Claire McKay Bowen on the Role Federal Statistics Play in our Daily Lives

Send us Fan MailOn the latest episode of Data for the People!, Claire McKay Bowen discusses the role federal statistics play in our daily lives, strategies for communicating the value of government data, and her vision for the future of data sharing and data privacy. Bowen is a data privacy expert who is currently a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, an adjunct professor at Stonehill College, and a board member with the Association of Public Data Users (APDU). Last year, she co-authored a series of blogs for APDU about the manifold ways federal statistics inform routine decisions for Americans, how federal data is like the “forgotten egg” used to bake a cake, and what educators can do to teach K-12 students the origins and importance of U.S. federal data. Bowen also discusses a recent article she wrote for the Journal of Economic Perspectives titled "Government Data of the People, by the People, for the People: Navigating Citizen and Privacy Concerns." The Data Foundation is currently reviewing submissions for the People’s Data 100, an initiative to recognize federal datasets providing the greatest value to Americans. The conversation with Bowen is part of our broader effort throughout 2026 to spotlight the strategic data infrastructure that powers daily life in the U.S., from protecting public health to enabling scientific discovery to safeguarding taxpayer-funded benefit programs.  In the spirit of the initiative, learn more about the AirNow system that supports the Air Quality index provided by BreezoMeter on the iPhone's weather app. AirNow is a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Park Service, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control, and tribal, state, and local air quality agencies.Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalitionThe Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportusFollow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation