Full Name
Kristen Honey
Job Title
Chief Data Scientist and Senior Advisor
Company
Department of Health and Human Services
Speaker Bio
Dr. Kristen Honey worked for the U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as a Policy Advisor during the Obama Administration from 2015 to 2017. Her White House portfolios included Open Data, My Data (e.g., Blue Button health data interoperability), and data science with citizen engagement. She harnessed data as a strategic asset to advance (then) Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, Precision Medicine, and STEM initiatives.
When the Obama Administration ended, Dr. Honey moved to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From 2017 until June 2018, she advised the Federal Chief Information Officer as a Senior Policy Analyst. During three years in the White House across two Administrations, she transformed the interagency’s.
Open Data community of practice with Data.gov from policy guidance (M-13-13) and 1,000 voluntary subscribers into U.S. law with the passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, advancing data-driven government across 2,000,000+ employees (M-19-23).
In June 2018, Dr. Honey transitioned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Immediate Office of the Secretary, to tackle complex challenges by harnessing the power of open science, open data, open source, citizen science, crowdsourcing, prizes, challenges, and innovative public-private partnerships for public health. As the Executive Director of Innovation and Partnerships she led the $25M KidneyX Innovation Accelerator, founded the HHS Lyme Innovation initiative, and established a new $25M public-partnership, LymeX.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Dr. Honey pivoted back to data. She advised the White House National Security Council (NSC) and the HHS Chief Information Officer (CIO) on big-data sharing, governance, analysis, and predictive analytics with AI/ML (HHS Protect Vision with DataRobot). In collaboration with the CIO, Dr. Honey established the Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO) and co-founded the Data Governance Board to implement the OPEN Government Data Act (open data) elements of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act. This work with OCDO is helping to unify 11 HHS Operating Divisions (e.g. CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA) with 80,000+ government employees, geographically dispersed workforces, diverse missions and work cultures, and separate incompatible IT systems into a single, data-driven HHS. As the Chief Data Scientist and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Honey leads the $30M COVID-19 Diagnostics Data Platform project. Recent accomplishments include:
COVID-19 Collaborations: The Opportunity Project (TOP) and COVID-19 “TOPx” technology sprints to develop digital solutions for data capture, harmonization, and reporting from COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
COVID-19 Open Innovation: COVID-19 At-Anywhere Diagnostics Design-a-thon innovation sprint with 750+ solvers, 31 crowdsourced solutions, and 16 winning teams.
COVID-19 Kidney Care Challenge (prize challenges) as part of the KidneyX Innovation Accelerator.
COVID-19 Open Data: 200+ COVID-19 datasets on HealthData.gov.
Dr. Honey earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in the Environment and Resources, School of Earth Sciences, while simultaneously earning a Ph.D. minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University.
When the Obama Administration ended, Dr. Honey moved to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From 2017 until June 2018, she advised the Federal Chief Information Officer as a Senior Policy Analyst. During three years in the White House across two Administrations, she transformed the interagency’s.
Open Data community of practice with Data.gov from policy guidance (M-13-13) and 1,000 voluntary subscribers into U.S. law with the passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, advancing data-driven government across 2,000,000+ employees (M-19-23).
In June 2018, Dr. Honey transitioned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Immediate Office of the Secretary, to tackle complex challenges by harnessing the power of open science, open data, open source, citizen science, crowdsourcing, prizes, challenges, and innovative public-private partnerships for public health. As the Executive Director of Innovation and Partnerships she led the $25M KidneyX Innovation Accelerator, founded the HHS Lyme Innovation initiative, and established a new $25M public-partnership, LymeX.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Dr. Honey pivoted back to data. She advised the White House National Security Council (NSC) and the HHS Chief Information Officer (CIO) on big-data sharing, governance, analysis, and predictive analytics with AI/ML (HHS Protect Vision with DataRobot). In collaboration with the CIO, Dr. Honey established the Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO) and co-founded the Data Governance Board to implement the OPEN Government Data Act (open data) elements of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act. This work with OCDO is helping to unify 11 HHS Operating Divisions (e.g. CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA) with 80,000+ government employees, geographically dispersed workforces, diverse missions and work cultures, and separate incompatible IT systems into a single, data-driven HHS. As the Chief Data Scientist and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Honey leads the $30M COVID-19 Diagnostics Data Platform project. Recent accomplishments include:
COVID-19 Collaborations: The Opportunity Project (TOP) and COVID-19 “TOPx” technology sprints to develop digital solutions for data capture, harmonization, and reporting from COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
COVID-19 Open Innovation: COVID-19 At-Anywhere Diagnostics Design-a-thon innovation sprint with 750+ solvers, 31 crowdsourced solutions, and 16 winning teams.
COVID-19 Kidney Care Challenge (prize challenges) as part of the KidneyX Innovation Accelerator.
COVID-19 Open Data: 200+ COVID-19 datasets on HealthData.gov.
Dr. Honey earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in the Environment and Resources, School of Earth Sciences, while simultaneously earning a Ph.D. minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University.
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