USDR leverages a network of pro bono technical expertise to address common, systemic challenges facing public servants.
We believe that modern and resilient technology applied in the public interest can deliver people-centered services at the speed of need.
We operate with humility and deep respect for our partners, aiming to leave them better equipped to deliver services and support to millions of people.
As of February 2024, USDR has partnered with 400 government and nonprofit partners on over 400 projects, across 38 states and territories. We've built a dedicated community of over 9,000 pro bono specialists driven to serve in a time of need.
About U.S. Digital Response
U.S. Digital Response (USDR) a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works alongside governments at all levels to ensure they have the capacity to meet the public's needs.
Our vision
A government that keeps up with the needs of its people, now and for the future.
What we do
Our values
We work in the public interest
Our pro bono team members volunteer their time and expertise. Our Data and Software Guidelines promote openness and accessibility.
We work with humility and respect
We recognize the unique constraints and stresses of public sector work and find solutions that will work within our partners’ requirements.
We observe a code of conduct
USDR staff and volunteers sign a Volunteer Oath. They are asked to step away from projects if they do not act in a way aligned with our values.
Meet the team
Staff
Aditya Sridhar
Product Engineer
Aditya is a product engineer for USDR’s economic stability program. Previously, he served as a Tech lead at Check working to simplify payroll.
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
Digital Delivery Program Manager
Amy is a program manager working with the Digital Delivery team to scale and operationalize USDR capabilities. 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 federal grants portfolio. She brings experience from consumer technology, most recently as a product designer at Meta.
Claire Valdivia
Grants Program Manager
Claire is a program manager working to scale products and operations for USDR’s federal grants portfolio. They bring experience as a people-focused technical project manager, most recently focused on building operations in the philanthropy space.
Hillary Hartley
CEO
As USDR’s CEO, Hillary sets the strategic vision for the organization and helps oversee all operations. Hillary most recently was the Chief Digital and Data Officer and Deputy Minister for the provincial government in Ontario, Canada.
Jai Rodgers
Talent Community Manager
Jai is passionate about building operational pipelines for recruiting and creating community-focused events and resources to support job seekers in their journey. She is dedicated to ensuring candidates feel empowered in their job search.
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.
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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.
Melissa House
Solutions Engineer
Melissa is a solutions 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.
Pari Sabety
Economic Stability Program Advisor
Pari ensures that our federal grants reporting is aligned with our partners’ needs. Pari has more than 25 years of experience as a CFO in government and higher education, and served as a cabinet member and senior executive staff to two governors.
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.
Ruben Espejel
Fundraising and Development Manager
Ruben manages an existing pipeline of donors and finds new philanthropic funding opportunities among individuals and foundations. He most recently managed the major gifts donor stewardship program at PIH Health.
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
Saad Asad
Product Marketing Manager
Saad leads product marketing at USDR, where he collaborates across the organization on marketing strategies. Previously, Saad focused on product marketing at multiple early-stage startups, consulting, and volunteered with a global health non-profit.
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 Partnerships Officer
Tina oversees efforts to grow USDR’s impact with government and nonprofit partners. Tina most recently served as Director of Innovation & Performance for the City of Seattle and previously worked as a policy advisor for NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Truman Cranor
Product Engineer
Truman most recently served as an engineer on Airbnb's listing compliance team, building tools and features to help users navigate a complex global tapestry of regulations.
Tyler Hendrickson
Tech Lead
Tyler is the technical lead for the federal grants portfolio. He is a technology leader and architect with experience at early-stage startups and large enterprises, and was most recently a software executive in the healthcare industry.
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.
Alumni
Alex Allain
CTO and Co-Founder
Alex overaw the development of technological tools, automation, and infrastructure at USDR. Previously, Alex served as a Director of Engineering at Dropbox.
Alyssa Levitz
Former Technologist-in-Residence
Alyssa is a product manager. She was formerly USDR’s Technologist-in-Residence for unemployment insurance.
Aylin Oncel
Legal and Development Lead
Aylin oversaw legal and development at USDR. Former legal counsel at Stripe, she most recently started and led Stripe’s Social Impact and Community Engagement program.
Carrie Bishop
Gen AI Partner Lead
Carrie works with our public sector partners on the ethical and responsible adoption of generative AI technology. Carrie was previously the Chief Digital Services Officer for the City and County of San Francisco.
Christina Roberts
Former Engineering Lead
Christina served as our Engineering Lead, contributing to USDR’s internal product portfolio and building tools for USDR’s initiatives. Christina was previously an Engineering Manager at Oracle.
Cori Zarek
Advisor
Cori Zarek is the Deputy Administrator at the U.S. Digital Service. She formerly served as the Executive Director at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and was the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
Diana Wang
Former Health Data Technologist-in-Residence
Diana was the Product Manager for USDR’s Health Data Program. Previously, Diana focused on policy impact evaluation, data products, and personalization at Airbnb.
Elham Ali
Former Health Technologist-In-Residence
Elham was the design and research lead for USDR’s Health Data program, with more than 9 years of experience in mixed-methods research and UX design. Elham worked in HIV informatics and substance use disorder with New York State and ICAP at Columbia.
Emily Barlow
Business Operations Manager and Co-Founder
Emily is the business operations manager at USDR. Emily was mostly recently at Apple, where she worked as an Engineering Program Manager for next-generation display hardware.
Jan Overgoor
Former Health Technologist-in-Residence
Jan was the Data Lead for the Health Program. He recently obtained his PhD in computational social science from Stanford University, and before that he was a data scientist at Airbnb.
Jessica Cole
Interim CEO and Co-Founder
Jessica served as the interim CEO of USDR and previously oversaw partnerships, marketing, and communications. She was a fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Tech Policy Hub and Head of Innovation and Economic Development for the City of Walnut Creek.
Jessica MacLeod
Co-Founder
Jessica is the Director of Digital Services and Open Development at the City of San Rafael. Formerly, she was the head of Customer Success at Socrata and a Policy Analyst at the Center for Global Development.
Jessie Posilkin
Former Economic Stability Program Lead
Jessie oversaw the portfolio of USDR projects supporting economic stability, including unemployment insurance and rent relief. Jessie was most recently a Program Manager at Nava, where she led the team implementing a new state social benefit.
Jide Ehimika
Technical Product Manager in Residence
Jide is a technical product manager working with partners to build tools required to run modern, efficient, and trustworthy elections. He has over a decade experience in helping teams build tools and processes to transform their organizations.
M Valentine
People Experience
M leads the people experience team at USDR. M is a seasoned HR executive and has led the people function for numerous small to large size companies.
Madel Leal
UX Researcher
Madel is the Language Access UX Researcher for the Unemployment Insurance Program. She leverages her experiences as a design strategist, researcher, and facilitator-of-systems change, to build more equitable service delivery.
Max Kramer
Product Manager, Rapid Response Program
Max serves as the product manager for our Rapid Response Program. Prior to joining USDR, he helped lead the San Francisco–Marin Food Bank’s COVID-19 response efforts. He’s also worked at Atlassian, Trello, and Fog Creek Software.
Mindy Huang
Program Director
Mindy leads USDR's federal grants portfolio. Previously, she worked at Google as a product manager, engineer, and internal founder. Her mission is to leverage technology for the good of humanity.
Neil Shah
Generative AI Technologist in Residence
Neil is the Generative AI Technologist-in-Residence. He has 15+ years experience building technology in the private sector, most recently at Google.
Raphael Lee
Economic Stability Design Lead and Co-Founder
Raph is a product designer and researcher at USDR. Previously, he managed partner projects and started the Health Program. Raph has led product engineering, data science, infrastructure, IT, and security teams at Lob and Airbnb.
Raylene Yung
Former CEO and Co-Founder
Raylene co-founded USDR and served as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. She currently directs the Tech Modernization Fund at the General Services Administration.
Rob Brackett
Engineer
Rob is an engineer on our Tools Team and was formerly the Engineering Lead for our Health Data Program. He’s an experienced civic technologist who recently worked with the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative.
Robert Martin
Engineer-in-Residence
Robert served as an Engineer-in-Residence at USDR. He brings 10 years of experience in the public sector, and was previously a Senior Software Engineer at the City of Philadelphia where he worked on civic data tools.
Ryan Panchadsaram
Advisor
Ryan Panchadsaram joined Kleiner Perkins in 2016. He served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer during the Obama Administration.
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Stig Parfrey
User Research Operations Lead
Stig is the User Research Operations Lead at USDR, where he is responsible for growing and strengthening the user research practice. His most recent role was Sr Research Operations Manager at Affirm.
Sunita Ram
Designer, Rapid Response Program
Sunita is a user experience designer working in our Rapid Response Program. Previously, she led hybrid teams through digital design in the fields of education, technology, e-commerce, and healthcare.
Board of Directors
Avni Shah
Board of Directors Co-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.
Hillary Hartley
CEO
As USDR’s CEO, Hillary sets the strategic vision for the organization and helps oversee all operations. Hillary most recently was the Chief Digital and Data Officer and Deputy Minister for the provincial government in Ontario, Canada.
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.
Jennifer Pahlka
Board of Directors Co-Chair
Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and former executive director of Code for America. She served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2013 to 2014.
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.
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 a partner at Rethink Education and a senior advisor at Get Well.
Looking for a career in civic tech?
U.S. Digital Response is hiring professionals to address challenges with our partners, understand the needs of communities and constituents, and find or develop tools to deliver critical services to the people who need them.
Every USDR community member shapes our work and our culture. We are looking for team members who will join important conversations about how our organization can continue to do the most good at the greatest scale.
Every USDR community member shapes our work and our culture. We are looking for team members who will join important conversations about how our organization can continue to do the most good at the greatest scale.
Financials
Please click the button below for U.S. Digital Response's 2023 Form 990.
For more information on supporting U.S. Digital Response, please contact us by email at development@usdigitalresponse.org.
For more information on supporting U.S. Digital Response, please contact us by email at development@usdigitalresponse.org.