Anne L. Washington is an Assistant Professor of Data Policy at NYU. The current focus of her research is open government data. She applies her expertise in digital government to emerging data governance issues in organizations with a public mission.
She is curious about the manufacturing, meaning, and retrieval of digital information. As a computer scientist trained in organizational ethnography, she unites inductive qualitative research methods with technology tools. At the broadest level, her multi-disciplinary work considers the impact of technology on society through the lens of digital record keeping.
The National Science Foundation has recognized her work on digital government in multiple grants. The 2012 political informatics research coordination network, PInet, used government data to build research capacity for data intensive research in political science and public policy. A 2016 science of science policy project evaluated the strategy of US federal organizations who supply open government data. She is also the recipient of the competitive five-year NSF CAREER award for her grant titled: Improving the Reuse of Open Data.
Her work improves access to public sector information by investigating the social dynamics that shape the production and consumption of information.
Her research is recognized internationally. In 2012, she was the first U.S. citizen to be invited as a fellow with the Peter Pribilla Foundation at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management and Technical University of Munich (TUM), where she investigated government technology innovation. She has also served on the United Nations World E-parliament Working Group on XML in Parliament as an invited expert to the W3C E-Government Interest Group and the W3C Government Linked Data Working Group.
She teaches in the Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities (ASH) department in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Previously, she was at the George Mason University’s School of Public Policy in Arlington, VA, where she served as one of the core faculty in the Organization Development and Knowledge Management (ODKM) Program. She has taught classes on organizational ethnography, socio-technical analysis, information systems, and electronic government.
She holds a Bachelors of Arts (BA) in computer science from Brown University and a Masters in Library Information Science (MLIS) from Rutgers University School of Communication & Information. She earned a PhD in Information Systems and Technology Management Information Systems and Technology Management from The George Washington University School of Business with a secondary field in Organization Behavior. Dr. Mary Granger at The George Washington University, Dr. Nick Belkin at Rutgers University and Dr. Stan Zdonik at Brown University have been her academic advisors. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed venues including AMCIS – AOM – iconference – JCDL – JURIX – RPR. She has been a member of the following organizations: AIS – ASIST– 4S – ACM – KPMG Phd Project ISDSA – Oasis LegalXML – Federal Web Content Managers – W3C – IEEE – AOM.
Prior to completing her doctorate, she had extensive work experience in information architecture and information technology after years with the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, Barclays Global Investors, Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors, and Apple Computer.
Professor Washington serves on the Academic Advisory Boards of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Open Government Foundation. Her 2016-2017 fellowship at the Data & Society Research Institute built capacity for teaching ethics in data science education.
A high resolution 2560 × 1709 photo can be found at this link.
