Thank you
Interviews with cities
GovEx held semi-structured interviews with six staff members in four cities to establish the initial steps of the Roadmap. We asked respondents to talk about an initiative or policy that they have been responsible for implementing in their city. Respondents from three cities spoke about their efforts to address homelessness and respondents from one city spoke about blight. After respondents identified the problem, they spoke about how the city prioritized this issue, the various steps involved, and barriers present.
GovEx conducted text analysis of these interviews, which revealed that "people" was the most commonly used term during these conversations, when discussing the steps to change a program or policy. This is a theme throughout this Roadmap. The first section begins with identifying the relevant people. The conversations around evidence are focused on human behavior, rather than methodology or strength of evidence.
Once we had a draft of the Roadmap, we followed up with cities on an individual basis to learn more about what would be helpful. We are grateful to the following city staff for the interviews and individual conversations:
Michael Baskin, Chief Policy Officer, Chattanooga, TN
Melissa Bridges, Performance and Innovation Coordinator, Little Rock, AR
Victoria Carreón, Administrative Officer, Las Vegas, NV
Tyrone Grandstrand, Community Development Planner, Fargo, ND
Tib Laughlin, Director of General Services, Kansas City, KS
Tim Moreland, Director of Performance Management and Open Data, Chattanooga, TN
Charles Rosendahl, Management Analyst, Denton, TX
Melissa Sieben, Assistant County Administrator, Kansas City, KS
Gina Thompson, Director of Strategic Services, Lewisville, TX
JHU Faculty collaboration
GovEx also convened the city contacts and faculty partners in a series of Advisory Group meetings. These meetings served to connect cities and faculty to understand one another's perspective.
Stefan Baral, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ashley Berner, JHU School of Education
Melissa Davey-Rothwell, Bloomberg School ofPublic Health
Jon Links, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Tamar Mendelson, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Kristin Mmari, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Keshia Pollack Porter, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Josh Sharfstein, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Liz Stuart, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Lindsay Thompson, Carey Business School
Daniel Webster, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Partners in data and evidence-based policy
We also spoke with partners who are experts in the field of evidence-based policy, who shared their knowledge and resources of current and future thinking in evidence-informed thinking.
Wendy Barreno, Associate Director, Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, University of Notre Dame
Tiffany Davenport, Director of Data Partnerships, Baltimore's Promise
Tomi Hiers, Director, Baltimore Civic Site, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Chris Kingsley, Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Kathryn Oliver, Associate Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Kristen Watkins, Senior Policy Associate, J-PAL
GovEx Participants
GovEx Analyst Miriam McKinney analyzed the interview transcripts and conducted text analysis. Senior Implementation Advisor Emily Shaw will integrate Roadmap activities with additional service delivery activities at GovEx.