The Obama administration is making its Presidential Innovation Fellows program permanent according to a new Executive Order released today. The program brings individuals from the private sector into government to share their design, business, engineering, and entrepreneurial skills with government to help bring about modernization.
Fellows team up with federal employees and to work on improvements in service delivery and business processing.
Former fellows have gone on to fill agency positions including Ryan Panchadsaram, a 2012 fellow, who now serves as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
Projects include the Police Data Initiative, building human-centered design for the VA to help veterans navigate the needlessly complex VA system, and the 18F program which brings Agile development to government.
While 18F and the VA projects most directly impact the federal level, other projects like the Police Data Initiative bring change further down the chain of government. As CivSource previously reported, the data initiative will compile best practices from police departments around the country to provide guidance to other police departments and first responders working through their own modernization programs.
Groups like Code for America are also extending the reach of these projects by building on them through the Brigades program and the work of local Code for America fellows.
Applications are now open for the Presidential Innovation Fellowship program, more information is available here.
