GovEx Data Points
Education & Explainer
About
A podcast about government and data. Telling stories from practitioners and academics about how data affects communities and the lives of residents.
Episodes
- #111 - D.C. CDO Matt Sokol on the AI-Driven Future of City Government
--- Matt Sokol discusses why better data is the foundation for successful AI, smarter services, and public trust. --- In this episode, Sokol shares how Washington, D.C. is breaking down data silos, improving data quality, and making open d…
- #110 - Beyond Dashboards: How Boston’s CDO is Rethinking City Services
--- Boston’s Chief Research and Data Officer, Shin-pei Tsay, shares how cities can shift from analytics to impact by focusing on user experience, transparency, and practical AI use. --- This episode explores how the chief data officer role…
- #109 – How AI Is Redefining the Chief Data Officer Role
--- Justin Elszasz, former Chief Data Officer for Baltimore and GovEx advisor and CDO-in-Residence, shares what it takes to lead data strategy, navigate complexity, and guide responsible AI use in cities. --- Part of our Meet the CDOs mini…
- #108 - Meet the CDOs: Melisa Breda on Trust and Responsibility in the Age of AI
--- Melisa Breda, former Chief Data Officer for Buenos Aires, and GovEx advisor and CDO-in-Residence, shares a candid look at what it takes to make data and AI trusted tools of government. --- Part of our Meet the CDOs miniseries, this epi…
- #107 - Trust Through Results: Data, Evidence, and the Future of Public Service
--- Results for America CEO Michele Jolin and GovEx's Oliver Wise discuss how governments can use evidence, data, and cross-sector partnerships to fund solutions that improve lives and rebuild public trust. --- In this episode of the Data…
- #106 - From Vision to Impact: Lessons from GovEx's First 10 Years
--- Beth Blauer and Oliver Wise reflect on the roots, risks, and real-world impact of building a data-first culture in government. --- What began as a bold new idea for equipping cities with better data has become a national model for how…
- #105 - From Potholes to Predictive Power: How One City Is Using AI to Stay Ahead
--- With support from the City Data Alliance AI Track, Luján de Cuyo embraced AI and shifted from reactive repairs to proactive service delivery. --- Matías Meric, Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Luján de Cuyo, Argentina, discusses his expe…
- #104 - What’s Your AI IQ? How Cities Are Measuring and Making Progress
--- The AI Capacity Quiz is helping cities reflect, compare, and take confident steps forward --- The GovEx team created the AI Capacity Quiz to help local governments understand where they stand with AI and where to go next. In this episo…
- #103 - AI City Showcase: How Guatemala City is using AI to Combat Climate Change
--- The city developed its AI prototype as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies City Data Alliance AI Track --- As one of eight cities in the Bloomberg Philanthropies City Data Alliance AI Track, Guatemala City worked with GovEx coaches to…
- #102 - Rewriting a Narrative: How El Paso’s mayor is using data to highlight the city’s promise
--- Mayor Renard Johnson’s participation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative offers an example of the power of data storytelling. --- Today, Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence Executive Director Oliver Wise talks to…
- #101 - City Spotlight: Recife leads a wave of Latin American AI innovation
--- With Conecta Recife and “zero-click” service delivery, the Brazilian tech hub is creating scalable solutions to address resident needs. --- Our new “City Spotlights” highlights GovEx city partners doing great things with data and AI. I…
- #100 - The Chief Data Officer: An Essential and Evolving Role in the Age of Generative AI
--- Miami CDO Cheriene Floyd shares how Generative AI is shifting the way cities think about their data. --- A Chief Data Officer’s role in cities is to turn data into a strategic asset, enabling insights that can be leveraged for resident…
- #99 - Cities as Engines of Innovation: Insights from GovEx Executive Director Oliver Wise
--- Oliver Wise has been a data leader in local and federal government, as well as the private sector, and as GovEx’s new Executive Director, he’s betting on cities to lead the way to Gen AI-driven innovation. --- Learn more about GovEx --…
- #98 - Making Visions Reality: The African Mayoral Leadership Initiative
--- The innovation program that helps African leaders leverage data tools to achieve legacy goals --- Today, we’re talking about the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative or AMALI, which helps African city leaders reach legacy goals and im…
- #97 - Making Data Accessible: The BREATHE Center’s Lung Health Dashboard
--- How can data storytelling improve health outcomes and save lives? The Lung Health Dashboard offers one example. --- Today’s episode explores how effective data storytelling connects the public with life-saving research, using the Lung…
- #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 t…
- #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…
- #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 h…
- #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 S…
- #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 und…
- #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,…
- #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 puttin…
- #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-b…
- #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 m…
- #87 - Increasing Access while Reducing Emissions: Iowa City’s Fare Free Pilot Program
Iowa 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 fr…
- #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,…
- #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 c…
- #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 so…
- #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 adv…
- #82 - A Year In Review: A conversation with GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes on her first year of leadership
In 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 a…
- #81 - Democratizing Data in City Workforces: A conversation with Baltimore Chief Data Officer Justin Elszasz
In 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 describ…
- #80 - Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for Local Governments
Among 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 loca…
- #79 - The Charge to Invest in Intersectional Culture Change in Cities
The 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 ha…
- #78 - It Takes a Village: The Value of Place-Based Partnerships in Racine, WI
Place-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,…
- #77 - Public Health Data Lessons Learned: The Pandemic Data Initiative
The 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 present…
- #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…
- #75 - “Did you get my email?”: A conversation on collaboration
When 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 th…
- #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 t…
- #73 - Saving for the Future with Lansing SAVE
How 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 Initiativ…
- # 72 - Framing Results with the Results Framework
Accountable, 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 the…
- #71 - A Year in Review: The Economic Mobility Policy Forum
Today, 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 o…
- #70 - Forging Ahead Despite COVID-19
The 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 Adminis…
- #69 - COMIT: A Maternal Vaccination Policy Tracker by JHU
Is 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…
- Data Points Episode #68 - The eSchools+ Initiative
Today, 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…
- Data Points Episode #67 - Love Your Block in Lancaster, PA
In 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,…
- Data Points Episode #66 - Baltimore's CleanStat Initiative
In today's episode, we discuss our engagement with the City of Baltimore and its CleanStat program. We'll also look at how the city relied on this initiative to care for residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Data Points Episode #65 - Knowledge Management in City Government
We know that collecting and analyzing data generates insights. But how can we transform those moments of insight into enduring knowledge that guides the organization, even when priorities and staff change? In today’s episode, we discuss Kn…
- Data Points Episode #64 - GovEx Engagement with Rochester, MN
Today, we take a look at GovEx's engagement with the City of Rochester, MN to support their affordable housing initiative. We'll look at where the initiative came from, explore how Rochester collected and leveraged its data, and cover valu…
- Data Points Episode #63 - Distance Learning During COVID-19
We're all under pressure to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic. But how can we make the most of this time, and what benefits of this situation might we be overlooking? Today, members of the GovEx Academy explore how COVID-19 has placed a gr…
- Data Points Episode #62 - Food System Resilience during COVID-19
Today, we discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on food system resilience. Joined by two graduate students focused on this work, we’ll take a look at what cities focused on this issue are doing right now, and how hazard and vulnerability ass…