Participants
Geoffrey Arnold
Geoffrey L Arnold is from Lancaster, PA. He graduated in 2010 from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Political Science and History. This led him to become a field organizer for the Democratic Party of the State of Pennsylvania for the 2010 Midterms on the Onorato Gubernatorial Race and John Callahan Congressional Race in Allentown, PA. Afterwards he worked for two education-based non-profits in Philadelphia; first as a Team Leader for City Year, then as a Group Leader for Lutheran Child and Family Services of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Geoffrey's dedication to education and public service led him to return to school for an MS in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, where he will be serving as an adjunct-Professor in the Fall. While working toward his degree, Geoffrey interned with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the City of Pittsburgh where he now works as a Senior Digital Services list Analyst. During his tenure at the City he has developed the Burgh's Eye View application. Geoffrey lives in Pittsburgh and is actively involved in the community; singing for the Steel City Men's Chorale and Shadyside Presbyterian Church.
Gary Baughman
Gary Baughman – Risk Analysis Unit Manager
Gary has been with the State of Missouri for six years building reports and tools to help decision makers make informed business decisions. Three years ago, he created the FSD Risk Analysis Unit to provide the decision makers and field operations staff with real-time field operations reports to manage and control operational risks. He is responsible for the ongoing development, implementation, and detailed analysis of field operational risk reports and business intelligence dashboards. He is an alumnus of Illinois Institute of Technology (MBA and MS Financial Markets & Trading), and Missouri University of Science and Technology (BS Petroleum Engineering).
Kate Bender
Kate Bender is a Deputy Performance Officer with the Office of Performance Management, a division of the City Manager's Office in Kansas City, Missouri. She helped form the Office of Performance Management in 2009, which focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of city services through data-driven decision-making. In this role, Kate oversees KCStat, the city's public-facing performance management effort, as well as the city's citizen survey, business survey, and employee survey. Kate has a BA in Political Science from Brown University and a Master of Urban Planning degree from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.
Chris Bouchard
Chris Bouchard is a Senior Financial Analyst with the City of Kansas City Missouri's Finance Department. He has approximately 20 years of government finance related experience collecting, analyzing, organizing, storing and reporting on various operational information types (mostly financial) related to a variety of local municipal departments. Databases and spreadsheets have been his tools of choice to date. He currently is working as an analyst within the economic development realm. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees (in Public Administration) from San Diego State University.
Laura Distler
Laura Distler is an Information Technology Specialist with the Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) for the State of Missouri supporting the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR). Laura attended Lincoln University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and an Associates in Computer Science. Laura started working for the DOLIR-Division of Employment Security (DES) as a contributions technician for a year before transferring to the information technology area. She has worked in the information technology area for 23 years supporting DOLIR.
Laura has a husband and 2 boys that are 17 and 14.
Cheriene Floyd
Cheriene Floyd is the Strategic Planning and Performance Manager for the City of Miami. She has 14 years of experience working in or with government. Her professional experience includes budget and internal consultant roles local government and leading strategic business and technology initiatives at a Big 4 consulting firm. Cheriene holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, a Master's of Public Administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and a Master's of Business Administration from Clark University from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Cheriene is from Virginia Beach, Virginia but moved to Miami due to her affinity to tropical weather, the beach, and Latin culture.
Ewa Gallagher
Ewa Gallagher is managing Unemployment Insurance statistics and forecasting UI claims at Illinois Department of Employment Security. She worked on developing a longitudinal database of micro records (UI claimant data, Wage Record data, and Employment Services program data) matched across IDES administrative data sources. Additionally, Ewa is developing a data infrastructure to display career outcomes for post-secondary graduates by institution and program of study in a web-based portal, and link career outcomes for high school seniors to life-long learning pathways and intergenerational mobility.
Ewa has a BA and PhD in Economics from University of Illinois at Chicago.
LaShena Graham-Hayes
LaShena Graham-Hayes is a Senior Analyst with the City of Kansas City, Missouri. Her work involves data analysis, financial reporting, accounting and forecasting. Prior to joining the City of Kansas City, LaShena spent 8 years in public accounting. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She also is a certified public accountant.
Andy Halfhill
Andy Halfhill is the Manager of Homelessness/Housing Analytics for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pittsburgh, PA. Andy leads a dedicated team of analysts focused on homelessness and housing research, data visualization, and supporting the analytic and reporting needs of Allegheny County's homeless Continuum of Care. Prior to moving home to Pittsburgh to serve in this role, Andy spent 6 years leading the state of Arkansas' homeless management information system (HMIS) implementation and 4 years supporting program development, monitoring and evaluation activities for community development programs at Heifer International. Andy has a Master of Environmental Science degree from Miami University (Ohio) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Gannon University.
Josh Hawley
Joshua D. Hawley is Associate Professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University and runs/helps run several university research groups focused on using administrative data in decision making (oerc.osu.edu and chrr.osu.edu). He received his doctorate in Education Policy from Harvard University and also holds degrees in Asian Studies/History from University of Wisconsin - Madison. In addition to working at Ohio State, he has been a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia, and a consultant to the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNESCO-UIS - among other activities.
Sara Hintze
Sara Hintze, GIS Data Developer/Analyst
Sara graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Sara assists in the collection, maintenance, integration, analysis, and presentation of MARC's wide array of data in support of the regional decision-making, with her primary responsibility lying within web-based data information/presentation systems.
Elizabeth Holzschuh
Elizabeth Holzschuh is the population health epidemiologist at the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, where she has worked since 2015. Johnson County, Kansas is located in the Kansas City Metro Region and has a population of approximately 580,000 residents. Her primary role is to provide data for program and policy development and support department activities, including the community health assessment. Prior to her current role, she served as an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. She obtained her masters degree with a concentration in public health, microbiology, and emerging infectious disease from the George Washington University.
Lewis Horner
Lew Horner is an assistant chief for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Bureau of Labor Market Information. Before coming to ODJFS, he designed and conducted surveys and other research projects for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the University of Minnesota, and the Ohio State University. Lew has a PhD from Ohio State.
Lisa Kessler
Lisa Kessler is a data analyst at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her primary duties include providing program and technical support for the County's homelessness and housing programs. She received her Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Prior to this, she received a Bachelor of Science in Decision Science and Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Sari Lasin-Sienne
Sari Ladin-Sienne executes Mayor Garcetti's vision for a more responsive, and data-driven Los Angeles. As Chief Data Officer, Sari improves access to meaningful information for residents and city employees. She leverages her policy knowledge and technical skillset to form new partnerships that tap into the value of data as a critical asset in smarter decision-making. Sari believes knowledge sharing is at the core of the smart cities movement. She previously worked as a Harvard Ash Fellow for the Mayor's Data Team where she led the team's digital strategy and elevated the city's best practices to the national conversation through her articles for Harvard's Data Smart Cities and Government Technology. She has provided data analysis, budgeting, and policy recommendations to a range of public and nonprofit clients including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Sari holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Gene Leynes
Gene Leynes is a data scientist for the City of Chicago working on smart city projects that use predictive analytics to optimize city operations. Some of his projects include food inspection optimization, West Nile Virus prediction, and childhood lead poisoning prevention. His work has been featured on PBS Newshour, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic's CityLab, and was presented at the 2016 UseR! conference in Stanford, CA.
Gene joined the public sector in 2014 after working for several years in private industry. He began his career as an actuarial consultant in 1999 working on a variety of non-traditional actuarial projects for public and private clients both large and small. After completing his MBA in 2007 he worked in startups first developing automated trading systems for hedge funds, and then as a data science consultant.
Gene has also been a guest lecturer for data science classes, is a board member of the Chicago R User Group, frequent speaker at meetups and other events, and was a part time professor for a data science management course at DePaul University.
Gene holds a Masters of Business from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from DePaul University.
Bo McCall
Bo McCall is a performance analyst in the City Manager's Office of Performance Management for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. In his current role, Bo supports the Office of Performance Management's assorted programs, data services, analytics, and training, including KCStat, DepartmentStat, the City's resident satisfaction survey, employee engagement surveys, process improvements, Data Academy, etc. He has coordinated and led the analysis for various benchmarking initiatives and low-cost evaluations with the City. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master of Public Administration degree with an emphasis in performance management from the University of Kansas.
Izzy Mitchell
As Data Services Lead on the Mayor's Data Team, Izzy is responsible for implementing citywide use of the GeoHub and developing a strong mapping culture in the City of Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Data Team, Izzy worked as a researcher and data scientist in the Department of Cultural Affairs. There they developed the Neighborhood Arts Profile and were responsible for managing and advancing data pipelines as well as generating resources for departmental reports. While attaining a Bachelor's Degree in GeoDesign at USC, Izzy worked with the Mayor's Data Team and Esri to produce "A Spatial Analysis of Street-level Crime Trends in Los Angeles."
Lisa Neilson
Lisa Neilson is a Research Scientist at the Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research. Lisa manages the Ohio Longitudinal Data Archive, a secure repository of administrative records from Ohio's workforce and education agencies. In this role, Lisa works closely with a team of policy research experts, analysts, archivists, and database managers to use the OLDA to inform public policy. Her current research centers on program evaluations and education and training employment outcomes. Lisa earned her PhD in Sociology from OSU in 2012. She has conducted longitudinal research on social responsibility in the marketplace, social and economic inequality, and the effects of debt on mental health, home ownership, and education outcomes. Lisa began her career as a Consumer and Market Research Manager in the consumer goods industry.
Patricia Norton
Patricia Norton is a research analyst for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Her work involves answering data questions and analysis of medically related topics along with other subject areas. She has earned three degrees; a Master in Public Health is her latest (and last) degree. Patricia Norton volunteers on Missouri's pregnancy mortality review committee.
Richonda Oaks
Richonda Oaks is an analyst for KC Water Services in the City of Kansas City, Missouri. She received her BA in Economics from UC Berkeley and, an MBA and MPP from the University of Chicago.
Cassandra Palsgrove
Cassandra Palsgrove has been an Education Program Specialist with the Ohio Department of Education for four years. She has worked with Career-Technical Education programming, and Career Connections initiatives. Currently, Cassandra is focusing on work to help connect business and education communities in an effort better prepare Ohioans for success in the workforce and beyond. As a classroom teacher for six years prior to her work at the department, she engaged students in meaningful experiential learning opportunities through Agricultural Education. Cassie and her husband Brent reside in Fairfield County Ohio with their two children Carter and McKinley.
Mia Puthumana
Mia Puthumana is a Utility Business Analyst at Kansas City Water. She received her BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Kansas and worked 15 years for Missouri Department of Transportation before joining KC Water in 2013.
Ben Qualls
Ben has almost 15 years of experience working for the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relation's Division of Workers' Compensation. Currently he serves as a Management Analysis Specialist II with primary responsibilities of coordinating the Division wide implementation of enhanced data analytics and technical solutions. Prior to his current role, Ben spent the previous four years as a Research Analyst III gathering Workers' Compensation statistics and conducting necessary research utilizing SQL querying as the basis. He also has 10+ years of experience in financial analyses, including five serving in a supervisory capacity as a Senior Financial Analyst.
Ben has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and Banking, and a Minor in Economics from the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. M....I....Z...!!
David Reynolds
I am a database administrator, analyst, quality control thug, and mapping guru for the Neighborhood Preservation/Dangerous Buildings Division of the City of Kansas City, MO. Despite the above assortment, I don't actually enjoy hats all that much. I started with the City in 2001 doing neighborhood organizing and crime prevention trainings, but augmented that by revamping our recordkeeping and group registrations into custom databases. From there I moved into administering the Division's weed/trash abatement program, reducing waste and increasing the speed with which abatement tasks could be sent to contractors to reduce blight across the entire city, but primarily the urban core. I am proficient with SQL, ArcGIS, HTML, CSS, VBA, and C, and passingly familiar with whatever else I can get my hands on.
Daniel Rizo-Patron
Daniel Rizo-Patron is the Performance Manager for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' (ODJFS) Office of Workforce Development; responsible for the development and maintenance of data collection, performance calculation, reporting systems and client-tracking functions related to Federal, State and grant funded workforce investment programs. He is an ODJFS representative and data steward for Ohio Analytics, aiding in management and governance in data sharing amongst Ohio agencies. In previous roles, Daniel worked in the private sector as a marketing research manager and in academia as a lecturer in psychology and behavioral research methods at Wright State University and Sinclair Community College.
Eric Roche
Eric Roche began working with the City of Kansas City, MO as a Cookingham-Noll Management Fellow in 2013. In his current role, he serves as Chief Data Officer with the Office of Performance Management. Eric's role focuses on using data to uncover relationships, communicate ideas, and improve performance. Eric also oversees the city's open data suite. Open data initiatives include OpenData KC, KCSTAT Performance Management Dashboards, and Open Budget.
Eric received his undergraduate degree from Colorado State University and earned his MPA from the University of Kansas. You can reach Eric by email at Eric.Roche@kcmo.org, or via twitter @KansasCityEric.
Rachel Rue
Rachel Rue is an analyst with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, working with the Homeless Services Team. Her research uses the county's data warehouse, which contains linked client-level records from county human services and a number of external sources, including school districts, courts, the jail, housing authorities, and birth and death records. Rachel looks for patterns in the way people receive services and interact with other agencies and institutions, with the goal of helping to improve service delivery, make prevention programs more effective, and mitigate harm. Since joining the Department of Human Services two years ago she has concentrated on rental assistance programs, eviction filings, and the flow through the emergency shelter system. In prior work she produced annual studies of mortgage lending in Allegheny County, using federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and Census data. Rachel holds a B.A. from Swarthmore in Philosophy and Ancient Greek, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton, and a B.S. in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon.
Chris Slinkard
Chris Slinkard is the Director of the Missouri Division of Employment Security, which administers the state's unemployment insurance program. He believes that private sector job growth and workforce training are the foundations of Missouri's economic development and greater opportunity for its citizens. He has provided clients with tax, payroll, accounting and business management services, owned and managed businesses in retail, real estate, construction and manufacturing industries, as well as taught accounting, economics and information systems to college business students.
Prior to coming to the Division, Chris was a full-time faculty member in the School of Accountancy at Missouri State University. He has served as institution project specialist for a project funded by the US Department of Labor, and as a former president and general manager of an international construction and manufacturing company, he formulated strategy which led to revenue growth and new job creation that received the Missouri Chamber Fast Track Award in 2008.
Chris is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Missouri, a Certified Information Technology Professional and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He received a BS in Accounting and an MS in Project Management from Missouri State University. He and his family are life-long residents of southwest Missouri, where they presently operate a small beef cattle ranch in Diamond, MO.
Dan Steen
Dan Steen is the GIS Technical Lead for Johnson County, KS. He primarily leads and coordinates the technical development of a diverse set of enterprise web and database solutions. He has 20+ years of experience in information technology, GIS, and government administration at the local and federal level. Prior to Johnson County, Dan was a GIS Scientist for a contractor to the Department of Energy in Las Vegas, NV. Dan holds a BS in Biology from Kansas State University and masters coursework in Public Administration from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Julie Steenson
Julie Steenson serves as Deputy Performance Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri and has worked for KC since 2006. She oversees performance improvement efforts and assists with city data analytics projects, which allows her to thoughtfully use data coming from Kansas City's citizen survey, 311 call center metrics and department key performance indicators to positively impact the delivery of city services. She received a Bachelors degree in International Studies from the University of Evansville and a Masters in Public Affairs from Indiana University. She is also certified in Lean Process Improvement. Julie is a huge fan of telling stories with data and loves a good data visualization.
Vickie Steinly
Vickie Steinly is a Senior Analyst at KC Water for the City of Kansas City Missouri. Vickie is responsible for KC Water Performance Management Division and provides support to the water officers and operational divisions with data collection and analysis.
Richard Todd
Richard Todd is an advisor in the Innovation & Performance Team within the City of Seattle. Working within the Mayor's Office, his work focuses on bringing data and behavioral insights to improve City services. Richard holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from Princeton University.
Tony Vaughan
Tony Vaughan is an Unemployment Insurance Benefits Manager with the Missouri Division of Employment Security where he works to provide training and policy guidance related to all aspects of unemployment insurance claims. This includes analyzing and implementing necessary changes due to legislative action, updated guidance from the US Department of Labor, or internal departmental initiatives. For the last five years, Tony has served as a subject matter expert and business analyst as the Division worked to modernize its computer system.
Tony has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Lincoln University.
Candace Williams
Candace Williams serves as the Chief of Unemployment Insurance Integrity for the Missouri Division of Employment Security (DES). Some of her responsibilities include federal reporting for the agency, auditing of unemployment claims, establishing and recovering overpaid benefits, and responding to legislative proposals.
Candace has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems and a minor in Leadership Studies from Hampton University.
Michael Wypyszinski
Mike has worked for the City of Seattle for over 16 years working in Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Seattle IT and most recently working with Innovation and Performance. As a business intelligence developer, he has architected, designed, developed, and implemented data warehouses and data automation solutions for several City departments. Mike is a graduate of six University of Washington Extension Certificate programs that focused on multiple development disciplines, most recently in Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Development.
Steve Yoder
Steve Yoder is a GIS Project Developer at Johnson County, KS. In this role his responsibilities include integration of data (geographic or otherwise) into business processes and decision making at the County. Most recently, Steve has provided technical leadership to a novel data sharing initiative among the Human Service and Criminal Justice programs at Johnson County. Steve is an alumnus of Goshen College (BA) and holds a Master's degree in Geography from the University of Kansas.