Civic Analytics Network
The Civic Analytics Network (CAN) is a network of leading urban chief data officers and other senior data officials, established in 2015. The network convenes data executives at the city level to discuss the adoption and dissemination of innovations in data, analytics, and AI at every level of government.
As AI evolves and becomes an ever-more essential tool in the public sector, CDOs will guide how cities leverage it responsibly and effectively. GovEx regularly convenes the Civic Analytics Network to present the latest innovations in public sector data and AI, provide a forum for collaboration and support, and advocate for the essential role of the CDO in modern cities.
Stephen Goldsmith, the Derek Bok Professor of the Practice of Urban Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and director of Data-Smart City Solutions at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, founded and hosted the network for ten years. GovEx became the host in 2025 with the generous support and partnership of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Cheriene Floyd
Chair
Members

Brita Andercheck
Chief Data Officer
Dallas, Texas
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No bio.

Geoffrey Arnold
Division Manager – Performance and Data Analytics & Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
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Geoffrey has been in a leadership position with Allegheny County since 2019, where he has led the Data Analysts unit and was appointed the county’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer in 2024. During his tenure he has implemented the team’s Data Warehouse, Airflow ETL instance and ShinyProxy servers and the county’s Data Catalog. Geoffrey currently leads the Performance and Data Analytics Division in the Department of Management and Budget (formerly CountyStat). This team is charged with implementing and enforcing county policies on data privacy and management, to drive continuous process improvement, support data analytics initiatives, and monitor key performance indicators to ensure accountability and operational excellence across all county departments.
He previously worked as a Senior Digital Services Analyst for the City of Pittsburgh where he supported the city’s open data and analytics work. He has extensive experience with data science, developing business intelligence tools and data products and data management.
Geoffrey hails from Lancaster, PA and received his Bachelor’s in Political Science and History from the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. Motivated by his sense of public service, Geoffrey has worked for a variety of government, non-profit and political organizations. While working as a City Year Senior Corps member in Philadelphia Geoffrey decided to return to school and received his Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University in 2015. In 2024 he returned to the Heinz College for their CDataO Executive Education Certificate Program, where his team received the “Best in Cohort” distinction.
Geoffrey has served on the Steel City Codefest Planning Committee and contributed to the City’s Roadmap for Inclusive Innovation. He has served as a Board Member for Allegheny Clean Ways and taught the R Shiny for Management Operations course as an adjunct professor for the Heinz College at CMU.
Geoffrey also sings tenor for the Shadyside Presbyterian Chancel Choir. In his spare time Geoffrey enjoys biking for exercise and transportation, and is the father of two wonderful children that he has the pleasure to raise with his wife in the Carrick neighborhood in the City of Pittsburgh.

Stephen Barham
Chief Analytics Officer
Seattle, Washington
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Steve leads citywide applied analytics, performance, and data strategy for the City of Seattle. As Chief Analytics Officer, he is positioned centrally to work across departmental boundaries, unlocking the power of data to help leadership respond to complex challenges and drive impact, accountability, and transparency.
He supports high-priority initiatives for City Hall and operating departments, often related to public safety, customer service, permitting, housing, and affordability. He is the primary architect of Seattle’s 2024–2026 Citywide Data Strategy, aligning executive priorities, operational needs, and resident outcomes, and is collaborating with City data and AI leaders on the 2027 refresh.

Chris Belasco
Chief Data Officer
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Chris Belasco is the Senior Manager, Digital Services and Chief Data Officer for the City of Pittsburgh in the Department of Innovation and Performance, where he manages analytic, data engineering, data governance, open data, and software development efforts to improve decisions about City operations and planning. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously he ran a unit at the University of Pittsburgh that conducted large impact evaluations on democracy and governance foreign assistance for the United States Agency for International Development. Chris received his PhD in Public and International Affairs, Master of Public and International Affairs, BS in Information Science, and BA in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. He is an Advisory Board member for the Hub for Data Science and AI Leadership (HAIL) at the University of Pittsburgh.
Chris was named the 2024 Rising Star by the Pittsburgh Technology Council at the CIO of the Year event and helped steer the City to Gold Certification from What Works Cities. During his spare time, he likes to cook, travel, cycle, and visit museums with his wife and two daughters. A 25-year resident of the Bloomfield neighborhood, he can often be found working to restore his old house.

Andrell Bower
Chief Data Officer
San Diego, California
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No bio.

Stephanie Dietrick
Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Tempe, Arizona
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Richard is the first Chief Data Officer for the City of Boulder, Colorado, where he leads enterprise work across governance, analytics, engineering and organizational capability. He is particularly interested in how organizations translate data into better operational and policy decisions. He previously served as Data Analytics Lead for the City of Seattle and held roles in consulting and finance. He holds degrees in data science, public administration and philosophy.

David Finley
Director of Data & Performance
South Bend, Indiana
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David Finley is a mission-driven leader dedicated to architecting the systems that power innovation and social impact in 21st-century government. As the Director of Data & Performance for the City of South Bend, Indiana, David leads a cross-disciplinary team overseeing enterprise data strategy and performance management. His work focuses on institutionalizing performance frameworks, optimizing service delivery through rigorous analytics, and designing equity-driven strategies for large-scale infrastructure investment.
Previously, David served in the City Manager’s Office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he led the development of the city’s inaugural strategic plan and departmental business plans. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cheriene Floyd
Chief Data Officer
Miami, Florida
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Cheriene Floyd serves as Chief Data Officer for the City of Miami, bringing a 20-plus-year track record of making complex systems work for people. Before joining the City, she got her start at Broward County as a budget and performance analyst, drove technology transformation in private sector consulting, and stood up Miami-Dade County’s first Office of Innovation & Performance in the Mayor’s Office.
In her current role, Cheriene leads the City’s data strategy across data governance, analytics and data science, and capacity building. Her work spans developing frameworks for streamlined performance analytics to embedding a culture of innovation across city operations.
She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from the College of William & Mary (VA), an MPA from Old Dominion University(VA), and an MBA from Clark University (MA).
Outside of her day-to-day, Cheriene serves on the boards of Global Ties Miami and the Center for Accountability and Performance (CAP) under the American Society for Public Administration.

Sean Greer
Chief Data Officer
Denver, Colorado
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No bio.

Kat Hartman
Chief Data Officer
Detroit, Michigan
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Kat Hartman is the founding Chief Data Officer for the City of Detroit. She joined the city in July of 2018 as the Director of Emerging Technology, a rapid prototyping team that evolved over time to manage the City’s open data portal. The Data Strategy & Analytics team was formally established in March 2020 given high demand for data support across city departments. However, the small but mighty new team immediately stepped up to support the City’s data needs caused by the emergent COVID19 crisis.
Celebrating their 6th year spring 2026, the Data Strategy Team is implementing the data strategy and infrastructure required to get to advanced analytics and AI. Hartman, a designer at her core, has sought to make data governance tangible and accessible via the design and development of a series of strategic data products and platforms. The Base Units is a enterprise platform for citywide location management; it relates addresses to all major units of government operations allowing for powerful and performative data integrations. DSAs data integration capabilities were heavily leveraged for Detroit’s successful challenge of a 2020 Census undercount leading to a historic population increase for the first time in 67 years. The Base Units schema enables self service address validation and mailing list generation applications, as well as Topsoil, DSAs recently launched enterprise data warehouse. Her team’s scrappy utilization of open source tools in their data stack allowed the team to build quickly and ultimately save the City millions of dollars in software and labor costs. The team’s success has provided a strong use case for using open source tools at scale.

Tim Haynes
Chief Data Officer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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No bio.

Eero Kilkson
Chief Data Officer
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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No bio.

Dhimant Master
Chief Data Officer
Rochester, New York
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Dhimant Master serves as the Chief Data Officer for the City of Rochester, leveraging extensive expertise in Business Intelligence, Data Science, and AI to drive the City’s digital transformation. Dhimant combines deep technical roots with advanced business acumen, holding a Master’s in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University , an MBA from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business , and a Master’s in Data Science from Harvard University. His leadership background includes strategic roles at Crown Castle and American Tower, where he established robust data governance frameworks and championed “Get clean – stay clean” quality initiatives. Previously, as an AI Team Leader at Xerox, he spearheaded the development of mission-critical Information Management applications. Dhimant is dedicated to shifting organizational culture from “Can’t do” to “Can do,” ensuring the City’s data is secure, accessible, and actionable.

Andrew Mckinney
Data Officer
Louisville, Kentucky
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No bio.

Renee Raffalli
Chief Data Officer
Cleveland, Ohio
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Renee has over 15 years of experience in public service, with a career spanning local government, public health and regional transportation. She currently serves as Director of Urban Analytics & Innovation for the City of Cleveland. Prior to this role, she led government innovation initiatives within Urban AI, focusing on improving city processes and service delivery.
Her work sits at the intersection of analytics, technology, and process improvement, using data and technology to solve operational challenges, while leveraging process improvement to create better, more reliable data. She is particularly interested in how governments can use data to improve internal operations, make better decisions, and deliver more effective services to residents.

Alec Sithole
Chief Data Officer
Kansas City, Missouri
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Alec currently serves as the Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the City of Kansas City. In this role, he focuses on data strategy and governance, citywide service performance analytics, process improvement, and open data initiatives. Before moving into municipal leadership, he had a significant career in academia as a professor and researcher

Matt Sokol
Chief Data Officer
Washington, District of Columbia
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With 20 years of data industry experience in both the public and private sectors, Matt Sokol focuses on improving data for organizations with people, process and technology through team building, data strategy and governance.
Currently serving as the Chief Data Officer for the DC Government Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), his portfolio includes GIS, Big Data and Data Integration, Data Visualization and Analysis and Data Strategy. Matt supports the city through a unified data approach, by breaking down silos to implement enterprise solutions that will benefit the District residents, businesses, and visitors. For multiple fiscal years, he has chaired DC’s Information Technology Investment Review Board, aimed at informing city leadership on the high profile and large budget IT projects. Matt is also a member of the Mayor’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force, advising OCTO and Mayor Bowser on AI solutions and their alignment with DC’s values on AI. He was a key leader in the creation of DC Compass, DC government’s first generative AI solution, built on top of the Open Data DC platform.

Arti Tangri
Chief Data Officer
San Jose, California
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Arti Tangri leads Data Governance for the City of San José, with a focus on advancing a data-driven approach that harnesses the power of data and AI to solve real-world challenges. Her work centers on improving how the City collects, shares, and uses data to support better decision-making, break down silos, and deliver more effective and equitable services.
Prior to this, she served as a Data Architect for the City, where she helped establish the City’s Open Data and Data Analytics programs.
Arti began her career in the private sector, working in software engineering roles in the high-tech industry before transitioning to public service, where she finds her work especially meaningful and impactful.

Richard Todd
Chief Data Officer
Boulder, Colorado
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Richard is the first Chief Data Officer for the City of Boulder, Colorado, where he leads enterprise work across governance, analytics, engineering and organizational capability. He is particularly interested in how organizations translate data into better operational and policy decisions. He previously served as Data Analytics Lead for the City of Seattle and held roles in consulting and finance. He holds degrees in data science, public administration and philosophy.

Shin-pei Tsay
Chief Research & Data Officer
Boston, Massachusetts
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Shin-pei Tsay’s work converges on policy, data, design, and governance to bolster inclusive and sustainable cities. As Chief Research & Data Officer for the City of Boston, she develops civic innovation grounded in evidence — leading a 25-person team conducting research and analytics and building data products that improve city services while advancing forward-looking initiatives from infrastructure to public realm policy.
Prior to Boston, Shin-pei led global policy for cities issues at Uber, and held leadership roles at the Gehl Institute, TransitCenter, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Transportation Alternatives, and Project for Public Spaces. Throughout her career, she has authored reports, and articles, and designed strategies, guidelines, frameworks, and campaigns that center people and the civic sector in policy, design, and technology innovations — including an open data standard for public life developed with San Francisco, Copenhagen, and Seattle.
She has served on the Public Design Commission of New York City, the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on the Future of Cities, and several non-profit boards. She is a Local Smart 2025 Local IT Leader of the Year.

Dartanion Williams
Chief Data Officer
Baltimore, Maryland
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Dartanion Williams leads the Mayor’s Office of Performance and Innovation and serves as Baltimore City’s Chief Data Officer and Chief Performance Officer. He brings experience across local government, nonprofits, big tech, and startups, with a focus on improving service delivery through with a focus on improving service delivery through strong data, simpler processes, and practical technology.
In local government, Dartanion has led reforms spanning student information systems, special education transportation, emergency medical services, taxi and for-hire vehicles, and core city services, including 311 and permitting. His work in the City of Chicago and the District of Columbia (DC) Government has centered on modernizing legacy processes, strengthening performance management, and translating operational data into sustained improvements that residents can feel.
Outside of government, Dartanion led data science and engineering at the American Chemical Society (ACS), building predictive models for marketing analytics, membership growth, and fundraising. At Meta, he managed nonprofit fundraising products and payments compliance, supporting a $7B fundraising milestone across Facebook and Instagram while partnering closely with privacy, integrity, and data security teams to ensure responsible data use. He has also worked in a public health and biosecurity startup, leading full-stack engineering, global mapping technologies, and applied AI products.
In Baltimore City, Dartanion oversees CitiStat, citywide performance management, data strategy, the Baltimore Design Lab, and priority delivery initiatives. He is focused on bringing private-sector engineering discipline to city government and building the capabilities that set Baltimore apart nationally, from trusted data and rigorous performance management to modern digital products and responsible AI. Done well, these fundamentals help the city deliver faster, more consistently, and with greater public trust.
He holds an MBA from Howard University and enjoys travel, house music, running, and the performing and fine arts.
Resources
City data leaders convene in DC to share progress, strategy
This week, chief data officers from some of the country’s biggest cities convened at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC to share experiences and learn from leaders in the field. CDOs from DC, Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and other...
What we’re learning about city CDOs: Four emerging archetypes
By Kel Wang Cities are being asked to do more with data than ever before. They are using data to improve service delivery, strengthen performance management, coordinate across departments, support transparency, and, increasingly, identify responsible ways to adopt AI....
Episode #109 – How AI Is Redefining the Chief Data Officer Role, an interview with GovEx CDO-in-Residence Justin Elszasz
Justin Elszasz, former Chief Data Officer for Baltimore and GovEx advisor and CDO-in-Residence, shares what it takes to lead data strategy, navigate complexity, and guide responsible AI use in cities.



