USAFacts Partners with UC Berkeley to Educate Congressional Staff on Data Policy & Data Skills

Nation's First Congressional Data Certificate Program is Free to Congressional Member and Professional Staff

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- USAFacts, the nonpartisan civic initiative providing the most comprehensive and understandable single source of government metrics, today announced a new professional learning program developed in partnership with UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Designed to educate Congressional staff on federal data policy and working with data, the Congressional Data Certificate program will focus on using data for federal policy work and writing legislation to produce useful data for the country.

The nonpartisan certificate program is free to participants and open to three groups: congressional staff, committee staff, and professional staff of the nonpartisan departments serving Congress. The inaugural program will be taught by nationwide experts, including Sunmin Kim, the lead congressional staffer on the 2020 OPEN Government Data Act; Katya Abazajian, a leading researcher and practitioner focused on municipal and state data; and Sarah Schacht, a national expert on data standards and public health data. The course also features guest lectures from more than 10 national open data experts.

"The Goldman School of Public Policy realizes the importance of data in the public decision-making toolkit, and leads the way in developing evidence-based solutions to improve society and strengthen democracy," said Dean David C. Wilson. "We're excited to partner with USAFacts, an organization that is innovative and intentional about doing some of the hard work of democracy. This collaboration is how a better future gets made, and I'm confident in the path forward."

The certificate program will be conducted in a hybrid environment beginning February 2023. Following an in-person kickoff in Washington, D.C., there will be eight classroom sessions held remotely with live lectures. Participants in the pilot program will get experiential learning opportunities and meet guest lecturers with deep knowledge on U.S. open data topics, as well as:

• Be educated on existing U.S. data policies by the lead author of recent data policy
• Understand open data challenges, systems, data standards, and technologies common in the U.S. 
• Build basic skills in data collection and visualization
• Be able to apply new open data knowledge to produce a report based on publicly available data or draft policy to improve government data
• Create relationships with other congressional staff who share an interest in open data and its use in Congress

USAFacts, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative making government data easy for all Americans to access and understand, helped launch this pilot program to meet a need congressional staff and members voiced to the organization. Established in 2017, USAFacts supports access to government data in the U.S., and this program is a first step toward providing skills and context for data policy and practices.

"At USAFacts, we believe democracy is only successful when it's grounded in truth, and the first step toward achieving that is with trusted government data that's both easy to access and understand," said USAFacts President Poppy MacDonald. "This program is a part of our efforts to take USAFacts' knowledge, network, and skills to those who use federal data. As a top tier graduate school training the next generation of policy-makers, UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy was the perfect partner to help bring this program to life."

To learn more about the Congressional Data Certificate program, visit https://gspp.berkeley.edu/programs/data-skills-for-congress. To learn more about USAFacts, visit www.usafacts.org.

USAFacts is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative making government data easy for all Americans to access and understand. USAFacts provides an online resource of well-visualized data and trends in US spending, revenue, demographics and policy outcomes to help ground public debate in facts. It produces topical content each week, maps coronavirus data at a county level, and produces annual 10-Ks on the nation's spending. Follow @USAFacts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and sign up for the data-driven newsletter at www.usafacts.org.

Founded in 1969, the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley prepares students for careers in public leadership through a policy toolkit that combines a rigorous quantitative core with a strong sense of community and dedication to the public good. Goldman School faculty represent the top researchers in their respective fields, which include economics, political science, law, social psychology, and engineering. Their expertise range from education policy to racial profiling to clean energy. As teachers, they are dedicated to training tomorrow's policy leaders. As researchers, their work is shaping public policy today. Follow @GoldmanSchool of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Learn more at gspp.berkeley.edu.

CONTACT: Jason Michael, (314) 323 - 1425, [email protected]

SOURCE USAFacts