Data for the People!

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This episode of Data for the People! features Leremy Colf, a Senior Fellow with the Data Foundation's Center for Data Policy, who recently wrote a policy brief about six practical, high-impact policy options to strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency by reducing waste and improving response effectiveness.

Colf is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Campus who previously worked in the federal government at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In those various roles, he has used science, data, and evidence to develop a Federal Data Strategy, improve preparedness and response for public health and medical disasters, and improve threat characterization and bioterrorism defense.

Read his policy brief, Reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency: Policy Options to Reduce Waste and Improve Response Effectiveness. 

00:07 — Introduction
01:26 — Background in Federal Government & Data
04:49 — Becoming a Data Person
06:08 — Surprises About Federal Data
07:56 — From DC to Oklahoma
10:30 — Disaster Response from the Ground
11:37 — Synopsis of the FEMA Policy Brief
14:34 — The Most Important Policy Option: Streamlining Legislation
16:12 — Improving Data Sharing Across Agencies
19:57 — Barriers to Common Sense Solutions
22:28 — A Data-Driven Approach to Disaster Reform
26:16 — Why Now? The Policy Window for FEMA Reform
29:42 — Favorite Public Dataset: Open FEMA
32:16 — Hidden Gems: Why Great Data Goes Unnoticed
34:22 — My Data Story: A Personal Emergency
36:05 — Closing & Wrap-Up

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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The latest episode of Data for the People! features David J. Hayes, an attorney and legal scholar who served in three presidential administrations, including twice as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and most recently as Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy.

He is currently an Advisory Board Member and Co-Founder of the Center for Climate and Environmental Data (CCED) at the Data Foundation and a professor of practice at Stanford University's Doerr School of Sustainability and Stanford Law School. 

In the episode, Hayes shares how he became interested in energy, the environment, and natural resources — and why data related to those issues matter; he explains why problems with fragmentation, trust, and lack of measurement standards are so significant for addressing climate change and protecting the environment. He also reflects on what challenges remain since CCED launched at Climate Week NYC two years ago. 

Read a blog summary of the episode, with excerpted quotes. 

Learn more about the Center for Climate and Environmental Data (CCED). 

Learn more about CCED’s initiatives, including the GHG Coalition, a methane plume technical working group, an open-data portal to track neighborhood-level greenhouse gas emissions, and a semantic commons to improve the interoperability of climate, nature, and economic data. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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The guest for this episode of Data for the People! is Natalie Evans Harris, Chief Data Officer for the State of Maryland and a Data Foundation Senior Fellow. Harris discusses how Maryland is building a statewide data infrastructure that enables agencies to work together, strengthens data governance, improves data literacy, and prepares the state for responsible artificial intelligence.

Read a blog summary of the episode. 

During the interview, Harris also offers two contributions for the Data Foundation’s #MyDataStory initiative, which highlights how government data helps Americans solve problems, make decisions, and strengthen communities. What’s your data story? Share it in writing or over video. 

In the spirit of the Data Foundation's People's Data 100 initiative, which identifies federal datasets providing the greatest value to Americans, Harris mentions one of her favorite public datasets: The Social Vulnerability Index, which is maintained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ranks communities by their vulnerability to external shocks, such as a natural disaster, disease outbreak or economic disruption. Learn more about the People's Data 100 initiative. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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At the 2026 Data Summit, Leanne Spaulding, Resilience and Data Lead at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, moderated a conversation on how better data can support resilience, environmental risk management, and growth. She was joined by Emily Dhingra, Senior Project Manager for Climate Resilience and Adaptation at AECOM; Kathie Dello, Assistant Secretary for Resilience at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality; and Paula Pagniez, former Executive Director of Climate Risk and Resilience at Howden.

Their conversation has been edited and produced as an episode of Data for the People!, a podcast from the Data Foundation.  

Want to watch other panel sessions or presentations from the 2026 Data Summit? Video recordings are available on the Data Summit event page.

govDATAx is the Data Foundation's flagship conference bringing together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government.

This year's govDATAx will be on Sept. 15 at George Washington University. 

Register now.

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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This episode of Data for the People! shares highlights from the Data Foundation’s 2026 Data Summit, focusing on philanthropy’s role in supporting a stronger shared data ecosystem.

Data Foundation President and CEO Nick Hart moderates a conversation with Daniella Lowenberg of the Data Funders Collaborative and Rachel Snyderman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Lowenberg describes the Collaborative’s priorities, including modernizing state and local data infrastructure, improving effective data use (privacy, self-sovereignty, and quality), and data readiness for AI and evaluation.

Snyderman explains the Peterson Foundation’s focus on long-term fiscal sustainability and how bipartisan attention to improper payments, fraud, waste, and abuse can be reframed as a data issue that also improves benefit access.

The panel discusses where philanthropy can test ideas and convene cross-sector partners, while noting limits in replacing federal system investments or making federal policy, and highlights opportunities to accelerate progress through responsible use of new technology and clearer communication to policymakers.

If you enjoyed this conversation from our 2026 Data Summit, then you won’t want to miss our next big event: govDATAx, on September 15th at George Washington University. 

govDATAx brings together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government. 

Learn more and register. 

Interested in learning more about Evi, the Evidence Act Hub AI assistant co-developed by the Data Foundation and Data Foundation Senior Fellow Ted Kaouk? A beta version is now available to test.  

govDATAx is the Data Foundation's flagship conference bringing together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government.

This year's govDATAx will be on Sept. 15 at George Washington University. 

Register now.

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

Send us Fan Mail

In the latest episode of Data for the People!, Data Foundation Senior Fellow Taka Ariga discusses the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance government efforts to prevent fraud and other types of improper payments in public benefit programs.

Ariga was the first Chief Data Scientist at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) where he also directed GAO’s Innovation Lab. He later served as the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He is now a Senior Fellow with the Data Foundation and the founder of Sol Imagination, an AI advisory company.

Amanda Cash, the Senior Director of the Data Foundation’s Center for Data Policy, joins the episode as a co-host.

Learn more about the Data Foundation/Deloitte report discussed on the episode, Navigating Transition and Change: 2025 Survey of Federal Chief Data Officers. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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This episode of Data for the People! explores a problem with climate and environmental data that burdens public agencies and the private sector: Currently, federal and state regulators have a host of different reporting requirements for climate and environmental data, such as data on greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the data get reported in multiple ways to multiple regulatory entities, which hampers the public's ability to use the data while making it hard to monitor trends and evaluate the effectiveness of policies and programs. Private organizations also pay a price in terms of time and money to report similar information in different ways to comply with a patchwork of state and federal regulations. 

A recent paper by XBRL.US proposes that the public and private sectors adopt a structured standardized data format to simplify reporting and improve government's ability to measure trends across jurisdictions and data sets. 

The episode features three guests: 

• Liv Watson, a Senior Fellow with the Data Foundation's Climate Data Collaborative and a co-founder of the Digital Global Single Market Data Alliance
• Catherine Atkin, a co-chair of the Law x Climate project at Stanford Codex as well as a Senior Fellow with the Data Foundation's Climate Data Collaborative and a co-founder of the Digital Global Single Market Data Alliance
• Michelle Savage, Vice President of Communications for XBRL.US

They discuss XBRL.US’s proposal to adopt structured, standardized, machine-readable reporting via a semantic data model to improve interoperability, support investors and policymakers, enhance AI use through better context, and reduce a growing patchwork of regulations.

We're dropping this episode during the week of DC Climate Week (April 20-24, 2026) when we are co-hosting a full-day event on April 21 about climate and environmental data. Learn more about the event's programming and speakers here.

The Data Foundation's Climate Data Collaborative makes climate and environmental data work better for decision-makers across sectors. Our vision is a federated and interoperable data ecosystem where decision-makers have the data needed to drive markets, mitigation, conservation, finance and compliance—one where public agencies provide foundational data and private actors are motivated to contribute. Learn more about the Climate Data Collaborative at www.ClimateDataCollaborative.org. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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On the latest episode of Data for the People!, Brett Loper discusses policy options for using data tools to prevent improper payments in federal benefit programs. The options appear in a new report produced by the Data Foundation and our Fiscal Intelligence Initiative, with support from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. 

Loper is currently the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation after serving in a number of senior roles in the White House and Congress, including as Deputy Chief of Staff to then-House Speaker John Boehner. 

Read a short blog summary of the episode.

Learn more about the Data Foundation's 2026 Advocacy and Policy Agenda, including a priority on evidence-based efficiency that demonstrates an immediate return on investment from the federal evidence infrastructure. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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On the latest episode of Data for the People!, Claire McKay Bowen discusses the role federal statistics play in our daily lives, strategies for communicating the value of government data, and her vision for the future of data sharing and data privacy. 

Bowen is a data privacy expert who is currently a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, an adjunct professor at Stonehill College, and a board member with the Association of Public Data Users (APDU). Last year, she co-authored a series of blogs for APDU about the manifold ways federal statistics inform routine decisions for Americans, how federal data is like the “forgotten egg” used to bake a cake, and what educators can do to teach K-12 students the origins and importance of U.S. federal data. 

Bowen also discusses a recent article she wrote for the Journal of Economic Perspectives titled "Government Data of the People, by the People, for the People: Navigating Citizen and Privacy Concerns." 

The Data Foundation is currently reviewing submissions for the People’s Data 100, an initiative to recognize federal datasets providing the greatest value to Americans. The conversation with Bowen is part of our broader effort throughout 2026 to spotlight the strategic data infrastructure that powers daily life in the U.S., from protecting public health to enabling scientific discovery to safeguarding taxpayer-funded benefit programs.  

In the spirit of the initiative, learn more about the AirNow system that supports the Air Quality index provided by BreezoMeter on the iPhone's weather app. AirNow is a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Park Service, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control, and tribal, state, and local air quality agencies.

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

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The latest episode of Data for the People! features David Dutwin, executive director and senior vice president of AmeriSpeak, a panel-based research platform from NORC at the University of Chicago. Dutwin joins the show to discuss Americans’ trust in federal statistics, science, institutions, and one another.

Learn more about the American Statistical Association's The Nation's Data at Risk: 2025 Report, which includes analyses of AmeriSpeak survey panel data on Americans' perceptions and use of federal statistics. 

Learn more about the People's Data 100 initiative and nominate a federal dataset providing great value to daily life in the United States before the February 28, 2026 deadline. 

In the spirit of the People's Data 100 initiative, here are links where listeners can learn more about two national datasets Dutwin references in the interview: 

• The General Social Survey (GSS), which Dutwin calls "a mirror into the soul of Americans."  This federally funded survey has been tracking American attitudes, values, and social trends since 1972. 
• The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a collaboration between state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that uses health-related telephone surveys to collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. In the interview, Dutwin gives the example of how Americans might see a statistic on TV about the rate of asthma among adults in a given state, which would likely come from the BRFSS. 

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation