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Blake Valenta

Senior Fellow

Blake is a Senior Fellow at InnovateUS where he focuses on training public sector workers and organizations on how to responsibly adopt and use AI.

Previously, Blake was the Deputy Director of Data Programs and Policy at the Office of Data and Innovation for the State of California.  Reporting to the statewide Chief Data Officer, Joy Bonaguro, he led efforts to ensure data teams had the tools and resources they needed to succeed. This included efforts to improve the data job classifications in the state and adapting and deploying an ethical AI framework & toolkit for use in ODI’s Data Science Accelerator service.  In his prior role, Blake was an Analytics Strategist at DataSF in the city and county of San Francisco where he created and grew a dashboarding service and managed the DataScienceSF service. As part of this service he helped deploy the city’s first AI ethics framework and toolkit.  Prior to that he was a Statistician at the Empirical Research Group at the UCLA School of Law and Public Policy Advocate at IWJ.

Blake holds degrees from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy and the University of Chicago. He lives in Oakland, CA with his wife Chris and many plants.

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