DATA TO INSIGHTS, INSIGHTS TO IMPACT

Dennis is a

About Me Translating Data into Insights, and Insights into Public Impact

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Data Scientist and "Pracademic" for Public Impact

Dennis Linders is a data scientist and applied researcher specializing in the strategic use of data to improve service delivery and guide collaborative problem solving for public impact.

As a practitioner, Dennis serves as Lead for Healthcare Delivery & Access Research within the US Census Bureau's EHealth Program and was previously the Manager for Planning & Analytics in the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. His professional work has focused on extracting new insights from large administrative datasets; using data analytics to guide service integration, place-based initiatives, and collaborative strategic planning; and implementing data and technology-based solutions to enhance the customer experience. As a researcher, Dennis has published in leading journals and World Bank publications on such topics as "smart cities", data-smart government, community analytics, and collaborative service delivery.

Personal Information

Name Dennis Linders
Email dennis.linders [at] live.com
Website dennislinders.com
Base Rockville, MD
Training Econ; MPP; InfoScience
Universities UF; UMD; Leiden U; NTU Singapore
Work History 1 World Bank; Logistics Mgmt Inst
Work History 2 Montgomery County MD; Census Bureau

Professional Skills

Data-Informed Strategies / Data to Impact / Performance Management

95%
Analytics (Python, R, SK-Learn, Stata, SQL, ESRI/QGIS, PowerBI, Tableau)

95%
Smart Cities / Open Data / Digital Service Delivery

90%
IT Strategic Planning / Enterprise Architecture / Standards

85%
Software / Web Development (.NET/C#, Java, Alexa, HTML/JS, XML, WP)

70%
Knowledge Management / Communities of Practice

85%

Expertise / Specializations

Communicating with Data

Translating data-driven insights into impact requires analysts that can effectively "tell stories with data" to pursuade executives and the general public to take action. My approach combines compelling data visualization techniques with a decade of experience crafting presentations for Mayors and federal leaders, at home and abroad.
Data-Informed Strategic Initiatives

One-off paper plans and strategies tend to quickly collect dust and deviate from realities on the ground. I see planning as a continuous process that requires ongoing coordination, living plans, and constant monitoring of progress by maintaining an interactive, data-rich "common operational picture" used by all stakeholders.
Research on Data-Smart Innovations

Data and technology can dramatically improving government operations, but leaders are often unclear on how exactly they can realize this potential. My research examines how decision-makers can make use of “smart city” infrastructure, big data analytics, open data, and connected citizens to better plan and manage sustainable and inclusive cities.
Learning Across Borders

Government innovation often occurs in unexpected places. I look far and wide for international case studies that show the way forward in using data, technology, and innovative approaches to drive public impact - and I help disseminate emerging best practices by connecting local governments with international peers for two-way knowledge exchanges.

Resume 15+ Years of Experience

Part-Time Post-Graduate Research @ University of Maryland iSchool

2009 - 2017

Conducted independent research centered on data-smart public administration, particularly within the domains of Smart Cities, Open Government, and ICT for Development.

National Science Foundation Awardee (x2)

2015

Sponsored to participate in the Smart Cities Early-Career Investigator Workshop at Cyber-Physical Systems Week and, seperately, the Graduate Data Science Workshop in Seattle.

Visiting Scholar @ Singapore Internet Research Center (NTU)

2013 - 2014

Conducted case studies to examine how Singapore and other leading cities are leveraging smart city infrastructure, big data analytics, and open information systems to promote integrated planning and action on environmental sustainability.

Visiting Summer Fellow @ National Planning Commission - Taiwan ROC

2013

Supported Taiwan’s executive branch to incorporate emerging international best practices in its national open government and digital government initiatives. Focused on disseminating its innovative approach to "proactive" e-government service delivery, m-government, and digital inclusion.

Virtual Student Foreign Service @ US State Dep - e-Diplomacy Unit

2011

Assisted the e-Diplomacy Team in exploring new opportunities to leverage social media to advance U.S. diplomacy as one of the first participants in this program.

Masters @ University of Maryland, School of Public Policy

2006 - 2008

Coursework specialization in economic policy, international development, and digital government. Master thesis entitled "Surfing the People: Tapping into the citizenry's collective intelligence to combat corruption in China." Taught the best-attended discussion section of core graduate-level Public Policy statistics course. 4.0 GPA.

BA Economics / BA International Affairs @ University of Florida

2001 - 2003

Dual degrees in economics and international studies as well as extensive coursework in computer science and a minor in business administration. Study abroad in Brussels and Leiden, the Netherlands. 3.9 GPA.

Data Scientist and Lead for Healthcare Delivery and Access Research @ US Census Bureau - EHealth Program

2021 - Current

Serve as the primary data scientist for the Enhancing Health Data (“EHealth”) Program, a pioneering federal initiative that links large-scale administrative health records to restricted internal Census data covering the entire US population and economy to produce new policy insights on the American health care system and the “social determinants” of health. Led the development of the Physician Data Frame, which integrates 30+ large, restricted federal datasets covering terabytes of demographic, business, health, and tax data from six federal agencies over 10 years to uncover important new insights on the accessibility of health care across the country, the impact of COVID-19 on the physician workforce, and industry consolidation.

Manager for Planning & Analytics, Montgomery County Health and Human Services - Director's Office

2018 - 2021

Led the launch of department-wide performance and analytics initiatives with 4 direct reports to realize the full potential of a new integrated case management system at $310mil, 1,700-staff department. Initiatives focused on delivering new insights for policy and operational performance improvements through 3 main pillars: (1) interactive dashboards tracking 120k clients across 100+ programs to advance service integration and produce a weekly COVID-19 impact and recovery PULSE report for County leadership; (2) data rich community profiles to drive a place-based approach to service delivery, incl. an aging & vulnerability dashboard to guide COVID outreach and a homeless prevention index used to prioritize $40mil in eviction prevention funds (highlighted as an innovation by the Beeck Center); and (3) launching a Customer Experience initiative that used program data analytics and Customer Journey Mapping to improve public services.

CountyStat Analyst @ Office of the Montgomery County Executive

2014 - 2018

Supported local government executives in using data to improve performance and solve problems, incl. in the areas of customer service excellence, IT, government innovation, sustainability, food security, community analytics, and services to seniors and immigrants. Montgomery County provides the full range of County and municipal public services to over a million diverse residents, incl. in such thriving urban areas as Bethesda and Silver Spring.

JPA @ World Bank Urban Development Global Practice

2011 - 2013

Helped develop and then coordinate the plans, strategies, and messaging for flagship collaborative initiatives under the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Platform on Urbanization in partnership with over 20 external institutions from across the globe. Initiatives included a "Mayor’s Dashboard"; a global "learning lab" on metropolitan strategic planning; and "smart city" workshops. Also contributed to country-level Urbanization Reviews that use data-driven insights to inform national urban strategies in countries ranging from Ghana to China.

Fellow and IT Strategy Consultant @ Logistics Management Institute

2008 - 2011

Served in the highly selective young professionals program at LMI, a trusted, not-for-profit strategic consultancy dedicated to the advancement of government management. Supported a range of government clients in the areas of IT modernization and strategic planning, enterprise architecture, open government, data standards, and knowledge management.

Software Developer / UX Design @ AutoQuotes, Inc.

2004 - 2006

Provided critical contributions from start to finish as part of a six-person team in the development of an internet-powered project collaboration suite used by over 20,000 customers worldwide.

The explosion of data gives us a huge opportunity to find clues on how to make our cities better, cleaner, and safer places to live.

Michael Bloomberg2013

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything!

Eisenhower1957

Successful delivery often lay not in the big decisions but in the everyday routine.

Michael Barber2012

In God we trust. Everyone else bring data!

Michael Bloomberg2010

Works Select Publications, Presentations, and Team Projects

Community Analytics
Initiative for Montgomery County, 2016

COMMUNITY ANALYTICS INITIATIVE: MONTGOMERY COUNTY PILOT (LINK)

ROLE: LEAD ANALYST

Montgomery County CountyStat has piloted a set of “Community Dashboards” to equip government managers, community-based partners, and the public with data-driven insights on the community’s at-risk populations and changing demographics. A key focus of these data visualizations is to take information that has traditionally been reported on only at the County-level and then bringing this down to the level of individual neighborhoods, such as via a standardized quality of a life scorecard and data-driven needs assessments.
Smart Cities: Sector Spotlight
2016 World Development Report - World Bank

WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2016: SMART CITIES SPOTLIGHT (LINK)

ROLE: AUTHOR OF SECTOR SPOTLIGHT CHAPTER

The World Development Report is the World Bank's flagship annual publication examining a high priority development topic. The WDR 2016 examines how digital technologies have boosted growth, expanded opportunities, and improved service delivery, but notes that their aggregate impact is unevenly distributed. The WDR proposes strategies for tackling this digital divide. My Sector Focus on Smart Cities explores the potential of data and smart city infrastructure to improve government efficiency, drive collaborative innovation, and promote inclusion. The conclusion examines how cities can be laboratories for policy innovations that translate local experiments into global knowledge -- and global knowledge into local solutions.
Governing the Smart City: Platforms for Collaboration
Presentation at NSF Workshop @ Cyber-Physical Systems Week

THE SMART CITY AS A PLATFORMS FOR COLLABORATION (LINK)

ROLE: WORKSHOP PRESENTER @ NSF SMART CITY WORKSHOP, SEATTLE

This presentation describes a research project that aims to identify and explore emerging business models for leveraging smart city ifnrastructure as a platform for collaboration, in line with NYC Bloomberg's suggestion that "the explosion of data gives us a huge opportunity to find clues on how to make cities better, cleaner, and safer." The presentation explores this topic using three lenses at different scales: across government (i.e. internal strategies), across society (i.e. external strategies), and across cities (i.e. globla strategies). The presentation also provides a stakeholder analysis centered on smart city vendors ("the engineers"), governments ("the suits"), academics ("the theorists"), and citizens ("the hacktivists") -- and explores how open data platforms, living labs, and joint urban research centers can help facilitate collaboration across these disparate groups to advance urban problem solving.
FoodStat: Taking a data-driven approach to hunger in Montgomery County
2017 Presentation at MetroLab in Seattle

FOODSTAT: TAKING A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH TO HUNGER (LINK)

ROLE: LEAD PRESENTER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY @ METROLAB: DATA SCIENCE AND HUMAN SERVICES LAB IN SEATTLE

In 2017, CountyStat helped develop the County Executive's Food Security Strategy, which includes a commitment to using data to identify and target neighborhoods and populations demonstrating the highest need. This presentation outlines a process known as FoodStat that ensures that tactics and strategies are continously updated based on the latest data-driven insights on community needs and challenges.
We-Government: Co-Production in the Age of Social Media
2012 Article, Gov Info Q (SSCI)

WE-GOVERNMENT: CO-PRODUCTION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (LINK)

IN: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY 29(4), 2012 (TOP 10 ARTICLE)

This article examines the evolution of citizen coproduction in the age of social media. Finding a plethora of competing labels and models, the paper proposes a unified typology to support systematic analysis based on the overarching categories of “Citizen Sourcing,” “Government as a Platform,” and “Do-It-Yourself Government.” It concludes with a discussion of the potential implications for public administration, the remaining limitations and rising social concerns, and the possible emergence of a new social contract that empowers the public to play a far more active role in the functioning of their government.
Adult English Literacy: Mapping the Need
2018 Online Interactive for MCAEL

ADULT ENGLISH LITERACY: MAPPING THE NEED (LINK)

ROLE: LEAD ANALYST, MONTGOMERY COUNTY (CLIENT: MCAEL)

Every year, the Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) collects data from providers on adult ESOL classes they offer and the adult English language learners that participate in these classes. MCAEL works with CountyStat to analyze and map this data. By mapping this data against against community statistics from the Census Bureau, the analysis uncovers where the coalition has been more successful in meeting the needs of Limited English Proficient (LEP) residents and where further opportunities exist.
Open Development: Open Data for Aid Effectiveness
2013 Article, Gov Info Q (SSCI)

TOWARDS OPEN DEVELOPMENT: LEVERAGING OPEN DATA TO IMPROVE THE PLANNING AND COORDINATION OF AID (LINK)

IN: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY 30(4), 2013

The article examines how aid agencies are strategically leveraging open data to improve the effectiveness of aid. An investigation of the current state of the art finds that open data has made significant contributions towards realizing a more integrated vision of aid delivery, but that much of open data's potential remains unexplored. In particular, the use of open data is still largely focused on supporting after-the-fact reporting functions, overlooking its potential to enable integrated strategic planning and improved coordination across the full spectrum of development actors.
311 Analytics
2016 MC311 Stat Presentation

MC311 ANALYTICS: ANNUAL REVIEW (2016) (LINK)

ROLE: LEAD ANALYST, MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CountyStat conducts an annual review of the hundreds of thousands of citizen service requests received by Montgomery County's 311 citizen hotline and web portal every year. This analysis uses innovative data visualization techniques to uncover trends and actionable insights on the changing needs and interests of County residents; identify high impact performance issues in specific County services; and suggest areas for strategic interventions, budget reviews, and further "drill-down" analysis.
Data-Driven City Planning
2013 Lien Conference, Singapore & 2013 Training to City Leaders in Hanoi

DATA-DRIVEN CITY MANAGEMENT (LINK)

PRESENTED AT: 2013 LIEN CONFERENCE IN SINGAPORE & 2013 EXECUTIVE TRAINING FOR VIETNAMESE MAYORS IN HANOI

While city plans abound, few are actively adhered. At core, this is because government planning efforts fail to recognize that cities are enormously complex systems that concentrate a vast number of highly interconnected assets, actors, and activities. Successfully coordinating these elements towards a common goal requires close collaboration and thus an intensive flow of information across a large network of independent stakeholders. Yet the traditional tools and approaches of city planning are poorly equipped to facilitate such an integrated and interactive approach. Recent advances in information technology—namely in so-called “smart city” solutions and data analytics—can help overcoming these challenges by helping to evolve planning away from generating long-range static documents that are quickly out of date and towards managing an open, always-evolving, highly interactive planning information base shared with all.
Proactive e-Governance in Taiwan
2015 Article, Gov Info Q (SSCI), Seoul

PROACTIVE E-GOVERNANCE IN TAIWAN (LINK)

IN: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY 2015 & ICEGOV 2013 IN SEOUL

This article examines how Taiwan's strategic commitment to flipping the service delivery model by shifting from the “pull” approach of traditional e-government — whereby the citizen must seek out government services — towards a “push” model, whereby government proactively and seamlessly delivers just-in-time services to citizens shaped around their individual needs, preferences, circumstance, and location. The authors extract common trends and characteristics to articulate a consolidated framework for Proactive e-Governance based on citizen-centricity, data-driven personalization, and the empowerment of frontline civil servants.
(link to slide presentation version).
Kids Energy Champions App
2013 Singapore Hackathon Runner-up

KIDS ENERGY CHAMPION: ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR EVERYONE HACKATHON (LINK)

ROLE: TEAM MEMBER @ UP SINGAPORE ORGANIZED GOVERNMENT HACKATHON

This runner-up winning project proposed a web-based community platform that allows school-going children to compare and compete on how energy efficient they are at home and in class.
Open Government as a Vehicle for Transformation
2012 Book Chapter

OPEN GOVERNMENT AS A VEHICLE FOR TRANSFORMATION (LINK)

ROLE: LEAD AUTHOR (CO-AUTHORS: SUSAN WILSON AND PROF. JOHN BERTOT)

This chapter in the volume, Public Sector Transformation through E-Government edited by Weerakkody and Reddick, examines the global movement sparked by President Obama's open government initiative and identifies open government enablers for distinct government transformations based on early lessons learned.
Towards a Science of Cities
2013 Keynote, Hong Kong

TOWARDS A SCIENCE OF CITIES (LINK)

ROLE: WORLD BANK PRESENTER @ 1ST INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON SMART CITIES AND SYSTEMS ON 26 MARCH 2013 IN HONG KONG

This keynote examines the emergence of a new "science of cities." Traditionally, there has been a lack of quality, standardized data which would allow us to compare how well cities are performing and how helpful different solutions and policies are in address common urban challenges. Leading cities have begun to fill this gap by building an enabling environment for city-level innovation; carefully measuring results; and proactively sharing new knowledge, emerging best practices, and proven solutions. Leveraging this emerging science of cities, the presentation argues that every city should become a learning city that (1) collects and leverages large amounts of data to make informed, evidence-based decisions and (2) proactively exchanges knowledge and solutions with other cities so they can benefit from each other experiences.
World Bank Urbanization Studies
2012-2014 Series of Publications (Team Member)

WORLD BANK URBANIZATION REVIEWS (LINK)

ROLE: FORMER TEAM MEMBER

The growth of cities is driven largely by the economic prosperity that they help create. But today cities are growing at unprecedented and challenging speeds. The World Bank's Urbanization Reviews offer a framework for city leaders to make tough decisions on development in their cities by providing diagnostic tools to identify policy distortions and analyze investment priorities. What must be done to improve living conditions, especially in slums and hazard-prone areas? To create jobs? To expand the coverage and quality of basic services? The Urbanization Reviews help answer these critical questions
What is Open Government?
2011 Conference, Seattle

WHAT IS OPEN GOVERNMENT? ONE YEAR AFTER THE DIRECTIVE (LINK)

IN: 2011 DGO DIGITAL GOVERNMENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE (WITH SUSAN WILSON)

In response to President Obama's Open Government Directive, federal agencies developed plans to instill the principles of transparency, collaboration, and participation into their engagement with the public. Against the question, "what is open government?," the authors reviewed the prevailing literature and the agency plans to identify a set of discrete lenses and objectives that align with the Directive's principles. The lenses and objectives are then assessed for their policy implications, intended outcomes, and implementation challenges. This analysis is synthesized into a framework that will support future fieldwork to identify and construct best-practice tools and guidance that help agencies go beyond baseline compliance and apply the Directive as a tool for mission success. We conclude with a discussion on the factors and conditions for the sustainment of the Open Government movement.
Governing the Smart City: Research Poster
2016 NSF Graduate Data Science Workshop, Seattle

EMERGING STRATEGIES FOR DATA-SMART GOVERNMENT (LINK)

ROLE: POSTER PRESENTER AT VARIOUS CONFERENCES

This poster describes a research project that aims to identify and explore emerging business models for data-smart government, in line with NYC Bloomberg's suggestion that "the explosion of data gives us a huge opportunity to find clues on how to make cities better, cleaner, and safer." It describes the use of innovation action research and soft systems methodology, The poster employs three lenses at different urban scales: across government, across the city, and across cities. The poster also provides a framework for internal strategies aimed at boosting internal analytical capabilities and another framework for external strategies aimed at using smart city infrastructure as a platform for community-wide collaboration.
Mainstreaming Urban Metabolism
2012 Urban Research Conference, Barcelona

MAINSTREAMING URBAN METABOLISM (LINK)

IN: 6TH URBAN RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE SYMPOSIUM 2012 IN BARCELONA (WITH DAN HOORNWEG, GISELA CAMPILLO, ARTESSA SALDIVAR-SALI, AND LORRAINE SUGAR)

Urban metabolism is widely defined as the sum total of the technical and socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting in resource consumption, growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste. With the growing importance of tackling the global and local resource impacts of cities, collection of urban metabolism data should become a mainstream activity for all medium to large cities. The Urban Development and Local Government Unit of the World Bank has conducted abbreviated urban metabolism studies for 7 client cities using data from national and local statistical agencies and departments. These studies are presented in this paper, the data gathering challenges outlined, and recommendations made as to how local governments can institutionalize the collection of metabolism information and use it to inform local sustainability programs, and projects.
More Publications
Google Scholar Profile

GOOGLE SCHOLAR PROFILE (LINK)

Click the link above to visit my Google Scholar page, which provides an index of all of my publications and citations.