Partner Spotlight: Barri Shorey of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

On February 5-6, 2024, the Exchange Design team facilitated a hybrid training on data governance and AI for decision making for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. We sat down with Barri Shorey, who coordinated the training for 20 staff at the Foundation headquarters in Westlake Village, California.

Could you share a bit about yourself?

I currently lead the Refugees Initiative and Disaster Relief and Recovery program for the Foundation. We work with partners around the world to ensure forcibly displaced populations are able to access educational and economic opportunities, recover from shocks, and integrate into the new communities in which they find themselves. This is my first role as a donor and in philanthropy. Previously, I was on the implementation side for the last 16 years at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where I was responsible for overseeing and supporting refugees and displaced populations. 

What was the motivation behind this data and AI training?

We as donors collect a lot of data. And we want to make sure that when we’re asking our grantees for this data that we’re using it in a way that makes us smarter about our work. That’s especially important since these requests for data can often be time intensive and difficult for already busy grantees. But it’s also about determining what data is going to help us make decisions and tell us if we’re on the right course. For that, we often have the mechanisms in place but not necessarily the skills to do it most effectively and efficiently. That’s why we felt everyone could use this training on applying better leveraging and visualizing data for making decisions, even if in some cases it’s just taking it back to the basics.

How was the training received?

We often get caught up in our day to day in talking with grantees and implementing process steps in place for hitting our dollar targets. What we don’t get is enough time to think about how we’re going to use data, or to learn and flex new data skills. That's why when we opened up the training to staff outside of our Refugees team, they were also excited to join.

What resonated the most was hands-on experience with the different tools that make data easier to interpret and analyze, as well as understanding the shortcomings in order to hone in what’s best for us. The next steps would be for us to use the training skillset to better understand what data matters to our work, as well as identifying priorities on in order to better leverage data for our programs. After two days, it felt like we covered just the surface, but you can’t build without a foundation.

What would you say to someone who is considering organizing a similar training?

I highly recommend it, especially since there’s always new things happening with data analysis and visualization. Even if data skills are not where you have expertise, you are still a steward of all this data that people send you. And so you owe it to yourself to have that foundational data skill set, as well as deeper facilitated conversations with your colleagues on how you will collectively put those skills into practice.

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