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Can governments and big institutions deliver for citizens in the digital age? 

29 September 2023, 1:00 pm–2:15 pm

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Join us at UCL IIPP for a talk with Tara McGuinness, founder of the New Practice Lab, in conversation with Prof. Rainer Kattel centering on the question: can large institutions meet the moment and deliver policy in our dynamic times?

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

Invitation Only

Cost

Free

Organiser

IIPP Comms

This event is reserved for UCL IIPP students and colleaguesTara McGuinness, co-author of Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology, described by President Obama as, “worth a read for anyone who cares about making change happen”, is visiting IIPP for a seminar centering on the question: can large institutions meet the moment and deliver policy in our dynamic times?

Tara is the founder of the New Practice Lab, a policy and product team named in 2023 as a World Changing Idea by Fast Company, that is focused on getting 3 million low-income families in the U.S. benefits. She led the domestic policy team for the Biden Transition and was part of planning for the first 100 days of the Biden presidency. She will anchor a conversation and discussion reflecting on the American experience of the dual crises of the Covid-19 epidemic and the economic fallout that followed. This session will build on her experience as a senior advisor to President Obama during the implementation of the Affordable and her subsequent work with federal and state governments trying to make policies from paid leave to unemployment insurance work through institutions that were built for another time.

The talk is being organised as an IIPP enrichment event led by Prof Rainer Kattel.

About the Speakers

Tara McGuinness

Founder at The New Practice Lab

tara_mcguiness
Tara McGuinness founded the New Practice Lab, a research and design lab focused on family economic security for all Americans. She co-authored the book Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology. Her work lies at the intersection of policy creation, implementation and citizen and community voices.

McGuinness joined New America after several years overseeing the federal teams that worked alongside city, non-profit, and philanthropic leaders in Detroit, Baltimore, and Flint, among many other communities.

McGuinness researches and teaches about how management and data practices and technology can help identify root causes and be used to solve the most pressing public issues before us.

McGuinness served as a senior adviser in the White House and in the Office of Management and Budget. In that position she worked extensively on the implementation of domestic policies including health care and economic mobility for families.

McGuinness also directed the Task Force on Community Solutions, a team of civil servants and appointed officials working to improve how agencies worked together, using data in new ways to tackle entrenched poverty and to deliver results in communities across the country.

McGuinness has spent nearly two decades working on a wide range of policy. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in urban studies.

More about Tara McGuinness

Rainer Kattel

Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Rainer Kattel
Rainer Kattel is Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). He has studied at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and the University of Marburg, Germany, in philosophy, political philosophy, classics and public administration.
He led Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance for 10 years, building it into one of the leading innovation and governance schools in the region. 

Professor Kattel has also served on various public policy commissions, including the Estonian Research Council and European Science Foundation. He has worked as an expert for the OECD, UNDP and the European Commission, and served as a member of E-Estonia Council advising the Prime Minister of Estonia. Currently, he leads the Estonian Government’s Gender Equality Council.

He has published extensively on innovation policy, its governance and specific management issues. In 2013, he received Estonia's National Science Award for his work on innovation policy.

More about Rainer Kattel