Public Technology Leadership Collaborative

The Public Technology Leadership Collaborative (PTLC) is a peer learning community anchored by ten research institutions and led by Data & Society. It includes more than 500 people — scholars, practitioners, and state, local, and federal government leaders — who cultivate trust-based relationships to ensure that data and technology serve the public interest.

Government leaders are rarely invited to spaces where they don’t have to represent their institution. In turn, they speak from talking points, share less, and attempt to mitigate all possible risks. The PTLC hosts private and exploratory events where participants can engage fully as peer-learners and co-problem solvers; where they can share what they’re truly puzzling through, their context, and their practical constraints and challenges to making change. The PTLC helps translate across differences — different sectors, vocabularies, and perspectives — to cultivate collective sense-making, develop a shared language, and motivate meaningful action. As a result, it both generates timely solutions to strategic policy issues, and builds cross-disciplinary learning for long-term change.

The PTLC works closely with Data & Society’s policy engagement team to engage government leaders through a suite of strategic offerings: peer learning, expert matchmaking, community support, timely policy response, and in-depth analysis. We collaborate to support state AG representatives, governor’s offices, administrative agencies, and legislators to demonstrate an alternative to the status quo — a vision in which technology procurement, use, and policy is shaped not by powerful corporate interests but grounded instead in a sociotechnical approach guided by values of justice, equity, and accountability.

Steering committee

Alex Bolton: Program Manager at Tech Policy Lab, University of Washington School of Law
Elizabeth Eagen, Deputy Director of the Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University
Cyd Harrell, Chief Digital Services Officer, City & County of San Francisco
Colin Maclay, Professor & Executive Director, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab
Cassandra Madison, Executive Director, Center for Civic Futures
Erie Meyer, Former Chief Technologist and Senior Advisor to the Director, CFPB
Stephanie Nguyen, Former Chief Technologist at the FTC
Emily Tavoulareas: Faculty Affiliate, Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University; Managing Chair, Georgetown Tech & Society.

Participating research centers