This week host Kristin Wolff explores O4O—an exciting effort within the ecosystem of program stakeholders, data and performance experts, and civic tech champions trying gain more value from the vast amount of data the workforce system collects. This JFFLabs’ initiative focuses on creating value at the local level. It has engaged seven workforce boards in a cooperative effort to use their collective data more effectively and share insights more widely—through analytics on the one hand, and user-g...
Dec 14, 2021•52 min
It's Apprenticeship Week! #NAW2021 In honor of the occasion we're speaking with Vinz Koller about apprenticeship, data, equity and a vision for the future. Vinz leads the organization’s apprenticeship portfolio. Resources cited: Leveraging Workforce Data Systems to Improve Programs: The Case of Apprenticeship (A WDQI Resource Brief, 2021): https://wdqi.workforcegps.org/resources/2021/08/24/17/45/Leveraging-Workforce-Data-Systems-to-Improve-Programs-The-Case-of-Apprenticeship How Apprenticeships ...
Nov 18, 2021•31 min
Michelle is Bitwise’s Chief Workforce Officer and served as Director and launch architect of the organization’s Onward platform, first developed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Michelle helps catch us up on Bitwise’s growth—especially in apprenticeship—and shares important lessons about data and how it can be quickly deployed to help workforce agencies design programs (ongoing!) that get workers back on their feet quickly and with confidence. We’re really excited about this o...
Oct 26, 2021•35 min
In this episode, Dr. Annelies Goger, Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings, shares her insights about workforce policy and programs and identifies practical steps we can take to improve them through better data and modern data systems. Annelies offers a rare perspective on workforce data. As a researcher with SPR, she evaluated programs and made policy recommendations to improve economic opportunities for people and communities. Poor, outdated, or hard-to-access data was a problem she experienced first...
Sep 03, 2021•33 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sean Simone, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development (Rutgers University) in New Jersey. We cover traditional workforce data topics – like NJ’s evolving training provider data systems (ETPL) – and what it means to build for the future. Sean understands the power of data to inform good strategy and practice, improve NJ residents lives and livelihoods, and rectify past injustices—and he’s doing everything in his power ...
Jul 09, 2021•40 min
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Julia Lane, cofounder of the Coleridge Initiative—a program that aims to transform the way governments access and use data for social good. It’s a wide-ranging discussion covering major themes in Julia’s new book, Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto , new public data demands sparked by the COVID crisis, as well as strategies for meeting urgent needs in the short term while building better systems infrastructure over time. Julie sees both critical urgency and lim...
Feb 15, 2021•32 min
This episode is jaw-dropping. Spanning massive changes in data to the thriller-style story Rhode Island’s successful Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program launch in under 10 days, Dr. Justine Hastings shares a wealth of insights, lessons, and possibilities from her experience working with states to reimagine their data systems and applications. Justine* is the founding director at Research Improving People’s Lives or RIPL, a new kind of Data Science and Research Lab based in Rhode Islan...
Nov 25, 2020•43 min
In this episode, we turn the tables. Producer Doug Foresta interviews Kristin Wolff about the impact of COVID-19 on WDQI and partner data projects. The two barely take a breath in this impromptu chat about the crises and opportunities the pandemic has made evident, and the vastly expanded stakeholder networks and partner ecosystems engaged in solutions work. So many references! Here are a few: BrightHive , SPR’s trusted partner in the WDQI effort Research Improving People’s Lives ( RIPL ) The Co...
Aug 25, 2020•20 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Mark Duey and Kevan Fish, project leads for Colorado’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Mark and Kevan share Colorado’s effort to build data-rich, human-centered systems that respond to the current crisis and provide value “way out into the future.” Focused on creating sophisticated tools for matching people with first jobs, next jobs, and training that makes the best use of their talents an...
Aug 12, 2020•42 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Patrick Getz, project lead for California’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative, with the California Workforce Development Board. We learn about the state’s efforts to standardize, improve, and connect data from across programs into a system that provides more value for everyone – policy makers, agency staff, nonprofit partners, businesses, and Californians up and down the state. Because of California’s vast size and scale, there is much to be lea...
Jul 31, 2020•25 min
Kristin Wolff talks with Natalie Evans Harris, BrightHive Co-Founder, Beeck Center (Georgetown) Fellow, and White House and National Security Administration Alumna. Natalie is one of the foremost experts in the country on data governance. She’s worked at the highest levels of the federal government and also with state and local community-based organizations; with the public and private sectors separately and in collaboration. We could have talked to her about her vast experiences and inspired ho...
Mar 14, 2020•35 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Hunter Morancy, Senior Economic Research Analyst at the Center for Workforce Research and Information in Maine. Hunter is the point person for Maine’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative or WDQI, part of the national effort to build longitudinal workforce data systems supported by the US Department of Labor. Hunter talks us through the key steps that helped he and his colleagues build a secure warehouse (spoiler alert: it’s not really about the wa...
Mar 04, 2020•26 min
“The changes are staggering!” In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Dr. Marian Negoita, Senior Associate at Social Policy Research (what a treat to interview a colleague!). Marian is an expert in federal program evaluation. He’s evaluated dozens of workforce, education, and human services programs all over the country and in his home state of California. For those new to the evaluation business, this podcast is a master class. For those who get excited about using data to make a dif...
Mar 02, 2020•59 min
Dr. Josh Hawley is a workforce data guru. An Associate Professor in the Glenn College and an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University, Dr. Hawley also leads the Ohio Education Research Center, a collaboration of six Ohio universities and four research organizations aimed at bridging research, policy and practice around education in the State of Ohio, pre-school through workforce. He also serves as faculty for Coleridge Initiative (New York Un...
Feb 25, 2020•40 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Joshua Mallett, Senior Associate at Social Policy Research (what a treat to interview a colleague!) Josh is fairly new to SPR, so it was a special treat for Kristin to engage him in the wide-ranging discussion of how he built a career in public policy through data, stats, and coding just as new collaborative tools and ways of working with data were emerging, and what opportunities he sees for policy and data professionals working on critical soc...
Feb 06, 2020•37 min
In episode, we turn the tables and interview Kristin Wolff, the host of #MakingBetterWork about what’s going on in the world of workforce data and what we can look forward to next year – and it’s a lot. Turns out the data can be useful in helping us navigate the #FutureofWork. Here’s the last #MakingBetterWork newsletter: https://publicate.it/p/E3x_xT119303 And here’s how you can sign up for the next one: https://mailchi.mp/903537e424bb/mbwnews...
Jan 01, 2020•15 min
In this episode, our host, Kristin Wolff, talks with Laura Ring and Dr. Jonathan Barlow. Laura is the Director of the Office of Grant Management at the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, and Jonathan is the Associate Director of Software Architecture and Development at NSPARC – National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center – located on the Mississippi State University Campus in Starkville. Grab your trainers and chart your course – this episode is longer than most and you’...
Dec 27, 2019•49 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Analyst for the Workforce Data Quality Campaign (WDQC) in Washington DC, and long-time thought partner, data advocate, and master documentarian of all things workforce data. Jenna offers an insider’s view of major trends in past, present, and future in education and workforce data. She cites a treasure trove of resources for data champions seeking to make higher and better use of their data and even share a preview...
Oct 01, 2019•35 min
Tonya Lee, Assistant Labor Market Information Director at the Alabama Department of Labor, is our guest this week on Making Better Work. Alabama joined the workforce longitudinal data community in 2018, after securing its first ever federal WDQI grant. The state has a bold vision for working with data partners to connect data from across education and workforce agencies, and working with employers to better understand the state’s talent pipeline. Tonya shares these aspirations and discusses the ...
Jul 16, 2019•38 min
Clinton Flowers is the guest in this episode of Making Better Work. He leads the Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) effort in Missouri. A strategist by nature and a planner in practice, Clinton believes that curating and contextualizing data is as important as providing it – which is why partnerships are so important in the building of shared data systems. He shares his insights about enduring partnerships, shared intelligence, and new opportunities for Missourans learn, work, and advance....
May 15, 2019•32 min
In this episode, our host, Kristin Wolff, talks with Paul Nissen and Vladimir Bassis. Paula is the Lead Education Program Consultant for Community College Management Information System (CC MIS) within the Iowa Department of Education; and her colleague, Vlad, has worked on data and analysis for the Iowa Departments of Human Services and Education for over 13 years. The two are colleagues and co-conspirators on Iowa’s education and workforce longitudinal data systems, supported in part by a US De...
Apr 11, 2019•37 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Dr. Greg Weeks, consultant researcher, professor, and former Director of Washington State’s Labor Market Information system. Greg has authored numerous papers looking at the returns to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) – the labor market outcomes of workers with credentials in STEM skills, using WA’s longitudinal data system. (Spoiler alert: the returns are not particularly equitable across demographic groups). He’s also conducting r...
Feb 27, 2019•38 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Amelia Roberts and Robert Kalaskowsi. Amelia is the Data and Performance Manager for the Governor’s Workforce Board of Rhode Island (GWB) and Robert is the Assistant Chief of Policy and Planning with the RI Governor’s Workforce Board. The two of the them lead the team working on Rhode Island’s effort to build a longitudinal data system for workforce data under the US Department of Labor’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI). Both share thei...
Feb 27, 2019•44 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Josh Copus, Entrepreneur in residence at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to aligning and improving education and workforce systems and services so that everyone can access economic opportunity. Josh works in the part of JFF that’s about innovation – JFF Labs, where he leads an initiative called AWAKE, the Advanced Workforce and Analytics Knowledge Exchange. There’s a lot here. Enjoy it. For more information: * Jobs for th...
Feb 27, 2019•37 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Dr. Kate Akers, who, after having guided the development of KY’s education and workforce data efforts for six years, and leading the evolution of the state’s P20W Data Collaborative project into what is now the KY Center for Statistics, will be heading to Harrisburg, PA to become the new Assistant Vice Chancellor for Education and Business Intelligence with the PA State System of Higher Education. When KY, a partner in the US Department of Labor...
Feb 26, 2019•37 min
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Fran Valentine and Diana Barrett, from Indiana’s workforce data team. Fran is the Senior Director of Research, Analysis & Engagement at the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, and Diana is her colleague and the Assistant Director at the Department. We learn about how the State of Indiana, as a partner in the US Department of Labor’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI), is working with Indiana University and others to link data ...
Feb 21, 2019•29 min
