The Idaho Department of Finance announced John Yaros has been appointed the Securities Bureau Chief.
In this capacity, Yaros will manage a bureau of financial professionals who provide regulatory oversight for the more than 153,000 entities and individuals who are licensed or registered to offer securities and financial services to Idaho residents. While the securities bureau is focused on investor protection, education and enforcement of state securities laws, the bureau also licenses and regulates money transmitter companies, escrow companies and endowed care cemeteries.
RSA Conference 2023: The Future of Cyber Workforce - An Ecosystem View and Global Perspectives
Alumn Seeyew Mo was invited to participate in the RSA Conference 2023 as a panelist speaker.
The introduction of the US Cyber Workforce Strategy and EU initiative on cyber skills presents a critical opportunity to enable the workforce of the future – it also requires an entire stack, all hands on board approach. With new threats and requirements emerging, this panel of experts from government, industry and academia will distill latest developments and action needed to address these needs.
Where They're Serving: Placements for our January 2023 Congressional Innovation Fellows
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Raine Sagramsingh
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Andre Barbe
Recently, I was thrilled to accept a fellowship with TechCongress, an organization that helps bridge the gap between Congress and the tech industry by connecting technology experts with legislators and their staff. I am particularly excited about this opportunity because it allows me to combine my background in economics with my interest in artificial intelligence (AI) policy.
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Andrew Eich
If you had asked me earlier in my life if I would be working on Capitol Hill, I would have never believed you. But this is an incredible way to fulfill my obligation of service to the country that has given me fantastic opportunities. The quote by President John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country," is a call to service. It creates the desire to give back in meaningful ways at whatever level you can, either through your local community or on the national level.
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Ashley Nowicki
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Devanshi Nishar
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Ishvaraus Davis
It is the duty and responsibility of our Legislative branch to ensure that we bend the arc of the country toward the more equitable world. This daunting, complex task is one that I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of. The ability to influence the future of our country, in any small way, is an opportunity that can’t be taken for granted.
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Jasmine Suarez
I am of the opinion that the challenges facing the current (and future) technology landscape cannot be resolved through a single lens, nor can new problems be resolved by attempting to fit evolving technical issues into outdated constructs. I desire to support pressing issues such as post-quantum preparedness and information security, building sustainable and effective supply chains, intellectual property protection and encouraging innovation for U.S.-based manufacturers, critical infrastructure development and risk management, investing in and constructing more diverse and inclusive S.T.E.M. talent pipelines, and ultimately increasing the bipartisan legislation requisite to defending the Homeland.
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Matthew Spence
I am, at my core, an engineer. To me, being an engineer means being a problem solver. I began my career in cyber security because I’ve always been good with technology (I hacked my first computer in elementary school), and it seemed like the area of technology with the biggest problems that needed solving. This eventually led me to work at a startup called Evernym, where I helped develop innovative new privacy and security enhancing digital identity technology.
Meet the January 2023 Fellows: Sean Leahy
I applied to join TechCongress because I wanted to work in a completely different way than I had before. A technologist around policy experts and lawmakers. A fish out of water, perhaps, but, hopefully, providing some insight into the state of technology as it is today and what Congress can do to better implement technology for purposes of Defense and National security. Broadening the scope even more, I believe technologists working in the Public Interest will be critical to the ongoing preservation and revitalization of the American innovation ecosystem. I hope to play a small role in that.
StateScoop: Why 2023 could be a year for civic-tech optimism
Founder and Executive Director Travis Moore co-authored “Why 2023 could be a year for civic-tech optimism”
This year has the potential to be a positive, transformational year for government at all levels.
You’d be forgiven for scoffing at that sentence. With a divided Congress, many are ready to call 2023 a wash and set their sights on 2024. But from our vantage point in the world of public interest technology, that would be a mistake. We’ve never been as poised to drive meaningful, lasting change in government.
It’s taking place at every level of government — federal, state and local — as a result of three key factors: Increased capacity for tech talent in government jobs, digital delivery being written directly into policy, and government systems changing right before our eyes. The potential impact is enormous and will be felt in policies large and small — remaking the social safety net, transforming how we file taxes, modernizing infrastructure and beyond.
FCW: How smaller agencies are working to close their technology talent gaps
TechCongress was mentioned in an article highlighting innovative fellowships bringing much needed tech expertise to Congress.
CFPB chief technologist Erie Meyer said she "frantically" recruits from fellowships like the TechCongress and Senior Congressional Innovation programs, which were launched in 2016 to place computer scientists, engineers and technologists on congressional teams as technology policy advisors for members of Congress.
Alcove: Announcing Alcove
Alumn Marley Rafson launches climate tech startup Alcove, an inventory management system for carbon credits.
Every decarbonization company will be as, or more, essential to our society as banks, healthcare, and other global institutions. The climate crisis is certain, it is here, and there are already teams doing the herculean work of cooling our planet. And yet these teams, on their path to institutionalizing decarbonization, are using legacy systems and retrofitting generic, outdated software to support the rollout of their world-saving technologies.
Alcove is the software infrastructure purpose-built for the decarbonization industry, the next generation of institutional companies. Over the past few months, we quietly built our first product, an inventory management system for carbon credits, and are already serving some incredible decarbonization companies. From providers that bring clean energy to the dirtiest parts of the grid to projects ambitiously scaling direct air capture projects (DAC) on the heels of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we have learned their workflows, pain points, and joys, inside and out.
The Selections Process for our June 2023 Congressional Innovation Fellowship
Handshake Blog: Why your tech dream job might be in the US government
Alumn Jack Cable featured in an article, “Why your dream tech job might be in the US government”.
If you’re a techie on the hunt for a stable job that can weather economic recessions, has no “bubble” to burst, and makes direct use of your technical skills, a government agency may be the path you didn’t know you needed. According to the Partnership for Public Service, a whopping 31% of government employees are retiring in the next two years, creating a whole lot of job openings—and government tech recruiters want you.
Tech Policy Press: An exit interview with a Hill Staffer
Alumn Anna Lenhart speaks on the Tech Policy Press podcast about her time on the hill working on tech policy.
So there’s this program called TechCongress, and they place mid-career technology fellows onto the Hill in various offices. So I got selected. It was an incredible opportunity. And when I showed up with the fellowship, I really thought I was going to go work on automated decision systems and algorithmic impact assessments and data rights, but I quickly got introduced to Congressman Cicilline’s antitrust committee team.
As I was starting to talk to them and really think about the work they were doing, I came to realize that a lot of the anti-competitive conduct they were looking at was happening at the hands of automated decision systems, right? So Amazon placing first party products in the buy box, or setting Alexa’s default shopping commands to Amazon eCommerce, or Google’s Ad Exchange is running real-time bidding on ad space that Google owns, right? Apple places their apps first in the App Store, right? This is a type of discrimination against new entries against startups, right?
FCW: Announcing the 2023 Federal 100
Alumn Eric Mill was announced as a Federal 100 for 2023, honoring those who went above and beyond in support of federal IT over the past year.
Every year, it's a tremendous privilege to be able to sift through all these stories. The pool of nominations shows the vast range of important work being done throughout the community, and there are always far more outstanding individuals than a list of 100 can accommodate. That was certainly the case this time around.
George Mason NSI: Geoff Cain
Alumn Geoff Cain named as fellow at George Mason NSI
Geoffrey Cain is an award-winning foreign correspondent, author, technologist, and scholar of East and Central Asia. His first book, Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, from a decade of his coverage of the world’s largest technology conglomerate, was published in March 2020 by Currency at Penguin Random House. It was longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, and was named a Cult of Mac best tech book of 2020.
A former correspondent at The Economist, Cain is a regular commentator in The Wall Street Journal, Time, Foreign Policy, The New Republic and The Nation, a contributing editor at The Mekong Review, and a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Bloomberg. Cain writes about the ways that technology is upending our lives, communities, governments and businesses. His work takes him to the world’s most authoritarian and far-off places, from inside North Korea to the trans-Siberian railway across Russia, from investigations into genocide in Cambodia to experiments in technological surveillance in China.