Matt Smeriglio is the Maryland Department of Information Technology’s Open Data Intern and a master’s student in public policy through the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. With his policy background and his keen interest in statistics, Matt hopes to use data analysis to further the goals of public sector actors for a brighter, cleaner, more equitable future.
Dawn Luedtke graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, and from the University of Maryland School of Law in 2000, where she served on the Maryland Law Review, Moot Court Board, and as a member of the Mock Trial Team. She served as the first law clerk to the Hon. Lynne A. Battaglia, Maryland Court of Appeals. After twelve years in private litigation practice, Dawn joined the Office of the Attorney General in 2013, where she serves as Counsel to the Maryland Center for School Safety, Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center, Active Assailant Interdisciplinary Work Group, and Food Systems Resiliency Council, and works on hate crimes and hate bias community outreach initiatives and law enforcement training.
Kristin Mmari, Dr.PH, MA, is a Bloomberg American Health Association Professor in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. With a degree in medical anthropology and a doctorate in international health, Dr. Mmari has focused on improving the health and well-being of adolescents. Currently, Dr. Mmari is the principal investigator of Project VITAL, a four-year study that brings together researchers and practitioners from a variety of different disciplines to examine the impact of restoring vacant lots on reducing adolescent health disparities in Baltimore City. Additionally, she sits on the Adolescent Health steering committee of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at Johns Hopkins, which focuses on research, education, and practice to improve the health of young people in the United States. She is also leading a longitudinal study that is examining the impact of COVID-related food assistance programs on adolescent food insecurity and mental health in Baltimore. Internationally, she co-leads the Global Early Adolescent Study, which is one of the largest longitudinal studies on urban poor young adolescents, in which she is assessing the extent to which gender transformative interventions are effective in changing health outcomes among adolescents across different cultural locations, as well as the fidelity, quality, and scalability of the various interventions across sites.
Isaac D. Castillo is the Senior Advisor for Learning and Evaluation at KABOOM!. Over the past 24 years, Isaac helped nonprofits, government agencies, and foundations develop and implement evaluation methods to improve life outcomes for children, youth, and families.
Isaac’s career includes working at organizations to demonstrate how their efforts make a difference in people’s lives. Isaac served as the Director of Outcomes, Assessment, and Learning at Venture Philanthropy Partners+Raise DC and led the organization’s work to measure the effectiveness of grants while also providing evaluation capacity building to each grantee organization.
Isaac also served as the Deputy Director for the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) where he led the measurement of collective impact efforts to address intergenerational poverty. As a Senior Research Scientist at Child Trends, he partnered with nonprofits to design and actualize practical and rigorous evaluation designs. Isaac also was the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) where he led the organization’s internal evaluation work for 50 distinct programs.
Isaac’s work has been highlighted in publications such as the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Youth Today, and the Wall Street Journal. He also authored the essay “First Do No Harm…Then Do More Good” in Mario Morino’s book Leap of Reason. Isaac is currently the President of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. You can follow Isaac on Twitter at: @isaac_outcomes.
Garrett Hincken, Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative
Garrett Hincken is a researcher with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative. The initiative seeks to inform discussion on important issues facing the City of Philadelphia with nonpartisan, independent research and analysis. Garrett’s work focuses on issues related to housing affordability and availability, and Philadelphia’s fiscal health. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Temple University and a master’s in city and regional planning from Rutgers University
John B. Horrigan is Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute on Broadband & Society, with a focus on technology adoption and digital inclusion. Horrigan has served as an Associate Director for Research at the Pew Research Center and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. During the Obama Administration, Horrigan was part the leadership team at the Federal Communications Commission for the development of the National Broadband Plan (NBP). For the NBP, Horrigan was responsible for the plan’s recommendations on broadband adoption.
Horrigan has a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Texas at Austin and his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.
Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH is the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Equity in Health and Health Care at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also the Founder and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute.
Dr. Cooper studies how race and socioeconomic factors shape patient care, and how health systems, with communities, can improve the health of populations with complex social needs. A general internist and social epidemiologist, Dr. Cooper and her team work, in partnership with health systems and community-based organizations, to identify interventions that alleviate racial and income health disparities and translate them into practice and policy changes that mean better health for communities.
The author of the book, “Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem?” (Johns Hopkins University Press, June 2021), Dr. Cooper is a 2007 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a frequent contributor to media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS NewsHour, Essence, The New York Times, The Guardian, and the Economist. She provides expert advice to local leaders from diverse social sectors and to national and international policymakers about how to address health disparities. In September 2021, Dr. Cooper was appointed by President Joseph Biden to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Dr. Cooper received the Herbert W. Nickens Award for outstanding contributions to promoting social justice in medical education and health care equity from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award from the American Public Health Association. She received her doctor of medicine degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, her Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University.
Enhancing Baltimore’s wilderness using open data to achieve forest preservation
Thayer Young, speaking for Friends of Gwynns Falls Leakin Park and Old-Growth Forest Network
Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park serves a dual role as a place for recreation, and for the ecosystem services provided by its 842 acres of forest and riparian area. The forest provides great value to the city by cleaning and cooling the air and water, providing the oxygen we breath and habitat for sensitive birds and other species. By protecting the forest against logging and development, Baltimore City will become eligible to join the Old-Growth Forest Network, the “only national organization focused solely on identifying, protecting, and restoring old-growth forests.”
This presentation will describe how multiple data sources are being used to advance the rationale of creating a forest preserve in Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park.
Reena Shah A long-time advocate of social justice and social change, Reena has served as Executive Director of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission (A2JC) since November, 2015. She was recently named by Attorney General Frosh to chair the legislatively mandated Access to Counsel in Evictions Task Force and previously served as the Vice Chair of the Maryland Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force. A2JC unites leaders to drive reforms and innovations to make the civil justice system accessible, equitable and fair for all Marylanders. Under Reena’s leadership, the A2JC has grown its visibility, influence and capacity through its institutional partnership with the MSBA and other high-level partnerships, including with the Office of the Attorney General. Prior to coming to A2JC, Reena was a staff attorney in the Housing and Consumer Law Unit and then, the first director of the Human Rights Project at Maryland Legal Aid. She went to law school after a few years in public policy and international development, during which period she worked on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), in a local Kenyan non-governmental organization, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. Reena earned a B.A. from The George Washington University, an M.P.A. from Princeton University, and a J.D. from University of Maryland Carey Law School. Reena is active in her community, having served on the boards of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland and Maryland Carey Law School. She was recognized by the Daily Record in 2021 as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women and is the recipient of the Diane Kinslow Award at Maryland Legal Aid for outstanding service to her clients and the Daily Record’s “Leading Woman” Award. Reena is married with three children. She loves to travel and embraces adventure.
J.B. Churchill is a Technology Platform Manager for DoIT Data Services (GIS/BI) for the State of Maryland Department of IT. He is heading up the Open Data and Business Intelligence Programs within that group. His background is in Environmental Science (more recently with County Government) and has worked with GIS, Data Science, and Programming professionally for close to 25 years. He has an MSc from West Virginia University and maintains a GISP accreditation.
Katie Lautar is the Executive Director of Baltimore Green Space. She was born and raised in Baltimore, she came to this work through her love of Baltimore, nature, and communities. Katie has more than 16 year experience in community organizing, designing non-profit programs, and creating educational programs. She earned a Masters Degree in Environmental Education from Lesley University, while living outdoors in different bio-regions. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Goucher College in Elementary Education with a Minor in Peace Studies
Julia Wood, Solution Engineer, Esri
Julia Wood is a Solution Engineer at Esri, where she works with State governments, including Maryland, to support their geospatial workflows and initiatives. She engages with state agencies to help them leverage their GIS data to improve and enhance processes as well as increase transparency of function
Lamontre Randall is a well accomplished social construct visionary from Baltimore, Maryland. His upbringing in East Baltimore has shaped him into an innovative activist and entrepreneur with a niche for bettering low income communities. In particular, Randall mainly focuses on providing opportunities for the youth and small businesses. Randall graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. Due to his active work within the academic community, he was honored by the University of Maryland School System as its 2015 Diversity Champion and Unsung Hero. In addition to his many awards, his work in the community has been featured on The Steve Harvey Show as well as within publications such as Elite Daily, The Baltimore Sun, and The Diamondback. Currently, Lamontre Randall is on a mission to create more equitable opportunities in Baltimore with his niche of bringing financial prosperity to low income communities as he helps small minority owned businesses grow. He is now the Neighborhood Manager for Innovation Works where he works to bring resources and support services to communities so they can become more self-sustained. Randall has devoted his career towards bridging the gap between those who have been given the resources to succeed and the unfortunate who have been locked out because he believes “We Are Stronger When We Strive to B’More Together”.