Government Works Weekly #27
Jobs, Events, and a New Year with New Substacks
Welcome to your weekly roundup of opportunities, events, and information about how government works—and how government can work better—to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
Guess who’s back, back again? Government Works. Tell a friend!
Our first edition back after the winter holidays. Please reach out if you have any ideas for what would be useful to see in this space in the coming year.
APPLY YOURSELF – jobs, internships, funding, and other ways to get involved
Managing Director, Movement Labs [Remote / deadline 1 Mar. / preferred 23 Jan.]
Managing Director for Policy & Research (and more), Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality [Hybrid]
Co-Executive Director, State Innovation Exchange [Remote]
Senior Fellow & Co-Director, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (and more), Brookings [Hybrid D.C.]
Senior Director, Navigator Research, The Hub Project [Washington, D.C.]
Director of Policy, Rebuild Local News [Remote]
Director of Analysis, Center for Security and Emerging Technology [Georgetown University]
Director of Operations, Keseb [U.S. / preference for D.C.]
Program Officer, Civic Engagement and Government (and more), Ford Foundation [Hybrid New York]
Vice President, Program, Accountable.US [Hybrid / D.C.]
Chief of Programs and Strategy, Demos [Remote / preference for NYC or D.C.]
Assistant Director, Programs, Democracy House [Remote]
Program Manager, New York, Common Cause [Hybrid / NY]
Program Assistant, Volker Alliance [Hybrid / New York City]
General Counsel (and more), America Votes [D.C.]
Counsel, Democracy Program (and more), Brennan Center for Justice [NYC or D.C.]
Litigation Paralegal / Senior Litigation Paralegals (and more), Democracy Forward [D.C.]
Youth Civic Engagement Research Fellow (and more), Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement [deadline 28 Jan.]
MA Organizing Director, Partners in Democracy [Massachusetts]
Community Engagement Liaison, Innovation Team, Maryland Governor’s Office [Anne Arundel, MD / deadline 28 Jan.]
Higher Education Democracy Exchange (HEDx) Project Manager, Campus Connect [Remote / deadline 25 Feb.]
Policy Advisor (and more), AFL-CIO Technology Institute [Hybrid D.C.]
Government UX Research Engagement Manager, U.S. Digital Response [Remote]
Director of Policy & Government Relations (and more), American Public Human Services Association [Remote / Hybrid]
Grants Assistant Coordinator (Eastern Europe), European Endowment for Democracy [Brussels / deadline 2 Mar.]
All-America City Event and Communications Intern, National Civic League [Remote / D.C. preferred / deadline 10 Feb.]
Undergraduate Fellowships, Roosevelt Institute [deadline 7 Feb.]
Visiting Fellows Program, SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University [deadline 5 Mar.]
Government Innovation Fellow, Government Performance Lab [Harvard / deadline 23 Feb.]
State Policy Fellowship Program, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [deadline 28 Feb.]
Freedom in the World 2025–26 Junior Fellowship, Freedom House [deadline 29 Jan.]
Call for Papers: 2026 Law of Abundance Conference, Niskanen Center [abstract by 14 Feb.]
Call for Papers and Panels, DEMSCORE [abstract deadline 16 Mar.]
Access to Justice Prize: Closing the Rural Justice Gap, Department of Justice [deadline 31 Mar.]
UPCOMING EVENTS – webinars, conferences, and other human things
Some great events to round out the month of January:
22 JAN: Good Company: Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy with Lenore Palladino [Roosevelt Institute Book Club]
22 JAN: LPL January Democracy Conversation: Task Forces and Civic Engagement [Local Policy Lab]
23 JAN: Testing Public Trust and Institutional Legitimacy [New America’s Political Reform program, Columbia World Projects, and FIDE - North America]
23 JAN: AI and the Future of Lawmaking: Innovation at the Library of Congress with Natalie Buda Smith [Reboot Democracy]
23 JAN: Understanding OMB's New "Open by Default" Data Management Guidance [Data Foundation]
23-24 JAN: 2025 Denver Democracy Summit [Korbel School]
25 JAN: Political Tech Summit [Europe]
28 JAN: Stockholm Series #5: From Limits to Growth to an Earth for All [International IDEA]
28 JAN: Public Trust in Tax 2024: Latin America and Beyond [OECD + IFAC + ACCA]
28-29 JAN: Build a Better Government Resume: Public Workshop and Personal Review Sessions for Technologists [U.S. Digital Response + Technologists for the Public Good]
28-29 JAN: Annual State-Facilitated Retirement Savings Program Network Conference [Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives]
29 JAN: Mind Shift, Green Lift: Six behavioural science trends for environmental policy [OECD]
29 JAN: Leading Human-Centered Design in Public Institutions [Civilla]
30 JAN: The Hopkins Forum: A Debate on the Future of the Supreme Court [Johns Hopkins University + Open to Debate]
30 JAN: The Role of Academic Impact Labs for Public Innovation: Stories of AI Innovation from Stanford's RegLab [InnovateUS]
30 JAN: Taking on tax: Lessons from the 2021 expansion of the Child Tax Credit [Hamilton Project]
30 JAN: CPI’s Collective: Open House [Centre for Public Impact]
30-31 JAN: World Bank Conference on Public Institutions for Development: Enabling the Private Sector [World Bank]
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, videos, and other good stuff
In lieu of original content this week, I would like to point you to a few recently activated Substacks that, in the view of Government Works, are doing the lord’s work. A chance to focus a bit on forward-looking policy and ideas for the actual work of government, not just the deluge of often dispiriting news in recent days. In no particular order:
State Capacitance: Where Kevin Hawickhorst attempts to fill the yawning void of content about the times the government actually works well! I can already tell this will become one of my regular reads.
Krugman wonks out: Since Paul Krugman wrote his last column for the NYT, he has reinvigorated his dormant Substack with some quite colorful takes that probably would not have made it through The Gray Lady’s editors. My favorite recent headline: “The Pathetic Billionaires’ Club: How fuck-you money can become fuck-me money”.
Musk Watch: Judd Legum and the good folks from the indispensable Popular Information have put together Musk Watch, to chronicle how an “extraordinary amount of power is concentrated in just a handful of individuals,” in this case Elon Musk. In my view, there could be a whole series of these for other key actors (
names redacted).Green Tape: A recently launched blog by Thomas Hochman about permitting reform and energy policy. An interesting piece that got some attention earlier this month was on “Untouched Policy Areas: Pre-packaged ideas for the budding wonk”.
Governing San Francisco: From Zack Rosen, an attempt to “explore the fundamental dysfunctions and challenges of governing San Francisco”. Like the Musk Watch blog above, I feel this format could lend itself to a bunch of other subjects to cover.
Futurepolis: In which Gideon Lichfield, the former editor-in-chief of WIRED, asks the question: “What would democracy look like if it were being invented today, instead of in the 18th century?”
Public Sector Job Board: Rebecca Heywood recently moved her very useful “weekly newsletter focused on tech and innovation jobs in government” from LinkedIn to Substack. It is a great way for people to find ways to get involved in the work of making government work.