--- According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, transportation accounts for 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. For short trips, flying is much more carbon-intensive than rail or bus travel. At Johns Hopkins, faculty members travel the most of all affiliate types, producing more than double the emissions of administrative employees and staff.

--- The Johns Hopkins University Office of Climate and Sustainability, through its Campus as a Living Lab initiative - a program that supports sustainability innovation - partnered with GovEx to build a tool to help address this problem. Using interactive visualizations with comparable statistics across all Johns Hopkins divisions, users can compare the emissions data of different methods of transportation, enabling them to make more environmentally-friendly choices as they conduct their business.

--- We sit down with four contributors to the project to discuss how the tool was built and how cities can use it as a model to support their own climate change initiatives: Sara Betran de Lis, Director of Research and Analytics at GovEx; Heather Bree, Data Visualization and D3 Developer at GovEx; Debi Denney, Assistant Director of Johns Hopkins Office of Climate & Sustainability; and Rose Weeks, Senior Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with the Campus as a Living Lab Program at the Office of Climate & Sustainability.

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--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re talking to Vidushani Jayalal, who works with cities in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. She talks about the importance of thinking not just about how data works, but about how people work together and solve problems using data as a shared language.

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--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re talking to Dr. Bertran de Lis, GovEx’s Director of Research and Analytics, about her path from astrophysics to data science, what it means for cities to adopt a “Data-Driven Culture,” and her groundbreaking work on the Coronavirus Resource Center and the new City Data Explorer.

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--- How well do cities communicate with data? What opportunities are they missing?

--- GovEx Senior Research Manager Dr. Jacquie Greiff and Senior Researcher Chance Carter address these questions and more in their recent analysis of 2023 State of the City speeches. Their key finding: While mayors often illustrate progress by referencing data, they rarely offer the kind of context and analysis most likely to resonate with residents. Jacquie and Chance review how mayors can move beyond reference statistics and use data to compare trends, illustrate their decision making and build public trust.

--- Read the State of the Cities Analysis, 2023 Report here

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--- The GovExperts is a Data Points mini-series spotlighting the brilliant minds at GovEx who are shaping the future of public sector data work. Today we’re chatting with Dr. Jessica Arenda, GovEx’s Instructional Designer. She helps us understand what makes adult learning experiences engaging and effective, how to connect with city leaders, and how COVID re-shaped the world of instructional design.

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--- Outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes reflects on a momentous year for cities and data

--- While the characters in Dr. Strangelove, referenced in the title of this episode, grappled with the invention of the atomic bomb, cities in recent years have only tentatively explored the potential of artificial intelligence to benefit residents. As outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes discusses in this episode, many cities pivoted in 2024 - with GovEx support - to develop thoughtful use cases for AI, based on solid data and comprehensive data strategies. As Holmes prepares to move on, she also discusses the progress GovEx has made in recent years and the crucial work that lies ahead.

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--- In this episode of Data Points, GovEx’s Meg Burke sits down with Tessa Cushman, the Food Access and Systems Coordinator in Adams County, Colorado and a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow, to discuss Cushman’s experience putting the Food System Resilience Planning Guide, which GovEx created in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in 2022, into action.

--- Burke and Cushman review the importance of authentic engagement with local communities and the need to leverage existing resources, like local food policy councils, to enhance food resilience efforts. They also cover challenges, particularly the complexities of coordinating among multiple stakeholders to put a plan in place, and staying connected to a changing policy landscape.

--- Partially as a result of supply chain disruptions during the COVID pandemic, more governments recognize the need to build and secure food systems, but this is a nascent research topic. The Food System Resilience Planning Guide is one of the few resources currently available to government leaders thinking about how climate change, natural disasters, and public health crises can affect their communities’ access to food. Cushman notes that creating a road map, as recommended in the guide, helped her conceive of what a plan could look like in growing suburban/urban Adams County.

--- Learn more about the Food System Resilience Toolkit here!

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--- In partnership with Results for America, GovEx helps empower communities to solve problems.

--- In the latest episode of Data Points, we get an overview of the Opportunity Accelerator, a recently completed program in support of place-based initiatives focused on economic mobility with the goal of specific, population-level outcomes. Place-based initiatives aim to improve quality of life and access to opportunity, particularly for people of color and families with low incomes who live in neighborhoods, cities, and rural communities experiencing disinvestment. The program was administered by Results for America in collaboration with a variety of organizations, including GovEx.

--- We’re joined by three GovEx Senior Advisors who were involved with Opportunity Accelerator engagements and discuss what makes place-based initiatives like these different from traditional technical assistance engagements. We also discuss the ways in which the coaches needed to adjust their approaches to meet the needs of the communities they were serving and develop new toolkits to bring the engagements to successful conclusions.

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