Women of Washington: Data science and machine learning in government

On this episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed four female executives who have begun embracing new tools in data science and machine learning to help their agencies modernize and run more efficiently. Included on the panel were Nancy Potok, chief statistician of the U.S. at the Office of Management and Budget; Christina Ho, deputy assistant secretary for accounting policy and financial transparency at the Treasury Department; Robyn Konkel, attorney advisor at the Social Security Administration and Angela Zutavern, vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. Innovations in analysis – cyber, data and even medicine – help to keep agencies up-to-date and transparent. "Very valuable data is [now] crossing over to help the federal government, states and localities with their operations," Potok said. "For example, setting up really strong scientific computing environments is allowing cities, for example, to get access to federal data and their own data, and partner with universities and consultants to really understand their operations."