govDATAx 2026: Realizing the Value of Public Data

By Oriana Ma, Policy and Research Analyst, Center for Evidence Capacity, Data Foundation

>>>Watch video recordings from govDATAx 2026<<<

Public data is foundational to how we innovate, govern, and make decisions. But with the growth of data-hungry tools and technologies to further improve performance across sectors, it’s time to ask: How do we support the infrastructure and partnerships to build what the public needs next, not just what it has needed so far?

That’s the question speakers and audience members wrestled with during govDATAx 2026, the Data Foundation’s flagship event that brings together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government. This year’s full-day program at The George Washington University made the affirmative case for why public data matters, exploring how public data drives economic growth, supports evidence-informed policymaking, prevents fraud, and enables government accountability. 

(Data Foundation Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Management Ashley Nelle-Davis moderated a panel on engaging public data with Tara Sinclair of The George Washington University, Andrew Clarkwest of the American Institutes for Research, and John Bernard of America's Pulse; photo by Nina Palazzolo)

Growing Use of Public Data in an Expanding Data Ecosystem

Two overarching themes emerged across the day’s program: public data plays an increasingly important role in informing decisions and the ecosystem of people collecting, analyzing, and using data is growing. Public data has emerged as a foundational pathway for how government functions, communicates, delivers services, provides foundational information for research and social trends over time, and helps support decisionmaking across communities. 

As the use of data has become more central to decisionmaking in recent years, access to reliable and timely information has become more important as well. Data is expected to be a part of the decision rather than fighting for a seat at the table, noted Matthew Graviss, Public Sector Chief Technology Officer for Atlassian and former Chief Data Officer (CDO) and Artificial Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Graviss joined Chris Alvares, CDO for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Dustin Brown, formerly of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), for a panel, “From Data to Decisions.” During their discussion, they described how federal agencies have incorporated data into decisions about resource allocation, programmatic shifts, and mission support. 

Another theme that emerged throughout the day involved the expansion of data users, access, and needs. During the panel "The Future of the Federal Data Ecosystem," Maggie Cawley of Executive Director of OpenStreetMap US and Appointed Chair of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Geospatial Advisory Committee, described a hopeful vision for expansion using kintsugi, the Japanese art of turning broken pieces into something beautiful using gold, as a metaphor. With this imagery, Cawley talked about taking some of the disconnected "pieces" (the many stakeholders in federal data) and bringing them together as data contributors, partners, and consumers to create a true ecosystem: a whole new product built from existing fragments. 

Similarly, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and their increased use within the federal government have pulled in a much wider set of users and use cases, raising the same underlying question Cawley posed: how do you bring that expanding, disconnected set of stakeholders together to make progress within the federal government? One answer came during a fireside chat between Mike Horton, Executive Board Member of the Africa Economic Forum and former Chief AI Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Austin Gerig, CDO of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Horton drew on the African philosophy of ubuntu, meaning “I am because we are,” stressing the importance of working together as a community toward a shared goal. Horton's point was that changing the culture around data sharing and AI deployment is what makes progress on those initiatives possible.

(Maggie Cawley of OpenStreetMap US and the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Geospatial Advisory Committee participated in a panel on the future of the federal data ecosystem; photo by Nina Palazzolo)

Morning Session

Nick Hart, the Data Foundation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, opened the day by comparing public data to the national park system. Most people visit national parks without seeing all the maintenance and management they require to be enjoyed by the general public. As with national parks, public data stewardship and governance are not always as clear to people as the outputs, like weather forecasts, inflation numbers, or calculations that determine how much grant funding goes to a community. 

When people enter national parks, they accept certain physical risks like wildlife encounters; similarly, people accept that the collection of public data carries risks, such as the potential for breaches of privacy and misuse. The benefits of having national parks and public data may outweigh those risks, but visibility is essential for Americans to understand the value of either public good. 

“The infrastructure nobody can see has no natural constituency when it comes under strain,” Hart said, adding that public data, unlike national parks, does not yet have fierce defenders, an issue the govDATAx convening was meant to address. 

Christian Hoehner, Policy Director for the Majority on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, delivered the opening keynote, drawing on his years of legislative experience and encouraged the field to keep building on that statutory base to strengthen how government is held accountable and how it performs. He also addressed how AI raises the stakes for data quality rather than reducing the need for it.

The first panel, "Engaging Public Data: Action and Analysis," moderated by the Data Foundation's Ashley Nelle-Davis, examined how government builds public trust and confidence in the data it collects and publishes. Tara Sinclair of The George Washington University, Andrew Clarkwest of the American Institutes for Research, and John Bernard of America's Pulse discussed how public participation should show up both in what agencies produce and in how they explain it. They emphasized that agencies should actively communicate why certain data matters and how it will be used, rather than simply asking people to comply.

Following a coffee break, a panel of federal Chief Data and AI Officers, "From Data to Decisions," moderated by the Data Foundation's Katherine Dawes, turned to a more operational discussion: what it actually takes to get from holding data to acting on it. Alvares of USDA and Brown, formerly of OMB and SSA, talked about the importance of public trust in data while Graviss, now with Atlassian and formerly with the U.S. State Department, talked about the need to build a culture where leaders habitually ask, “What does the data say?” and to use data to improve workforce morale. Through his work with SSA, the White House, and special assignment to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Brown also emphasized the importance of remembering that in public service, data points connect to people. Remembering who is behind the data, figures, and information is key when making decisions and designing programs. 

Gus Chiarello, Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), then introduced the department's Audit Enforcement and Risk Oversight (AERO) Initiative, which pairs publicly available audit findings with federal data to tighten accountability over how grant funds are used. What makes AERO different, he said, isn’t a new law. Instead, it’s HHS enforcing dormant Single Audit Act powers and using audit data that was already public, but never assembled, to map vulnerable states and grantees. 

The morning closed with a fireside chat, "View from the Hill: Data, Trust, and Building the Future of Federal Data," moderated by Robert Shea of GovNavigators and featuring congressional staff Mark Bussow of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee and Clark Hedrick of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The two described a roundtable series that was a result of a bipartisan push to shape a lasting government reform agenda touching agency performance, IT modernization, and the federal workforce, with particular attention to the working dynamic between Congress and the executive branch. “For government as a whole to govern effectively,” Bussow said, “you have to have a strong set of interworking relationships between Congress and the executive branch.”

(Robert Shea of GovNavigators moderated a panel on how Capitol Hill uses, oversees, and legislates federal data with Clark Hedrick of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs and Mark Bussow of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee; photo by Nina Palazzolo)

Afternoon Session

After lunch, the program resumed with a fireside chat, "From Policy to Practice: Data and AI Across Government," moderated by Shannon Arvizu of GroundVue and featuring Gerig and Horton, who talked about the importance of aligning on strategy and mission throughout organizations in order to move towards implementation when it comes to data sharing and AI deployment. As Gerig put it, the goal is to "put rigor around the implementation, going from strategy ultimately to practice." 

The next panel, "Follow the Data: Fiscal Accountability and Fraud Prevention," moderated by the Data Foundation's Taka Ariga, brought together oversight and accountability leaders Ken Dieffenbach of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, Deidre Harrison of McKinsey & Company and formerly at OMB, and Renata Miskell of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. They discussed what it means to detect fraud and error in federal spending, the broader goal of fraud prevention, and some of the difficult trade-offs they navigate in their work, such as choosing between greater data access and stronger privacy protections.

Following a break, Sunny Wescott of the Geospatial Intelligence Information Sharing and Analysis Center presented on cross-domain uses of meteorological data, connecting atmospheric physics to human health, wildlife, infrastructure performance, and emergency response planning. In her presentation, Wescott talked about her creative use of public barometric-pressure records, using AI to test whether pressure extremes are intensifying over time. The finding, that the tropopause, the boundary between the two lowest layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, has risen and compressed the atmosphere’s upper layers, offers an explanation for why both high- and low-pressure extremes are worsening at once. She described how she translated the finding into tools for emergency managers, utilities, and the hazardous materials industry, sectors that do not normally use meteorological data but are affected by weather changes. 

The following panel, "The Future of the Federal Data Ecosystem: Where We Go From Here," moderated by the Data Foundation's Susan Jenkins, looked ahead to priorities, partnerships, and policy recommendations for the data community. Abed Ali of Deloitte, Cawley of OpenStreetMap US, and Cindy Orellana Good of the Federal Transit Administration considered some of the opportunities and threats for the future of federal data and how to make federal data accessible to users. 

The day's closing keynote came from Joyce Meyer, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, who tied the administration's efforts in data policy to two Trump administration executive orders: one restoring "gold standard" scientific integrity across federally funded research (Executive Order 14303), and one directing agencies to break down data silos and share more freely to combat waste, fraud, and abuse (Executive Order 14243). She described a new arrangement, part of the department's implementation of the orders, that gives the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis access to U.S. Census Bureau microdata, rather than just public releases, to strengthen the inputs behind indicators like gross domestic product. 

(Joyce Meyer, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce, provided closing remarks on the economic significance of public data and the role federal statistics play in economic policymaking; photo by Nina Palazzolo)

Meyer stated the need to reduce taxpayer burden when it comes to surveys with examples of work toward this initiative like replacing Census Bureau’s seven annual business surveys with a single integrated survey and building out a larger administrative records database. She stressed that trust in public data stems from its accuracy, arguing that differential privacy's use of "noise infusion" protects confidentiality at the expense of accuracy, a position now reflected in the new Department Administrative Order 216-26 on disclosure avoidance. She closed by asking attendees to engage with the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis to expand their sources of accurate, trustworthy data going forward. 

The event closed with a reception for the 2026 Datum Awards, an annual award series hosted by the Data Foundation that celebrates exceptional government data champions who are transforming how government uses data and evidence to better serve the public. Read more about the 2026 Datum Award recipients.