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| 3 Jul 2025 | |
| Written by Jenna Marthaller | |
| Blogs |
2025 has been a year of transition – with the new administration, rapid change, and ongoing changes in the data community. In this context, Data Foundation hosted its second annual Data Coalition Member Summit on Thursday, June 12, 2025, at The City Club of Washington with a focus on member-informed strategy for 2025 and sharing our data stories more effectively across the community
Various themes emerged throughout Data Coalition Member Summit 2025, some of them include:
The Member Summit was an invaluable opportunity for the Data Coalition community to gather, connect with fellow members, celebrate our collective impact across the data community, and discuss future challenges and opportunities in an evolving federal landscape.
The Data Coalition’s work matters, from the perspective of Ron Vassallo, Data Foundation Board of Directors Board Member, because it “represents the best of what’s possible when people come together across sectors and silos to build something lasting.” While the Data Coalition Member Summits are only in their second year of convening, the impact of the Data Coalition community has resounded for over a decade.
From the start of 2025, Data Foundation has joined sister organizations and friends in welcoming anecdotes on data’s impact on lives, decisions, delivery of services, budgeting, and any other aspect where individuals could trace their data story.
Showing the role of data used as a cross-sectoral connector, Denice Ross, former U.S. Chief Data Scientist and opening keynote for the day, shared her #MyDataStory, by detailing how she used federal data to determine neighborhood residency during Hurricane Katrina recovery in Louisiana. Data and information that were not readily available in 2005, but a boon to decision-makers once she secured it. By requesting federal data and combining it with local information, organizations and governments responsible for providing resources and clearance to return to homes could more successfully communicate with emergency response teams and families impacted by the storm. These steps – identifying needs, gathering information, verifying data, using data to inform next steps, and so on – reveal intersections where members of the Data Coalition work, and where the work of the Data Coalition community continues to be important.
The fireside chat between Justin Cole, Director of Data Transparency, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Molly Irwin, Ph.D., Board Member, Data Foundation Board of Directors, embodied Data Coalition’s work by highlighting its mission to leverage data for compelling storytelling and informed decision-making.
During Cole and Irwin’s fireside chat, they touched on various ways Data Foundation and staff supporting USASpending.gov work to provide more ways to tell your data story. Through Data Foundation’s #MyDataStory campaign and USAspending.gov’s "Your Data, Your Story," people are encouraged to make links between federal data and the information used to address daily problems, make decisions, and serve communities, and engage with the data.
Data can be used in decision-making by governments when it is trusted, accessible, and traceable. Cole applauded the work of the Data Coalition in its support of legislation that is leading to improved and reliable government data, and noted specific ways that the community can help. Notably, continue to engage with the data – tell your own stories. Data doesn’t tell stories. It’s raw input. People tell stories. Use and cite the data. Also, do not hesitate to note a gap, issues, or note a question by submitting to the USASpending help desk or in GitHub.
Data storytelling is invaluable in all levels of government for decision-making. State and local governments continue to work with and access data vital to delivering services. Sara Stefanik, Center for Evidence Capacity Director and Center for Data Policy Interim Director at Data Foundation, led a discussion with Scott Gaul, State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management (OPM), and Greg Useem, Chief Performance Officer, City of Alexandria, Virginia.
By providing multiple examples of how they have worked across functional offices in Connecticut and in Alexandria for efforts like broadband expansion and COVID-19 tracking, Gaul and Useem highlighted how their offices have collaborated to meet specific needs in states and cities with improved efficiencies and reduced waste of resources.
A large part of the change that we aim to navigate is the boom and integration of AI. To close the Member Summit, we hosted a panel discussion that aimed to address these changes in the data landscape. Leading the discussion was Nick Hart, Ph.D., President and CEO at Data Foundation, who was joined by Oliver Wise, Chief Data Officer and Acting Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Jose Plehn, Ph.D., CEO and Founder, BrightQuery.
Data Coalition members have been at the forefront of advocating for secure data linkage initiatives, including the successful establishment of the National Secure Data Service (NSDS) now being piloted at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Their frameworks and ideas create a strong foundation to navigate the new era ushered in by AI. As government agencies implement resources like the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) and integrate AI capabilities with sensitive data ecosystems, these robust governance frameworks and institutional capacity for responsible data sharing become crucial.
This concluding panel brought together leading specialists who are implementing cutting-edge approaches to secure, ethical data linkage across federal agencies. Wise and Plehn discussed their work at the intersection of data governance, privacy-preserving technologies, and AI implementation. Each shared insights on building the institutional infrastructure needed to support both innovation and responsible data stewardship in a rapidly evolving technical and policy landscape.
To forge a conversation about the fundamentals in this era full of change, attendees entertained bigger questions by discussing trends and standards. Some of the questions we considered and discussed together included:
In this era of transition, the Data Coalition has created and maintained opportunities to engage in thoughtful data collaboration. Data Coalition opportunities and advocacy efforts in 2025 include, but are not limited to:
Curious about your member benefits? A list of member benefits, organized by membership level, is available on Data Foundation's website. If you have questions or issues accessing your member benefits, please contact Jenna Marthaller, Data Coalition Member Engagement Manager: jenna.marthaller@datafoundation.org
Ending where we began, the Data Coalition’s 2025 strategy has reflected a posture of “adaptation, listening, and action” and emphasized ways Data Foundation’s Data Coalition community will continue to “strengthen its role as a connector and convener,” as observed and noted by Data Foundation Board Member Ron Vassallo.
Data Foundation would like to express our appreciation to all those who attended our second annual member summit. An album of event photos is available on Flickr. We value those who were able to take the time to meet in person to connect, collaborate, and learn together. For those who were unable to make it, your presence was missed and we hope you are able to join us next year as we continue to tackle the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead!
