Jennifer Hernandez is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with the newly created House Digital Service, where she is helping to create a data roadmap and proof of concept that enables data-driven decision-making for the House. Before joining TechCongress, Jen was the City of Miami’s first Senior Data Scientist. She enabled fact-based decision-making, applied machine learning models to improve government services, and prototyped data solutions that leverage cutting-edge technologies

In this episode, we sit down with Jen to talk about her journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to her.

Christian Perez is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and working on issues related to Medicaid data analysis, healthcare data privacy, and public health IT/surveillance modernization efforts. Christian utilizes artificial intelligence to research emerging environmental health issues at the Center of Research Excellence in Science and Technology at Florida International University, where he is a current Ph.D. Candidate in Public Health.

In this episode, we sit down with Christian to talk about his journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to him.

Ro Encarnacion is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY-09) and working on issues related to technology and justice. Before joining TechCongress, Ro was an engineer at Stanford University working on a social impact tool for equity in representation across media and journalism. She is an alumna of Lehman College with a B.A. in Computer Science.

In this episode, we sit down with Ro to talk about her journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to her.

Ben Swartz is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and working on issues related to digital platforms, data privacy, and intellectual property. Before joining TechCongress, Ben worked at the non-profit Empower, building relational organizing software for Democratic groups in the 2020 election. Prior to that, Ben was an early engineer at Twitch, where he led teams to build products used by over a hundred million users.

In this episode, we sit down with Ben to talk about his journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to him.

Jack Cable is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under Chairman Peters (D-MI) and working on cybersecurity,  misinformation, and disinformation. Before joining TechCongress, Jack was a security architect for the Krebs Stamos Group. He has also worked on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's election security team and at the Defense Digital Service.

In this episode, we sit down with Jack to talk about his journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to him.

Lauren Lombardo is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and working on a variety of current and emerging technology issues. Before joining TechCongress, Lauren was a Senior Data Scientist at Nielsen. She also holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

In this episode, we sit down with Lauren to talk about her journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to her.

Joel Burke is a 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellow who is serving with Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX-11) and working on issues related to technology, defense, and energy. Before joining TechCongress, Joel was the Head of Business Development at the Republic of Estonia’s e-Residency program. Previously, he was an entrepreneur and early-stage startup employee at Gigster.

In this episode, we sit down with Joel to talk about his journey to TechCongress and what being a civic technologist means to him.

Weren't able to attend one of our informational calls for the 2022 Congressional Innovation Scholars Program? No worries, we recorded it for you! Listen to this episode to get more details on the application process, fellowship experience, and what our fellows have learned during their time as a TechCongress fellow in Congress. 

Rachel Dodell is the executive director and co-founder of Coding It Forward, a non-profit organization by and for young people that works to create new opportunities and pathways into social impact and civic technology. Rachel's work focusing on harnessing technological talent for social impact and we are excited to talk to her today about her vision for the future of civic tech.

For our second episode of our Public Interest Tech (PIT) Series podcast, we sit down with Andreen Soley, the Director of the Public Interest Technology University Network, or PIT-UN, at New America. She has twenty years of experience working in the higher education and nonprofit sectors, and has made an incredible impact at organizations such as the City University of New York’s JFK, Jr. Institute for Worker Education Program (IWE) and Worker Education Resource Center in Los Angeles. Before joining New America, she had been working with Mount Saint Mary’s University to develop a university-wide process, which tracks, monitors, and reports on the employment outcomes of its graduate alumni. Her work focuses on helping technologists transform the world for the better and we’re so excited to talk to her today about her vision for the future of civic tech.