Locke
Bio
My dog's name is Scout. Yes that's a daily reminder to maintain a Scout rather than Soldier's mindset. A bit of backstory: Out of grad school, several friends and I launched a public data nonprofit, with seed funding from the Knight Foundation and a coalition of visionary water managers that believed in our vision of public data infrastructure. You can learn more about our water data work at theCaDC.org.
I led that team, setting the project vision, building the initial tools, hiring and growing the team, responding to client needs and feature requests, and managing the project for five years. Those analytics helped our partners save over $20 million in avoided capital costs, informed the optimization of almost half a billion dollars in turf rebates and delivered California’s first ever statewide water efficiency benchmarks (for <5% the state government budgeted). The project has continued to enjoy steady, sustainable growth -- a rarity in gov tech!
In 2019, I left the organization in good hands and joined California Forward, where I currently run the data and research for the organization. There I lead the development of our California Dream Index (“CDI”) and broader initiative to ground policy with evidence. When I joined, the CDI was a concept that had been discussed for the previous three years. Within six months starting, I was able to execute and launch the initial analytics product at our flagship annual event.
I have also led research and development for a measure of high wage jobs produced across California. Together with the CDI, these data are critical for tracking the state's transition to a decarbonized economy. At CA FWD, I have also had a unique vantage point to participate in leading climate policy discussions through our workgroups and unique convenings like a deliberative poll on climate policy.
How others can help me
DMs open for gigs and job opportunities.
How I can help others
Reach out if you're interested in civic / gov / urban tech, the data for good movement and pioneering digitally native public institutions
Posts 11
Comments91
Is there an EA subgroup focused on philosophical pragmatism? EA has a strong utilitarian image. There's a lot more nuance though one problem with utilitarianism is that if the ends justify the means, then sufficiently impactful ends can justify any means -- even very problematic issues like the recent SBF revelations.
Philosophical pragmatism offers a lot of insight for the EA movement. That would see ends and the cost benefit calcs that are beloved around here as one important though not all encompassing factor in decision-making.
Anyone work at GiveWell? I was somewhat intrigued by the new senior researcher position though curious to learn more about the direction of the organization. Specifically, I'd be curious into how deep GiveWell is open to looking into state capacity issues. I saw the relatively recent jpal work and curious if they'd be open to doing more of that work.
https://www.givewell.org/about/jobs/senior-researcher
"In response to a comment that “multiple friends who applied to the Pareto Fellowship felt like it was quite unprofessionally run” CEA staff reiterated that an evaluation was “forthcoming”, but it was never published."
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Edge Esmeralda seems like a great bottom up experiment in a nontrivially better way of living together: https://www.edgeesmeralda.com/
A marginal rather than transformative revolution if you will.