When it mattered most: Data leadership during COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, San Francisco needed a data infrastructure that could operate at the speed of a public health emergency. As the City’s Chief Data Officer, I helped stand up both internal and public-facing systems that enabled life-saving decisions.

We didn’t just deliver data and dashboards. We created trust. In a moment when uncertainty ruled, we turned data into a shared source of truth.

The Challenge

The City needed real-time, trustworthy information to drive fast, high-stakes decisions—from case tracking to equity-focused vaccine distribution. But the systems to do this at scale across agencies weren’t fully in place.

We had to act quickly, accurately, and with care for the people behind the numbers.

My Role

As the City's Chief Data Officer, I led data strategy, coordination, and infrastructure efforts within the City’s COVID Command Center and across departments. I served as a key connector between public health officials, tech teams, operations leads, and the public.

Key responsibilities included:

• Designing real-time data pipelines and reporting frameworks
• Coordinating across health, emergency, and administrative departments
• Leading a cross-functional data team under crisis conditions
• Communicating data clearly to the public and media
• Prioritizing racial and economic equity in all reporting and distribution planning

The Work

• Internal operations:

Worked with staff to build and refine citywide dashboards for personal protective equipment supply, testing capacity, and hospitalization rates.

• Public transparency:

Launched and maintained the City’s public-facing COVID data tracker, viewed millions of times.

• Equity integration:

Created equity metrics that directly shaped vaccine site placement and outreach strategies.

• Data governance on the fly:

Established emergency standards for data privacy, interoperability, and reporting under urgent conditions.

Impact

• Helped enable rapid decision-making during critical windows of the pandemic response
• Provided the public with consistent, accurate, and accessible information
• Set a new standard for government transparency in crisis
• Elevated data equity as a core principle of operational planning

Reflections

During the crisis, data wasn’t just numbers—it was oxygen. It allowed us to breathe clarity into chaos. What I learned is that when data is rooted in care, even dashboards can feel like acts of solidarity.