I am a public servant
_{1 March 2025}

My civil service career began by helping to identify the myriad causes for the failure of the New Orleans flood control systems after Hurricane Katrina. I got an Army civil service medal for it. I'm very proud of that.

I was one of three people who built the software system to get people quickly back into their damaged homes after a hurricane, by putting a blue tarp on the roof or making rapid repairs to doors and windows. We converted a paper process into a digital one and shortened the time it took from someone requesting help to being back in their homes from 21 days down to just 2 days. I'm very proud of that.

I did some other stuff that was more defense-focused that is probably not secret at all but I don't know for certain so I won't toot about it. The primary objective was about keeping American soldiers safer in combat situations, though. I'm proud of that.

I helped the federal agency responsible for keeping children safe after they cross the border without a parent or guardian identify why their software kept losing information. Kids were ending up in slave labor on chicken farms! The work of fixing the system was sidelined because of Trump's first administration, but it had recently resumed, largely based on the findings and recommendations we'd made in 2016. That work is once again in jeopardy. I'm still proud to have helped.

I helped several states consider different approaches to their procurements around Medicaid and child welfare IT. Some of them made impressive strides, others not as much. Not everyone is always in a position to adapt. I'm proud of the work, not least because it profoundly reshaped my thinking about how I can deliver more valuable outcomes to the public.

I worked with a (not-really-but-basically) grant-making agency on how they solicit requests for funding and oversee the expenditures. We taught them what successful IT development looks like and how to identify when their grantees (states, actually) were setting themselves up for success or failure. We built an intake system for state to help them navigate the complex budgetary math. (Actually we did all the math for them. That's how we simplified it. We just... did it for them.) We worked with this agency for nearly 4 years on a whole variety of related topics. We even did a deep-dive research project to figure out why states’ IT procurements failed so often, and we shipped a BRILLIANT report. (Seriously, we uncovered SO MUCH stuff that was not at all obvious.) And we gave them good recommendations. I'm very proud of all of this.

I got put on projects that were struggling to either help them land and disengage safely, or to help get the project back on a more successful path. I'm proud of that. (And I'm proud to have the reputation as a person who does that.)

I haven't named agencies because I don't want to draw the eye of Sauron to them. I haven't named my latest bodies of work either, for similar reasons. But I'm proud of all of it. I have made America better than it otherwise would have been. For less money than my skills are worth and with less respect or dignity than I deserve, because I genuinely believe in helping people. Money's an unfortunate necessity or I'd do it for free.

I don't know the point of this. Either this toot or what's going on in the wider world. But this remains: I'm not done helping. 18F will live forever.