We are all connected. We are one nation. And as public servants, we need to understand and live our mission to provide quality statistical data on our nation’s people and economy. Those data connect us; they connect one person to another. They offer the clues to how we can improve our society and how we can help each other by understanding who we are as a nation. It is our connections as the people of this nation that compel us to engage with each other.

Engaging allows us to share and respond to our individual needs that can be used by all, or needs that can vary by age, sex, gender, race/ethnicity, culture, language, health, and other socio-economic attributes. Engaging the public is the key to empowering the public with the data we produce. It allows us to enlighten folks about the incredible value of our data for communities. And, ultimately, it is a powerful catalyst for generating the partnerships and the trust that we need at the community level to motivate participation in our censuses and surveys.

That’s why I’ve spent much time advancing our continuous community-of-the-whole effort. I have engaged with stakeholders, partners, and local communities; with tribes in a nation-to-nation context; with Congress and other elected officials; and with my colleagues in the federal statistical system and the international statistical community. Through engagements like these – with honest, direct, and respectful dialogue – the U.S. Census Bureau’s core values of scientific integrity, transparency, objectivity, and independence can shine through.

We’re constantly assessing how we can improve our statistical programs to better serve and represent our nation’s people, including its underserved groups. An important part of our efforts is a commitment to seek out different perspectives and actively engage the public in our work. Such engagement propels excellence to a new level and facilitates more relevant statistical data products. It’s imperative that we continue to engage stakeholders, partners, and local communities across America. It is an important part of our mission.

To that end, over the past three years I – accompanied by Census Bureau staff – have completed more than 170 community engagement trips across 30 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. While on these travels, I’ve conducted over 550 community conversations with the public. Efforts like this year’s convening on disability measurement, our historic agreement with the Osage nation, and our implementation of Statistical Policy Directive 15 – which I’ve written about previously – are also important milestones towards that goal.

Let me tell you a bit about what else we’ve been doing to serve the public and advance our continuous engagement priority since my last update:

I attended the Florida Housing Coalition Statewide Affordable Housing Conference to talk about where our challenges lie in collecting, producing, and disseminating housing data – data that is key for measuring equity in Florida and other states. I also shared how our housing data assets can be used by policymakers and the public to advance equity.

I spoke with local community groups and officials in Ft. Myers about how Census Bureau data tools can help communities, planners, federal and local emergency management agencies, as well as others, to prepare and respond to natural disasters. (You can find these tools at disasters.census.gov.)

I also had the chance to meet with the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava, and staff from Rep. Maxwell Frost’s office. We discussed how Census Bureau data can be used by their constituents and how we can better help them access our data.

A very important event involved meeting with leadership of the Miccosukee Tribe – the first documented attempt at partnership building between our agency and this Nation in over two decades. I reiterated my respect for tribal sovereignty, and together, we discussed how we can work together in the future. Our partnership has already begun to bear fruit. In November, for the first time, tribal leadership worked with Census Bureau staff to engage with the Miccosukee Tribe to respond to the Business Economic Survey. We appreciated their partnership and hope to establish elements for data collection for other surveys and the 2030 Census.

In Georgia, I met with a variety of community groups to discuss how Census Bureau data can aid decision making and activities in a host of areas including economic development, health, and environmental sustainability and agriculture. Our demographic data can be critical in providing context to areas of Georgia and other states that are experiencing population and demographic change.

I also visited Georgia Southern University to witness Census Bureau data in action. I enjoyed learning more about how their undergraduate students use our data in their research projects and how faculty members use our resources to help prepare students for degrees that match community needs.

Closer to our Census Bureau headquarters, it was a pleasure to meet with George Mason University’s chapter of the American Statistical Association. I met with students and faculty to discuss the Census Bureau’s programs, methods and data tools, and our role in the federal statistical system. I also told them about what it’s like to work in a federal agency, and encouraged them to consider joining us.

This fall, I visited Pawhuska, OK, to sign a historic agreement with the Osage Nation to share information for the benefit of the Osage people. With this agreement, we now have a framework for the Osage Nation to share aggregated administrative data directly with the Census Bureau on topics like education, military service, household information, employment, health and wellness, housing, and income and expenses. We are deeply honored to be able to cooperate and work together through this agreement.

During a trip to Utah, I attended a conference hosted by the Wasatch Front Federal Statistical Research Center (FSRDC). By providing local researchers secure access to federal data for advanced research and analysis, FSRDCs allow academics to address previously unanswerable research questions. This research is vital to improving our understanding in our nation’s population and economy. It enables local officials, industry leaders, and others to make more informed, timely, and data-driven decisions. FSRDCs are important partners in our work and we are appreciative of the insights they have given us over the years.

I also visited several institutions of higher education across the state – Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Utah. It was gratifying to meet so many students and faculty and hear about how they use our data in their research. And I was able to tell them about our innovative data tools and our plans for modernizing and transforming our work. I hope that many of the students I spoke with chose to bring their talents to the Census Bureau!

I was also able to meet with local community members and leaders, including representatives from our state-level partner organizations and of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. I updated them on our preparations for the 2030 Census, and I appreciate their insights into our efforts to reach historically undercounted and hard to count populations in their state.

Finally, I attended an “American Community Survey (ACS) On The Road” event, held by Census Bureau staff in conjunction with the Population Reference Bureau and the Utah State Data Center. We met with ACS users to talk about what’s new in this great survey, and to hear about how its data is used and where users need additional support.

This year, I had several opportunities to meet with legislators on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month, I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability. I appreciated these legislators’ questions about our programs and methods, and was able to tell them more about a wide range of topics including the results of the Post-Enumeration Survey for the 2020 Census, our timeline and planning for the 2030 Census, and content for the next census and the ACS.

I was also invited to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to tell them about our preparations for the 2030 Census, including the research we are conducting focused on reaching members of historically undercounted and hard-to-count populations.

In seeking out diverse perspectives and ideas, our colleagues at national statistical offices in other countries are a valuable source of inspiration and collaboration. Countries worldwide face many similar challenges with enumerating their populations. By working collectively to discuss the challenges and ways to overcome obstacles, we can all benefit.

In that vein, I traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the 32nd Population Census Conference hosted by the Association of National Census and Statistics Directors of America, Asia and the Pacific. I was able to meet with fellow national statistical office leaders to discuss new data sources and technologies for the 2030 round of censuses. Census Bureau colleagues and I provided information about programs and support we provide to many countries around the world, and discussed new improvements to data collection methodology that other agencies may find helpful while planning their own population census.

On top of these travels to meet people in their own communities, we have conducted numerous virtual engagements with stakeholders and partners throughout the year.  Virtual events can offer an efficient means of engaging when physical visitation is not possible. We are committed to using all communication methods at our disposal to engage and work with the public.

Thank you to everyone who’s shared their voice and perspective with us over the past several months. I’ll keep updating you as I connect with even more communities and organizations across the country!