What are the hallmarks of leadership? I have often asked myself this throughout my career journey as a technology leader. I place a high value on empathy, collaboration, passion and curiosity. In the health care industry that we all rely on, transformational leadership is a must. Few things about our
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Over the past year, it’s become normal for me to order my groceries online, make telehealth appointments for my family and attend dozens of virtual meetings every week. And I am not alone. Last year not only brought an increase in the use of digital technologies. It also brought with
My career path has taken me from the fields on my family farm to the boardrooms of organizations around the world. Starting when I was six years old, my summers involved working with my cousins on the farm from dawn until dusk. From a very early age, I learned the
Creative government workforce approaches come in many forms. Some time ago, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offered employees an interesting choice to incentivize them to stay. Employees could either telework from home one day per week or receive $1,000. As Jon Lemon, principal industry consultant at SAS told the
In many grocery stores throughout the country, the acronym “WIC” accompanies a number of the food items on the shelves. The letters stand for the federal “Women, Infants and Children” program that provides nutritional food to pregnant women and their young children who are in need. While this is a
One would expect analytics in government to be a hot topic at a SAS government event. What the crowd didn't see coming was Margaret Weichert, Acting Director of the US Office of Personnel Management and Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget, touting her ability to
An abundance of data does not equal an abundance of wisdom. At the SAS Government Leadership Forum, leaders from federal, state and local agencies will discuss how analytics can bridge the gap between data and wisdom to make meaningful changes in how government operates. Analytics, however, is not just about
Former U.S. Chief Technology officer Megan Smith stressed the importance of continued investments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in her keynote address at SAS Analytics Experience, sharing a quote from George Washington. In his first address to Congress, in 1790, Washington said, “There is nothing which can better
Every day 91 Americans die from opioid abuse, every nine seconds a student drops out of high school and every 47 seconds a child is confirmed to be abused or neglected. These are sobering statistics that show the challenge our government leaders face to help those in need. While there
A new book from SAS guides public sector leaders in the use of data to address a wide range of state and local government challenges. Each chapter deals with critical issues facing our country, including the opioid epidemic, child abuse, spiraling health care costs, prison overcrowding, education reform, rampant fraud and the
New York City is a pioneer in use of technology in many ways. For instance, the work of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics has been cited repeatedly as an example of smart city innovation. But the innovation doesn’t stop there. Two projects that used SAS data visualization and data
“What we do to our children they will do to society.” Greek philosopher Pliny the Elder said that more than 2,000 years ago, and it’s just as true today. In 2013, more than 600,000 children in the US were confirmed victims of maltreatment in the home, according to U.S. Department
According to a 2012 report, it was estimated that over the next five years the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will issue more than $20 billion in potentially fraudulent tax refunds. Figures like this do little to boost taxpayers’ confidence in our nation’s tax system. And tax fraud is not
A recent project with a supportive housing provider in New York City showed how analytics leads to insights that can change, even save, lives. The New York City Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence (CIDI) is the analytics research arm of the City’s Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services
2011 saw incredible change in the states as more than half of the governorships changed hands. As expected, that caused significant turnover at the State CIO level, as well. So while executive and technology policies changed in many ways, the dismal budget situation reinforced the need to allocate tax pay
This is a guest post from Jodi Blomberg, a Principal Technical Architect at SAS. She has over 12 years of experience in data mining and mathematical modeling, and has developed analytic models for many government agencies including child support enforcement, insurance fraud, intelligence led policing, supply chain logistics and adverse
Brian Whittington mentioned last month that government is innovating, and at great speed. Based on what I’ve seen in our line of work with state and local governments around the country in the past year, I have to agree. In the face of today’s daunting fiscal challenges, state and local
One of the primary goals of this blog is to establish our contributors and by extension, SAS, as thought leaders in a variety of state & local government areas. It’s also a goal of the upcoming SAS Government Insights publication, which includes a thoughtful opinion piece about what it means
Today SAS joins thousands of others across the globe to celebrate the first World Statistics Day, proclaimed by the United Nations as a way to “help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics.” More than 85 government agencies in nearly 70 different countries around the world
The shortfall in 2010 state and local government budgets is not news. But it remains the biggest issue facing state and local governments today – and will continue well into tomorrow. Existing gaps are projected to widen further in 2011, throwing departments and agencies already on the edge further into
As I make my way around the country I often have the opportunity to talk with state and local government leaders and as you can imagine, the financial crisis is the first, second and third topics on their minds. Everywhere, state and local governments are forced with painful decisions to
The motto of SAS’ home state gets at what I hope will be a recurring theme of State and Local Connections. How can state and local governments differentiate between what seems to be and what is? How can they move beyond intuition and gut feelings to know the truth? It