Today is a big day for Code for America. It’s the first day the organization will have a full-time employee besides myself, because Alissa Black starts as our City Program Director today. Don’t get me wrong, this has been a huge collective effort so far. We’ve been blessed with talented and generous volunteers (of whom Alissa has been one), skilled part-timers, and an active board of directors (a big shout out here to Tim O’Reilly, who has been a tireless and hugely effective advocate for our efforts, and without whom we would not be where we are today). But in terms of full-time staff, it’s been just me until today.
You may already know what a big fan I am of Alissa’s from my Ada Lovelace Day post, and I am thrilled that the cities working with us on our first cycle will be in her capable hands. The even better news is that Alissa is joined later this week by an equally talented third CfA employee, Dan Melton, our new technical director. You may recall us recruiting for this position; how could we have known what a perfect candidate awaited us. With a doctorate in Public Affairs and Economics, a passion for cities, civic action, and open data, and a list of projects that could not be more relevant to CfA if we designed them for ourselves, he’s a perfect fit, and we’re eager to welcome him to the Bay Area. He’ll be moving from Kansas City in the coming months.
I can’t talk about the CfA team without a huge public thanks to our summer “intern” Abhi Nemani. Intern is in quotes there because while Abhi has certainly done his share of moving furniture, shopping for equipment, and cleaning whiteboards (he taught me how to erase dry-erase ink that’s been there for more than a decade: first, you write over it with new ink –genius!), he’s so on target, so perceptive and creative, and has such capacity that I’d happily work for him. If only he weren’t going to Google in September. In the meantime, we have him to thank for our online donation set up, our fellows pages on the website, our binary art t-shirts and posters, some patriotic inspiration, two almost clean whiteboards, and so much more. I can’t wait to see Abhi as part of our team as it evolves, and hope that we can benefit from his 20% of his talents when Google gets him. Lucky Google.
We have a few more hires to make, but I’m thrilled about the talent we’ve attracted and excited to see this team deliver on the promises we’ve made. There’s an enormous amount of work to do, but we have a clean slate, a clear mission, enormous support from across the country, and now the right team to make it all happen. Let the fun begin.
