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Welcome to the 2025 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Data Management Workshop!
or to register for this event.
Monday, February 10
 

10:00am EST

Optional Coffee Hour
Monday February 10, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST
Monday February 10, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST

11:00am EST

Welcome
Monday February 10, 2025 11:00am - 11:15am EST
Speakers
SM

Soha Mahgoub

FWS ACIO/AD IRTM, USFWS
Monday February 10, 2025 11:00am - 11:15am EST

11:15am EST

Workshop Introduction
Monday February 10, 2025 11:15am - 11:30am EST
Speakers
JD

Jason Duke

FWS Associate Chief Data Officer, USFWS
Monday February 10, 2025 11:15am - 11:30am EST

11:30am EST

Quality Management
Monday February 10, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
Monday February 10, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST

12:00pm EST

Data Management Needs Assessment
Monday February 10, 2025 12:00pm - 12:30pm EST
Speakers
avatar for Erica Mize

Erica Mize

FWS Data Architect, USFWS
Erica Mize is an avid conservationist and self-professed conservation data champion. Erica has worked with the Service for 8 years and currently serves as the Data Management Division's Science Advisor. She's had an interesting career including experiences with parasites, plague... Read More →
JD

Jason Duke

FWS Associate Chief Data Officer, USFWS
Monday February 10, 2025 12:00pm - 12:30pm EST

12:30pm EST

From Field to Database: Integrating Diverse Data for Comprehensive African Elephant Population Insights
Monday February 10, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST
Conserving African elephant populations requires the integration of diverse, regionally collected datasets to create a cohesive and actionable understanding of population size, distribution, and trends. Methods such as aerial surveys, dung counts, GPS tracking, and, in dense habitats, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, and DNA analysis contribute valuable data, yet they vary widely in collection approaches and settings. The African Elephant Database (AED) plays an essential role in consolidating these disparate datasets, transforming diverse data into a unified, reliable resource that informs conservation strategies. By synthesizing this information, the African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) provides critical insights to range states and international organizations like CITES, supporting evidence-based management and policy decisions. This integration-driven approach highlights the power of data integration and harmonization in addressing conservation challenges across Africa.
Speakers
RO

Rachel Ouma

IUCN AfESG Administrative Assistant, IUCN
RM

Rose Mayienda

IUCN AfESG Database Manager, IUCN
MY

Mohammed Yahya

IUCN AfESG Senior Program Officer, IUCN
Monday February 10, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST

1:00pm EST

Break
Monday February 10, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Monday February 10, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Data Sovereignty in BIA
Monday February 10, 2025 2:00pm - 2:30pm EST
Speakers
avatar for Veronica Lane

Veronica Lane

Chief Data Officer, BIA
Dr. Veronica Lane is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) serving the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.. As CDO, Dr. Lane works on developing and implementing data policy, overseeing data governance, and developing data management practices and coordinating data strategy... Read More →
Monday February 10, 2025 2:00pm - 2:30pm EST

2:30pm EST

Data Sovereignty
Monday February 10, 2025 2:30pm - 3:30pm EST
Speakers
RS

Regan Smyth

NatureServ
Monday February 10, 2025 2:30pm - 3:30pm EST

3:30pm EST

Ethics, Data sovereignty, Laws and Regulations- What's a data manager to do?
Monday February 10, 2025 3:30pm - 4:00pm EST
Speakers
TT

Thomas "Tod" Dabolt

DOI CDO, Department of the Interior
Monday February 10, 2025 3:30pm - 4:00pm EST
 
Tuesday, February 11
 

10:00am EST

Optional Coffee Hour
Tuesday February 11, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST
Tuesday February 11, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST

11:00am EST

Confidence By Design: How to Improve the Quality of Data Collected During Ecological Monitoring Part I
Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST
Are you interested in learning how to improve the quality, reliability, and usability of your ecological data? If so, then please join us as we walk through elements of systematic planning – a quality management framework promoted by the U.S. EPA to assist scientists, managers, and practitioners in the development and achievement of established data quality performance standards. This interactive course provides participants the opportunity to engage in discussion and hands-on exercises on the concepts and applications of data quality planning, implementation, and assessment, fundamental to environmental research and monitoring activities. This half-day training session has been designed to enhance competency in both career- and entry-level professionals on the practical applications of quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) best practices. Support to this training was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:   
  • Describe the Purpose of Systematic Planning 
  • Describe the Value of a Data Management Plan 
  • Develop Meaningful Goals and “SMART” Project Objectives 
  • Define Performance/Acceptance Criteria for Indicators of Data Quality (i.e., data quality indicators) 
  • Describe the Distinction Between Implementation and Effectiveness Monitoring 
  • Describe Why it’s Important to Incorporate “Independent” Oversight 
  • Describe Quality Control Procedures Used During Monitoring 
  • Describe Why it’s Important to Conduct Data Quality Review 
  • Describe the Process Involved in Verifying and Validating Project Data 
  • Describe the Purpose of Certifying Your Data 
Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST

11:00am EST

Dynamic Reporting with Quarto
Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST
The intent of this course is to provide an introduction to Quarto for intermediate to advanced R users seeking to develop automated reports. We will cover the basics of Quarto, followed by a walkthrough of the three primary components of a Quarto file: the YAML metadata, text, and code blocks. After discussing each component, we will offer brief exercises that allow participants to explore how these components can customize documents. Our goal is for participants to leave with foundational skills necessary to create a Quarto report.

Learning Objectives 
  • Introduce Quarto and its applications.   
  • Describe the three components of a Quarto file: YAML metadata, text, and code blocks.  
  • Provide opportunities for hands-on exploration of Quarto components through in-class exercises.  
Prerequisites: 
  • Intermediate knowledge of R 
  • Our course will require having R and R Studio installed on computers. 
Speakers
JW

Jonah Withers

Fisheries and Ecological Services Data Manager, USFWS
MC

McCrea Cobb

Supervisory Biometrician, Refuges, USFWS
JC

Jacob Cochran

Fish Biologist, USFWS
JR

Jason Ross

IT Specialist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST

1:00pm EST

Break
Tuesday February 11, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Tuesday February 11, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Confidence By Design: How to Improve the Quality of Data Collected During Ecological Monitoring Part II
Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST


Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST

2:00pm EST

Unlocking Research Visibility: ORCIDs and DOIs
Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST
Join us to explore how Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCIDs) can increase the visibility of your research.  We will cover the basics of obtaining and managing these identifiers, focusing on their benefits for tracking research outputs and improving data sharing.

Audience: Service employees not familiar with scholarly publishing and public access requirements in the Fish and Wildlife Service.  

Objective: Service employees will better understand permanent identifiers for tracking research outputs and improving data sharing with an overall goal of increased open science practices.  

Skills Learned:  Service employees will have a scholarly profile and be able to mint DOI’s for research products  

Materials/Resources:  
Computer, come with one research product: a dataset, a publication, etc. 


Speakers
MB

Megan Burdi

National Librarian, USFWS, NCTC
Megan Burdi is the National Librarian for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the National Conservation Training Center. She has a passion for making information more accessible and discoverable through digital stewardship and research services. In her role, she finds innovative... Read More →
Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST

4:30pm EST

Virtual Data Trivia
Tuesday February 11, 2025 4:30pm - 5:30pm EST
Speakers
RT

Ryan Tietjen

Acting Branch Chief, Data Branch, USFWS
Tuesday February 11, 2025 4:30pm - 5:30pm EST
 
Wednesday, February 12
 

10:00am EST

Optional Coffee Hour
Wednesday February 12, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST
Wednesday February 12, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST

11:00am EST

Fixing Broken Systems
Wednesday February 12, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am EST
Speakers
JK

Jeena Koenig

Data Coordinator • Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program, USFWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am EST

11:30am EST

Continuous Improvement in FWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
Speakers
avatar for Maren Tuttle-Lau

Maren Tuttle-Lau

Geneticist/Quality Assurance Specialist • Fisheries, USFWS
Pronouns: she/her/hersLanguages spoken: EnglishDuty station time zone: CentralI serve as a Geneticist, QA/QC Specialist in the Region 3 FAC Invasive Carp eDNA Program and am based out of Whitney Genetics Lab located within the Midwest Fisheries Center. I also serve on the R3 FAC Data... Read More →
Wednesday February 12, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST

12:00pm EST

Federal Data Center Enhancement Act
Wednesday February 12, 2025 12:00pm - 12:30pm EST
Speakers
BC

Brandi Church

Project Manager, USFWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 12:00pm - 12:30pm EST

12:30pm EST

Promoting Efficiency at Field Stations through Data Integration and Automation
Wednesday February 12, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST
Speakers
BW

Ben Walker

Wildlife Biologist, USFWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST

1:00pm EST

Break
Wednesday February 12, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Wednesday February 12, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Data Quality Workgroup
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
Data Quality Working Group, Facilitator: Maren Tuttle-Lau
  • Data quality is a multifaceted concept influenced by several key factors, including accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, uniqueness, and validity. Ensuring high data quality is crucial, as poor-quality data can lead to unreliable results and conclusions, adversely affecting customer service, employee productivity, and strategic decision-making. The objective of this Working Group is to develop a plan to increase data quality awareness within the FWS in 2025.
Speakers
avatar for Maren Tuttle-Lau

Maren Tuttle-Lau

Geneticist/Quality Assurance Specialist • Fisheries, USFWS
Pronouns: she/her/hersLanguages spoken: EnglishDuty station time zone: CentralI serve as a Geneticist, QA/QC Specialist in the Region 3 FAC Invasive Carp eDNA Program and am based out of Whitney Genetics Lab located within the Midwest Fisheries Center. I also serve on the R3 FAC Data... Read More →
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Working Better Together I
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
The Data Management community and related groups like IRTM are implementing organizational change around our data practices. This is hard enough on its own. But rather than putting on a unified front to improve the organization, we are often divided and competing with each other for budgets, kingdom building, or just the right to say “first”. This group will use materials from the 2023 workshop to refine a vision for collaborative work, review and prioritize barriers, and start a rough implementation plan for reaching the vision. 
Overall Vision
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service effectively and efficiently creates and maintains centralized data assets that are shared and communicated widely for the benefit of the agency, agency’s partners, and the public while fostering recognition and innovation at all levels for solutions to current and future data problems that are shared and utilized by the entire agency regardless of program or region. We have broken the visions from the 2023 data workshop visions down into 3 categories.
Three goals to work towards:
  1. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rapidly innovates on the data and data tool front, balancing national strategically planned efforts and data standards against rapid prototyping at various levels of the organization: Balancing planned advances and rapid innovation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s data are the foundation of conservation success. As Service employees, we will produce data that are rigorous, discoverable, documented, accessible, and secure. 
  2. Clear communication about projects helps minimize duplication of efforts and fosters collaboration across organizational silos: Improving communication about new projects and ongoing work. 
  3. The Service values and recognizes staff contributions, particularly when locally developed concepts are adopted and adapted for broader use: Incentives and valuing staff contributions.

Speakers
AA

Andy Allstadt

Regional Data Manager • Science Applications, USFWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Working Better Together II
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
The Data Management community and related groups like IRTM are implementing organizational change around our data practices. This is hard enough on its own. But rather than putting on a unified front to improve the organization, we are often divided and competing with each other for budgets, kingdom building, or just the right to say “first”. This group will use materials from the 2023 workshop to refine a vision for collaborative work, review and prioritize barriers, and start a rough implementation plan for reaching the vision.
Overall Vision
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service effectively and efficiently creates and maintains centralized data assets that are shared and communicated widely for the benefit of the agency, agency’s partners, and the public while fostering recognition and innovation at all levels for solutions to current and future data problems that are shared and utilized by the entire agency regardless of program or region. We have broken the visions from the 2023 data workshop visions down into 3 categories.
Three goals to work towards: •
  1. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rapidly innovates on the data and data tool front, balancing national strategically planned efforts and data standards against rapid prototyping at various levels of the organization: Balancing planned advances and rapid innovation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s data are the foundation of conservation success. As Service employees, we will produce data that are rigorous, discoverable, documented, accessible, and secure. 
  2. Clear communication about projects helps minimize duplication of efforts and fosters collaboration across organizational silos: Improving communication about new projects and ongoing work. 
  3. The Service values and recognizes staff contributions, particularly when locally developed concepts are adopted and adapted for broader use: Incentives and valuing staff contributions.

Speakers
JK

Jeena Koenig

Data Coordinator • Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program, USFWS
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Working Better Together III
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
The Data Management community and related groups like IRTM are implementing organizational change around our data practices. This is hard enough on its own. But rather than putting on a unified front to improve the organization, we are often divided and competing with each other for budgets, kingdom building, or just the right to say “first”. This group will use materials from the 2023 workshop to refine a vision for collaborative work, review and prioritize barriers, and start a rough implementation plan for reaching the vision.
Overall Vision
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service effectively and efficiently creates and maintains centralized data assets that are shared and communicated widely for the benefit of the agency, agency’s partners, and the public while fostering recognition and innovation at all levels for solutions to current and future data problems that are shared and utilized by the entire agency regardless of program or region. We have broken the visions from the 2023 data workshop visions down into 3 categories.
Three goals to work towards: •
  1. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rapidly innovates on the data and data tool front, balancing national strategically planned efforts and data standards against rapid prototyping at various levels of the organization: Balancing planned advances and rapid innovation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s data are the foundation of conservation success. As Service employees, we will produce data that are rigorous, discoverable, documented, accessible, and secure. 
  2. Clear communication about projects helps minimize duplication of efforts and fosters collaboration across organizational silos: Improving communication about new projects and ongoing work. 
  3. The Service values and recognizes staff contributions, particularly when locally developed concepts are adopted and adapted for broader use: Incentives and valuing staff contributions.

Speakers
CK

Chelsea Kross

Data Science Course Leader, USFWS, NCTC
Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
 
Thursday, February 13
 

11:00am EST

Continuous Improvement: White Belt Part I
Thursday February 13, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST
This course will cover the fundamentals of Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints and Continuous Process Improvement (CPI).  

Innovation through CPI is a key skill for effective program and project management and ensuring products remain on time and on budget. These methodologies are applied to risk management, data management, performance improvement, and evidence-based decision making.

The course will be led by Billy Skaradek, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with numerous federal process improvements to his credit.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion, you will:
  • Understand the key concepts of Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and CPI.
  • Have a rudimentary understanding of some tools used in improving processes.
  • Assist with CPI process improvement projects as a sponsor or subject matter expert.
  • Assist with identification of improvement opportunities.

Target Audience: FWS employees that manage or use routine processes, want to improve efficiency and effectiveness, and are challenged to “do more with less”.

Speakers
Thursday February 13, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST

11:00am EST

Tidy Data - A Strategy & Mindset
Thursday February 13, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST
Tidy Data - A Strategy & Mindset - Bonnie Campbell 
FWS gathers a tsunami of data daily. To be usable this data must first be tidied. Tidying allows us to process data more efficiently for understanding and use. This course aims to encourage consideration and use of the tidy data strategy & mindset for the data we use in FWS.

Combines presentation & hands on activities.

Learning Objectives:
  • Recognize the difference between tidy & messy data
  • Identify & fix issues that make data messy vs. tidy
  • Add tools to your quiver for making data tidy

Speakers
BC

Bonnie Campbell

Regional Data Manager, USFWS
Thursday February 13, 2025 11:00am - 12:45pm EST

1:00pm EST

Break
Thursday February 13, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Thursday February 13, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

2:00pm EST

Continuous Improvement: White Belt Part II
Thursday February 13, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST


Speakers
Thursday February 13, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST

2:00pm EST

DGEC Training (Github)
Thursday February 13, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST
Learn about DOI GitHub Enterprise Cloud (DGEC), related policies, its origin and implementation. DGEC features, access requirements, collaboration, tie-in with code.gov and more. Combines presentation & hands on activities. Learning Objectives: + Know why DGEC is important for your work + Know where to go for DGEC information & support + Know how to obtain access, establish repositories, leverage features + Become familiar with internal & sponsored collaborators workflows Prerequisites: None. Familiarity with code development (including versioning & control) Git, GitHub is a plus. Lab computers require: Git, R, RStudio
Speakers
BC

Bonnie Campbell

Regional Data Manager, USFWS
Thursday February 13, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EST
 
Friday, February 14
 

10:00am EST

Optional Coffee Hour
Friday February 14, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST
Friday February 14, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EST

11:00am EST

Public Access Plan
Friday February 14, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am EST
Speakers
avatar for Charisa Morris

Charisa Morris

Science Integrity Officer, USFWS
Friday February 14, 2025 11:00am - 11:30am EST

11:30am EST

The IUCN A.P.E.S. Database - A Tool for great apes conservation: Development, Lessons learned and Innovations
Friday February 14, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
This talk will explore the 20-year history and development of the IUCN APES database, a unique repository for population survey data on chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans. We will outline the entire workflow of the APES database, from data requests to data storage, based on a simple folder structure created with the R programming language. This structure is efficient for accommodating the various types of data associated with ape research and conservation, including both tabular and spatial datasets. We will share insights on the switch from a relational database to the current structure, lessons learned, and the collaborative frameworks that support the APES project. We also look forward to receiving feedback from conference participants at this meeting.
Speakers
LK

Lars Kulik

Guest Researcher, Senckenberg Museum of Natural History
avatar for Tenekwetche Sop

Tenekwetche Sop

A.P.E.S. Database Manager, Senckenberg Museum of Natural History
Friday February 14, 2025 11:30am - 12:00pm EST

12:00pm EST

'23 Data Champion Team Award Winners
Friday February 14, 2025 12:00pm - 12:15pm EST
Speakers
RL

Ray LaLiberte

Program Analyst • JAO - Enterprise Analytics, USFWS
RL

Rick Laney

Program Analyst, USFWS
SN

Shawna Nagel

Program Analyst, USFWS
Friday February 14, 2025 12:00pm - 12:15pm EST

12:15pm EST

'23 Data Champion Individual Award Winner
Friday February 14, 2025 12:15pm - 12:30pm EST
Speakers
GD

Gabe DeAlessio

National Wildlife Refuge System GIS Coordinator • NWRS, USFWS
Friday February 14, 2025 12:15pm - 12:30pm EST

12:30pm EST

Closing Remarks
Friday February 14, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST
Speakers
JD

Jason Duke

FWS Associate Chief Data Officer, USFWS
Friday February 14, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm EST
 
2025 FWS Data Management Workshop
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