Disaggregation Nation 2025 » Speaker Bios
Keynote Speakers
Congresswoman Summer Lee | United States House of Representatives, PA-12
Congresswoman Summer Lee is a dedicated legislator, attorney, and organizer who has proudly represented Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District since 2022. Born and raised in the Mon Valley, she is the first Black woman ever elected to Congress from Pennsylvania.
Congresswoman Lee serves as the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement. She also serves on the Committee on Education and Workforce where she sits on the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee and the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee.
Throughout her time in office, Congresswoman Lee has worked to get money out of politics, advance environmental justice, and advocate for criminal legal reform. She has brought back over $2.4 billion to her district for infrastructure upgrades and community revitalization. She is also a steadfast champion for workers’ rights, unions, and the fight for a livable wage.
Prior to being elected to Congress, Congresswoman Lee served in the Pennsylvania State House since 2019.
Mayor Ed Gainey | City of Pittsburgh
Mayor Ed Gainey grew up in East Liberty and saw firsthand the economic hardships many families face in our city. Raised by a single mother, he counted on the support of his extended family and community to build a pathway to high school and college. Inspired to do the same for others, Ed Gainey discovered in college that an effective government can be a powerful tool to fight injustice and uplift communities. As a State Representative in Harrisburg he was on the front line fighting for working families, and as Mayor of Pittsburgh he’ll work everyday to make Pittsburgh a city where all can belong and contribute. Ed and his wife Michelle have three children and live in the Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Jamila Porter | Chief of Staff and Principal Investigator of MADE for Health Justice — de Beaumont Foundation
Jamila M. Porter, DrPH, MPH is Chief of Staff at the de Beaumont Foundation and the Principal Investigator of Modernized Anti-racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice – an initiative accelerating the development of health-focused local data ecosystems that center principles of anti-racism, equity, justice, and community power.
An award-winning researcher, evaluator, and executive, Jamila works to transform the interconnected systems and structures that impact health. She is an outspoken leader and public speaker on a range of issues, including the root causes of health inequities, the social determinants of health, data justice, policy evaluation, community power-building, and transportation justice. She has published articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Health Equity, Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, and Journal of Transport and Land Use. She is co-author of a forthcoming book, Advancing Equity and Justice, which will be published by APHA Press in Fall 2025. In addition to philanthropy, Jamila has worked in the non-profit, consulting, and international development sectors.
Jamila earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication and Health Policy and Administration from Wake Forest University. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from Mercer University School of Medicine and her Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Georgia College of Public Health.
Federal Policy Landscape: Race & Ethnicity Data at a Crossroads
Meeta Anand | Senior Director of Census & Data Equity — The Leadership Conference
Meeta Anand (she/her) is the Senior Director of Census & Data Equity for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. In this role she led the coalition’s response to OMB’s proposed race and ethnicity standards and organized an in-person convening to bring government, civil rights groups and academics to discuss and examine changes in this role. She advocates for increased data disaggregation on federal and state levels in order to be able to provide targeted policy solutions for communities of color. Prior to this role she served as census consultant to The Leadership Conference Education Fund. This followed her position as New York Immigration Coalition’s Census 2020 Senior Fellow where she also served as the facilitator and convenor of New York Counts 2020.
Meeta spent over 10 years working at the law firm White & Case as an associate in the project and asset finance group and headed business development for the same group. Prior to that, she clerked at the Court of International Trade, worked as a commercial banker at Banco Santander and assisted research in economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a B.A. from Tufts University in Political Science and Economics, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Safeguarding Trust: Protecting the Confidentiality of State Data
Amy Hawn Nelson | Research Faculty, Director of Training and Technical Assistance — Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP)
Amy Hawn Nelson is Research Faculty and the Director of Training and Technical Assistance for Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), an initiative of the University of Pennsylvania that helps state and local governments collaborate and responsibly use data to improve lives. She has provided in-depth Technical Assistance in support of cross-sector data integration to 30+ sites across the US, including the development of 100+ data sharing agreements, and serving as an investigator on 25+ studies using integrated data to evaluate program and policy outcomes. She also serves as the inaugural Director of the Certificate for Applied Data Ethics, Law, and the Social Good within the School of Social Policy & Practice. Prior to joining AISP in 2017, Dr. Hawn Nelson was the Director of Social Research for the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and Director of an integrated data system (IDS) in the Charlotte region. She is the lead author of A Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration (2025) and Finding a Way Forward: How to create a strong legal framework for data integration (2022). She is a community engaged researcher and has presented and written extensively on data integration and intersectional topics related to educational equity.
Amy O’Hara | Director — Association of Public Data Users (APDU)
Amy O’Hara is an American data scientist and expert on data management focused on data governance (principles for ensuring the accuracy, availability, and reliability of data), including data privacy and data security. She 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 and is Director of the Association of Public Data Users (APDU).
O’Hara has published on topics including the measurement of income, longitudinal linkages to measure economic mobility, and the data infrastructure necessary to support government and academic research. O’Hara has also worked at the U.S. Census Bureau, where she founded their administrative data curation and research unit. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.
Denice Ross | Senior Fellow — National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC)
Denice Ross is a Senior Fellow at the National Conference on Citizenship focused on building a more resilient national data infrastructure. Most recently, Denice served as the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer and as the U.S. Chief Data Scientist, where she led the charge to use disaggregated data to drive better outcomes for all Americans.
Denice’s 25-year career in using data to serve the public interest has spanned federal and local government, academia, and the nonprofit sector plus domains ranging from climate to policing. She served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the U.S. Department of Energy, and as Director of Enterprise Information for the City of New Orleans. Prior to government, Denice co-directed the non-profit data intermediary Data Center where she collaborated with Brookings to track New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina. She brought a data-driven approach to numerous post-Katrina community planning initiatives and co-founded the first new childcare center after the storm.
Denice holds an MS in Energy and Climate Policy from Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Arizona, where she was a Goldwater Scholar. In her time off, Denice and her family are active in Scouting America.
Our Data. Our Rights. Our Power! Messaging Strategy Session
Cassidy Shwartz | Associate Vice President — CLYDE
A skilled communicator with experience coordinating public policy efforts at an Insurtech startup, Cassidy has completed the Coro Fellows program in Public Affairs and served as a sustainability fellow for Bloomberg Associates and Central Atlanta Progress.
Rachel Hooper | Senior Manager of Strategic Communications — The Leadership Conference
Before joining The Leadership Conference, Rachel worked at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she was responsible for communications for the Civil Legal System Modernization and the Mental Health and Justice projects. Prior to Pew, she was communications director for the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations — Philadelphia’s civil rights agency.
Hooper’s work experience began in journalism, first interning in TV and at radio stations, then working as a television producer in San Antonio, Texas. In government offices, she worked as district representative for a Pennsylvania state senator, and earlier as a legislative aide with the Philadelphia City Council.
Hooper graduated from Temple University with an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism and returned for her master’s degree in social work focusing on policy and communities.
Implementing Data Disaggregation at the State Level: Progress and Lessons Learned
Disaggregation Nation: State Pathways and Key Considerations
Leslie Zellers J.D. | Public Health & Public Policy Attorney and Researcher
Respected attorney and recognized thought leader with more than 20 years of experience in public health law and policy.
New York State Implementation: Data Disaggregation in Action
Emily Leckman-Westin, Ph.D. | Director — Population Health and Evaluation, New York State Office of Mental Health
Emily Leckman-Westin, Ph.D is the Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Office of Population Health and Evaluation (OPHE), where they lead a dedicated team of research scientists. Their leadership drives a data-informed approach to enhance the oversight and quality of New York State’s public mental health system. In addition to this role, Dr. Leckman-Westin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at SUNY Albany’s College of Integrated Health Sciences, fostering a valued partnership between the department and OPHE. Dr. Leckman-Westin received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Columbia University in 2004.
Lloyd Feng | Senior Data Policy Coordinator — Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
Lloyd Feng (he/him) joined CACF in August 2021. In his current role as Data Policy Coordinator, Lloyd co-leads the Invisible No More Campaign (INM), focusing on effective policy implementation and oversight of ethnicity-based data disaggregation at NYC, NYS, and federal agencies so that Asian and NHPI populations and all New Yorkers can be fully represented in government demographic data collection. Prior to CACF, Lloyd served as a Program Associate at the Committee of 100, uplifting the needs of Chinese Americans in the U.S. policy sphere as well as in U.S.-China relations. He serves as Chair of the Committee on Public Safety & Human Services of Brooklyn Community Board 1. Lloyd is a graduate of Princeton University with a Bachelor’s degree in Art & Archaeology and a Certificate in East Asian Studies.
California Implementation: Working Collaboratively With Key Stakeholders
Andrew C. Lee | Senior California Policy Manager — Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Andrew is the Senior California Policy Manager at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). He handles SEARAC’s state-level policy and legislative advocacy in California. Andrew manages relationships with policymakers, cultivates statewide partnerships, and helps build the advocacy capacity of community leaders across the state.
Mandy Diec | California Deputy Director — Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Mandy is SEARAC’s California Deputy Director, overseeing advocacy, community organizing, and capacity building at the state level. SEARAC’s work in California focuses on amplifying the voices of the largest Southeast Asian American population in the US, building community engagement, and promoting key legislation to advance social justice and equity among SEAA communities.
Mar Velez | Director of Policy — Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC)
Mar Velez the Policy Director for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. In her role, Mar leads LCHC’s policy agenda to address the social determinants of health, ensure healthcare access for California’s Latinx and vulnerable populations, and incorporate community voice in all policy initiatives.
Mar’s experience in advocacy, research, and in local, state, and federal government provides her with unique insight to advance equity, justice, and accountability for public good. Previously, Mar worked for the City of Oakland and later became a Congressional Aide to Congresswoman Barbara Lee where she oversaw the criminal justice, Latinx, and women’s rights district issues portfolio. Additionally, she has worked with grassroots leaders and organizations, particularly in the criminal and youth justice field, to successfully pass and promote public safety measures at the state and local levels for positive health and life outcomes for youth.
Mar holds a dual Master’s degree in Public Health and City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. As a daughter to immigrant parents from Mexico who has had to overcome systemic barriers, it is Mar’s passion to undo cycles of poverty to achieve positive and equitable life and health outcomes for her community.
Janis Ho | Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Equity Specialist — California Department of Public Health*
Janis Ho (she/her) is the Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (ANHPI) Health Equity Lead at the California Department of Public Health. In her role, she fosters collaborative partnerships with community-based organizations and across the California Department of Public Health to ensure equitable access, representation, and outcomes for California’s ANHPI communities. Janis received her Master’s degree in Public Health from Touro University California and Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UC Davis.
Maggie Tufts | Epidemiologist — California Department of Public Health*
Coming soon!
Dey Nava | Latino Equity Specialist — California Department of Public Health*
Coming soon!
* participating in personal capacity – affiliation listed for identification purposes only.
Pittsburgh Community Data Justice Collaborative
Shemariah Waggoner | Managing Director — Black Equity Coalition
Shemariah Waggoner is the Managing Director of the Black Equity Coalition (BEC). The BEC is a fiscally sponsored program of POISE Foundation, whose mission is to support equitable systems that advance justice and affirm the dignity of every human-being by building and strengthening strategic collaborations and networks through advocacy. Prior to assuming her role at the BEC, Ms. Waggoner served as the President of Emery Consulting Services, LLC. (ECS) a Minority-Owned Operational Consulting Services firm located in South Fayette, PA.
Prior to starting ECS in 2008, Ms. Waggoner worked in the healthcare, real-estate development and construction, banking and the nonprofit Sector with a focus on operations, compliance, government relations, contracting and diverse business procurement for employers such as PNC Financial Services, UPMC, the Urban League of Pittsburgh and the Northside Leadership Conference.
Ms. Waggoner earned a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies, with a minor in Sociology from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh’s Leadership Development Initiative Class IV. Shemariah was appointed by County Executive Richard Fitzgerald to his 2012 Workforce Development Vision/Transition Team.
Robert Gradeck | Director — Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC)
Robert Gradeck has spent his career helping people find and use civic information. He manages and co-founded the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh. The WPRDC is an inclusive open data partnership between the University, Allegheny County, and the City of Pittsburgh. WPRDC helps to inform many community initiatives in the areas of health, housing, environmental protection, transportation, and social justice. He is a member of the Civic Switchboard project, which helps libraries and library workers become participants in civic data initiatives, Co-PI for the CKAN Pathways to Enabling Open Source Ecosystems project, co-leads the Black Equity Coalition’s Data Justice Working Group, is a fellow in the Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy’s Equity in Practice Learning Community, participates in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, and finished third in the 2021 Pennsylvania Farm Show butter sculpture competition.
Ruth Howze | Community Engagement Manager — Black Equity Coalition
Ruth J. Howze serves as the Community Engagement Manager for the Black Equity Coalition (BEC) of Pittsburgh, where she has been instrumental since 2021. Her work centers on boosting adult vaccination rates and health education in Black communities through the CDC REACH Project. Ruth is also a Community Data Steward for the BEC’s MADE for Health Justice initiative, dedicated to developing anti-racist, equitable data ecosystems. With extensive experience in public health data collection and disaggregation, Ruth has advocated for improved services for a range of populations, including those in recovery and individuals with disabilities. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Carlow University.
Gabriel Gray | Organizer — PA United
Gabriel Gray was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city known for its industrial past and, more recently, its struggles with aging infrastructure. Growing up in an inner-city and predominantly Black neighborhood, Gabriel was deeply aware of the economic challenges her community faced. But it wasn’t until the lead-water crisis in Pittsburgh, PA that her passion for environmental justice truly ignited.
Gabriel, along with her neighbors organized the Extra Concerned Citizens Group of Homewood to address the aging water infrastructure in her community. This event marked a turning point in her life, as she became keenly aware of the intersection between environmental issues, social justice, and the neglect of marginalized communities.Gabriel then later began working as an organizer at Pittsburgh United to raise awareness about water infrastructure issues and the broader environmental inequities affecting Pittsburgh’s marginalized communities.
As an environmental justice organizer, Gabriel Gray has become a leader in Pittsburgh’s fight for equitable access to clean water. Her work continues to encourage those who believe in the power of community-based solutions to environmental problems. Today, she continues to advocate for environmental reforms, working to create a more just and sustainable future for Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable communities.Her journey from a survivor of Pittsburgh’s lead-water crisis to a passionate environmental justice organizer has made Gabriel Gray a prominent voice in the fight for equitable environmental policy and infrastructure improvements.
Alex Payton | Director of Operations and Technology — Kingsley Association
Alexander Payton is the Director of Operations and Technology at the Kingsley Association, where he leads initiatives that center data equity in community engagement, storytelling, and day-to-day operations. His work focuses on building collaborative systems that make data more accessible, transparent, and actionable—ensuring community insights directly inform program delivery and institutional decision-making.
With a background in political opposition research, Alex has analyzed data, internal documents, and public records to understand how narratives shape public perception and policy. He now applies that same analytical lens to support racial equity, data justice, and institutional accountability in community settings.
Alex’s approach is rooted in deep collaboration—with youth, parents, and community members—ensuring that data isn’t just collected, but co-owned, co-interpreted, and used in ways that honor lived experience and shared power.
Breakout Sessions
A. Expanding Coalitions and Tapping Into Unconventional Partners for Impact
Sara Ismael | Policy Manager — National Network for Arab American Communities/ACCESS
Sara is a Policy Manager with the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) which is an institution of ACCESS. Sara’s work is centered on Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) inclusion at the state and local level, addressing data inequities and racial disparities for MENA communities. All the work she does is centered on highlighting political and social inequities, racial disparities, and understanding the consequences of organizational effectiveness on mental health institutes providing services to minority communities. Sara is a doctoral candidate at Wayne State University, where she also received her Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution.
Analyssa María García | Policy and Advocacy Specialist — Culturingua (formerly)
Analyssa Garcia is a Policy and Advocacy Specialist dedicated to uplifting historically underrepresented communities through research-informed, community-centered work. Most recently at Culturingua, she supported Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) communities in Texas through initiatives focused on data equity, immigrant integration, and economic inclusion.
A proud Chicana and first-generation college graduate, Analyssa embraces her Indigenous and Mexican roots as the foundation for her lifelong commitment to social justice, cultural preservation, and systemic change. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a certificate in Mexican American Studies, and a master’s in Public Administration from St. Mary’s University.
Her experience includes serving as a legislative staffer for Texas Representative Diego Bernal and contributing to academic research on public policy, housing, and representation. She also serves as Secretary of the League of Women Voters of San Antonio and partners with groups like Asian Texans for Justice to expand civic participation across diverse communities.
In 2025, Analyssa joined the team of San Antonio City Councilwoman Teri Castillo (District 5), a grassroots leader committed to housing justice, anti-displacement, and solidarity with global liberation movements. In this new role, Analyssa continues to center community voices while advancing policies rooted in equity and collective power.
B. A Day Without Data: Activation Exercise
Jer Thorp | Data Artist and Author of ‘Living in Data’
Jer Thorp is an artist, writer and teacher living in New York City. He is best known for designing the algorithm to place the nearly 3,000 names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. Jer was the New York Times’ first Data Artist in Residence, is a National Geographic Explorer, and in 2017 and 2018 served as the Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. Jer is one of the world’s foremost data artists, and is a leading voice for the ethical use of big data.
Jer’s data-inspired artwork has been shown around the world, including most recently in New York’s Times Square, at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, at the Ars Electronica Center in Austria, and at the National Seoul Museum in Korea. His work has also appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Scientific American, The New Yorker, Popular Science, Fast Company, Business Week, Popular Science, Discover, WIRED and The Harvard Business Review.
Jer’s talks on TED.com have been watched by more than a half-million people. He is a frequent speaker at high profile events such as PopTech, and The Aspen Ideas Festival. Recently, he has spoken about his work at MIT’s Media Lab, The American Museum of Natural History, MoMA, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena.
Jer is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and an alumnus of the World Economic Foundation’s Global Agenda Council on Design and Innovation. He is an adjunct Professor in New York University’s renowned Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), and is the Co-Founder of The Office for Creative Research. In 2015, Canadian Geographic named Jer one of Canada’s Greatest Explorers.
Jer’s book ‘Living in Data’ was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the spring of 2020.