--- 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.

In this episode, we talk to two public servants from Recife, Brazil: Rafael Cunha, Secretary of Digital Transformation, Science and Technology, and Rafael Toscano, Executive Secretary for Science, Technology, and Business.

--- Recife, a city of 3.7 million people that was part of the third cohort of Bloomberg Philanthropies City Data Alliance cities, leveraged data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve service delivery. Today, the city continues to build its data infrastructure to make public service faster, fairer, more interconnected, and more human-centered.

--- Recife uses a “describe the problem” approach for requests for proposals, opening the door for creative, innovative solutions to meet residents’ needs. Their app, Conecta Recife, gives residents access to over 800 public services right from their smartphones, and a “zero-click” approach to service delivery automatically provides free parking permits to residents on their 60th birthday. The city views AI as an opportunity to continue the trend of robust digital service delivery by simplifying previously complex, cumbersome problems. For them, AI is not simply a tool, but a strategic pillar for building a more functional government for resident impact.

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--- 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 impact. How is this responsibility changing in the age of generative AI?

--- We’re joined today by Cheriene Floyd to discuss the shift in how CDOs are making data work for their residents. Floyd discusses her path from serving as a strategic planning and performance manager in the City of Miami to becoming the city’s first Chief Data Officer. During her ten years of service as a CDO, she has come to view the role as upholding three key pillars: data governance, analytics, and capacity-building, helping departments connect the dots between disparate datasets to see the bigger picture.

--- As AI changes our relationship to data, it further highlights the adage, “garbage in, garbage out.” Floyd discusses how broad awareness of this truth has manifested in greater buy-in among city staff to leverage data to solve problems, while private sector AI adoption has shifted residents’ expectations when seeking public services. Consequently, the task of shepherding public data becomes even more important, and she offers recommendations from her own experiences to meet these challenges.

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--- 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.

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--- 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 improve local governance. In particular, we’ll talk about the AMALI Data Program, which provides direct coaching and technical support city leaders focused on connecting data to goals, closing data gaps, and establishing performance management to monitor and evaluate programs.

--- We are joined by Tiffany Davis, the founding director of the AMALI data program and current Director of Emerging Initiatives and Alumni Programs at GovEx and Mawande Ngidi, the current director of the AMALI data program.

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--- 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 Health Dashboard as an example. This project a collaboration between GovEx and the Johns Hopkins BREATHE Center, which promotes the science and medicine of lung health by interfacing with the community. The dashboard seeks to overcome the challenges of data communication through dynamic, “scrollytelling” visuals to provide research findings to viewers in a relatable perspective.

--- We’re joined by Meredith McCormack, Director of the Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Division of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Director of the BREATHE Center; Kirsten Koehler, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the BREATHE Center; and Mary Conway Vaughan, Deputy Director of Research and Analytics here at GovEx.

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--- View the Lung Health Dashboard

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--- 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 visualizations with comparable statistics across all Johns Hopkins divisions, users can compare the emissions data of different methods of transportation, enabling them to make more environmentally-friendly choices as they conduct their business.

--- We sit down with four contributors to the project to discuss how the tool was built and how cities can use it as a model to support their own climate change initiatives: Sara Betran de Lis, Director of Research and Analytics at GovEx; Heather Bree, Data Visualization and D3 Developer at GovEx; Debi Denney, Assistant Director of Johns Hopkins Office of Climate & Sustainability; and Rose Weeks, Senior Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with the Campus as a Living Lab Program at the Office of Climate & Sustainability.

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--- 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.

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--- 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.

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--- 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.

--- Read the State of the Cities Analysis, 2023 Report here

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--- 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.

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