Join us in welcoming 4 new team members to the Office of Accountability, Performance & Innovation. In recent months we searched the country for a Data Program Manager, an Innovation Designer, a Data Engineer, and an ARPA Data Analyst. Each of these roles is critical to our team and offers a different set of valuable skills that will add to the expertise and value that our office provides to the City and its residents. We are so pleased with the privilege to attract and welcome such talent to our team here in Syracuse.
The Data Program Manager will manage our open data program and help coordinate our surveillance technology working group among other foundational data programs. They will also play a crucial role in the development and execution of Syracuse’s citywide data strategy.
Our Innovation Designer will bring a citizen-centered perspective with a toolkit of co-creation, research, data synthesis, idea generation, prototyping, and testing. In other words, they will question the status quo, push groups of stakeholders to better understand user needs, manage and facilitate stakeholder discussions, and identify and recommend solutions that creatively meet citizen needs.
As the City looks to grow its data analytical capacity, our Data Engineer is responsible for developing a scalable data architecture, streamlining data acquisition processes, and setting up processes, tools, and products to bring together data that will be the inputs of data analytics and data science projects citywide. In other words, we are getting better at using data to make informed decisions and our Data Engineer will do much of the heavy lifting on ensuring we are collecting good data and have easy access to that data for use.
Our ARPA Data Analyst will play a key role in tracking ARPA - related activities across multiple city departments and local grant recipients. ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act which provides additional funding for state and local governments funded by the Federal government in response to the pandemic. Our ARPA Data Analyst will also build dashboards that track progress toward program-wide performance metrics, ensure that funds are appropriately allocated under federal and local guidance, conduct impact analysis of ARPA projects, and work with the API team on completing other data analytics and performance management projects. Additionally, they will contribute to approaching ARPA from an equitable recovery standpoint by working with implementing departments in the establishment and follow-up of appropriate equity-related metrics.
Meet Jason Scharf - Data Program Manager
Jason has been working in local government for the last 10 years as a Child Protective and Foster Care Caseworker for Onondaga County. It was through an experience Jason had providing support to a student with a disability in taking his Computer Programming Class (learning C++) that he realized he had a passion for computer programming. This desire pushed him to begin attending local developer meetup groups and participate in several 24-hour coding hackathons. His drive and love for coding helped him to get a part-time job with a Web Development Bootcamp (Hack Upstate’s Careers in Code) which eventually lead to an opportunity for him to do some contract work for a local software developer. His interests also lead him to help start and lead Code for Syracuse, which was a technology volunteer group that partnered with local non-profit organizations.
Since starting on the API team, one of the things that he enjoys is being an advocate for open data. He enjoys giving talks and presentations on different ways that open data can be used at Hackathons and to other community partners. He enjoys using data and web development to share civic information that has the potential to inform residents and visitors about the many strengths that Syracuse and Central New York have, as well as the challenges that we are facing. He looks forward to continuing to advocate for open data, local government transparency, and working in the community to create awesome things.
Meet Jordanna Coutinho - Innovation Designer
Jordanna grew up in a city that expanded over eight times its size in less than ten years. Signs that the city was beyond carrying capacity were ubiquitous. It broke her heart to see her environment become something unrecognizable and she used her design education to explore solutions to this challenge in the form of many “How Might We’s” - How might we design services for residents that improve their quality of life? or How might we build agency in residents to address environmental and safety issues?
Four years ago she set out on a quest to explore her big “how might we” i.e How might we use design to address social and civic issues?”, which lead her to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) where she obtained a Masters’s degree in Design for Sustainability. Being in a multicultural environment opened her eyes to similar challenges being faced by cities and their residents across the globe.
It was only fitting that Jordanna jumped at the opportunity to be an Innovation Designer at the Office of Accountability, Performance & Innovation given her experience and drive to serve those in communities around her and her desire to improve the lives of others. Here in Syracuse, she is excited to continue her quest, combining her love for cities and people and innovating at a policy level.
Meet Trevor Grant - Data Engineer
Trevor has spent most of his life in Syracuse, growing up in the suburbs and attending both Onondaga Community College as well as Syracuse University during his undergraduate career. After receiving his degree in Neuroscience and Philosophy from SU, he continued to work for the university as a research assistant before making the leap to attend graduate school for computer science at the University of Colorado. His past and current research were focused on human-computer interaction as well as behavioral and algorithmic economics.
Trevor is excited to repurpose the data skills he gained in academic work to contribute to having a healthier and more maintainable data infrastructure in the city. It is his belief that leveraging robust data tools and procedures can unlock new capabilities as well as ease complexity in operational systems. He looks forward to the opportunity to think of new use cases for data to create positive change in the lives of city employees and city residents alike.
Meet Jason Thomas - ARPA Data Analyst
Jason earned his Ph.D. in Political Science in Comparative Politics and Political Methodology, using time-series analysis and duration models to study voter behavior and the factors that affect the outcomes of elections. He originally came to Syracuse to work as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University where he worked on a research team that used quantitative analysis to evaluate county-level budget data and provide recommendations to local government leaders. Most recently, he worked as a data science consultant, working with local businesses to help them leverage their unique data to better achieve their goals and operate more efficiently.
Jason is looking forward to using his passion for data to help the City of Syracuse grow and tackle the problems facing it as it works to become a more data-driven city. He is always striving to expand his toolkit and find new ways to use data and quantitative analysis and is looking forward to working with the API Team to overcome the unique data challenges that arise in local government. He is also excited to be part of a team that can work across the city to make an impact in a wide variety of areas and projects.