The Heart of Public Service with Pearl Amanfu

Today my guest is Pearl Amanfu. Pearl is the Digital Inclusion Officer for Metro Nashville. Although Pearl and I just met, she's the model for the type of person I started this podcast to amplify: the humans who believe deeply in community, human thriving and progress, and are willing to do the hard organizational work to create real change through digital enablement.

Borrowing her words, Pearl has a helper heart, and she genuinely wants a better world for the residents of Metro Nashville. Pearl is a community builder, and in this episode she shines a light onto what it's like to make sure that Metro Nashville is accountable and of service to the greatest number of Tennesseans possible, and she also shares a bit about where she thinks their work could go next. Here's my conversation with Pearl.

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Guest Information
Pearl Amanfu LinkedIn

To learn more on the Nashville Metro Digital Inclusion work please visit Metro Digital Skillslink | Nashville.gov

For more information on organizations Pearl highlights please see:

• Nashville Public Library Digital Literacy Programs | NPL Digital Learn
• National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) are the parent organization for the Digital Equity Leaders Network (DELN)

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On this episode of the 311 Podcast Paul and Pearl cover the following topics:

Introduction to Pearl Amanfu and Digital Inclusion​​
Pearl's Career Journey
Challenges and Barriers in Digital Inclusion
Nashville's Unique Approach to Digital Inclusion
Proud Achievements and Key Projects
The Digital Navigator Program
Future Vision and Advice for Aspiring Helpers
Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Thank you to our season two sponsor Northern. For more information on their services, visit northern.co

Recorded in May 2025.

This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/

We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to the311@northern.co.

Northern LinkedIn

Today, my guest is Stephanie Deitrick, who is the Enterprise GIS [Geographic Information System] and Open Data Program Manager for the city of Tempe, Arizona.

She's also a program director for the Master's of Advanced Study in GIS program at Arizona State University. Stephanie has her PhD in geography from Arizona State and has spent her career building the next generation of data experts with a focus on GIS, but a broader lens on public data.

As someone who consults with municipalities on digital strategy, I spend much of my time trying to paint a narrative of what mature digital practice around data and public service looks like. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled on the city of Tempe, Arizona and their open data portal and service performance dashboard. It was everything I'd been imagining for my clients and more. So I had to find out who was behind this category leading work. That's how I came across Stephanie, her team, and their work.

Tempe is a model city for these values and what can happen when great leadership and great teams come together. Tempe has launched not just a best of breed open data portal, but a performance dashboard featuring KPIs powered by real-time data that openly publishes their compliance with the various service levels and outcomes that they have committed to on behalf of their citizens.

This courageous approach is a model for how local government can rebuild, trust and engage with their community. I think you'll learn a lot from Stephanie's mindset, and even if you're not in government, it's helpful to understand the internal workings of government entities and how with the right alignment and leadership, organizations can find new ways to prove their value and serve their communities.

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Guest information:

Dr. Stephanie Deitrick LinkedIn

Open Tempe "The City of Tempe is committed to transparency and to providing accurate and easy to access data about our community. Below are the tools you can use to get information about our community’s finances, strategic priorities and more."

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What Paul and Stephanie talk about:

• Tempe's approach to open data, including their "open by default" policy.
• The importance of courageous leadership in driving digital transformation and open data initiatives.
• Tempe's performance management program and its integration with budgeting.
• The city's work with opioid emergency calls for service and wastewater testing for opioids and COVID.
• The process of data classification and balancing public access with privacy protection.
• The impact of AI on data privacy and the need for continuous reassessment of data masking strategies.
• The importance of cross-functional teams, understanding subject matter, and building trust and communication with business units.
• The role of trust and communication in enabling the City of Tempe to achieve transformative outcomes in public service.

Resources Referenced in the Interview

Simon Sinek, The Golden Circle.

Recorded in May 2025.

This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/

We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to the311@northern.co.

Northern LinkedIn

Transforming the Department of Defence with Savan Kong.

Today my guest is Savan Kong. Savan has a unique resume and set of experiences. He was most recently the first ever Customer Experience Officer for the United States Department of Defense. One of the largest organizations of any kind in the world.

When the CIO of the DOD tapped Savan to pioneer the new CXO role, Savan brought a design mindset to the job in every way. And in this episode, he's going to share his mindset and models for how to introduce design infrastructure into an organization as complex as the US DOD. I think you'll like his approach, and in the show notes, we'll be sure to spell out the model he lays out in the episode in great detail. Here's my conversation with Savan.
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Guest information:
Savan Kong LinkedIn | www.savankong.com
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Savan's Model
Savan highlighted that design is an intentional act of problem-solving. He applied these principles to explore how the CXO office within the Department of Defense could leverage policy and strategy to enhance customer experience.

While establishing the CXO office, Savan applied four key strategies in his model. Including specific steps in creating design infrastructure that embraces the problem solving nature of design thinking into the CXO infrastructure.

1. Building Alliances: Identify key individuals to understand the organization and advance the CXO agenda.
2. Identifying Leverage Points: Understand the organization's priorities, learn its culture, and identify key levers for initiative momentum.
3. Defining Measurable Outcomes: Establish IT governance, update strategy for investment guidance, implement performance management (including OKRs), create a consistent intake structure for customer feedback, and build a user experience foundation.
4. Developing a Robust Design Infrastructure: Ensure the infrastructure is
   1. authoritative (vetted, signed off, and documented),
   2. sustained (funded, adopted, and continuously improved), and
   3. scaled (impacts many, is agnostic, and normalizes expectations).

Recorded in May, 2025

This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/

We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to the311@northern.co.

Northern LinkedIn