Federal datasets are one of the pillars of democracy. They underpin everything from health research and economic forecasting to climate science, disaster response, and watchdog journalism. Yet today, these essential resources face unprecedented threats: data removals, political interference, staff and contract cuts, and the quiet erosion of statistical capacity.

This panel brings together a powerhouse group of experts: a former federal statistical agency commissioner with inside knowledge of how government data is created and protected; a leading demographer recognized internationally for tracking disaster recovery and climate impacts; and a senior national data leader who has driven innovation in public-interest data across federal, local, and nonprofit sectors. Together, they will unpack the high stakes of the current moment.

Attendees will learn: 

• Why federal data matters for every beat, from health to the economy.
  
• How political manipulation and removals of data are reshaping public understanding and news coverage.
  
• Which protective measures keep some datasets resilient, and why others disappear without warning.
  
• Why private-sector substitutes can’t fill the gap left by weakened federal systems.
• Concrete strategies and resources journalists can use now to verify, preserve, and report on vulnerable datasets.

Panelists:

Denice Ross served as the U.S. Chief Data Scientist in the Biden administration, where she led the charge to use disaggregated data to drive better outcomes for all Americans. She collaborates with other federal data watchers to monitor the status of federal data at DataIndex.US and tell the story about how everyday Americans benefit from federal data at EssentialData.US. She has affiliations with the National Conference on Citizenship, Federation of American Scientists, UC Berkeley, and the Urban Institute. Denice’s 25-year career in using data to serve the public interest has spanned federal and local government, academia, and the nonprofit sector, plus domains ranging from climate to policing. She served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the U.S. Department of Energy and as Director of Enterprise Information for the City of New Orleans. Prior to government, Denice co-directed the non-profit data intermediary Data Center, where she collaborated with Brookings to track New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Allison Plyer is Chief Demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans, and co-chair of the Census Quality Reinforcement task force. Dr. Plyer is past Chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee (CSAC). She served on CSAC from 2015-2021 and as Chair from 2018-2021. Dr. Plyer is co-author of Pathways to Prosperity, developed in collaboration with the National Conference on Citizenship, which details both the impacts of climate change and the potential for federal investments to target the inequities these impacts create and compound. She is also the author of The New Orleans Index series, developed in collaboration with the Brookings Institution to analyze the state of the New Orleans recovery post-Katrina. She served as an editor for the Brookings Institution Press volume entitled “Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita.” Allison is recognized as an international expert in post–Katrina demographics and disaster recovery trends. Allison spearheaded the City of New Orleans’ challenge to the Census Bureau’s 2007 and 2008 population estimate, resulting in an upward revision of nearly 75,000 to the Bureau’s estimate of the city’s population — ultimately bringing the estimate for New Orleans within 6 percent of the 2010 Census count.

Erica Groshen is Senior Economics Advisor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Research Fellow at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. From 2013 to 2017, she served as the 14th Commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and inflation. Before that, she was Vice President in the Research and Statistics Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her research has centered on jobless recoveries, wage rigidity and dispersion, and the role of employers in the labor market. She is the lead author of “Preparing U.S. Workers and Employers for an Autonomous Vehicle Future,” with Susan Helper, John Paul MacDuffie and Charles Carson. She also co-authored How New is the “New Employment Contract”? from W.E. Upjohn Institute Press and co-edited Structural Changes in U.S. Labor Markets: Causes and Consequences, from M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 

Moderator:

Naseem Miller is the senior editor for health at The Journalist’s Resource. She joined JR in 2021 after working as a health reporter in local newspapers and national medical trade publications for two decades. Immediately before joining JR, she was a senior health reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, where she was part of the team that was named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting.