Progressive tetrad
Tenacity (1 of 4)
Posted to LinkedIn on 2026-06-29. The text below is the post as published.
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I still believe what I first declared 10 years ago: “Every scientist who wants to do good things with data should have the intellectual support to do so. Their end of the bargain is to proceed with rigor … and stand behind [their] work.” In my May 2016 debut presentation as CDC’s first associate director for data science, I asked, “Who gets to do data science?” I was thinking of learners, scientists at the start of their careers, anyone with the drive and not yet the standing. I said cultivate, not just recruit.
In April 2019, I penned a pointed, private note about CDC being “regressive”. A few days later, I inverted that into the word “progressive” and a vision for a forward-oriented culture for data in public health. In May 2022, I posted it on LinkedIn. In 2026, I write it again: I believe in public service, I believe in learners, and I believe in a progressive culture for data largely centered on learners.
Sometime in the 10 years since that first declaration, the direction of the work and the direction of my belief came apart. When I held that data work was ultimately about learners, the institutional momentum ran toward systems, pipelines, and the machinery that moves information. The people who built those systems built real things that public health needs. The systems were never the problem. The work needed, and still needs, both the pipes and the people who would use them. I kept insisting on the people part, sometimes past the point of grace.
Across 10 years, a rupture, and a retirement, I would barely revise the sentence. My belief didn’t shift; it was regenerated. I had no idea where any of this was going. This a story about tenacity, not destiny. The unglamorous fact of holding the same thing all the way through.
A progressive culture for data does not center on the newest tool or the cleanest pipeline. It centers on learners — because learners believe. They arrive convinced that the work can be done well and done for good. They are right, and most of what they need is someone to hold a door. I have held a few. Others held them for me first.
I believed in learners in 2016. I believe it still in 2026.
[This is the first of a series of 4 LinkedIn posts.]