Meet USDS at the Grace Hopper Celebration 2019 💪🏽👩🏾💻🇺🇸
The U.S. Digital Service is proud to be a sponsor of the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. We’re 180 of the country’s top technologists — and we’re coming to Orlando on October 1 for the world’s largest gathering of women in tech.
Rear Admiral Hopper’s work in the early 1950s was instrumental to the development of COBOL — an early programming language that still powers the Medicare payment system. Medicare pays for the healthcare of about 57 million Americans, nearly 4% of our national GDP. We’re working to modernize the system and improve healthcare for millions of Medicare patients. Our projects also impact Veterans, military service members, immigrants, small business owners, farmers, students, and many more.
Come and say hello at booth 273, we’re looking for folks who want to build better government services for all Americans through design and technology. usds.gov/apply ♀
Read about USDS at the 2018 celebration.
Meet the USDSers attending GHC19 🇺🇸👇🏽
Shelby Switzer (they/them or she/her), Engineering, HHS
I’m currently building a developer and admin portal for Data at the Point of Care, a CMS pilot that exposes an API for bulk Medicare claims to healthcare providers. I’m also working with various teams to understand current API practices and build a roadmap for API strategy and implementation going forward.
Prior to joining USDS, I led the API and integration team at Healthify, a startup in NYC bridging the gap between healthcare and social services. That work exposed me to deeper systemic issues in government and society, and I came to USDS to tackle those problems in a more direct way.
I can’t wait to meet awesome technologists at GHC19, learn about the problems they’re working on, and hopefully inspire some to get involved in their communities or serve their country through civic tech.
Andréa D. Viza (she/her), Director of Talent, HQ
I manage all talent-related issues from streamlining our on-boarding processes, assisting internal employees transitioning out of our organization, internal and external stakeholder management and removing blocks to ensure my team succeeds in their positions.
Before joining USDS, I was at a public staffing firm for over 4 years. I wasn’t making the impact I had initially felt when joining the recruiting world. I ran into an old coworker who had been at USDS and he asked me if I would be interested in learning more. 4 months later I started :)
I can’t wait to meet everyone at GHC19! I’ve heard such great stories and to be in the presence of such an amazing and inspired group of women is just exciting.
Traci Walker (she/her), Director of Digital Service Procurement, HQ
In my role, I help to improve the way government buys technology. We should be adopting the best of commercial industry practices. Moving at the speed of need, agencies need to buy tech faster than a traditional acquisition process allows for. We on the procurement team at USDS bring strategies to get to companies who really know how to deliver great digital services, can do it incorporating agile and user centered design principles, and provide solutions that citizens can use. We call ourselves the Procuremenati, but there is no secret squirrel to our methods. Read more about how we do this on the TechFAR Hub.
I have been in the federal government for close to 20 years, working in IT acquisition first at the General Services Administration and the Executive Office of the President. Under a previous administration, I was involved in crafting contracts for open source products, cloud, and agile development for systems like Whitehouse.gov and the Presidential Correspondence System. I was lucky enough to be one of the first ones to join USDS in 2014.
This year at GHC19 I am excited about letting people know government is doing great things! While the challenge of updating policies, practices, and technology is hard — it is incredibly rewarding and inspiring. I’m looking forward to hearing the challenges people have and either letting them know help already exists, or capturing the story to bring back to USDS to see if we can do anything to improve their trust in civic tech solutions.
Angela Grossfeld (she/her), Head of Events, HQ
My job is to foster the evangelization of USDS across the country to engineers, product managers, bureaucracy hackers and UX designers at conferences, roundtables and tech events. These engagements are often the first touchpoint folks have with USDS in learning how we’re bringing modern design and tech practices into the federal government.
Before USDS, I led sales activation and customer engagement for the Google Government & Elections business team. I’ve always in some way done work with the public sector, but I love having the opportunity to serve my country.
I’m excited to meet amazing women technologists at GHC19 and hear all the stories of the incredible work that they’re doing. It really is such a positive and uplifting experience to be with so many women in tech!
Angie Driscoll (she/her), Talent Manager, HQ
I work within a team of people dedicated to finding and hiring individuals from various practices within the technology field who are interested in public service and using their skills to improve the way Americans access government services. Since USDS positions are term limited, we have a constant influx of people coming and going. My role is to help make the on boarding process go as smoothly as possible for new hires joining the team so they can focus on getting up and running with the important work we do.
Before USDS, I was managing a research team studying traumatic brain injury in service members/veterans at Walter Reed Military National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). I was there for seven years and was looking to move on but I wanted a position in which I could continue to serve. A fellow USDSer who I previously worked with reached out and asked me to apply to USDS. I have many years of clinical experience working with individuals with various needs and helping them get connected with services. USDS’s mission to work with users to improve the way government delivers services to the American people was something I wanted to be a part of.
I am new to the technology community, I am looking forward to growing my knowledge of the field and learning about what others are doing. I am particularly excited about sharing my experience with USDS and public service with others who may be interested or curious about what we do.
The best of technology.
The best of government.
And we want you.
We’re looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You’ll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government.
If you have questions regarding employment with the U.S. Digital Service, please contact us at usds@omb.eop.gov and visit usds.gov/apply.
