Administrative data – in other words, big data produced by public agencies and programs – is a valuable tool for program evaluation, research and analysis that can help improve government performance and tackle our nation’s pressing challenges. How can we enable more qualified researchers and government program managers to security and more easily access those data? We get insights from Dr. Amy O’Hara (@amy__ohara), a national expert on improving secure, responsible data access for research and evaluation.
Dr. O’Hara is a Research Professor in the Massive Data Institute and Executive Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center at the McCourt School for Public Policy at Georgetown University. She was previously a senior executive at the U.S. Census Bureau where she founded the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications (CARRA), the Bureau’s administrative data unit.