In partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers across a wide range of human services programs, with the goal of helping fathers and families thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many of the typical ways organizations support fathers and their families, but it has also provided motivation to be creative, to adapt, and to experiment with digital services that have certain advantages in helping fathers meet their goals over traditional in-person services. 

On this episode of On the Evidence, guests John Ward, Sean Wilson, Richard Barr, Kirk Berry, and Rebekah Selekman discuss COVID-19’s implications for delivering fatherhood engagement services during and after the pandemic. 

•	Ward is a father who shares experience working with a local nonprofit, Father to Father, in Charleston, SC. 
•	Wilson is an intervention specialist at Father to Father who worked with Ward. 
•	Barr is the vice president of strategic and organizational development at the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families, a statewide nonprofit that operates six local fatherhood organizations, including Father to Father. 
•	Berry is an expert on responsible fatherhood programs at Public Strategies, a public policy research and consulting firm. 
•	Selekman is a researcher at Mathematica leading the KEEP Fathers Engaged project with ASPE. 

Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/3aNxOvp

Learn more about the partnership between ASPE and Mathematica to identify strategies used to engage fathers across human service programming: https://aspe.hhs.gov/father-engagement 

Some of the clips from this episode come from a webinar hosted by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). We thank APHSA for allowing us to use clips from its Third Thursday Virtual Mini-Series, which is available here: https://www.aphsathirdthursday.com/


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On the Evidence by Mathematica

56 | How Fatherhood Programs Supported Dads During the Pandemic

On this episode of On the Evidence, Temitope Ojo and Katlyn Lee Milless discuss their experience with the Mathematica Summer Fellowship in 2021. Ojo is a doctoral candidate at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Her research focuses on implementation science as well as the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases in a global setting.

Milless is a doctoral candidate in basic and applied social psychology at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Her research takes a psychological approach to understanding how to promote gender and racial equity in education spaces, particularly among college students in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

On the episode, Ojo and Milless discuss their career paths, why they’re interested in applied research, and what they plan to do after completing their dissertations.

Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/a-conversation-with-mathematicas-2021-summer-fellows

Mathematica is currently accepting applications for its 2022 Summer Fellowship program through the end of February. Find more information about the fellowship here: https://www.mathematica.org/career-opportunities/summer-fellowships

70 | Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and Promoting Equity in Higher Ed

On this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Mariel Finucane and John Deke join Tim Day of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to discuss the application of evidence-informed Bayesian methods that not only confirm whether a policy or program works, but for whom.

Learn more about Mathematica's work using evidence-based Bayesian methods in applied policy research: https://mathematica.org/features/bayesian-methods

Read a brief about using a Bayesian framework for interpreting findings from impact evaluations prepared by Mariel Finucane and John Deke for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families: mathematica.org/publications/moving-beyond-statistical-significance-the-basie-bayesian-interpretation-of-estimates-framework

Read a paper co-authored by Mariel Finucane that compares Bayesian methods with the traditional frequentist approach to estimate the effects of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demonstration on Medicare spending: mathematica.org/publications/revolutionizing-estimation-and-inference-for-program-evaluation-using-bayesian-methods

Read a paper co-authored by Tim Day describing an experiment to provide evidence that would be useful to policymakers and other decision makers through an interactive data visualization dashboard, presenting results from both frequentist and Bayesian analyses: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335169870_Making_Evidence_Actionable_Interactive_Dashboards_Bayes_and_Health_Care_Innovation

Read Emily Oster’s newsletter article about why and how she applies Bayes’s Rule to interpret new evidence in the context of existing evidence, including a recent study (https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/does-pre-k-really-hurt-future-test) about the effects of a preschool program in Tennessee on future student test scores: https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/bayes-rule-is-my-faves-rule

72 | Bayesian Methods Could Provide the Key to Answering Which Policies Work Best for Whom

Princeton professor Matthew Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit, explores the merging worlds of computer science and social science for timely, policy relevant research in the 21st century. In the book, he shows how traditional research techniques in the social sciences can sometimes be combined with digital tools and big data to generate high-quality evidence on a larger scale, in less time, and at a much lower cost. On the five-year anniversary of his book’s release, Salganik, who is also a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors, spoke with On the Evidence about the book’s legacy and the evolution of the field of computational social science since he first taught a course on the subject in 2007.

A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/princetons-matthew-salganik-discusses-the-evolving-intersection-of-data-and-social-science-ethics

Read a free online version of Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit: https://www.bitbybitbook.com/en/1st-ed/preface/

Attend a virtual book talk on February 7, 2023 about Bit by Bit, including a Q&A with the author, hosted by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dc-aapor-book-club-20-bit-by-bit-social-research-in-the-digital-age-tickets-487575530537

Listen to a previous On the Evidence episode about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS, which features Salganik: https://mathematica.org/blogs/inside-an-initiative-to-diversify-the-field-of-computational-social-science

Learn more about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS: https://mathematica.org/news/howard-university-and-mathematica-to-host-computational-social-science-summer-institute 

Watch Salganik give a Tedx talk at Princeton University about the tension between ready-made data (big data) and custom-made data (with which social scientists usually work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pj95xXHN2g

Learn more about Salganik and his appointment in 2018 as a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors: https://mathematica.org/news/matthew-salganik-appointed-to-mathematicas-board-of-directors

86 | The Present & Future of Computational Social Science

In this special feature, On the Evidence host J.B. Wogan reflects on the first 100 episodes of the Mathematica podcast, and retraces some of the steps taken in the almost five years since the series launched in early 2019.

Learn more, listen, and subscribe: https://mathematica.org/ontheevidence

Bonus Content | J.B. Wogan Reflects on 100 Episodes

From helping lead implementation of the Evidence Act to providing technical assistance on activities and initiatives, the Evidence Team at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is on the frontlines of evidence building and use across the federal government.

Led by Diana Epstein (Team Lead), Erica Zielewski (Senior Evidence Analyst), Danielle Berman (Senior Evidence Analyst), and Erika Liliedahl (Senior Evidence Analyst), the OMB Evidence Team spends their days doing “anything and everything to help make sure that government uses the best possible evidence to make decisions.”

On this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast—I speak with Diana, Erica, and Danielle to better understand Evidence Act implementation and federal evaluation, and the role the Evidence Team plays in efforts to improve government-wide effectiveness. Among several topics, the episode covers:

•	Successes and challenges of the Evidence Act
•	Evidence Act Title I and OMB’s Evidence Act implementing guidance
•	The Evidence Team’s role in interagency collaboration
•	The ongoing culture change around evidence-based decision-making
•	The Evaluation Officer Council

A full transcript of this episode is available here:
https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/the-omb-evidence-team-on-evidence-based-policymaking-and-federal-evaluation

Learn more about the OMB Evidence Team: https://www.evaluation.gov/about/

Read a fact sheet from the Bipartisan Policy Center on the Evidence Act: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/fact-sheet-foundations-for-evidence-based-policymaking-act/

Read OMB’s Evidence Act implementing guidance: https://www.evaluation.gov/2021-09-27-OMB-M-21-27-guidance/

Learn more about the Evaluation Office Council: https://www.evaluation.gov/about-evaluation-officers/

103 | OMB Evidence Team on Evidence-Based Policymaking and Federal Evaluation

Jennifer Pahlka served as the U.S. deputy chief technology officer under President Barack Obama and founded Code for America, a nonprofit that works to improve government digital services. In her new book, "Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better," Pahlka takes us beyond the basics to explore why policy implementation goes wrong and what we can do to improve delivery of government services and create better outcomes for the American public.

On this episode of On the Evidence, Pahlka and Mathematica's Mike Burns discuss "Recoding America," the nexus of evidence-based policy and delivery-driven policy, and how we can close the gap between policy intentions and real-world outcomes.

A full transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/jennifer-pahlka-on-government-in-the-digital-age

Learn more about Pahlka's book, "Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better": https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250266774/recodingamerica

Read Pahlka’s June 2023 op-ed in The Washington Post, “Better government tech starts with people. New Jersey shows how.”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/13/new-jersey-digital-unemployment-insurance/

Read Pahlka’s bio: https://www.recodingamerica.us/

106 | Jennifer Pahlka on Government in the Digital Age

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, inconsistent data collection and reporting made it difficult for U.S. public health agencies to respond to the disease's inequitable impacts. Demographic and socioeconomic factors, such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, income, and disability status, were particularly challenging to capture. The same data issues would later impede agencies’ ability to prioritize vaccinations for the people most impacted by the pandemic. Even though COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the underlying data problems remain. 
 
“What’s at stake is saving lives,” says Alonzo Plough, chief science officer and vice president of research, evaluation, and learning at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), who joins us for this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast. Plough explains, “bad data, lack of timely data, [and] lack of connected data” result in “missing opportunities for early intervention that can save lives.” 
 
In this two-part episode, Plough joins George Hobor, Javier Robles, and Anita Chandra, as they discuss the deficits of the U.S. public health data infrastructure, how these deficits affect health equity, and how public health agencies can improve their responses to public health crises by transforming their data systems.

- Hobor is a senior program officer at RWJF.
- Robles is director of the Center for Disability Sports, Health, and Wellness at Rutgers University and was a member of RWJF’s National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems.
- Chandra is vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being at the RAND Corporation.

In part 1, Mathematica’s Deric Joyner speaks with Plough about the motivation behind the Transforming Public Health Data Systems initiative. 

In part 2, Mathematica’s Dave Roberts moderates a conversation between Hobor, Robles, and Chandra, about insights from the initiative and what changes need to happen next to improve the nation’s public health data infrastructure.

Part 2 is available here: https://on.soundcloud.com/ZoipS

Transcripts for parts 1 and 2 are available here: https://mathematica.org/blogs/improving-health-equity-by-transforming-public-health-data-systems

109, Part 1 | Improving Health Equity by Transforming Public Health Data Systems

This episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores lessons from Maryland, with glimpses from Vermont and Pennsylvania, that could help other states decide whether and how to adopt hospital global budgeting. The guests for this episode are Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who was the secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene when the state adopted hospital global budgeting; Thomas Mullen, who led a Baltimore-area hospital system when Maryland adopted the new payment model; and Dr. Sule Gerovich, a senior fellow at Mathematica who supported Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in developing hospital global budgets. 

Full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/what-states-can-learn-from-marylands-experience-with-hospital-global-budgeting

Subscribe for future episodes on your podcast player of choice here: mathematica.org/ontheevidence

112 | Lessons for States Interested in Hospital Global Budgeting

A new episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores the idea that a more comprehensive approach to evaluation, including study of a program’s design and implementation, maximizes a program’s chances of success. The episode draws from a convening in January at Mathematica’s D.C. office at which experts from the federal government, philanthropy, academia, and research organizations discussed insights from the Oxford Handbook on Program Design and Implementation Evaluation, edited by Mathematica’s Anu Rangarajan.

The episode features Rangarajan as well as seven other speakers who expand upon the idea that a more comprehensive approach to evaluation could provide more useful information about whether a program is working, and if not, how it could be tweaked to work. The following speakers also appear in the episode:

- Michael Woolcock, lead social scientist, Development Research Group, World Bank
- Paul Decker, president and chief executive officer, Mathematica
- Emilie Bagby, director, international education, Mathematica
- Alix Zwane, chief executive officer, Global Innovation Fund
- Melissa Chiappetta, senior education advisor, Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development
- Douglas J. Besharov, professor, University of Maryland School of Public Policy
- Michelle Sager, managing director for strategic issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office

A transcript of the episode is available at https://mathematica.org/blogs/improving-the-impact-of-social-programs-through-better-evaluation

Learn more about Mathematica Global, the new name and identity of Mathematica’s international unit: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/mathematica-global-brings-hindsight-insight-and-foresight

Watch the full video recording from the January convening about improving the impact of social programs through a comprehensive approach to design and evaluation: https://www.mathematica.org/events/improving-the-impact-of-social-programs-through-a-comprehensive-approach-to-design-and-evaluation

Listen to a previous episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast that features two of the speakers from the January event, Emilie Bagby and Melissa Chiappetta, discussing how the U.S. Agency for International Development and the International Rescue Committee are building on an evidence review from Mathematica to help local education leaders implement effective programs and policies in northern Central America that will reduce local violence and crime: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/developing-education-programs-to-prevent-violence-and-crime-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean

115 | Improving the Impact of Social Programs Through Better Evaluation

The latest episode of On the Evidence features an interview with Mathematica’s Ngan MacDonald about the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for improving health care through data analytics. MacDonald recently joined Mathematica as the company’s director of health data innovations, where she leads a team of data scientists that help public and private health organizations use their data to deliver meaningful and effective insights. In addition to her role at Mathematica, MacDonald is also the chief of data operations for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University. 

On the episode, MacDonald discusses the potential benefits of AI in health care, the equity implications of training AI on incomplete health care data, and what AI could mean for Mathematica’s work in data analytics. 

A full transcript of the interview is available at https://mathematica.org/blogs/improving-health-equity-through-ai-and-data-innovation

116 | Applying AI to Improve Health Policy Research

In March, when the Biden administration released its budget request for fiscal year 2025, it not only offered a blueprint for the president’s policymaking agenda—it also provided the latest indication of how the White House and federal agencies are going beyond evidence generation to use evidence as a guide in making program investments that can improve Americans’ lives. For this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Nichole Dunn, the vice president of federal policy at Results for America, joins the show to discuss evidence-based policy in the president’s budget as well as larger trends in federal and state funding of evidence-based initiatives and programs. 

On the episode, Dunn speaks with Mike Burns, senior director of communications and public affairs at Mathematica, about American Rescue Plan spending, the growth of evidence clearinghouses, the increasing level of federal investment in program evaluation, the implications of the presidential election for federal investment in evidence-based policy, the implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the recent formation of the bipartisan Congressional What Works Caucus, the Congressional Evidence-Based Policymaking Resolution, and the potential for evidence-based policy to bypass partisan gridlock in Washington. 

A full transcript of the conversation is available at mathematica.org/blogs/evidence-based-policy-in-president-bidens-2025-budget

Read an op-ed by Michele Jolin, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Results for America, about how bipartisan elected leaders and career civil servants across the country who have been quietly transforming how governments invest taxpayer dollars to achieve better results: https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2024/03/from-minnesota-to-washington-d-c-a-better-way-to-deliver-results/

Read the research brief by Mathematica for Results for America, which shows how city governments with a history of prioritizing data-driven practices were more likely to use federal relief funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to deepen their commitment to results-driven governance—with the goal of improving outcomes for residents through effective programs: https://mathematica.org/publications/unlocking-the-power-of-city-data

Watch a recording from the January 2024 virtual event hosted by Results for America to discuss the federal government’s progress in using evidence and data to get better results, which featured the release of a new report by Harvard University Professor Christina Ciocca Eller on federal evidence-based policymaking efforts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMYwG6P-1zI

Read the 2023 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence from Results for America, which showcases 194 efforts across 46 states to build and use evidence and data to improve residents’ lives: https://results4america.org/tools/2023-invest-in-what-works-state-standard-of-excellence/

Explore the ARP Data and Evidence Dashboard from Mathematica and Results for America, which highlights how state and local government leaders are investing one-time federal pandemic relief and economic recovery funds and using data and evidence to get better results: https://results4america.org/tools/arp-dashboard/

118 | Moving from Evidence Generation to Evidence Use in President Biden's 2025 Budget

In the same way a doctor uses data to diagnose and treat a patient, states’ public health agencies use data to measure and address health in their communities. In the United States, states have the autonomy to decide their own data policies, which influences the amount, quality, and timeliness of public health data they produce. On the heels of the worst global pandemic in a century—and at a time when technology is significantly changing the way that information flows to public health agencies—a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts offers a first-of-its-kind glimpse into the patchwork of state data policies and practices that together form our modern system for the nation’s public health data. 

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features a discussion about the report’s implications with Lilly Kan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Annie Fine of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, Mary Beth Kurilo of the American Immunization Registry Association, and Monica Huang of Mathematica. 

A full transcript of the episode is available at mathematica.org/blogs/modernizing-state-public-health-data-policies-and-practices

Read a blog by The Pew Charitable Trusts' Margaret Arneson and Kathy Talkington about key takeaways from the report: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/12/12/states-must-modernize-public-health-data-reporting-new-report-finds-promising-practices

Read the full report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which was supported with research by Mathematica: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2024/12/state-public-health-data-reporting-policies-and-practices-vary-widely

Read a LinkedIn article from Kathy Talkington of The Pew Charitable Trusts discussing key takeaways from the report: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/public-health-data-reporting-strengths-shortcomings-kathy-talkington-gcdne/?trackingId=qNW27JNuSXq2Uf67iWKD9g%3D%3D

Take an online quiz to test how much you know about public health data reporting: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/12/12/how-much-do-you-know-about-public-health-data-reporting

134 | Modernizing State Public Health Data Policies and Practices

In the United States, conversations about solutions to climate change often revolve around reducing fossil fuel emissions from human activities. But many believe regenerative agricultural practices and other nature-based solutions—which use soil and plants and try to either prevent or capture emissions—should complement policies and programs to reduce emissions from vehicles and power plants. As the nature-based climate solutions mature, public and private organizations that invest in them will need ways to measure their impact.

In an interview with Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Dr. Jenny Soong, a soil biogeochemist within Mathematica’s interdisciplinary climate practice, explains how better measurement, better data collection, and better web-based decision support tools could ensure the effective implementation of regenerative agriculture and other nature-based climate solutions.

Find a full transcript of the episode at mathematica.org/ontheevidence.

Learn more about Mathematica’s interdisciplinary climate practice: https://www.mathematica.org/sp/climate-change/climate-action

123 | Validating Natural Climate Solutions with Better Data

Thirty years ago, President Bill Clinton signed bipartisan legislation creating what is now known as AmeriCorps, a federal agency for national service and volunteerism. Since then, the agency estimates that more than 1.3 million AmeriCorps members and hundreds of thousands more AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers have provided billions of hours of service across each of the 50 states and U.S. territories.
 
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of AmeriCorps, On the Evidence hosted a discussion about the role of data and research in helping AmeriCorps and its grantees deliver on their respective missions. The episode features Dr. Mary Hyde of AmeriCorps, Scott Richman of Mathematica, and Stephanie Garippa and Diana Gioia of Maggie’s Place, an AmeriCorps grantee.
 
On the episode, they discuss the important but complex task of measuring the impact of AmeriCorps, given that it seeks to not only spur higher levels of civic engagement and national service, but to simultaneously help its service members, partnering organizations, the communities in which both operate, and society as a whole. They talk about the kinds of evidence that AmeriCorps and grantees like Maggie’s Place collect, how that evidence is used to drive impact, and how the role of evidence in guiding AmeriCorps’ work has evolved over time.

Read the 2023 AmeriCorps State of the Evidence Report: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/americorps-2023-state-of-the-evidence-report

Find the full transcript for the episode at https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/how-americorps-uses-data-to-support-communities-through-national-service-and-volunteerism

126 | How AmeriCorps Uses Data to Support Communities Through National Service and Volunteerism

Cecilia Rouse is the former dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the current president of the Brookings Institution. For the first two years of the Biden administration, she was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers—the first Black American to chair the council in its 75-year history. In August, she joined Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast for a conversation with Mathematica’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker about leadership, the use of evidence in public policy, and the role of research organizations in improving public well-being.

During the interview, Rouse talks about what she learned from her government posts about the role of research in informing policy decisions, how she thinks about the role of academic institutions in conducting policy research and training future public servants, how economics and related professions are doing at diversifying their workforces, and what she has learned about leadership.

A full transcript of the episode is available at https://mathematica.org/blogs/cecilia-rouse-on-the-use-of-evidence-in-public-policy

Listen to Rouse’s January 2024 interview with the Brookings Institution’s podcast, The Current, which posted shortly after she became the Brookings president: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/meet-cecilia-rouse-new-brookings-president/

Listen to Paul Decker’s previous interviews about leadership and evidence-based decision making: https://staginginter.mathematica.net/search#q=paul%20decker&sort=relevancy&f:BlogSeries=%5BOn%20The%20Evidence%2DPodcast%5D&f:BlogSeries:operator=and

127 | Ensuring Evidence Use in Public Policy with Brookings Institution Pres. Cecilia Rouse

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast focuses on the potential for health data interoperability to improve people’s health and well-being. Improved data interoperability is part of a broader push in the public and private sectors to use digital technology to make greater volumes of data available faster, at lower cost, and in higher-quality formats. These advances would make data easier to access, especially when needed to prevent or address urgent problems. In health care, the digital transformation in data could keep people healthier by improving the speed and quality of care patients receive. 

The episode features a discussion that originally aired as a webinar hosted by Mathematica’s Health Data Innovation Lab, which examined strategies and tools for achieving greater data interoperability. During the webinar, Mathematica’s Steve Linthicum moderated a conversation between Dr. Abel Kho of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University, Steven Gruner of HealthWare Systems, and Nicholai Mitchko of InterSystems. 

A full transcript of the episode is available at https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/how-health-data-interoperability-can-improve-patient-care

Learn more about Mathematica’s Health Data Innovation Lab: https://www.mathematica.org/sites/health-data-innovation-lab

Watch the previous webinar hosted by Mathematica’s Health Data Innovation Lab on data governance: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/event-takeaways-using-data-governance-to-improve-health-outcomes

Watch the previous webinar hosted by Mathematica’s Health Data Innovation Lab on artificial intelligence: https://www.mathematica.org/news/health-ai-event-recap-its-all-about-the-data

128 | How Better Data Interoperability Can Improve Care Delivered To Patients

A new episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores recent research that experimented with a new approach to equitable data collection that also equips individuals and their organizations with new skills and resources. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation contracted with Mathematica and its partner UBUNTU Research and Evaluation to learn how grassroots organizations in the housing justice movement had used grant funds for community power building. 

Through a fellowship program established by Mathematica and UBUNTU, researchers provided training in evaluation to fellows selected from staff at grassroots organizations while learning from those staff about the impact of the foundation’s investment. The research also provided early evidence that the foundation’s investment helped local grassroots organizations become more effective in achieving their affordable housing goals. On the episode, researchers and program fellows discuss the impact of the foundation’s investment and how the fellowship model helped strengthen organizations’ internal capacity to learn from campaigns and make evidence-informed changes.

Find a full transcript of the episode at mathematica.org/blogs/how-evaluation-can-support-housing-justice-and-community-change

Learn more about the housing justice and community power building evaluation conducted by Mathematica and UBUNTU on behalf of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: https://www.ubunturesearch.com/hjet

Explore the interactive graphic that illustrates a new framework for community power building in the housing justice movement: https://mathematica.org/features/the-house-that-justice-built
 
Learn more about the recent (open source) book Drew Koleros edited on updating theories of change for the field of evaluation, which includes sections that are relevant for evaluating community power building: https://www.routledge.com/Theories-of-Change-in-Reality-Strengths-Limitations-and-Future-Directions/Koleros-Adrien-Tyrrell/p/book/9781032669588?srsltid=AfmBOooKlrBZhZa5lb2HnU1K2Nw-IjWyQQ660RW0qfWxzw9P3FUTYpMU

129 | How Evaluation Can Support Housing Justice and Community Change

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Jeffery Marino, the director of California’s Office of Data and Innovation (ODI). For the podcast, Mathematica’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker spoke with Marino about ODI’s CalAcademy for training state employees in areas such as plain language and human-centered design, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order on generative artificial intelligence, facilitating interagency data sharing agreements, and data-driven storytelling about government’s impact in people’s lives. 

They also discussed Marino’s career trajectory: he majored in English literature in college, became a data journalist, and now leads ODI, a department within California’s Government Operations Agency encouraging collaboration across state agencies to improve digital services for all Californians.

Find the full transcript of the interview: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/embedding-data-and-innovation-across-california-state-government

Learn more about ODI’s CalAcademy: https://innovation.ca.gov/who-we-are/calacademy/

Read California Governor Newsom’s executive order on generative AI: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AI-EO-No.12-_-GGN-Signed.pdf
 
Listen to an On the Evidence interview with Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better, which is referenced in the discussion between Decker and Marino: https://mathematica.org/blogs/jennifer-pahlka-on-government-in-the-digital-age

Explore a playlist of interviews between Mathematica’s Paul Decker and fellow leaders of evidence-driven organizations: https://soundcloud.com/ontheevidence/sets/evidence-leadership?si=ea534d2c041c44e99c289a8d4dffa664&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

132 | Embedding Data and Innovation Across California State Government

In honor of Employee Ownership Month in October, Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features a special episode with Paul Decker, Mathematica’s president and chief executive officer, and Jim Bonham, the president and chief executive officer of The ESOP Association. On the episode, Decker and Bonham discuss the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) as an evidence-based tool that benefits employees, consumers, and communities across the nation.
 
An ESOP is a retirement vehicle for employees that many companies use to increase employee engagement and retain talent over time. As Decker and Bonham discuss on the episode, an ESOP can be more than a nice perk companies offer their employees. Business leaders and policymakers across the political spectrum have applauded the potential of ESOPs to strengthen the middle class and keep jobs in local communities. Research even shows ESOPs help reduce gender and racial wealth gaps.

On the episode, Decker and Bonham discuss the benefits of ESOPs and challenges facing ESOPs going forward. 

A full transcript of the episode is available at https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/supporting-workers-and-strengthening-communities-through-employee-ownership

Read the study from Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing within the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University that found ESOPs help narrow gender and racial wealth gaps: https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/smlr/files/Documents/News/rutgerskelloggreport_april2019.pdf

Read an article in The Star-Ledger about the benefits of employee stock ownership plans for reducing wealth inequality and ensuring the longevity of a business, which describes Mathematica’s experience with becoming an ESOP and quotes Paul Decker: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2024/09/nj-business-owners-need-a-succession-plan-and-workers-need-savings-we-can-solve-both-problems-opinion.html

Learn more about Mathematica’s history as an employee-owned company: https://mathematica.org/blogs/employee-ownership-is-at-the-heart-of-mathematica

130 | The Evidence-Based Benefits of Employee Ownership

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features an interview with Katherine Michelmore, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the 24th recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize. 

Michelmore’s research has focused on temporary expansions of tax credits during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is part of a growing body of evidence informing state and federal policy proposals to make permanent some or all of those changes. 

On the episode, Michelmore talks about her experiences interacting with the media and policymakers about the subject of her research, using a novel source of data from a private mobile app to study the impacts of an expanded Child Tax Credit on households, and questions she would like to pursue in the future related to tax credits that support working parents and their children. 

Find the full transcript at mathematica.org/blogs/kershaw-award-winner-katherine-michelmore-on-how-expanded-tax-credits-benefited-family-well-being

Check out the Spotify playlist with interviews with the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 winners of the Kershaw Award: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Qz9HKUOxBhj33neIpPEUd?si=9oBu3VV2QJig8nUgKVVUKg&nd=1&dlsi=c61b4fd6357f426d

Going to the 2024 APPAM Fall Research Conference? On the Evidence will be there, too. Find us at the Mathematica booth. Send us a message at jwogan@mathematica-mpr.com to let us know you're coming. 

Read a working paper co-authored by Michelmore on the effects of the temporary expansion of the CTC on the economic well-being of families, including a reduction in food insecurity: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30533

Read an article co-authored by Michelmore on the effects of the temporary expansion of the CTC on housing affordability and the living arrangements of families: https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/61/4/1069/389197/The-Effects-of-the-2021-Child-Tax-Credit-on

Read an article co-authored by Michelmore on the effects of the temporary expansion of the CTC on short- and long-term child development, including the likely improvement of children’s health: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162241264412

Read a working paper co-authored by Michelmore on the effects of the temporary expansion of the childless EITC: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32571

131 | How Expanded Tax Credits Benefited Family Well-Being

On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Lauren Supplee, the deputy assistant secretary for planning, research, and evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families, sat down for a wide-ranging conversation about the use of evidence in social policy. Supplee reflected on this year’s White House blueprint on social and behavioral science in government, which included Head Start as an example of a government program for children and families that benefited from decades of social policy research overseen by the Administration for Children and Families. On the episode, Supplee also discussed the role of research in informing improvements to Head Start over time, how the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act is changing the use of evidence in the federal government, and insights from Supplee’s blog series on boosting the use of research evidence.

Find a full transcript of the conversation here: https://mathematica.org/blogs/opres-lauren-supplee-on-boosting-the-use-of-social-policy-research

Read the White House Office of Science and Technology blog announcing its Blueprint for the Use of Social and Behavioral Science to Advance Evidence-Based Policymaking: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2024/05/15/applying-social-and-behavioral-science-to-federal-policies-and-programs-to-deliver-better-outcomes/

Read Lauren Supplee’s blog about measuring whether and how evidence is used: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/blog/2024/01/how-do-we-measure-whether-and-how-evidence-used

Read Supplee’s blog about cultivating more “knowledge brokers” in social policy research who translate complex data into action-ready insights: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/blog/2024/07/can-we-all-develop-superpowers-knowledge-brokers

Read Supplee’s blog about establishing systems to support the use of evidence: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/blog/2024/04/evidence-action-how-do-we-establish-systems-support-evidence-use

Read a blog by Colleen Rathgeb, the former director of policy at the Office of Head Start and current associate deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Early Childhood Development, about research showing the need for full-day, year-round Head Start programs: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/archive/blog/2015/02/presidents-fy-2016-budget-head-start

Explore the ELOF 2 Go mobile app, the free online tool Supplee references that supports teachers who want to access and learn more about the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ohs.elof2go&hl=en_US&pli=1

Watch the video series referenced by Supplee that shares the perspectives and experiences of those who are involved in obtaining and using data from the American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/training-technical-assistance/overview-aian-faces-video-series

133 | Boosting the Use of Social Policy Research

This episode features audio from an in-person roundtable discussion at the 2024 Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference. The roundtable focused on the five-year anniversary of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) and a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal agencies' ability to assess their capacity to collect and use evidence. The panelists also discussed what needs to happen next to further strengthen the use of evidence in the federal government. 

The roundtable featured remarks from Erika Rissi, Nick Hart, Melinda Buntin, Rachel Snyderman, and Paul Decker. 

Rissi is the chief evaluation officer of the National Science Foundation, where she is also the Head of its Evaluation and Assessment Capability Section.

Hart is the president and CEO of the Data Foundation. 

Buntin is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Carey Business School. 

Snyderman is the managing director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program. 

Decker is the president and chief executive officer of Mathematica. 

You can also read a short blog by Decker summarizing key themes from the roundtable here: https://mathematica.org/blogs/advancing-and-enhancing-evidence-based-policymaking

Listen to a past episode of On the Evidence featuring a discussion about the five-year anniversary of the Evidence Act with experts from government, think tanks, research organizations, and academia: https://mathematica.org/blogs/building-on-the-evidence-act-to-increase-the-positive-impact-of-federal-policymaking

Listen to a past episode of On the Evidence featuring Robert Shea, an expert on performance improvement in government who served on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, a group whose recommendations informed the Evidence Act: https://mathematica.org/blogs/robert-shea-on-the-federal-governments-progress-in-using-evidence-to-improve-programs-and-policies

135 | It’s the Evidence, Stupid: GAO’s Report on Evidence-Based Policymaking and What Comes Next

On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, M-KOPA Chief Executive Officer Jesse Moore talks about increasing access to financial and digital services for unbanked workers in Africa by leasing out smartphones. He and Paul Decker, the president and chief executive officer of Mathematica, discuss the needs of everyday earners in Africa who work regular but informal jobs that make it difficult to build credit and open a bank account. They also discuss the role of data in informing an organization’s business strategy as well as assessing its social impact on customers. 

Find a blog summarizing highlights from the conversation, plus the full transcript here: mathematica.org/blogs/how-a-fintech-company-helps-workers-in-africa-access-credit-and-savings-with-smartphones

136 | How a Fintech Company Helps Workers in Africa Access Credit and Savings with Smartphones

Experts from Mathematica, USAID, and the Rockefeller Foundation discuss how data and evidence can be used to drive decision making.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning for International Development Programs

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A growing number of cities are interested in using data and research in decision making. Kat Klosek, director of applied research at the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, talks about a free step-by-step guide she wrote for policymakers who want to incorporate data and evidence in their work.

We also have a condensed Q&A version of the conversation available here: https://www.mathematica-mpr.com/commentary/how-to-guide-on-using-evidence-in-city-policymaking

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3 | A How-to Guide on Using Evidence in City Policymaking

Our economy has always had jobs that fit outside the conventional 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, schedule, but with the rise of telework, on-demand scheduling apps, "irregular work," and the Gig Economy, more workers not only find themselves earning their paychecks in the early morning, at night or on weekends; but their hours may change on a frequent basis.  

Finding safe and high quality child care that accommodates non-standard or changing work schedules is a familiar challenge for many workers, but a relatively new area of public policy research. 

On this week's episode of On the Evidence, we talk about a report that looks at the complicated relationships between changing work schedules, the availability of child care for those schedules, and child well-being.

My guests are the co-authors of that report, Angela Rachidi and Rus Sykes, who conducted research on behalf of Mathematica and the American Public Human Services Association, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  

An abridged and edited Q&A blog based on the conversation is available here: https://mathematica-mpr.com/commentary/the-complex-relationship-between-changing-work-schedules-child-care-and-child-well-being

15 | The Relationship Between Changing Work Schedules, Child Care, and Child Well-Being

State and local governments often lack the capacity to clean, manage, and analyze administrative data that could be useful for achieving political and policy objectives. Some places have established policy labs to leverage researchers' skills to identify trends in the data, evaluate programs, and provide insights for improving public policies. 

On this episode of On the Evidence, we talk about the policy lab model with Kristin Klopfenstein, director of the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, and Melissa Wavelet, a senior fellow at MDRC and the former director of the Office of Performance and Strategic Outcomes at the Colorado Department of Human Services.

This episode is part of a series produced by Mathematica in support of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and its fall research conference. Klopfenstein and Wavelett participated in an APPAM panel about policy labs. 

More information about the lab is available at: https://coloradolab.org/

More information about Wavelett and her current work at MDRC is available at: https://www.mdrc.org/about/melissa-wavelet

21 | Policy Labs: Research for State and Local Government

A podcast hosted by Mathematica’s J.B. Wogan that examines what we know about today’s most urgent challenges and how we can make progress in addressing them. Reimagining the way the world gathers and uses data, Mathematica uncovers the evidence that offers our partners the confidence and clarity they need to find out what can be done, how to make it happen, and where to go next.

On the Evidence

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