Amherst College | When Data Disappears

The U.S. government has historically collected, preserved, and funded a wide range of datasets as well as the analysis of data and evaluation of policies in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In recent weeks, federal datasets on topics such as climate change, public health, and education have been canceled or removed from public record. Further, cuts to federal funding will halt the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data by outside researchers through funding initiatives such as the NSF, NIH, and government contracts. Why does the federal government historically collect data and fund research? What do we use these datasets for? How will the removal of such datasets affect policy making in the future? What efforts are underway to preserve knowledge and to continue creating new knowledge going forward? Please join us for an interdisciplinary panel of academics and policy makers about the future of data and evidence-based policy making in a world of disappearing data. 

• Ron Borzekowski is the Director of Yale's Data-Intensive Social Science Center (DISSC) and a Senior Policy Fellow at the Tobin Center. Prior to his role at DISSC and Tobin, Ron was the director of Amazon Web Services for economics. Ron has spent considerable time in public service, most recently at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where he helped build and then lead the Office of Research. Prior to the CFPB, Ron was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Deputy Research Director for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Ron earned a B.A. in political science and mathematics from Stanford University, a Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.
• Mindy Domb represents the 3rd Hampshire District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Prior to her election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, she was the Executive Director of the Amherst Survival Center. Mindy has led statewide programs in Massachusetts to train staff of drug and alcohol treatment programs, jails, and homeless shelters on issues of HIV/AIDS and opioid overdose prevention. She developed and implemented the first online course on “Integrating Harm Reduction into Drug and Alcohol Treatment.” Her work was recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the International Harm Reduction Association. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College and Masters in adult learning from Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Brian Gill is a Senior Fellow at Mathematica and is an expert on accountability regimes in education. He studies K–12 education policy, including charter schools, educator effectiveness, and the implementation and impacts of high-stakes testing. Gill frequently works closely with state and local educational leaders on various K-12 challenges. From 2017 to 2025, he directed the U.S. Department of Education’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory, assisting educators and officials with high-priority projects. In addition, he co-developed a conceptual framework for data-driven decision making providing guidance to state and local officials. Gill holds a Ph.D. in jurisprudence and social policy and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
• Kendra Marcus is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Amherst College. Her research focuses on how proteins evolve new biological roles. Her work takes a holistic approach to questions of protein diversification, utilizing computational methods such as bioinformatics, AI-based protein modeling, and molecular dynamics simulations, to interrogate the theoretical physics and evolutionary paths of related proteins.  Much of her work has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). She completed post-doctoral fellowships at both Vanderbilt University and U.C. Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology from Northeastern University and a B.S. in chemistry from Warren Wilson College. 
• Kerry Ratigan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. Her research focuses on Chinese politics and state–society relations. Her book, Local Politics and Social Policy in China: Let Some Get Healthy First (Cambridge, 2022), demonstrates how local politics shaped social policy provision in China under Hu Jintao. Her current research examines how economic engagement shapes perceptions of China in Latin America. She has published research in World Development, The China Quarterly, Journal of Chinese Governance, International Political Science Review, and Studies in Comparative International Development, among others. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in political science and Spanish from Haverford College. 
• Kiara Vigil is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Education Studies and Dean of New Students at Amherst College. Her research interests are grounded in Native American and Indigenous Studies. She is the author of Indigenous Intellectuals: Sovereignty, Citizenship, and the American Imagination, 1890-1930, published by Cambridge University Press (2015). Her current projects are driven both by archival research and questions related to the production of knowledge by academic fields in the context of their origins, as well as how we might use this knowledge today to rethink the category of "Indian" within American society and culture. She received her Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan, masters degrees from Columbia University’s Teachers’ College and Dartmouth College, and a B.A. in History from Tufts University.

Moderated by Caroline Theoharides, Associate Professor of Economics, Amherst College.