There was a large scale out-migration of federal civil servants over the past few years. Many were technical professionals, leading innovation within the agencies. Their energy was lost and the professional contributions that they made were diminished. At the same time, many federal agencies are in sore need of process and technical enhancements.
One of the more enlightened programs of the federal government is the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA), which allows staff of universities and state governments to work temporarily for Federal agencies.
Over the years, many Georgetown faculty have taken advantage of the program to serve a wide variety of agencies. They often take a leave for a semester or a year and work side by side with agency personnel, with their Georgetown salary paid by the agency. The program is a real bridge between theory and application. It is an opportunity for faculty for contribute to government operations and stimulate new programs of research by the faculty upon their return.
Georgetown is enjoying a new era of the IPA program, as private foundations are providing financial support for such public service. They recognize how Georgetown’s reputation and DC location can increase the impact of ties between universities and agencies.
Recently, the Georgetown Tech and Society Network announced the launch of a new fellowship program: the Tech & Society Public Service Fellowship—a program that provides an opportunity for scholar-practitioners with expertise in technology and public policy to work in the Government, while contributing to their field of study. During their IPA service they become fellows at the Georgetown Tech and Society Network. The funding comes from the Federation for American Scientists (Public Interest Technology Infrastructure Fund). The program is a pilot that takes advantage of Georgetown’s proximity to federal agencies in DC. Under the agreement Georgetown’s focus is finding talent to help the federal agencies, whether or not the talent currently lies among the Georgetown community.
Our first fellow is Shannon Arvizu, Ph.D., who is the principal in the firm Epic Teams. She will be joining the Department of Commerce to work with its Chief Data Officer (CDO). Her Tech & Society partner is Massive Data Institute, where faculty are helping her shape her work. At Commerce, she will work alongside the CDO, Oliver Wise, on a portfolio of projects to improve the use of data to help states and cities better respond to extreme weather events and ensure that Commerce programs better meet the needs of underserved communities.
The second development is similar to the first, but has private foundation funding to support existing Georgetown staff offering their talents for public service. Funded through the private foundation, Arnold Ventures, McCourt professor Sebastian Jilke has used the IPA mechanism for a series of collaborations with federal agencies including the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Labor, State Department and Department of Homeland Security. The aim of these collaborations was to use academic expertise to help federal agencies evaluate the important work that they do. For example, he and postdoctoral fellow Kellen Kane are working with OPM on an impact evaluation of diversity training across multiple federal agencies.
In a separate IPA, Professor Jilke has worked in the Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) at the GSA for the past 3 years. The core of his engagement with OES lies at supporting agencies in using social science insights to test interventions to improve their work performance. One example of this collaboration has been a large-scale evaluation of providing vaccination feedback to VA physicians, and whether providing this performance feedback impacts work performance. Other project examples from this work include increasing voluntary tax compliance for return preparers – in partnership with the IRS (see project website).
Georgetown has a long history of faculty, staff, and students devoting their energies to public service. It is, thus, heartwarming to see private foundations supporting public service by academics. With the deep and broad ties between Georgetown and government institutions, with its mission of “people for others,” we are ideally situated to be a partner in this work.