Dr. Francisca M. Rojas

Dr. Francisca M. Rojas

Submitted by on Wed, 04/04/2018 - 15:19

Dr. Francisca M. Rojas is Research Director of the Transparency Policy Project, which is affiliated with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning and a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. from the University of Michigan. Her recent work examines the social and political implications of information and communications technologies on systems of urban governance, development, and planning.

Recovery Act Transparency: Learning from States' Experiences

Submitted by on Tue, 07/24/2012 - 10:00

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included unprecedented provisions to disclose how more than $275 billion in grants, contracts, and loans were spent under the Act.  These requirements fell not only on federal agencies but also the recipients and sub-recipients of these monies.  In many cases, state governments were the focal point for collecting and reporting this information.  How did states respond?  Did this increased transparency change how states managed their own monies as well as federal dollars?  Are there lessons for future transparency efforts at the state or fed

Research Director
Harvard Kennedy School Transparency Policy Project Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Box 74
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

francisca_rojas@alum.mit.edu

Dr. Francisca M. Rojas is Research Director of the Transparency Policy Project, which is affiliated with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning and a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. from the University of Michigan. Her recent work examines the social and political implications of information and communications technologies on systems of urban governance, development, and planning. At the Transparency Policy Project, Rojas leads investigations into the effectiveness of transparency initiatives that employ digital technologies to assist in the disclosure and dissemination of information.

Previously, Rojas was a researcher at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and participated in groundbreaking projects that employed digital data to reveal large-scale urban dynamics, including the New York Talk Exchange, featured at MoMA in 2008, and Real Time Rome, shown at the 2006 Venice Biennale. Her dissertation work expanded on the New York Talk Exchange project to further investigate how telecommunications mediate international migration. As a practitioner, Rojas has experience working in public sector agencies, including as project planner for the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative in the Washington D.C. Office of Planning, and as a member of the team of advisors to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development in Santiago, Chile. Honors include a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the AT&T fellowship with the MIT SENSEable City Lab, and an MIT presidential fellowship.