“Governor Wolf’s Commitment to Using Data to Deliver Government that Works”

by | Mar 20, 2019

Track 1: Applied Analytics and Data Visualization | Room: 1151
Colby Clabaugh, Executive Director, Office of Performance Through Excellence;
Jere Matthews, Open Data Officer, Office of Administration;
John Long, Data Scientist, Office of Administration Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Open Data program is the collaborative result of partnerships with the civic technology community, institutions of higher education, business partners, state agencies and the Governor’s office. Working with these stakeholders, Pennsylvania was able to quickly establish a robust and successful statewide program where none had previously existed.

Focus is on providing high-value data surrounded by layers of data quality, policy and legal reviews fully respecting privacy, protecting confidentiality and ensuring quality. The open data portal represents innovation and integration of data and provides the platform for feedback. It is the beginning of community engagement, crowd-sourcing and collaboration between government, its partners and the public stemming from data as the raw source of information and the government’s most valuable and strategic asset.

The Governor’s Office of Performance through Excellence mission is to work with stakeholders and employees at every level of government to use the Lean management improvement methods backed by data to cut red tape, become nimbler, remove inefficiencies, provide value, improve customer service, and achieve measurable results by identifying and tracking key performance indicators. OPE will share their work and cite other enterprise examples of how government is using data during the decision-making process.

We look forward to connecting with you to share ideas on our offerings for the benefit of the people we serve.

Colby Clabaugh was appointed executive director of the Governor’s Office of Performance through Excellence (OPE) in January 2019. Before being named executive director, Colby oversaw OPE’s performance management and data program as the office’s director of performance delivery.

Prior to joining OPE, Colby served as an executive budget specialist in the Office of the Budget, where he advised commonwealth agencies on development of performance plans, monitored progress toward agency and administration goals, and compiled and analyzed performance data as part of the budget development process.

Colby has also served as a government innovation fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab. In this role, Colby was the primary adviser to the Wolf administration for the commonwealth’s Pay for Success initiative, which sought to improve criminal justice and juvenile justice outcomes through an innovative approach to financing government services.

Earlier in his career, Colby worked at the Urban Institute, where he coordinated and conducted research for several Center on International Development and Governance projects in the areas of local government capacity building and program evaluation. A Central Pennsylvania native, Colby received his Bachelor of Arts degree in international affairs and political science from the George Washington University. He also holds Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in politics from Princeton University.

Jere Matthews serves as the Open Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where she is passionate about sharing data across lines of business to provide insight into the decision-making process while being the link between business and technology.

Prior to joining the Office of Data and Digital Technology, Jere worked with the Department of Human Services as the Chief of the Data Analysis Unit where she graduated from the Leadership Development Institute and served as a mentor to other aspiring leaders.

Jere received the Outstanding Leadership and Innovation Award, the Pennsylvania’s Excellence in Technology Award and the Governor’s Excellence Team award for her work with the business owners and their data sharing initiatives.

Jere enjoyed participating with the American Public Human Services Association to build a road map to capacity building in analytics and on the National Collaborative for Integration of Health and Human Services on the data management executive steering team where she led the data sharing sub-group and grew from the connection with our national colleagues.

Prior to serving the Commonwealth Jere enjoyed working in private sector customer service industry as a manager of operations, personnel, and information technology for 17 years.

Jere graduated from York College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management of Information Systems./author_info]

John Long graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in Mathematics and began his career with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2004. John provided statistics and analysis on labor market information and unemployment compensation for 10 years and on human services program eligibility for 2 more years. He has a focus on customer service as statistics are most valuable when they provide insight for decision-making, are provided timely, and are easily understood. John currently is focused on how to use data to predict future trends and identifying key data for open use as the Data Scientist for the Commonwealth.