An Evening with Jennifer Pahlka

Jen Pahlka is one of its leading lights. Drawing from her experience as founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service and her current work with agencies and Congress as a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in DC, where she now lives, Jen will share what she's learned about institutional dysfunction and how a reform movement at the local, state, and federal level can help modernize our government for the 21st century.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and 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 2013–2014, where she architected and helped found the United States Digital Service. She currently serves on the Defense Innovation Board in her personal capacity.She is known for her TED talk, Coding a Better Government, and is the recipient of several awards, including the National Democratic Institute’s Democracy Award and being named by Wired as one of the 25 people who has most shaped the past 25 years. She previously ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, and the Independent Games Festival, followed by the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, California with her daughter, husband, and seven chickens.

Her book - Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better - will be available for purchase.

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