The Ohio State University

Through Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) funding, The Ohio State University, in collaboration with Cleveland State University, and Case Western Reserve University, are committed to developing and launching a successfully-proven program to train and place Ohio Public Interest Fellows in state government. Our primary objective is to grow the capacity of Ohio’s public sector and the future workforce to integrate scientific-technical insight into policy-making and to foster a culture of dialogue and collaboration between state government and academia. These Fellow graduate students drawn from scientific-technical academic backgrounds, will support their host organizations’ work, develop as public-interest scientists, engineers, and analysts, and assist in critical stakeholder-discovery for the Fellow program’s planning. We look forward to seeing our Ohio-grown Public Interest Fellows build bridges in the public sector while contributing their technical education to solving important policy challenges in 2022 and beyond.

Michael Pires, Project Manager, John Glenn College of Public Affairs

Career Pipeline & Placement

Data Curation in the Public Interest: A New Model for PIT Workforce Development

This project, partnering with clinicians from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Erikson Institute Early Childhood Project, will build data capacity in social impact organizations and create best practices in administrative data curation. Outcomes include a historical collection of curated administrative data on the developmental and service needs of vulnerable children; a playbook for expanding administrative data curation to other social impact organizations; and key recommendations for building data capacity in the frontline clinical workforce.

Principal Investigators

Kelsey Badger, Assistant Professor, University Libraries

Educational Offerings

Experiential Learning Through Collaborative Learning in Data Science and Analytics

Ohio State aims to increase access to data science programming in Ohio high schools by engaging a local STEM high school to collaboratively develop an enrichment course on data analytics in public health. The project aims to broaden student horizons regarding the use of data for social good and to create open educational resources that introduce data science using approachable, spreadsheet-based methods. The project team will also host researchers, K-12 educators, and policy leaders from across the state at a summit for data science education in Ohio. We seek to diversify the approaches used in teaching data science and to promote statewide partnerships that contextualize data analytics as a key competency for 21 st century public service.

Principal Investigators

Emily Nutwell, Program Director, Translational Data Analytics Institute

Kelsey Badger, Assistant Professor, University Libraries

Career Pipeline/Placement

Ohio Public Interest Fellows

The project trains and places Ohio Public Interest Fellows in state government to grow the capacity of Ohio’s public sector and the future workforce to integrate scientific-technical insight into policymaking, and to foster a culture of dialogue and collaboration between state government and academia.

Principal Investigator

Elizabeth Newton, Executive Director of the Battelle Center for Science, Engineering, and Public Policy in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs