Aspen Policy Academy

New Projects: Inaugural Tech Executive Leadership Initiative Cohort

  • Article Published April 1, 2021

San Francisco, CA – In honor of the last day of our second cohort of the Tech Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI), we are pleased to share five exciting projects from our first TELI cohort. Last fall, 27 senior executives tackled two timely questions: how can states deliver pandemic unemployment systems efficiently for all categories of workers; and how can the federal government process a mounting backlog of applications for naturalized citizenship? 

In just 8 weeks, the leaders narrowed these broad problems into manageable pieces, interviewed key stakeholders, defined solutions, and created materials presenting their ideas. Today, we’re thrilled to share a sample of those outputs, which include a computer logic-inspired guide to clearer policymaking and a model for conducting naturalization interviews remotely. 

The projects are:

  • Policy as Code by Ossama Alami, Barbara Cohn, Steve Leibman, Mimi Liu, and Jessica Rossman
  • Remote Immigration Interview System by Ravi Bala, Anirma Gupta, Ann Lewis, Shelina Taki, Rogers Weed, and Julie Yarosh
  • The National Unemployment Crisis Playbook by Mark Conlin, Bob Mallon, Mechie Nkengla, David Weekly, and Sharon Zezima
  • National Emergency Unemployment Website Spillway (NEUWS) by Marcela Alava-Escobar, Mark Day, Lia Moeser, Katy Pusch, Leonard Speiser, and Dee Vig
  • National Innovation Ecosystem by Chuck Borges, Alyssa Harvey-Dawson, Linda Lannen, Ashley Llorens, and Tim Reilly

Learn more about these projects here. Significant credit is due to Dana Chisnell of Project Redesign, who mentored the leaders as they created these projects.

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