I was the principal designer for Truss (and then program manager at the IRS) to create the IRS’ free tax filing solution Direct File in a massive and extremely fast-paced delivery for the 2024 tax season. In less than a year, we turned a memo into a highly anticipated product with exemplary accessibility. Initially, I was […]
Articles tagged 'civic media'
Unemployment insurance
I led design and research for Truss with the Department of Labor to deliver a pilot project to transform the unemployment insurance (UI) experience. Our work led to a 48-minute reduction in the time to apply for benefits (and probably helped NJ’s DOL commissioner keep his job). I also conducted design and accessibility reviews of […]
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
I led research for a $4.5M DevSecOps contract at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This allowed four critical infrastructure teams to increase adoption of devops tools and processes, better monitor their policy compliance, and respond faster to issues that previously took them much longer (if at all) to respond to. I also […]
KBase
I led research for and co-designed critical new functionality to the Department of Energy’s Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase), allowing biologists and bioinformaticians in national labs, universities, and companies to better upload and analyze data for genomics and bio-energy research, especially for metagenome analysis. Truss was hired primarily to improve product management, design, and agile software […]
SF Building Permitting
When COVID-19 closures started in early 2020, San Francisco was unable to accommodate emergency construction for housing. In just four weeks, we put their building permitting process online! San Francisco’s permitting office was in the midst of transforming processing applications from a paper-based workflow to a digital-based workflow. A critical piece of this effort was […]
Civic Hacking
What’s a better way for folks to get involved in civic hacking?
How we can unite the balkanized NYC civic hacking community
When I moved to NYC four months ago, I already sorely missed my civic hacking community I left behind in Austin. I only knew a few folks here, and there was a lot to get acquainted with. I did know at least one thing might be familiar: the local civic tech hack night. But I couldn’t find it.
ProtoCity
Helping citizens prototype and actively build their future city
Array of Things
How things big and small can be made accessible through a common network and identifiable as an array of networked devices.
WALT
Community empowerment centered around permanently affordable housing
Gleaning research
Modeling the design space of gleaning in order to better inform design decisions for food security and other civic services
Open Austin
Leading organizational efforts on projects, onboarding new members, and helping the organization succeed
Mobile Reporting
Boilerplate code and design for creating mobile reporting apps
Unlock the Box
Voting access projects for Georgia
Interests
Here’s some things I’m deeply interested in but don’t go into detail describing elsewhere on my site: High-level The most general way I can describe what I like to do is thus: I like learning how things work together and communicating that with others. For the most part, I’m more interested in the high-level, […]
Fresh for Less
Helping communities in need of healthier food options to gain access
eDemocracy
Increase and improve the transparency and fairness of democratic processes and institutions at home and abroad
Go Grow Atlanta
We helped urban farmers and gardeners access and engage in the drafting process of Atlanta’s first Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance
ShelterShare
A system model for more effective mobilization of resources and services for homelessness
Should I pollute today?
An app that calculates how much you pollute on your daily commute
VacantFinder
VacantFinder is a visualization of vacant property data and reporting tool for civic engagement
Open Ghana
Reintroducing opportunity to Ghana’s mining blights by enabling the public to report injustices, announce improvements, and invite international attention and investment
Foodhub
A community approach to helping people know, learn, and improve local food systems.