Federal 100: Drew Zachary
Name: Drew Zachary
Title: Director and Co-Founder, The Opportunity Project, and Co-Director, Census Open Innovation Labs, Census Bureau
Agency: Commerce Department
Innovation matchmaker. With The Opportunity Project, Zachary has operationalized pulling in private-sector experts to help agencies create digital tools to tackle critical mission challenges. Technology developers, data scientists and other specialists from industry, academia and the nonprofit world partner with government teams for tightly focused design sprints. Zachary’s data-driven approach befits her parent agency, but the effort’s impact is being felt far beyond the Census Bureau. The recently completed TOP Health project, for example — a multiagency collaboration that produced another 2019 Federal 100 winner — was developed directly from Zachary’s blueprint.