BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our Board of Directors is a diverse group of practitioners dedicated to building the field of public interest technology.
Stephanie Cain
President (LinkedIn)
Stephanie Cain is a product, design and research consultant working with government organizations. In the past, she has served as the Interim Lead at InnovateUS, a founding member and the Deputy Director of the Colorado Digital Service, and a fellow at Code for America. Stephanie has worked at almost every level of government and values bringing people who will use or are impacted by product or service - into the decision-making process.
Anicia Santos
Vice President (LinkedIn)
Anicia is an Indigenous technologist who works in digital transformation and systems design. She is currently a Solutions Architect with Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health organization. She started working with Resolve to Save Lives on the US Covid Response program where she consulted with jurisdictions across the United States. She now works with multilateral organizations and ministries of health outside the US on epidemic preparedness.
Anicia has founded grassroots equity and inclusion groups that were later formalized within companies. Within her own vertical, she trains leaders on and advocates for equitable hiring and advancement practices. She is passionate about dismantling white supremacy in all its forms, and especially within the typical ways technology is built and implemented.
Cyd Harrell
Cyd Harrell serves as the City and County of San Francisco’s second Chief Digital Services Officer and is the author of A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide.
In her early civic tech career, Cyd worked with the Center for Civic Design as lead researcher for Volume 7 of Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent, and with Code for America as User Experience (UX) Evangelist and Product Director. In 2016, she joined 18F and later served as the first Chief of Staff. Most recently, she engaged in a residency at the Judicial Council of California, working on digital services for self-represented litigants in civil cases. During that span, she also worked with Very Little Gravitas on a strategic technology vision for California’s executive branch and the National Council on Citizenship to understand the experience of seeking public benefits during the pandemic’s early months.
Cyd is fascinated by the systems behind our experiences with institutions and has spent the past decade working to redesign them; she is still learning how we as communities can do this.
Molly Porter
Treasurer (LinkedIn)
Molly currently serves as the Managing Director at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University.
Previously, she served as Senior Director of Project Management at the Case Foundation, leading collaboration and innovation across teams and subject matters to strategize, develop and execute the Foundation’s Inclusive Entrepreneurship & Impact Investing programs, communications and operations.
Outside of work, Molly is busy pursuing her passions for travel, cooking, hiking, spin, yoga, and learning.
Abbey Kos
Director (LinkedIn)
Abbey is the leader of digital experience for Amazon Web Services' state and local government team. A writer, editor, and content strategist, she's spent the past 15 years focused on how governments talk to the people they serve.
Before joining AWS, Abbey was at 18F; there, she started as a content designer, became their director of strategy, and created the first-ever federal digital services team dedicated to designing change. Prior to that, she managed content for FutureGov (a local government consultancy in the United Kingdom) and was a ghostwriter for Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, the founder of the UK's Government Digital Services. Her public sector work includes federal resources for coronavirus, addiction, and healthy food choices; her private sector work includes stories published in Jezebel, the Washington Post, and McSweeney's.
Chizobam Nwagwu
Chizo Nwagwu practices and believes in people-centered policy and technical implementation. Currently, she serves as product manager at Cloud.gov.
Most recently, she served as an inaugural fellow of the U.S. Digital Corps where she worked as a product manager with the Digital Service at CMS. Previously, she also served as a fellow at Aspen Tech Policy Hub, Coding it Forward, Policy Innovation Lab Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, Ronald E. McNair program, and as a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria.
She holds an MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon, where her work focused on open-sourced public interest tech products.
When she's not working, find Chizo biking, watching improv comedy shows, or hunting for the best birthday cake ice cream in DC.
Mark Headd
Mark is the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia, serving as one of the first municipal Chief Data Officers in the United States. He currently works as a Senior Director of Technology for Ad Hoc, LLC. With almost 25 years of combined experience in the field, he’s also served in the State of Delaware’s Department of Technology and Information, Delaware Government Information Center, New York State Senate, General Services Administration, as technology adviser to then Delaware Governor Thomas R. Carper, and Code for America.
Self-taught in technology and software development, he holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is a former adjunct instructor at the University of Delaware School of Public Policy and Administration and a former instructor at Wilmington University.
Mark writes often about technology and civic innovation for the Ad Hoc blog, 18F blog, and on his personal blog Civic Innovations. He is also the author of the open source book: How to Talk to Civic Hackers.
Rebecca Heywood
Rebecca Heywood (she/her) is a former public servant and an advocate for improved government services and technology focused on the needs of people. She currently leads the Governments team at U.S. Digital Response (USDR), where she builds partnerships with governmental and ecosystem partners to strengthen service delivery and digital maturity in the public sector. She is the founder of the #PublicSectorJobBoard, a mostly weekly newsletter started to highlight tech and innovation opportunities in government.
Prior to her work at USDR, she worked for the City of New York and the MBTA focused on changes to behind-the-scenes government operations to allow for improved policy and service delivery. She has also worked in transportation planning and engineering in the U.S., India, Brazil, and Germany.
Ryan Ko
Ryan Ko (he/him) is Principal of RKO Consulting LLC, based in Los Angeles, CA. He works on digital, strategy, and operations projects for organizations serving the public interest.
He is the former Chief of Staff at Code for America where he led the development of the principles and practices of Human-Centered Government. Prior to Code for America, he spent seven years at McKinsey & Company leading teams that supported state governments on IT megaprojects, counseled technology firms on strategy and operations, advised non-profit institutions on a variety of education and edtech topics, and published in-depth research on the future of work and automation. Ryan moonlights as a progressive activist, with campaign experience at national, state, and local levels.
He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT. Ryan roots for San Francisco Bay Area sports teams and enjoys tennis and poker.