2026 Summer Institute on Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Education Data

12:00 – 12:30 pm Registration + Lunch 9th Floor

12:30 – 12:30 pm Fireside Chat 9th Floor
Michael Torrence, Motlow State Community College
Moderator: Amy O’Hara, Massive Data Institute

1:00 – 1:30 pm Welcome Address 9th Floor
Amy O’Hara, Massive Data Institute
Stephanie Straus, Massive Data Institute

1:30 – 3:00 pm Synthetic Data for Integrated Data Systems: What Works? 9th Floor
Alex Brodersen, NSWERS; Andrew Rice, Education Analytics; Jeremy Seeman, Urban Institute
Moderator: Stephanie Straus, Massive Data Institute

3:00 – 3:30 pm Coffee & Snack Break 9th Floor

3:30 – 5:00 pm Linkage Quality Presentation 9th Floor
Joseph Lam, University College London

5:00 – 7:00 pm Happy Hour Discussion 9th Floor
The Government Data Privacy Landscape | Bethanne Barnes, (former) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Maya Bernstein, (former) HHS; Scott Gaul, CT Office of Policy and Management

8:00 – 9:00 am Breakfast 9th Floor

9:00 – 10:30 am Secure Enclave Governance: Tips and Tricks 9th Floor
Molly Abend, Maryland State Department of Education/Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center; Katie Weaver Randall, Washington State Education Research and Data Center; Baron Rodriguez, WestEd

10:30 – 11:00 am Coffee & Snack Break 9th Floor

11:00 am – 12:30 pm Concurrent Sessions: Hands-on Demos Part I
A: Synthetic Data Office Hours | Claire Bowen, Urban Institute; Jeremy Seeman, Urban Institute; Aaron Williams, Urban Institute 620
B: Privacy-Preserving Dashboards: a Comparison of Noise Infusion and Suppression| Joshua Snoke, Massive Data Institute 290

12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch 9th Floor

1:30 – 3:00 pm Concurrent Sessions: Hands-on Demos Part II
A: Noise Infusion for Aggregate Statistics Office Hours | Joshua Snoke, Massive Data Institute 290
B: Synthetic Data Training | Claire Bowen, Urban Institute; Jeremy Seeman, Urban Institute; Aaron Williams, Urban Institute 620

3:00 – 3:30 pm Coffee & Snack Break 9th Floor

3:30 – 4:30 pm PET Ask me Anything: Rotating Series 9th Floor
1. Secure Hashing | Catie Lott, California Policy Lab
2. AI and PETS | Sejin Paik, Massive Data Institute
3. Enclaves & Repositories | Kelsey Badger & Nick Ramser, The Ohio State University
4. Private Set Intersection | Vince Dorie, Massive Data Institute

4:30 – 4:45 pm Closing Remarks 9th Floor
Ella Blue, Massive Data Institute

5:00 – 7:00 pm Reception
Love, Makoto | 200 Massachusetts Ave NW Suite 150, Washington, DC 20001

8:00 – 9:00 am Breakfast 9th Floor

9:00 am – 10:30 am Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage Implementation 9th Floor
Aaron Bean, Asemio; Scott Gaul, CT Office of Policy and Management; Heather Rouse, I2D2

10:30 – 11:00 am Coffee & Snack Break 9th Floor

11:00 am – 12:30 pm Concurrent Sessions: Hands-on Demos Part III
A: PSI Open Source with EdSim Data | Vince Dorie, Massive Data Institute 620
B: Public Access to Sensitive Data: Pairing Repositories and Secure Enclaves | Kelsey Badger & Nick Ramser, The Ohio State University 290

12:30 – 1:00 pm Closing Remarks 9th Floor
Stephanie Straus, Massive Data Institute

Molly Abend serves as the Data Management Coordinator for the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center and is the Center’s liaison to the Maryland State Department of Education. In this capacity, she leads the MLDS Center’s data governance initiatives and oversees the secure loading, cleaning, and integration of complex state data collections. She has spent her career transforming raw data into actionable insights through performance management roles in the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office, where she supported operational improvements for the Fire Department and the Department of General Services, and by managing the Student Learning Objectives process for more than 5,000 staff at Baltimore City Public Schools. She also contributed to multiple education research studies funded by the United States Department of Education through a nonprofit based in Washington, DC. Molly holds an M.P.A. from the University of Baltimore and a B.A. from Goucher College. She is an avid collector of Baltimore Orioles memorabilia.

Kelsey Badger is the Research Data Librarian and an assistant professor at The Ohio State University Libraries. In this role, she leads the Libraries’ initiatives for access, management, and stewardship of research data, whether it is produced by campus researchers, licensed or acquired by the Libraries, or openly available online. She specializes in practices that support scientific reproducibility and transparency, including federal funder requirements for data management and sharing. Previously, Badger has supported data management through positions in academia as well as state and federal government, including the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Bethanne Barnes is currently the Associate Director for the Massive Data Institute.  She has over fifteen years of experience leading data and evidence-based policy initiatives across diverse federal agencies. As former Director of the Division of Data and Improvement–essentially the Chief Data Officer–at HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), she architected ACF’s comprehensive data strategy, established a data governance structure, provided technical assistance on privacy topics for over 60 human services programs. In her role as the first permanent leader of the Evidence Team at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), she was instrumental in establishing the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking and the Interagency Council on Evaluation Policy. Throughout her time at OMB, she led development of dozens of tiered evidence, social impact bond, and data infrastructure initiatives across government, becoming recognized as an expert on wage data policy.  Bethanne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management from the Evergreen State College and a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.

Aaron Bean is a passionate social entrepreneur with a history of building systems for community good. As Managing Partner of Asemio, a social enterprise headquartered in Tulsa, OK, he leads a team of technologists and consultants who are working to address complex, systemic problems facing our communities. From 2001-2007, he led technology teams focused on catalyzing the economic growth of the Cherokee Nation. Aaron left the Cherokee Nation to join Fortune 500 technology company EMC, where he developed an international growth strategy for its then-newly acquired platform, Avamar. In 2009, he joined the U.S. Peace Corps and spent two years in Kazakhstan volunteering with people with disabilities. In Kazakhstan, he produced a national festival focused on celebrating deaf culture, created the first-ever Russian Sign Language music video, and developed a curriculum for teaching sign language to the parents of deaf children. In 2013, Aaron co-founded Asemio, which he has grown into a national network of technology and data systems that combine science, human story, and collaborative action to improve the public health and economic wellbeing of the communities it serves.

Claire McKay Bowen (she/her) is a senior fellow and leads the Data Governance and Privacy Team at the Urban Institute. Her research focuses on developing technical and policy solutions to safely expand access to confidential data for advancing evidence-based policymaking and ensuring everyone is responsibly represented in data. She also has an interest in improving science communication. In 2024, she became an American Statistical Association Fellow “for her significant contributions in the field of statistical data privacy, leadership activities in support of the profession, and commitment to mentoring the next generation of statisticians and data scientists.” Further, she is a member of the ICPSR Governing Council and several other data governance and data privacy committees as well as an adjunct professor at Stonehill College.

Alex Brodersen is Assistant Director for Research and Evaluation at the Nebraska Statewide Workforce and Educational Reporting System (NSWERS), where he leads research design, data analysis, and evaluation across a statewide P20W data system. He has over a decade of experience in educational measurement, data science, and integrated data systems, with prior roles in consulting and education technology. For the past three years, his work has focused on applying synthetic data approaches to support secure, privacy-preserving access to linked education and workforce data. He holds a master’s in computational statistics and a PhD in quantitative psychology from University of Notre Dame.

Vince Dorie is a Senior Fellow at the Massive Data Institute where he works on privacy enhancing technologies and record linkage with Amy O’Hara. Prior to that he was a Principal Data Scientist at Code for America, where he assisted federal and state agencies in the design and delivery of social services. He received his PhD in statistics from Columbia University in 2014 and completed a postdoctoral training program at New York University’s department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities in 2016, where he specialized in Bayesian non-parametric methods for causal inference.

Tricia Farris leads national education data initiatives focused on data standards, system modernization, and interoperability. She is an accomplished team lead and program manager with 15 years of implementation experience in business process re-engineering, data governance, stakeholder engagement, requirement gathering, data analysis, and the systems development lifecycle. She paves the way for teams to share challenges, best practices, technology, and innovations in collaboration with non-profit partners through the leadership of national benchmarking and P-20W+ community efforts.

Scott Gaul is Chief Data Officer for the State of Connecticut, at the Office of Policy and Management, where he supports the state’s efforts to use data to inform policy and practice. At OPM, he has worked to develop the state’s strategy for data, improve access to open data resources, establish the first Geospatial Information Systems Office for Connecticut, expand the state’s integrated data efforts through DataLinkCT (formerly P20 WIN), develop policies and governance for responsible use of AI, and launch efforts to evaluate the impact of investments made with state and federal funds. Previously, Scott worked on research, evaluation and community indicators at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the community foundation for the Greater Hartford region. Prior to that, he served as director of analysis in the Washington, D.C.-based Microfinance Information Exchange and worked for the World Bank, Mercy Corps, and Quantitative Risk Management. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

Beth Jarosz has more than 25 years of experience in understanding and communicating data nuance to help decisionmakers answer complex questions. Her career has spanned local government, academic, nonprofit, and contractor roles. Currently she is a Senior Fellow at the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University, a collaborator on the dataindex.us project, and Vice President of the Association of Public Data Users.

Jo Lam is a Research Fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. He is the PI for the Annual Household Income subdivided by Quintiles (AHIQ) project as part of Health Data Research UK Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Driver Programme. He completed his Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Health Data Science and Statistics in 2025. His work focuses on data linkage quality, linkage bias, and the use of linked administrative data to improve health equity research, with particular expertise in evaluating linkage quality, data representativeness, and ethnicity-related bias.

He works closely with national data linkage partners, including ongoing collaboration with NHS England on linkage quality and data quality methods, leads linkage quality evaluation work with the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration. He also chairs ITALO and SPRINT, UK national DARE UK-endorsed interest and focus groups working with NHS England and the Office for National Statistics focused on improving transparency, methods, and public engagement around data linkage quality.

Catie Lott serves as a data analyst at the California Policy Lab (CPL) at the University of California, Berkeley. In her role at CPL, she serves as the primary expert on hashed linkages with administrative datasets and manages the lab’s database and secure data ingestion pipelines. Catie has a strong interest in using data to improve policy and governance, which drives her work at CPL to support projects focused on education, social services benefits, health, and criminal justice. Before joining CPL, she worked for the federal government at the Veterans Health Administration and the US Office of Personnel Management. Her work at both agencies focused on linking large datasets to support policy and decision-making for healthcare cost and outcomes research. Catie holds an MPH in biostatistics from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and a Bachelor’s in biology from William & Mary. Outside of work, she enjoys trying new craft projects, baking sweet treats, and exploring local parks and trails.

Amy O’Hara is a Research Professor in the Massive Data Institute and Executive Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center at the McCourt School for Public Policy. She works on data governance, linkage, and privacy-preserving technologies. Her research focuses on population measurement, eviction and debt data, and methods to improve secure data access. O’Hara has published on topics including the measurement of income, longitudinal linkages to measure economic mobility, and the data infrastructure necessary to support government and academic research.

Nick Ramser is the Director of IT at The Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR). He oversees CHRR’s IT infrastructure, security and privacy program, and Secure Data Enclave. Most recently, he led the development and launch of the CHRR Data Repository, a generalist repository designed to host sensitive research data while complying with evolving federal data-sharing policies.

Dr. Andrew Rice is the CEO and co-founder of Education Analytics, Wisconsin–based nonprofit that helps education systems use data, analytics, and technology to improve outcomes for students. His work sits at the intersection of AI, interoperability, education data structures, and data governance, with a focus on helping schools and agencies build systems they control rather than surrendering institutional memory and sensitive data to closed Ed-Tech and AI tools. He is particularly interested in how interoperable, well-governed data infrastructure can make AI more useful, secure, and accountable in education. Under his leadership, Education Analytics has helped design and implement large-scale data systems spanning millions of students and thousands of districts. 

Dr. Rice also brings deep experience in accountability, applied research, and education policy. Over the course of his career, he has helped design state and local report cards, accountability metrics, and research frameworks that translate complex data into usable information for educators, policymakers, and the public. His work includes advising on accountability policy, metric design, and the responsible use of assessment data in public-sector decision-making. He serves on Ed-Fi’s Governance Advisory Team, the Ed-Tech Collaboratory advisory board and is a longtime advocate for interoperable, publicly accountable education data systems.

Baron Rodriguez serves as the Vice President of Client Facing Technology, AI, and Compliance at WestEd. Baron most recently founded the Data Integration Support Center’s (DISC), a philanthropically funded center which provides security, privacy, architecture, and legal assistance to public agencies integrating data nationwide. Baron has over 20 years’ experience leading data integration efforts with a focus on privacy, architecture, security, and governance. His experience spans across government, non-profit, and commercial organizations and across sectors including education (all sectors), criminal justice, social service, workforce, and defense. Baron is a national expert on data privacy and holds an industry certification in privacy with the International Association of Privacy Professionals in GDPR. (CIPP/E)

Jeremy Seeman is a Senior Research Associate in Data Governance and Privacy at the Urban Institute, an adjunct professor at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, and an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC). Jeremy’s research focuses on technical and policy solutions for responsible data sharing, with an emphasis on deploying and governing privacy-enhancing technologies to responsibly expand access to sensitive public good data sources. His work has been featured in numerous interdisciplinary venues including statistics, computer science, law, philosophy, and policy. Jeremy’s work develops privacy-enhancing data sharing solutions including research methods, open-source software, governance strategies, and policy analyses. His work supports the missions of numerous public good organizations, including Federal Statistical Agencies like the National Science Foundation, U.S. Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Joshua Snoke is a Senior Fellow in the Massive Data Institute. He researches statistical data privacy methods and applies these tools to enable policy solutions that increase data access while preserving privacy.

He has published technical papers and policy reports on the creation and evaluation of privacy-preserving techniques such as synthetic data, secure model estimation across multiple databases, and differentially private algorithms. His work, both privacy-related and otherwise, involves working with a variety of administrative and survey data, such as data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, the UK Administrative Data Research Network, the Defense Manpower Data Center, the American Educator Panels, the global Health and Retirement Studies, and the National Science Foundation.

Stephanie Straus is a Policy Fellow in the Massive Data Institute at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She helps governmental and administrative agencies increase their data use for research and evaluation purposes. Using the most appropriate and current privacy-enhancing technologies, Stephanie facilitates the linking of previously un-linked datasets to inform pressing policy issues across education, public health, and the civil justice system. Drawing from the social, computer, and data sciences, Stephanie advocates for secure data governance models that address the legal and regulatory risks involved with data sharing.

Recognized as a strategist, connector, visionary, influencer, author and implementer, Dr. Michael Torrence, a front-runner in higher education throughout Tennessee and the nation, is the seventh-seated President of Motlow State Community College. Taking the helm as President in May 2018, Dr. Torrence has transformed Motlow State into an award-winning, innovative college year after year. He has masterfully blended the rural with the urban, all the while touching students and transforming communities one at a time. His leadership and vision have positioned Motlow on platforms and before audiences previously unknown to Motlow. He is a premier speaker and lecturer. Dr. Torrence is a technology strategist with more than 35 years of experience in higher education. He practices holistic development while creating space for the broader community. Included among his areas of expertise are Community, Economic, and Workforce Development, Research, Adult Education, Student Success, Academic Affairs, Professional Development, Distance Learning, and Success and Innovation. Additional interests are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Applied Learning with Open Education Resources (OER), Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Automation, Robotics, Mechatronics, and Gamification as platforms for education, learning, and training business and industry to increase efficiency and scalability. Dr. Torrence is also an entrepreneurial business development professional. Dr. Torrence earned a Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning (Literacy) from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee. He serves on local, state, national, and international boards that influence and shape the future of higher education, including the American Association of Community Colleges Board, the Community Colleges of Appalachian Board of Directors, and the College Board’s Community College Advisory Panel. He is the recipient of numerous awards and was named a Distinguished Alumni by South Dakota State University, where he earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He is a revered Maxine Smith Fellow and is one of only two Fellows appointed as a Community College President in the Tennessee Board of Regents–the College System of Tennessee, the system that governs community and technical colleges. Dr. Torrence is an Air Force veteran.

Katie is a recognized leader in the use of P20W (early learning through workforce) data to inform research, policy, and practice. With experience spanning both applied research and system-level leadership, she brings deep expertise in leveraging integrated administrative data to improve outcomes across education and workforce pathways.

Katie is currently the Director of the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC), Washington state’s P20W organization. A central focus of the ERDC is expanding responsible access to P20W data while reducing barriers for researchers and partners. Under her leadership the ERDC team has developed and implemented governance frameworks that support secure, efficient, and transparent data sharing through mechanisms such as data enclaves and standardized data sharing agreements. Katie is particularly committed to streamlining access in ways that maintain strong privacy protections, minimize administrative burden, and enable timely, high-quality research.

The Summer Institute is open to all and is especially relevant to individuals who work with SLDSs.

Registration for the Summer Institute is $250 for general attendees. If cost is a barrier to attendance, please email mdisummerinst@georgetown.edu. 

The government employee rate is $150. If cost is a barrier to attendance, please email mdisummerinst@georgetown.edu. 

Registration covers all programmed events, including breakfast, lunch, and receptions.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided at the evening reception on day one (Monday, June 22 from 5-7 pm).
Coffee and light refreshments will be provided in the morning of days two and day three (Tuesday, June 23, and Wednesday, June 24).
Lunch will be provided on days two and three of the conference (Tuesday, June 23, and Wednesday, June 24).

We have recommended hotels with booking links to Georgetown negotiated rates on this list. Attendees will be required to make their own bookings.

The Institute will begin on Monday, June 22 at 12 pm ET and end on Wednesday, June 24 at 1pm ET.

Please send any inquiries to mdisummerinst@georgetown.edu.

Registrations cancelled before May 29, 2026 receive a 100% refund. Registrations cannot be cancelled or refunded after May 29, 2026. Refunds will be issued to your credit card and may take up to 10 business days to appear on your statement. Please contact mdisummerinst@georgetown.edu for any concerns.