Jennifer Pahlka
Founder of Code for America and the United States Digital Service; Former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer; Former Member of the Defense Innovation Board
As we face threats like climate change, economic disruption, and polarization, we need our public institutions to work. Jennifer Pahlka shows how government – or any large bureaucracy – can shed its decades-old culture, move into the modern era, and make good on the promises we make to the public. The founder of Obama’s elite tech unit and the mother of civic tech, Jennifer’s message is equally relevant inside and outside government. It ultimately returns to the democracy we hold so dear, and how both public servants and the public can protect it.
$25K - $40K
Jennifer Pahlka is a co-founder and board chair of the Recoding America Fund, an executive in residence at the Johns Hopkins University School of Government and Policy, a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, and a senior advisor to the Abundance Network. She served as deputy chief technology officer of the United States under President Obama and a member of the Defense Innovation Board under both Obama and Trump. She founded the award-winning nonprofit Code for America, which she led for ten years. Pahlka is the winner of a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and was selected by Wired magazine as one of the people who have most shaped technology and society in the past twenty-five years. Ezra Klein called her book Recoding America “one of the best policy books I have ever read” and “the book I wish all policymakers would read.”
Featured Videos
Jennifer Pahlka
Making Our Tax Dollars Work For Us
Jennifer Pahlka’s Speech Topics
Are We Starving Government By Design? Or Starving it of Design?
Longstanding fights over big government vs small government are getting our country nowhere. We can have a government that's less burdensome on businesses and the public and gets better social outcomes, and the key isn't necessarily more money. It's recognizing that what operates our government today is a mess of policy, process, and technology that has accrued over time without ever being designed to do what we need it to. Redesigning the machinery of public services is a choice we can and should make. What does that look like, and how do we make it happen?
Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face
When healthcare.gov first launched, with millions enrolling, it served a total of eight users on its first day. But by the end of the first enrollment period, the site had helped even more people than had been planned before its disastrous launch. And when the agency responsible for the site took on its next big project, it was on time, dramatically under budget, and so easy to use that their clients, used to constant frustration, wondered if they landed on the wrong website. That punch to the face turned into a dramatic transformation. How can you turn adversity into resilience?
Policy Divides; Delivery Unites
Politics is often described as “how the policy gets done.” But how the policy gets implemented – its delivery – is a whole different kettle of fish. Elites think in terms of policy, but the rest of the country knows about delivery. We know about it because it’s the fabric of our daily lives. When what government delivers disappoints or, worse, frightens or insults us, it shapes who we are as citizens, whether left or right. Improving our ability to deliver not only serves both parties, but it also strengthens our democracy.
Works by Jennifer Pahlka
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