Overview
The Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program was established by the White House in 2012 during the Obama administration to bring innovators into government that are capable of tackling issues at the convergence of technology, policy, and process. I first learned about this program during the 2012 Warby Parker x Dosomething.org Hackathon in New York, which my team won. This is where I was first exposed to Civic Tech and the importance of building products, programs, and services with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in mind in the public and private sectors.

Roles

  • Technology Advisor at the General Services Administration

  • Customer Experience Research Lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

  • Commercial Evaluator at Air Force Ventures (AFWERX)

Dates
October 2020 - September 2022

Projects
Part of what makes being a PIF unique is being able to work on a variety of projects that you’re passionate about across many different agencies. From Cybersecurity Innovation to Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in addition to DEIA initiatives, here are some of the projects that I got to work on:

DEIA Frameworks
In 2022, I contributed to a proposal that helped secure $300,000 towards Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Growth for Teams Research and Strategy at the General Services Administration and Technology Transformation Services.

The diagram below highlights some of my foundational research on existing DEIA Frameworks. One of the key insights that I discovered in doing this research were the opportunities that lie in the Beliefs, Desires, and Intent Model as it relates to society, workplace, and building products, programs, and services.

From 2020 - 2022, I spoke at over 20+ public and private sector conferences that included: