Meet the 2018 Fellows: Health and Human Services
One of the most common questions we receive about the Civic Digital Fellowship is: how do you find agency partners? The answer varies. In the case of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHSgov), we were connected with Bruce Greenstein, the agency’s Chief Technology Officer, who has since left HHS. A FedScoop article from late last year recounts our first meeting:
“I don’t know how they ended up in my office,” he admitted in a recent conversation, “but I was blown away by the sophistication.” It was clear to him that the program was “so well thought-through” that HHS’ participation seemed a great opportunity. His job now is to sell the various HHS agencies on the idea of taking on some fellows (and setting aside the budget to pay them) — he hopes to bring in between eight and 12 total. Most of these, he said, will be data and computer science students.
Due to Greenstein’s leadership and the hard work of Kevin McTigue in the HHS IDEA Lab, as well as that of other leaders across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Civic Digital Fellowship is now a reality at HHS.
This summer, nine Civic Digital Fellows are working at various HHS operating divisions on innovative, high-impact projects. Below, meet the Fellows whose projects include crunching numbers and discerning trends in datasets ranging from the opioid epidemic to Medicare fraud, communicating research results with thoughtful data journalism and visualization, and writing matching algorithms for the National Practitioner Data Bank.
Meet the Fellows
Amy Fan
Amy is a rising senior at Duke University studying Mathematics.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. Many of my experiences back home in Houston inspired in me a strong love for my community and the government. At the same time, academically, I love using math and statistics as a lens to understand the world. The Civic Digital Fellowship allows me the opportunity to not have to compromise on either of these interests, while also working on a meaningful project. I’m also excited to be alongside a community of other fellows with similar interests.
Q. What is your favorite thing about technology, and why?
A. We all have a story about technology — how we interact with it, the role it plays in our life, the positive and negative impacts. Because it scales, it affects all of us.
Diana Negron
Diana is a recent graduate of Rutgers University, where she studied Public and Nonprofit Administration.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I am thrilled to participate in this year’s cohort of Civic Digital Fellows. Being a part of a fellowship that embraces civic participation, inspires social good, and tackles problems that are of genuine concern is exciting. I look forward to using my skills and knowledge in public administration, research, and data to create civic impact.
Q. What is a fun fact about yourself?
A. I am an enthusiast of black and white films, art museums, and I frequently enjoy painting landscapes in my spare time.
Frankie Devanbu
Frankie is a recent graduate of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering where she studied Engineering with Human Centered Design.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I’m really excited to get to combine my interests in Public Health, Design and Engineering, in addressing real problems.
Q. If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?
A. If I could go anywhere in the world, I would would go the bottom of the ocean, because deep-sea creatures are awesome.
Loren Hinkson
Loren is a rising second year at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy in the Master’s program for Computational Analysis and Public Policy.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I’m excited for the opportunity to apply skills I gained in previous experiences working in process improvement in combination with technical skills from my degree program to helping Medicare and Medicaid operate more smoothly and efficiently. I think the private sector and computational thinking can add a lot of value to agencies that have been around for several decades.
Q. What is your favorite thing about technology, and why?
A. I like that when it’s implemented well, technology can be an amazing equalizer, allowing access to goods and services for people who previously would have been at a huge disadvantage for getting them (either in terms of connection, resources, or individual capacity).
Maddy Kulke
Maddy is a rising senior at Smith College pursuing a double major in Computer Science and Philosophy.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I am looking forward to exploring my interest in human computer interaction in the next few weeks while working on projects with tangible impacts on society. I cannot wait to design and implement technical solutions with a team that cares about the full scope of civic technology and the people it affects.
Q. What is your favorite thing about technology, and why?
A. I like how technology lets us choose what to allocate to our own headspace. We can use it to automate the boring mental tasks and remember the things that we don’t want to remember, freeing up more space to think and be creative.
Michal Porubcin
Michal is a rising senior at Columbia University majoring in Computer Science.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I get to apply data science for the public good, and learn a ton along the way. I think data science has been getting a bad rap lately, given the recent Cambridge Analytic and NSA leaks but there’s still a lot of good that can be done with it.
Q. If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?
A. Spain: Good food and the cities are nice. Also I speak more Spanish than any other non-English language.
Ronnie Fecso
Ronnie is a rising senior at Virginia Tech studying Computational Modeling and Data Analytics.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I want to use my data science skills to help the public good rather than increase profits for private companies.
Q. Who is the person you admire the most, and why?
A. Kendrick Lamar because he is not afraid to comment on social issues.
Sana Shah
Sana is a rising senior at the University of Maryland College Park studying Information Design and Visualization.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. I am excited to design in a space that will impact people in essential parts of their lives. Designing an experience that people can enjoy versus experiences that people absolutely need to be a part of pose very different challenges and I am excited to take on it at such a high level.
Q. Anything else you might want to share with the world?
A. I am a huge advocate for the intersection of art and technology. A few friends and I started a collective called Immersive Atoms with a community that builds art pieces for a semesterly art and tech art show on campus. The goal is to get artists and engineers to collaborate and learn from each other.
Visakh Madathil
Visakh is a rising junior at Southern Methodist University studying Economics and Physics.
Q. Why are you excited to be a Civic Digital Fellow?
A. Being a Civic Digital Fellow means I can combine two of the things I am the most passionate about — technology and real world impact. I eagerly await the opportunity to be able to learn more about technology driven innovation, especially in our most powerful institutions. Technology has the power to enable and encourage change, and that simple idea excited me to my core.
Q. If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?
A. Estonia! Estonia’s government is very open to adopting new technologies and created on of the most digitally advanced societies in the world. Technology has played a major role in its transformation from a former Soviet state to a nation with some of highest levels of economic, press and internet freedoms in the world.
The Civic Digital Fellowship is a first-of-its-kind data science and technology internship program for innovative students to solve pressing problems in federal agencies. Check out our website for more information, and learn more about our 2018 Civic Digital Fellows who are serving at six federal agencies.
Applications to join our 2019 cohort will open in the late fall of this year.
