About

USDR helps governments respond as fast as possible to COVID-19.

Founded by former U.S. Deputy CTOs and seasoned tech industry veterans who led federal open data policies and digital government strategy, U.S. Digital Response is a nonpartisan effort that connects experienced, pro bono technology teams to public servants responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Our volunteers work with government teams to understand their challenges, and get them the right tools to deliver critical services to the people who need them — all within a few days to weeks.

Our diverse cohort of volunteers has deep expertise, spanning engineering, data science, content strategy, design, logistics and supply chain, and disaster response. We provide rapid staffing to governments of all sizes, from small cities to large states, in areas ranging from public health to economic recovery, and much in between.

If you are unsure of how to address a challenge, USDR can help to assess the problem first, before you invest in costly solutions.

Our Mission

USDR helps governments meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis by strengthening decision-making and supporting their ability to effectively deliver critical services to the public at scale.

Our Values

We work in the public interest.

All USDR team members are skilled workers and experts who volunteer their time to help governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. While with USDR, we do not use our volunteer efforts to further personal and professional interests.

Public interest projects belong in the public domain, so we abide by a set of Data and Software Guidelines that promote openness and accessibility.

We work with humility and respect.

Governments and the people they employ operate under constraints that are not always visible to those outside of the public sector. Everyone involved in the response to this crisis is under enormous strain. In order to be effective, we must check our egos and our judgment, without losing our critical thinking.

We observe a code of conduct.

We require all team members and volunteers to read and sign this Volunteer Oath before joining. We will ask volunteers to step away from projects if they are no longer a good fit for the work or have not acted in a way that is aligned with our mission and values.

Team

Founders

Cori Zarek is the Director of Data + Digital at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and previously served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and former executive director of Code for America. She served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2013–2014, where she founded the United States Digital Service.

Raylene Yung is USDR’s CEO and a recent fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Tech Policy Hub. She was an engineering and product executive at Stripe and Facebook.

Ryan Panchadsaram joined Kleiner Perkins in 2016 and was the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer.

Core Team

Alex Allain

Alex is a product engineering leader who most recently led various engineering and product efforts at Dropbox.

Andrew Sutherland

Andrew is the founder of Quizlet, an educational software company serving millions of K-12 and college students every month.

David Yoon

David is the head of engineering at Antara Health.

Erika Reinhardt

Erika has led engineering groups at Stripe, OpenAI and Planet Labs. In 2016, she founded a voter registration and turnout non-profit.

Jennifer Anastasoff

Jennifer, the former Head of People for USDS, was a founding member of U.S. Digital Service at the White House and served as Head of People from 2014 until 2017.

Jessica Cole

Jessica is a Fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Tech Policy Hub. She formerly served as Head of Innovation and Economic Development for the City of Walnut Creek and as a Code for America Fellow.

Jessica MacLeod

Consults on Digital Transformation for the public sector. She was the head of Customer Success at Socrata, and prior to that a Policy Analyst at the Center for Global Development. She is the co-host of The Government We Need podcast.

Kendall Beveridge

Kendall is a marketing and brand strategy leader with experience guiding brands like Facebook, WhatsApp, Audi and Walmart.

Levy Klots

Levy was an early Facebook software engineer, he also led engineering efforts at political startup Hustle and currently serves as a Head of Community at South Park Commons.

Matt Kelly

Matt led growth, product, and engineering teams at Facebook, and was most recently the founder of an edtech startup.

Meredith Horowski

Meredith is the Senior Director for the Brigade Network at Code for America.

Raphael Lee

Raphael led product engineering, data science, infrastructure, IT, and security teams at Lob and Airbnb.

Robin Carnahan

Robin is the former Missouri Secretary of State and formerly led 18F’s state and local practice within the General Services Administration.

Shreyes Seshasai

Shreyes has led engineering and product teams at Quora, and most recently was Director of Engineering for Pete for America.

Stephanie Hannon

Stephanie was a product leader at Google, Facebook, Cisco and Strava. She was CTO for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Taylor Campbell

Taylor is the Deputy Director of the Digital Service Collaborative at the Georgetown Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation.

Waldo Jaquith

Waldo is a software developer and government procurement specialist at 18F. His work has spanned the private sector, state government, and federal government.

Government Partnerships Team

Joanna Dornfeld

Joanna is the Senior Director of State Affairs for United States of Care. She previously served as Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s Chief of Staff.

Mark Lerner

Mark is the former Deputy Executive Director of the USDS team at the Department of Homeland Security.

Mike Flowers

First Chief Analytics Officer for New York City, former Manhattan prosecutor, U.S. Senate investigative counsel, Williams & Connolly, and DOJ war crimes investigator in Iraq.

Peter Karman

Senior software engineer at Truss Works with experience in the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Service division within the U.S. federal government.

Tyler Kleykamp

Director of the State Chief Data Officers Network at the Georgetown Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, was the Chief Data Officer for Connecticut.

Volunteers Team

Bridgit Donnelly

Bridgit is an analyst and project manager with experience in political campaigns and NYC government. She was most recently Chief of Staff for Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign.

Dinesh Shenoy

Dinesh is a solutions engineer and deployment strategist. He was an early employee at Socrata and Palantir.

Jessica Watson

Jessica is a product design leader who most recently led various design teams at Facebook

Design Team

Two Hands Brands

Two Hands Brands is a brand identity studio who developed our new visual identity and website. Special thanks to Eva Frye, Mathieu Salé, Michaela Fiasová, Andy Birch, Malik Adán, and Calvin Hu.

Teal Media

Teal Media is a full-service creative agency based in Washington DC who helped us develop our logo.