Challenging Civic Tech Foundations

Nadine is an anthropologist and UX researcher, with a focus on strategic research, improving equitable access to technology, and combining ethnography and quantitative research. She currently leads the design and research team at the City and County of San Francisco’s Digital Services team, whose work focuses on improving the digital experience with permitting and forms, as well as helping the city centralize and scale its digital resources on SF.gov. She has previously worked at Meta, UCLA, and the University of Exeter, after completing a DPhil in Social Anthropology at Oxford.

Matt applies concepts from the social sciences and design to create more equitable government systems and experiences. His current work at Code for America focuses on improving access to and delivery of social safety net services. Prior to joining CfA, he worked on making criminal legal system data more transparent at Measures for Justice. Matt holds a Master’s degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and was a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at Cornell University. He also writes and speaks regularly on the topic of Trauma Informed Research Methods.

As Head of Design at the Public Policy Lab, a nonprofit service design consultancy, John helps the organization achieve its mission of creating more useful public services for low-income and under-resourced Americans. Previously, John was Head of Service Design at Verizon, where he led a team of 30+ designers on two business-critical areas: customer service experiences across digital, human, and place-based touchpoints, and voice and text-based AI experiences. John co-founded and served as managing director of Moment, one of the first digital product design firms on the East Coast, until Verizon’s acquisition of Moment in 2018. John has taught graduate-level design research and methodology courses at the Institute of Design, Parsons School of Design, and New York University.