Shows
GovEx Data Points#96 - Equipping Staff to make Better Decisions: The JHU Travel Emissions Dashboard--- According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, transportation accounts for 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. For short trips, flying is much more carbon-intensive than rail or bus travel. At Johns Hopkins, faculty members travel the most of all affiliate types, producing more than double the emissions of administrative employees and staff.--- The Johns Hopkins University Office of Climate and Sustainability, through its Campus as a Living Lab initiative - a program that supports sustainability innovation - partnered with GovEx to build a tool to help address this problem. Using interactive...2025-07-0132 minGovEx Data Points#95 - The GovExperts: The "Squishier" Side of Data Use in Cities with Vidushani Jayalal--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re talking to Vidushani Jayalal, who works with cities in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. She talks about the importance of thinking not just about how data works, but about how people work together and solve problems using data as a shared language.--- Learn more about GovEx--- Fill out our listener survey!2025-06-0215 minGovEx Data Points#94 - The GovExperts: What Data-Driven Culture Means for Cities with Dr. Sara Bertran de Lis--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re talking to Dr. Bertran de Lis, GovEx’s Director of Research and Analytics, about her path from astrophysics to data science, what it means for cities to adopt a “Data-Driven Culture,” and her groundbreaking work on the Coronavirus Resource Center and the new City Data Explorer.--- Learn more about GovEx--- Fill out our listener survey!2025-04-1124 minGovEx Data Points#93 - Communicating with Data: How Do Cities Measure Up?--- How well do cities communicate with data? What opportunities are they missing? --- GovEx Senior Research Manager Dr. Jacquie Greiff and Senior Researcher Chance Carter address these questions and more in their recent analysis of 2023 State of the City speeches. Their key finding: While mayors often illustrate progress by referencing data, they rarely offer the kind of context and analysis most likely to resonate with residents. Jacquie and Chance review how mayors can move beyond reference statistics and use data to compare trends, illustrate their decision making and build public trust.2025-03-2831 minGovEx Data Points#92 - The GovExperts: The Power of Effective Instructional Design with Dr. Jessica Arends--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re chatting with Dr. Jessica Arenda, GovEx’s Instructional Designer. She helps us understand what makes adult learning experiences engaging and effective, how to connect with city leaders, and how COVID re-shaped the world of instructional design.--- Click to learn more about us and our work!--- Fill out our listener survey!2025-03-1714 minGovEx Data Points#91 - 2024: The Year Cities Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI--- Outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes reflects on a momentous year for cities and data--- While the characters in Dr. Strangelove, referenced in the title of this episode, grappled with the invention of the atomic bomb, cities in recent years have only tentatively explored the potential of artificial intelligence to benefit residents. As outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes discusses in this episode, many cities pivoted in 2024 - with GovEx support - to develop thoughtful use cases for AI, based on solid data and comprehensive data strategies. As Holmes prepares...2025-02-2118 min
GovLove - A Podcast About Local GovernmentData and AI for Public Good with Amy Edwards Holmes, Center for Government ExcellenceAmy Edwards Holmes, former Executive Director for the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University joined the podcast to discuss data and artificial intelligence (AI) for the public good. She discussed use cases for AI for local government, how to safely use AI, and information about the GovEx City AI Connect. She also discussed how organizations can prepare their employees and why a good data approach can enhance the ability of the public sector to use AI. Host: Ben Kittelson2025-02-1442 min
The GovNavigators ShowReflections with Amy Edwards Holmes, Executive Director of GovExAs the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence marks its 10th anniversary, Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes joins the GovNavigators show to reflect on GovEx’s impact and unveil her next steps. She discusses the center’s strides in modernizing data for real-world change and shares her insights on the future of AI in government.Show NotesOMB Memo: Federal Financial Assistance Pause RescindedOPM Memo: Federal Administrative Leave 2025 Fed 100: List AnnouncedEvents on the GovNavigators' RadarFebruary 2: PSC’s Annual...2025-02-0328 minGovEx Data Points#90 - Strengthening Community Food Systems: Resilience Strategies in Adams County, Colorado--- In this episode of Data Points, GovEx’s Meg Burke sits down with Tessa Cushman, the Food Access and Systems Coordinator in Adams County, Colorado and a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow, to discuss Cushman’s experience putting the Food System Resilience Planning Guide, which GovEx created in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in 2022, into action. --- Burke and Cushman review the importance of authentic engagement with local communities and the need to leverage existing resources, like local food policy councils, to enhance food resilience efforts. They also cover...2024-11-0636 minGovEx Data Points#89 - Co-creating Solutions for Economic Mobility: The Opportunity Accelerator--- In partnership with Results for America, GovEx helps empower communities to solve problems.--- In the latest episode of Data Points, we get an overview of the Opportunity Accelerator, a recently completed program in support of place-based initiatives focused on economic mobility with the goal of specific, population-level outcomes. Place-based initiatives aim to improve quality of life and access to opportunity, particularly for people of color and families with low incomes who live in neighborhoods, cities, and rural communities experiencing disinvestment. The program was administered by Results for America in collaboration with a...2024-10-1647 minGovEx Data Points#88 - The GovExperts: Potential of public sector AI with Andrew Nicklin--- The GovExperts is the new mini-series from GovEx Data Points spotlighting some of the top minds in public sector data. In our inaugural episode we discuss what generative AI is good at, how cities are interacting with it, and what it means for the workforce.--- We’re chatting with Andrew Nicklin, Senior Research Data Manager at GovEx. Andrew takes us from his early days at the NYC parks department to his pivotal role in launching the NYC Open Data platform, and how this experience led him to GovEx at the invitation of fo...2024-09-2519 minGovEx Data Points#87 - Increasing Access while Reducing Emissions: Iowa City’s Fare Free Pilot ProgramIowa City and GovEx collaborate to solve a problem: How do you gather ridership data without fares?--- In the latest episode of the Data Points podcast, GovEx and Iowa City staff about collaborative efforts to track bus ridership for a free-fare program aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Iowa City is a participant of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Data Track, a program aimed at connecting cities with coaches and data practitioners to build data skills and techniques to tackle complex challenges and improve residents’ quality of life....2024-08-1633 min
Follow the Data Podcast143. A New Frontier for Local Government: Generative AIGenerative artificial intelligence has the potential to transform local government. That’s why city officials everywhere are working to harness its promise—from redesigning infrastructure to reimagining emergency response—alongside managing its pitfalls.Still, it’s a new frontier for municipalities, one that’s especially difficult to confront without the help of peers. To bridge the gap, in October 2023, our Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies together with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University launched City AI Connect: a global learning community and digital platform for cities to trial and advance the usage of g...2024-07-2220 minGovEx Data Points#86 - Celebrating 10 Years: Reflections on the DATA Act and the future of open data--- GovEx Executive Director Amy Holmes introduces highlights from the organization’s recent event marking the DATA Act’s 10th anniversary--- In the latest episode of GovEx Data Points from the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence, GovEx Executive Director Amy Holmes, a key figure in the passage and implementation of the 2014 DATA Act, reflects on the organization’s recent event marking the law’s 10th anniversary at the new Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC. The DATA Act, the nation’s first open data law, standardized data for more than $6 trillion in annual spending a...2024-05-1650 minGovEx Data Points#85 - Teaching Mayors to Tap Data’s “Sneaky Super Power”: Bringing People Together--- The Data Track at Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative helps leaders to the see the people behind city-level data.--- Today, we’re throwing a spotlight on the Data track of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a collaboration between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and GovEx. Launched in 2017, the Initiative has worked with 539 mayors and 2500+ senior city officials in 560 cities worldwide, and has also advanced research and developed new curriculum and teaching tools to help city leaders solve real-world problems. Latricia Boone, GovEx’s Senior Director of Partnerships, talks to S...2024-04-1542 minGovEx Data Points#84 - Women’s History Now: The Women Behind the Coronavirus Resource Center--- In this episode, we celebrate Women’s History Month by talking to some of the women who made history by leading the development of the Coronavirus Resource Center, or “CRC.” Launched in January 2020, the CRC became the indispensable source for data about COVID-19 for government officials, academics, journalists, and the public, surpassing 2.5 billion website views before winding down last year. --- Our history-making guests include: Dr. Lauren Gardner, Alton and Sandra Cleveland Professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, Beth Blauer, Associate Vice Provos...2024-03-2244 minThe GovNavigators ShowTransforming Local Government with Amy Edwards HolmesAmy Edwards Holmes, Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center on Government Excellence (GovEx) and Friend of GovNavigators (#FOGN) joins the show to talk about working with mayors and local government leaders to build a data-driven public sector that fairly and justly uses data, research, and analytics.2024-02-0529 minGovEx Data Points#83 - City AI Connect: Risk vs. Opportunity in Government AI--- In this episode, we discuss City AI Connect, a global learning community and digital platform for cities to trial and advance the usage of generative artificial intelligence to improve public services.--- Generative AI, powered by advanced machine learning algorithms, has the potential to analyze vast amounts of data to predict trends, helping cities improve emergency response, mitigate severe weather events, and target resources for infrastructure enhancements. The technologies might also be harnessed to design creative solutions that could transform government delivery by reducing processing delays, eliminating cumbersome paperwork, and expanding multi-language access...2024-02-0128 minGovEx Data Points#82 - A Year In Review: A conversation with GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes on her first year of leadershipIn the latest Data Points Podcast from the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University (“GovEx”), GovEx Chief of Staff Dr. Rudy de Leon Dinglas talks to Amy Edwards Holmes, who recently completed her first year as the center’s Executive Director. Amy came to GovEx with years of public service experience in both the non-profit and government sector. In this podcast, Amy explains the origin of her passion for helping cities use data to improve people’s lives. She and Rudy also review the past year of GovEx programming and discuss future engagements with partner cities across t...2023-10-1923 min
GovEx Data Points#81 - Democratizing Data in City Workforces: A conversation with Baltimore Chief Data Officer Justin ElszaszIn the latest Data Points podcast from the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University (GovEx), GovEx Research Manager Jacquie Greif talks to Justin Elszasz, Chief Data Officer for Baltimore City. Elszasz describes the city’s long-standing partnership with GovEx, including the collaborative development of the ground-breaking Baltimore Data Academy, which is providing city staff in every department with the opportunity to learn about data and use it to improve their work and, ultimately, the lives of Baltimore residents. In a wide-ranging discussion, Elszasz also touched on the role of the CDO, how to incentivize good data pr...2023-07-1027 minGovEx Data Points#80 - Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for Local GovernmentsAmong the lessons many cities learned from the COVID-19 pandemic was that local governments need to be better prepared for disruptions to the food system caused by public health crises and other natural and man-made disasters. To help local leaders address this need, the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) and Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future (CLF) developed a new tool, Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for Local Governments, in collaboration with five cities: Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Denver, Colorado; Moorhead, Minnesota; and Orlando, Florida. In this episode, two authors of the planning guide, Meg Burke, a R...2023-02-2036 minGovEx Data Points#79 - The Charge to Invest in Intersectional Culture Change in CitiesThe past several years have revealed a major shift in the way we relate to our jobs, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing political and civil unrest. Increasingly, the roles of social and emotional wellbeing in the workplace have taken center stage as we negotiate our return to the office. This changing paradigm about our relationship to our work has prompted employers to re-evaluate the workplaces they create for their workforces, and cities are no exception to this phenomenon. Today, we’re joined by Mykella Auld, an instructional designer for GovEx and Co...2022-11-0934 minGovEx Data Points#78 - It Takes a Village: The Value of Place-Based Partnerships in Racine, WIPlace-based partnerships can serve a major role in supporting governments’ commitment to serving and improving the lives of residents. But partnerships on a city-wide scale rely on good data governance practices in order to be successful, data-driven, and self-sustaining. In particular, collaboration between government and non-government organizations (NGO’s) poses an extra layer of complexity, and successful service delivery through these partnerships demands robust data governance and open communication between all participants. Today, we’re joined by Jenelle Zito, Director of Continuous Improvement for the Racine, WI Unified School District, Geoff Zimmerman, a consultant with S...2022-09-0129 minGovEx Data Points#78 - Apples to Apples: How the Standards of Living Tracker Compares Disparate Data SourcesData practitioners are often forced to make comparisons between disparate data sources. Data can vary in quality and completeness, and the trends they describe can differ in significant ways. When we try to compare these data, we're forced to challenge our assumptions and make tough decisions about steps to improve our confidence in our evaluations.The team at GovEx in charge of building the Standards of Living Tracker, a new tool for cities to monitor important characteristics about their populations, had to grapple with these challenges. In today’s episode, we’re joined by Sara...2022-08-0133 minGovEx Data Points#77 - Public Health Data Lessons Learned: The Pandemic Data InitiativeThe COVID-19 pandemic revealed how unprepared our public data reporting practices were to handle such an event. Incomplete, poorly-formatted, or irregularly-released datasets were a norm, and drawing useful insights from these data presented a major challenge for governments seeking to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.While working on the Coronavirus Resource Center, GovEx analysts took note of the many data governance problems they encountered. These thoughts were given voice through the Pandemic Data Initiative, a component of the Coronavirus Resource Center aimed at driving the national and international conversations on public data, how...2022-07-0126 minGovEx Data Points#76 - From the “Start” of Innovation to a New Center for Innovation – A Conversation with Amanda DaflosInnovation is about solving problems. Every problem and crisis a city encounters can unlock new opportunities to innovate and create better results for residents. In this episode, Amanda Daflos, the new Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins, shares her thoughts on the role of innovation in government, the data and innovation connection, and how the early success of i-teams in cities like Los Angeles paved the way for the a Center and better results for the more than 200 million individuals impacted by its work today. 2022-03-3124 min
GovExPodcast #76 – From the “Start” of Innovation to a New Center for Innovation – A Conversation with Amanda Daflos
Innovation is about solving problems. Every problem and crisis a city encounters can unlock new opportunities to innovate and create better results for residents. In this episode, Amanda Daflos, the new Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins, shares her thoughts on the role of innovation in government, the data and innovation connection, and how the early success of i-teams in cities like Los Angeles paved the way for the a Center and better results for the more than 200 million individuals impacted by its work today.
The post Podcast #76 – From the “Start” of Inn...2022-03-3100 minGovExPodcast #75 – “Did you get my email?”: A conversation on collaborationWhen tackling society’s big challenges, we often find ourselves collaborating with other departments or organizations external to our own. But as any siloed government employee will tell you, building the relationships needed to rise to the occasion, and sustaining those relationships, is often no easy task.
Today, we’re joined by two individuals familiar with this reality: Ryun Jackson, Special Assistant to Mayor Strickland in Memphis, TN, and Sagar Desai, Managing Director of Innovation at Strive Together. We’ll explore situations where they have faced this challenge and discuss strategies they have relied on to kee...2022-02-0400 minGovExPodcast #74 – Data Science: Easy as P.I.E.Governments are often on the hook for some of society’s most pressing challenges. How can city leaders find novel and flexible solutions to address these issues and improve the lives of residents? In a world filled with ever more complex technology, leaders are looking to data science as the answer for previously unsolvable problems.
Today, we’re joined by Richard Todd, Enterprise Data Lead for the City of Boulder, CO. We’d discuss what data science is, how data science paradigms can be applied to various challenges, and explore a few examples of how data s...2021-12-0100 minGovExPodcast #73 – Saving for the Future with Lansing SAVEHow can cities and their partners help families start saving money for their children’s future college or career training expenses? Since 2013, Lansing, Michigan has been tackling this innovative opportunity with the Lansing SAVE Initiative, a program providing all incoming Lansing School District kindergarten students with a savings account. In this episode, we discuss GovEx’s performance management engagement with the City of Lansing to help Lansing SAVE evolve and thrive. We walk through the performance management process, discuss the successful partnership involved in the work, and recap how to navigate program improvements and investments during a global pandemic.
2021-11-0100 minGovExPodcast #72 – Framing Results with the Results FrameworkAccountable, transparent government is something we all strive for in public service. But how do we make this aspiration a reality? It’s not enough to simply collect results from the programs and initiatives we launch – we need to turn these results into meaningful insights about the efficacy of these efforts.
Today, we’re joined by GovEx Academy Instructional Fellow Richard Williams to discuss the Results Framework approach to meeting this need. If you’d like to learn more about Richard and his work with GovEx Academy, come visit us at govexacademy.jhu.edu
The po...2021-10-0100 minGovExPodcast #71 – A Year in Review: The Economic Mobility Policy ForumToday, we’re joined by the Economic Mobility Forum’s Policy Fellows as they wrap up a year of research and discussion at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Applied Public Research. The Policy Forum is a community of practice focused on connecting forum members with vetted policy fellows: experts and practitioners who are working on economic mobility initiatives in their cities. Members interact with fellows through round-table discussion, research projects, and webinar lectures. We’ll discuss the takeaways gleaned from the last year of collaboration, and specifically how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated already existing economic mobility dispar...2021-09-0100 minGovExPodcast #70 – Forging Ahead Despite COVID-19The disruptive effects of COVID-19 were widespread, but that didn’t prevent the City of Paterson, NJ from moving forward on mayoral priorities. Today, we join Mayor Andre Sayegh, Chief Data Officer Harsha Mallajosyula, and Business Administrator Kathleen Long to discuss their collaboration with GovEx in developing much-needed foundational data practices in the city. We’ll look at how this work began, what problems it solved, and how it supported the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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2021-08-0100 minGovExPodcast #69 – COMIT: A Maternal Vaccination Policy Tracker by JHUIs it safe for pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19? What if they’re breast feeding? The answer, it turns out, is hard to find, and it depends a lot on where in the world you live.
Today, we’re looking at COMIT (COvid Maternal Immunization Tracker), a Johns Hopkins initiative designed to track and report the world’s nations’ stances on COVID vaccination for pregnant and lactating people. We’ll look at the challenge collecting this data has been and what it tells us about how excluding certain groups from trials and data collection causes disarray i...2021-07-0100 minGovExPodcast #68 – The eSchools+ InitiativeToday, we’re joined by the creators of the eSchools+ Initiative, a program designed to address inequity caused by school closures through connecting parents and teachers with school reopening data and research. We’ll explore the initiative’s conception and the unique challenges this effort posed given the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guests are Dr. Ruth Faden, founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Dr. Annette Anderson, deputy director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, and Dr. Megan Collins, a bioethicist at the Berman School of Bioethics and co-director of the...2021-05-0400 minGovExPodcast #67 – Love Your Block in Lancaster, PAIn today’s episode, we’ll discuss the Love Your Block program in the City of Lancaster. Love Your Block is a Cities of Service initiative that connects city leaders with residents to help them organize neighborhood improvements, cleanups, and other volunteer-led projects. We’re joined by Lancaster’s Director of Neighborhood Engagement as well as researchers from the Urban Institute who recently completed an efficacy study of Love Your Block.
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2021-04-0100 minGovLove - A Podcast About Local GovernmentChief Innovators Studio at CityLab DCCelebrating municipal innovation from California to Israel. Brent Stockwell and Amanda Daflos took over GovLove from the CityLab gathering in Washington, DC to talk innovation with four different guests. Beth Blauer is the Executive Director of GovEx at Johns Hopkins University (4:10). Tracy Colunga is the Chief Innovation Officer in Long Beach, CA (29:10). Itai Eiges is the Director of a new initiative called Hazira that will support innovation teams in Israel (51:50). Jason Reisdorfer is Director of Innovation & Technology for Sioux Falls, SD (77:30). This episode was recorded from the Chief Innovators Studio at 2019 CityLab in Washington, DC. ...2019-11-081h 52
Encyclopodia008. Civic Tech with Swara SalihLet’s head to our municipal government buildings for episode 8. It’s Civic Tech!Summary: The overall usage and implementation of the most advanced tech sector practices and technologies in the public sector and for the common good as a whole.Further Research: GovEx Data Points PodcastThanks to Swara for being my guest on this episode of Encyclopodia. Be sure to follow Swara on twitter (www.twitter.com/spiderswarz)!Support Encyclopodia on Patreon: www.patreon.com/encyclopodiaEncyclopodia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/encyclopodianetWebsite: www.encyclopodia.net2018-10-2257 min
Geeky StoicsEp #60: I AM A PART OF THE RESISTANCE INSIDE THE EMPIREHello Banthas! Swara and Stephen are back for Episode 60 to with some exclusive audio from Dragon Con 2018, a great panel on Crime & Politics in Star Wars. We also riff on the bombshell anonymous op-ed in the New York Times by a member of the Trump administration about the work being done on the inside to restrain his worst impulses from the inside. Is there a Star Wars tie-in? You bet there is! And finally, we talk about the Disney union workers vote for higher wages - with a little disagreement to be had on the topic. Dragon C...2018-09-061h 35
Beltway Banthas: Star Wars, Politics & MoreEp #60: I AM A PART OF THE RESISTANCE INSIDE THE EMPIREHello Banthas! Swara and Stephen are back for Episode 60 to with some exclusive audio from Dragon Con 2018, a great panel on Crime & Politics in Star Wars. We also riff on the bombshell anonymous op-ed in the New York Times by a member of the Trump administration about the work being done on the inside to restrain his worst impulses from the inside. Is there a Star Wars tie-in? You bet there is! And finally, we talk about the Disney union workers vote for higher wages - with a little disagreement to be had on the topic. Dragon...2018-09-061h 35