TELI - Aspen Policy Academy

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Description of field

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Description of field

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A part-time executive education program that prepares senior technologists with the skills critical to state government service and public policy.

Healthcare access and upcoming changes to Medicaid demonstrate that it has never been more critical to have leaders who understand both government and technology. The Aspen Policy Academy and Tech Talent Project will host a 5-week Tech Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI) that exposes promising technology leaders to training in government, policy development, and Medicaid service delivery. The program is designed for leaders considering work in state government or on public sector healthcare challenges in 2026 and beyond.

The program will be virtual, and the sixth cohort of TELI will be held in January 2026.

The Tech Executive Leadership Initiative program has already trained over 150 senior executives over 5 cohorts. Check out our case study about TELI’s impact and read the original press release announcing the program.

TELI was created by the Aspen Tech Policy Hub, Tech Talent Project, and the National Conference on Citizenship’s Project Redesign and is run by the Aspen Tech Policy Hub and Tech Talent Project.

The Curriculum

The program will begin with a 2-day virtual orientation workshop. You will then participate in a 4-week training course, delivering you concrete skills (e.g., writing for government and policy advocacy) that you could apply when working on public sector problems. For the final week, you will work on a challenge project for a real government client, with assistance from experts and partner organizations with domain expertise. Teams of 5-6 program participants might work on challenge project prompts like these:

How can the State of New York scale its hiring for technology experts over the next 6 months?
How can a state reduce eligibility errors by improving data quality, policy alignment, and operational processes?
How could the US get 10 million student loan borrowers to automatically enroll in income driven student loan repayment programs?

The leadership program will tentatively take place from Tuesday, January 20th through Sunday, March 1st, 2026, and will culminate with a to-be-scheduled public showcase event. We ask you to commit an average of 10-15 hours a week during the program, with particularly intense commitments on January 20-21 (the two-day orientation) and February 23-March 1 (the final project sprint). We will also expect participants to dedicate 8-10 hours after the program completes on March 1 to revise their challenge project and present their results to a government stakeholder.

For more information about the TELI program, please see the syllabus from our pilot program, below.

View the Pilot Syllabus

Our Leaders

TELI alums include senior leaders from well-known tech advocacy organizations, nonprofit organizations, and private companies; entrepreneurial executives who have built and grown successful startups; and innovators who have led digital transformation efforts at large organizations on their own path to modernization.

Meet the Leaders

“As it turns out, optimizing government for human beings is a radical idea. Learning from experts and civil servants dedicated to this idea was eye-opening. Working with fellow techies to try and contribute some ideas of our own was both humbling and exhilarating.” – Ashley Llorens

“I enjoyed meeting and working closely with CTOs, CIOs, CDOs and others on challenging real-world government problems. It was a great opportunity to leverage the strengths of a broad cross-section of technology executives.” – Anirma Gupta

“The TELI program blended industry best practices with a practical overview of federal service exceptionally well. It was a great primer for any tech executive looking to understand government process and shortfalls.” – Chuck Borges

Application

Applications for TELI are available by invitation only. If you are interested in participating in the program, please email us.

TELI participants are automatically considered for the Savilla Pitt Memorial Fellowship, awarded to one member of each incoming Aspen Policy Academy Fellowship, TELI, or Primer cohort. Learn more about the memorial fellowship here.

Our Funders

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