Meet the team

Meet the team


Staff

Amanda Rucker
Marketing and Communications Manager

Amanda leads the communication and marketing strategy at USDR. She has a deep history working with nonprofits and education organizations to help develop their messaging, define their brand, and connect with their audiences.

Amy Meng
Program Director

Amy leads the Benefits Response Team, which supports benefits programs at the state and local level. She was previously Associate Director of Delivery Management at Truss, a civic tech consultancy.

Caitlin Winner
Product Design Lead

Caitlin is a designer working on USDR’s elections program. She brings experience from consumer technology, most recently as a product designer at Meta.

Cindy Phan
UX Research Engagement Manager

Cindy leads the UX Research program at USDR, ensuring that the voice of residents help drive government priorities. Prior to USDR, Cindy has spent the last decade working in the government tech space including HealthCare.gov and Veteran benefits.

Claire Valdivia
Program Manager

Claire is a program manager working to scale operations for USDR’s Digital Delivery team. They bring experience leading product and project teams and have most recently worked in building solutions for state & local governments in federal grants.

Dillon Vrosh
Design and Research Lead

Dillon is a designer supporting benefits programs at the state and local level. He was previously a design lead in government at the US Digital Service (USDS), and a service designer working on patient experiences at Johnson & Johnson.

Jai Rodgers
Volunteer Placement Coordinator

Jai is a dynamic talent strategist and community builder with a proven record of connecting technologists to high-impact civic opportunities. She thrives at the intersection of people, process, and purpose.

Jenny Woo
Talent Operations Manager

Jenny supports talent and operations on the Volunteers Team at USDR. She leans on her experiences in operations and organizational psychology within the nonprofit, tech, and L&D spaces to build equitable and sustainable systems.

Jessica Watson
Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder

Jessica leads the product teams at USDR. Jessica is a product design leader who was most recently a Director of Product Design at Facebook.

John Hite
Technical Program Manager

John is the Technical Program Manager for USDR’s Elections Program. With over a decade of experience in election administration, he most recently led the Elections Staffing & Training team in Nashville, TN.

Jonathan Chue
IT Operations Lead

Jonathan is passionate about leveraging technology to meet users where they are. He was previously a technology consultant, working with various public and private sector organizations on system integration implementations and custom applications.

Julie Dingley
Chief Operating Officer

Julie is USDR’s COO and brings extensive public service experience from roles as Seattle's Budget Director and at the White House OMB. She led Seattle's COVID-19 funding response and revolutionized city budgeting. Julie holds an MPP from GWU.

Keith Wilson
Talent Engagement Manager

Keith partners with governments within the U.S. to help them hire & retain digital talent. He previously served as the Head of People Operations at Technology Transformation Services (GSA).

Kevin Miller
Product Engineer

Kevin is a product engineer for USDR’s Elections Program. A web developer with over a decade of experience in the California State University system, he most recently led the website team at The COVID Tracking Project.

Krista Canellakis
Program Director

Krista leads USDR’s Digital Delivery Program. Previously, she served as Deputy Secretary, General Services for the State of California and Chief Innovation Officer for the City and County of San Francisco.

Kristen Eberlin
Volunteers Team Lead

Kristen oversees and fosters the volunteer experience at USDR. Kristen is a product and operations leader who most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for Setmore.

Lindsey Wilson
Program Director

Lindsey co-leads USDR’s Elections Program. An experienced technologist, Lindsey most recently served as Executive Director and Co-Founder at Unloop, a nonprofit social enterprise and software development agency.

Lynn Constabile
Engagement Manager

With over 20 years’ experience in Elections Administration, Lynn most recently served as the Elections Director in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Maia Kaufman
Operations Manager

Maia is the operations manager at USDR. She has almost ten years of experience in management and leadership in the arts, most recently at Bard College and the School of Visual Arts.

Marcie Chin
Product Delivery Manager, Language Access

Marcie Chin is a Language Access Product Delivery Manager focusing on improving access to digital services for vulnerable residents. She believes that the application of equity-centered design and ethical technology creates value for all people.

Maria Reyes-Gaskin
Product Technologist-in-Residence

Maria is a product manager supporting benefit programs at the state and local level. She previously served as a Product Lead at USDS/White House, where she focused on improving SNAP delivery outcomes for clients and eligibility workers.

Melissa House
Senior Software Engineer

Melissa is a software engineer with USDR’s Elections Program. Melissa spent most of her career at Apple, where she she was most recently a Director in the apple.com team.

Michael Boyce
Generative AI Lead, Technologist-in-Residence

Michael Boyce leads generative AI programs at US Digital Response. Previously, he led the DHS AI Corps and served in AI policy roles at the White House. He also worked at the the US Digital Service and USCIS.

Navin Eluthesen
Software Engineer

Navin is a software engineer supporting technical assistance to state and local public benefit programs. Navin started his career in civic tech at the US Digital Service, and before that worked as an engineer at Amazon and Twitter.

Priya Garg
Program Director

Priya co-leads USDR’s Elections Program, which is building a digital infrastructure for American elections. An experienced technologist and product manager, she most recently developed innovative shopping experiences at Amazon.

Rebecca Heywood
Governments Team Lead

Rebecca currently leads the Governments Team. She was most recently the Director of Performance and Process Improvement at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and she previously served in several roles with the City of New York.

Ruth Ashurst Weitzel
Head of People Operations

Ruth has spent her career leading the People functions of various technology and mission-driven organizations. She believes that businesses do best when they care for their people, enabling them to do their best work and thrive in all aspects of life

Steve Lund
Technical Product Manager

Steve helps scope and deliver rapid solutions to government partners across a range of election challenges. Prior to USDR, Steve was empowering Veterans Affairs employees at Nava and improving the rider experience at the MBTA.

Tina Walha
Chief Executive Officer

Tina leads USDR's team of technologists and public sector leaders to help governments deliver for residents. She was previously USDR's Chief Partnerships Officer, Director of Innovation & Performance for Seattle, and Policy Advisor in New York City.

Waldo Jaquith
Delivery Manager

Waldo leads USDR’s work in procurement, budgeting, and oversight of major government software projects. He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the U.S. General Services Administration.

Board of Directors

Avni Shah
Board of Directors Chair

Avni Shah has 20 years of experience building products and teams across consumer and education industries. Most recently, she served as VP/GM for Google for Education, and she currently sits on the Board of Directors for Women in Product.

Ja'Ron Smith
Board of Directors

Ja'Ron Smith is a policy expert with extensive experience in advocacy, legislation, and policy strategy. He is currently a partner at CGCN Group.

Janette Fong
Board of Directors & Co-Founder

Janette co-founded USDR and led the Projects Team. She was previously a Product Manager at Lyft and Director of Product at LendUp.

John Bailey
Board of Directors

John is an advisor to philanthropies and investors and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, he served in several senior policy roles within the Bush Administration.

Raylene Yung
Board of Directors & Co-Founder

Raylene recently served as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Executive Director of the Tech Modernization Fund at the General Services Administration.

Tammy Mank Wincup
Board of Directors

Tammy Mank Wincup has spent her career at the intersection of technology and policy, focused on utilizing technology to better deliver education and health outcomes. Tammy is currently CEO of Securly.

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