Census Matters to Arizona Symposium Panelists
Garrett Archer, also known as "the AZ Data Guru" on twitter is the data analyst for ABC 15. Before joining the newsroom, he was the Senior Elections Analyst for the Arizona Secretary of State. Prior to that he had an extensive background working for political candidates and consultants from both sides of the aisle to develop analytical electoral strategies. He is originally from Southern California where he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science.
Jim Chang has been the Arizona State Demographer since 2012. He is with the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity that is responsible for producing official population estimates and projections for the State of Arizona and its counties and incorporated places. These products are used by state agencies and local governments for various purposes from expenditure limitations to infrastructure planning. Jim represents Arizona on the Federal-State Cooperative for Publication Estimates (FSCPE) and the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Projections (FSCPP). He served on the FSCPE Steering Committee and is past chairman of the FSCPP. He works closely with the U.S. Census Bureau on its decennial census and annual population estimates programs. Prior to joining the State Demographer's Office, Jim was staff demographer for the Arizona School Facilities Board between 2006 and 2010, where he developed a system for making enrollment projections for school districts. Jim received his bachelor's degree in English from China. He has a master's degree in Information Management and a Ph.D. in Sociology (specializing in Demography), both from Arizona State University.
Elvia Díaz is a columnist and editorial board member at the Arizona Republic.
She has more than 20 years of print, radio, and online journalism experience in English and Spanish.
After earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, the Mexican native worked for the Statemans Journal in Salem, Oregon, and the Albuquerque Journal in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In 1999, she joined The Republic where she has held several reporting and editing positions.
Contact her at elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com
Twitter: @elviadiaz1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elvia.diaz.353
Lydia Guzman is the Director of Advocacy and Civic Engagement at Chicanos Por La Causa. She is also a Member of The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) since the mid 80's holding several local and national leadership positions with that organization. She was one of the founding officers of the Somos America Coalition (We Are America) and served as its president for two terms. She has worked for the Office of the Arizona Secretary of State as Director of Voting Outreach, The Clean Elections Institute as Director of Outreach and Service Employees International Union. Lydia has a life-long history of community service as a volunteer assisting with citizenship fairs in California post Prop 187 then in Arizona. Lydia is mostly known as an advocate on issues for migrant rights, civil rights, human rights and also voting rights. Lydia has received numerous awards including, The Chicanos Por La Causa "Lorraine Lee Advocacy Award", The LULAC Aztec Award for Civil Rights and the LULAC Presidential Commendation Award and also received Phoenix New Times Best Of awards for two consecutive years and has been featured in many local and national publications for her work in the community.
Carla Vargas Jasa is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Valley of the Sun United Way, which serves the more than 4.3M people of Maricopa County by fighting for kids, families and the neighborhoods where they live. Valley of the Sun United Way is the 3rd largest United Way in the nation with annual revenues in excess of $85M and is supported by 90,000 individual donors, 5,000 volunteers, 400 companies and hundreds of non-profits and schools. Under her leadership, United Way works to improve the lives of community members by focusing on systemic change efforts impacting kids and families in Maricopa County’s underserved communities.
Lauren Kuby- Tempe Vice Mayor Lauren Kuby was elected to the Tempe City Council - her first elected office - on a sustainability platform in 2014 and re-elected in March 2018. She is a long-time community leader who advocates for worker protections, vulnerable populations, and climate-change action. Lauren is a recognized national champion for cities as incubators of innovation. Veteran journalist Juan Gonzales featured Lauren in his book Reclaiming Gotham, citing her as evidence of a growing movement of cities taking progressive action and challenging legislative interference in local democracies.
Lauren has led Tempe's efforts for social, economic and environmental justice, including: equal pay, earned sick days, climate action plan, affordable housing, animal welfare, urban forestry, transparency, and campaign-finance reform. She spearheaded a dark money disclosure amendment to the City's charter, garnering 91% support from the voters. For her efforts exposing the corrosive influence of money in local elections, Lauren was featured in the inaugural episode of the MSNBC docuseries, American Swamp.
Trisalyn Nelson is a Foundation Professor and director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her research develops and uses spatial and spatial-temporal analyses to address applied questions in a wide range of fields from ecology to health. Currently, her research focuses on two areas: wildlife movement and active transportation. Her research team is developing new GIScience approaches to quantifying movement, particularly from wildlife telemetry data, and applying methods to better understand conservation strategies for grizzly bears. Most recently, Nelson has led the creation of www.BikeMaps.org, a web-map and App to gather volunteered geographic information on cycling collisions and near misses. Nelson's research team uses BikeMaps.org and other crowdsourced data to quantify and monitor patterns of urban cycling safety and ridership.
Professor Nelson enjoys working collaboratively and has worked with more than 100 co-authors on more than 110 publications. She has secured $13.2 million research dollars ($9.3 million jointly and $3.9 solely) and been the primary supervisor of 24 graduate students. She is particularly energized by working with industry partners to develop and solve applied research questions. She has partnered with software companies, mapping agencies, urban planning consultants, police departments, and insurance agencies. She also works with cities and national governments on issues ranging from safe cycling to forest management.
Professor Nelson was at the University of Victoria in Geography from 2005 to 2016. There she founded and directed the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research (SPAR) Lab, was director of the Geomatics Program, and held the Lansdowne Research Chair in Spatial Sciences.
Alec Thomson is the director of the Arizona Complete Count Committee for the Office of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a statewide paid advertising and community engagement initiative promoting Arizona's complete count in the 2020 Census. Previously, Alec served Governor Ducey's administration as the COO of the Arizona-Mexico Commission, where he led binational policy and economic initiatives for the State of Arizona. In addition, Alec specializes in media relations, with a focus on Hispanic media, helping promote initiatives of the Office of the Governor to Arizona's statewide and local outlets. Alec prides himself on his personal and professional diversity, with proven experience working at the municipal, state, and federal levels of government and in both the public and private sectors. Alec knows how to build relationships and collaborate, across diverse groups, party lines and borders to build consensus to achieve common goals. Alec is actively involved in the community, serving on the Friends of Public Radio Arizona Board of Directors, supporting KJZZ 9.15, Arizona's NPR member station. He volunteers with numerous community groups including the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, various political campaigns, among other causes. A proud Sun Devil, Alec graduated from Arizona State University in 2011 and is working towards his Masters in Science in Strategic Communication from Purdue University.
Scott Wilken is the Senior Planning Project Manager for the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG). He is coordinating the technical preparations for Census 2020, helping MAG and its member agencies prepare for the decennial census. He is an instructor of the MAG Interactive Map Viewer training sessions. He is the primary liaison between the MAG Regional Analytics Division and MAG member agencies on matters of data collection and review, information distribution, and overall regional planning. He also serves as MAG staff for the Population Technical Advisory Committee and the Building Codes Committee.
Mr. Wilken came to MAG in June 2011. Prior to working at MAG, he was the Senior Planner for the City of Avondale, Arizona. Before moving to Arizona, he worked as a planner in the Chicago area for the Village of Hoffman Estates, and in the St. Louis area for Jefferson County, Missouri. He received a Bachelor of Arts in History & Geography from Illinois College in 1999 and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Ball State University in 2003. In 2004 he successfully completed the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) exam.