My dog’s name is Scout. Yes that’s a daily reminder to maintain a Scout rather than Soldier’s mindset. A bit of backstory: Out of grad school, several friends and I launched a public data nonprofit, with seed funding from the Knight Foundation and a coalition of visionary water managers that believed in our vision of public data infrastructure. You can learn more about our water data work at theCaDC.org.
I led that team, setting the project vision, building the initial tools, hiring and growing the team, responding to client needs and feature requests, and managing the project for five years. Those analytics helped our partners save over $20 million in avoided capital costs, informed the optimization of almost half a billion dollars in turf rebates and delivered California’s first ever statewide water efficiency benchmarks (for <5% the state government budgeted). The project has continued to enjoy steady, sustainable growth—a rarity in gov tech!
In 2019, I left the organization in good hands and joined California Forward, where I currently run the data and research for the organization. There I lead the development of our California Dream Index (“CDI”) and broader initiative to ground policy with evidence. When I joined, the CDI was a concept that had been discussed for the previous three years. Within six months starting, I was able to execute and launch the initial analytics product at our flagship annual event.
I have also led research and development for a measure of high wage jobs produced across California. Together with the CDI, these data are critical for tracking the state’s transition to a decarbonized economy. At CA FWD, I have also had a unique vantage point to participate in leading climate policy discussions through our workgroups and unique convenings like a deliberative poll on climate policy.
I wonder with these types of meta-analyses of relatively squishy subjects like “happiness” whether all the studies are in fact truly measuring the same outcome variable, as well as the same inputs. Man is not a machine, least of all the “crooked timber” of the mind.