Ashley Hill, DrPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh & Member, Black Equity Coalition Community Health Working Group
Ruth Howze, Community Coordinator, Black Equity Coalition
Stacey Pharrams, Community Researcher, Healthy Start Initiative & Member, Black Equity Coalition Data Working Group
1:50 p.m. - BREAK (5 minutes)
1:55 p.m. - A dynamic, inclusive approach to learning agenda development for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (CSTLTS): Reflections on the participant engagement process
Elizabeth Douglas, Senior Manager, ICF
Jessie Rouder, Lead Research Scientist, Behavioral Health, ICF
2:10 p.m. - Best Practices for Monitoring and Evaluating the ARP, IIJA and Other Programs: Report of the Department of Commerce Data Governance Working Group
Carla Medalia, Assistant Division Chief for Business Development, Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division, U.S. Census Bureau
Ron Jarmin, Deputy Director, U.S. Census Bureau
Ben Page, Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Census Bureau
Whitney Duffey Jones, Senior Advisor & Chief of Staff to the CFO, U.S. Census Bureau
Ryan Smith, Policy Advisor for the Office of Regional Affairs, Economic Development Administration
Oliver Wise, Chief Data Officer, U.S. Department of Commerce
3:10 p.m. - Closing Remarks
Submission
Submissions for this event have ended.
