Government Works Weekly #67
Jobs, Events, and La Vida Es Un Carnaval
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.
If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing with friends or colleagues who would also benefit.
Scroll down all the way for 27 upcoming events and 85 jobs and opportunities to help government work…
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
Hoping to start doing more themed link roundups like last week, but this week was Carnaval here in Panama, and I was not super productive… more of a hodgepodge roundup today.
[READ] Carnival Economics: Dispatches from Rio, Brasília and Salvador from Mariana Mazzucato on the public value of arts and culture.
[READ] From Citizen Ideas to Bills. Speaking of Brazil, Beatriz Rey writes about how “the Brazilian Senate introduced a new artificial intelligence tool that reshapes how citizen input feeds into the legislative process” in the Modern Parliament Substack from the POPVOX Foundation.
[READ] Policy Is Not a Vending Machine. Jae Yeon Kim, writing in his Substack The Politics of Making Policy Work, likens public policy implementation to a restaurant in a surprisingly cogent metaphor. He writes: “Seen this way, implementation is not the mechanical end of politics. It is the stage on which politics continues.”
[READ] Pairs nicely with recent research on “How the Experience of Administrative Burdens Affects Clients’ Psychological Well-being: The Role of Negativity Bias” (Jaeyeong Nam, Pamela Herd, Sebastian Jilke, and Donald Moynihan) and “Stigma and the Social Safety Net” (Jessica Lasky-Fink, Elizabeth Linos, and Heidi Wallace).
[LISTEN] A Government Built to Stall—and What That Means for Democracy (with Hannah Garden-Monheit) from the Pitchfork Economics podcast from Civic Ventures.
[READ] Building a More Effective, Responsive Government: Lessons Learned from the Biden-Harris Administration, the October 2025 report from the Roosevelt Institute—covered briefly when it came out in Government Works Weekly #55—which formed the basis of the podcast conversation.
[LISTEN] Rebuilding Trust: Can We Fix America’s Social and Political Fractures? from the How to Fix Democracy podcast, featuring Frederick Riley of Weave at the Aspen Institute and Dr. Michael Neblo of the Ohio State University.
[READ] The Trust Trap: What do Jeff Bezos, Bari Weiss, and RFK Jr. have in common? by Don Moynihan in the Can We Still Govern? Substack, where he cautions: “Beware people bemoaning declining trust in institutions.”
[WATCH] Can’t We All Just Get Along? videos from the Democracy conference.
[WATCH / READ] Policy: From ideas to real-world change: Talks and writing from Progress Conference 2025 on The Roots of Progress Substack.
EVENT HORIZON – webinars, conferences, and other human things
WEEK OF 21-28 FEBRUARY 2026
21-24 FEB: 2026 NACo Legislative Conference [National Association of Counties]
23 FEB: State of Democracy Town Hall [Democracy Forward]
23 FEB: Trust, control and motivation in public organisations [GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence]
23 FEB: Using AI to Understand Public Sentiment [InnovateUS]
23 FEB: Rapid Response Data Briefing: 2026 Census Test [Association of Public Data Users + Others]
23 FEB: Book Talk with Julia R. Azari on Backlash Presidents: Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History [Institute for Public Knowledge]
23 FEB: Governing Digital Thirst: Communicating Inequality in AI Infrastructure’s Water Footprint [Stanford PACS]
24 FEB: Are you proportional representation curious? [Democracy Notes + American Academy of Arts and Sciences + Protect Democracy + More Equitable Democracy]
24 FEB: Becoming a Citizen in the Age of Algorithms: Civic Education, Identity, and Technology [Tech Impact and Policy Center]
24 FEB: Trust in Elections: What Researchers Are Finding [The Elections Group]
25 FEB: Speaker Emerita Pelosi: Congress as a Cornerstone of American Democracy [UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy]
25 FEB: Renewing Trust: What It Takes to Rebuild Civic Life from the Ground Up [National Civic League]
25 FEB: Social Security: Just the Facts [Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget]
25 FEB: Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives: Strategically and Practically [CIVICUS]
25 FEB: Governance Capacity Talk with Michael Bauer: “Illiberalism, Populism and Democratic Backsliding and Their Implications for Administrative Reform” [Accountability & Reform Research Consortium]
25 FEB: Launch of the Integrated Framework for Protecting Elections [International IDEA]
26 FEB: Everybody Loves Our Dollars - How Money Laundering Won: Book Talk with Author Oliver Bullough [FACT Coalition]
26 FEB: Futuring for Communications - Emerging Technologies in a Changing World & Designing Futures with Care [The Communications Network]
26 FEB: Effective Use of Social Media: Storytelling, Trust, and institutional Brand [InnovateUS]
26 FEB: Digital Public Infrastructure: Promises and the Missing Public Role [Open Future]
26 FEB: Arts, Culture, and Democracy: Understanding Global Authoritarianism [Solidarity Loom]
26 FEB: Lessons From the Long Haul: Leading Change in Risk-Averse Institutions [Civilla]
26 FEB: Language access in tech: Reflections on multilingual digital services in the federal government [Kultura Tech]
26-27 FEB: Research Symposium: Evidence and impact of beneficial ownership transparency [Open Ownership]
27 FEB: How to Talk About Democracy Under Pressure: New Data from PACE’s Civic Language Perceptions Project [PACE]
27-28 FEB: Tech for Good Conference [University of Chicago]
APPLY YOURSELF – jobs, internships, and other ways to get involved
POLICY + PROGRAM
Associate, Procurement Excellence Network, Partners for Public Good [Remote]
Associate, Research, Partners for Public Good [Remote]
Coordinator, Policy Innovation Lab, Future Caucus
Research Assistant, Civil Service, Niskanen Center [Part-time, contract]
Senior Associate, U.S. Land and Housing, New America [D.C.]
Manager of Government Affairs (Housing/Child Care/Health Care), Inclusive Abundance
Senior Manager, Policy, National Audubon Society
Senior Policy Specialist, Clean Energy, National Wildlife Federation
Assistant Program Officer, Research and Convening, National Endowment for Democracy [Hybrid D.C.]
General Counsel, States United Democracy Center
STATE + LOCAL
State Impact Specialist (Wisconsin), Protect Democracy [priority deadline 8 Mar.]
Senior Associate/Associate Director, State Policy and Advocacy, Data Quality Campaign
Senior Political Director, Reproductive Rights, State Innovation Exchange
Principal Budget & Programs Analyst, Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District [San Francisco, CA]
Director of Narrative Strategy, Harris County [Texas / deadline 6 Mar.]
Policy Advisor, Maryland Department of General Services [deadline 27 Feb.]
Legislative Analyst, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice [D.C.]
Policy Director, ACLU Tennessee
COMMS + OPS + MEDIA
Lead Media Relations Manager, Popular Democracy
Media Production Manager, New America
Digital Associate, Contest Every Race, Movement Labs [Remote]
Public Finance Communications Campaigner, Oil Change International [deadline 10 Mar.]
Head of Strategic Communications, Future Now [deadline 20 Mar. via Grossman Solutions]
Policy and Communications Associate, Inclusive Abundance
Media Relations Specialist, American Promise
Director, Creative and Digital Communications, Amnesty International USA
Chief Operating Officer, Work for America
Manager of Operations, Inclusive Abundance
Program Officer, Local News, MacArthur Foundation
Executive Director, Crooked Ideas and Digital Content Manager, Crooked Media
ACADEMIA
Postdoctoral Fellow in Economics of Education, Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education [Tufts University]
Director, Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University [deadline 9 Apr.]
Director, Research Strategy and Consulting and Director of Communications, Center for Public Research and Leadership [Columbia University]
Senior Research Associate, Regulatory Studies Center [George Washington University]
Senior Project Lead Opportunity, Possibility Lab [UC Berkeley / first review 4 Mar.]
Clinical Fellow, Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic [Harvard Law School]
Policy Analyst, Nature Activation Hub, The Nicholas Institute [Duke University]
Senior Research Fellow, Institute on Water, Law & Policy [Tulane University]
Data Scientist, Social Science Data and Computation Lab [Dartmouth University]
Stakeholder Engagement Manager, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose [deadline 2 Mar.]
Director of Policing Initiatives, Miller Center on Policing and Community Resilience [Rutgers University]
Associate Director, Gould Center for Conflict Resolution [Stanford Law School]
Multiple Positions, Bloomberg Center for Cities [Harvard]
TECH + DATA + DESIGN
Program Manager, Data & AI Portfolio, Bloomberg Philanthropies [NY]
Senior Technologist, AI Governance Lab, Center for Democracy & Technology [deadline 12 Mar.]
Manager of Government Affairs (Science/AI/Government Effectiveness), Inclusive Abundance
Data Service Lead, City of Chicago [deadline 27 Feb.]
Director, Product Strategy & Policy Design, CalSAWS [deadline 3 Apr.]
Director, Organizational Data Analytics, Amnesty International USA
Director of Research and Data, New Roots Institute [Remote]
Tech Fellowship 2026, Movement Labs [Remote]
Senior Data Product Manager and Service Designer, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose [deadline 2 Mar.]
Policy Researcher, AI Systems, Markets & Governance Programme [Germany / deadline 8 Mar.]
INTERNATIONAL
Senior Policy Officer: Climate and Development Finance, African Future Policies Hub [deadline 15 Mar.]
Senior Project Officer, Democratic Progress Institute [London / deadline 27 Feb.]
Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, WINGS [deadline 27 Feb.]
OGP Transparency Fellowship, Open Government Partnership [based in based in Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, or Georgia]
Project coordinator, Learning and Research, Eurocities [deadline 11 Mar.]
Managing Director, Programs (Asia), Open Society [deadline 5 Mar.]
Managing Director, Programs (Middle East & North Africa), Open Society [deadline 5 Mar.]
Managing Director, Programs (Latin American & Caribbean), Open Society [deadline 5 Mar.]
Program Manager, Open Society [Nairobi or Dakar / deadline 24 Feb.]
INTERNSHIPS + FELLOWSHIPS
Communications and Network Engagement Intern, CIVICUS [deadline 5 Mar.]
2026 Summer Intern, Future of Land and Housing Program, New America
Rule of Law Index Internship, World Justice Project
Fellowship 2026, Movement Labs [Remote]
Data Science for Social Good Fellowship, Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins [deadline 1 Mar.]
2026 Current Government Employee Fellowship, Govern for America [deadline 10 Mar.]
CONSULTANCIES + OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
Good Life Residents Program, Roosevelt Institute [deadline 4 Mar.]
Consultant, Criminal investigations training, Basel Institute on Governance [deadline 6 Mar.]
Consultancy: Research co-lead: Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) 2026 report, ALNAP – Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance [deadline 5 Mar.]
Call for consultant: Development of a participatory methodology, Caritas Europa [deadline 6 Mar.]
Short-Term Consultancy: Drafting a Comparison of Programmes of Parties in the 2026 Hungarian Parliamentary Elections and Scenario-Building for Different Outcomes, Democracy Reporting International [deadline 1 Mar.]
Terms of Reference (ToR): Facilitation of the WeRise Cohort 2 Harvesting Week 2.0, CIVICUS [deadline 25 Feb.]
RFP: Strengthening Trust and Resilience (STAR) Nontraditional Communications, Carter Center [deadline 6 Mar.]
Call for Governance Board, Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age [deadline 15 Mar.]
Impact Challenge: AI for Government Innovation, Google [deadline 3 Apr.]
Consultancy: Innovative European Procurement Practices, Partners for Public Good [deadline 13 Mar.]
Call for Papers: Public Planning in Latin America - Models, Capacities, and Experiences, International Association for Political Science Students [deadline 28 Feb.]
And lots more in the last newsletter: Government Works Weekly #66.