Key Perspectives on Building Data for Social Impact Capacity in Higher Ed

In early 2022, made possible by generous funding from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, data.org launched the Capacity Accelerator Network (CAN) in the United States. The grant included a funding award to The University of Chicago (UChicago) Data Science Institute (DSI) to support the creation of a consortium of diverse higher education partners, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), minority-serving institutions (MSIs), and Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).

In partnership with UChicago, data.org’s US CAN Accelerator included: California State University, Fresno; City Colleges of Chicago; Howard University; Morehouse College; North Carolina State University; The University of Illinois at Chicago; and University of Texas, San Antonio. Together, this Accelerator set out to create open curricula tools, and a model for experiential data science education with an emphasis on financial inclusion that could scale across diverse higher education institutions across the globe.

Now, on December 14, Dr. Mario Banuelos of Fresno State, Kate Connor of City Colleges of Chicago, Dr. David Uminsky of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume of Howard University will join data.org’s Priyank Hirani to reflect on learnings from the two-year Data Capacity Accelerator. Join us to hear from university faculty on the frontier of building data for social impact in higher education on topics including developing DSI and experiential learning programs, applying a social justice and financial inclusion lens to DSI training, building a playbook for creating experiential data science curricula, and the critical underpinning of IDEA in their work.