Data Day 2026: From Data to Impact: Building Indiana's Intelligent Future
The Indiana Management Performance Hub is proud to present Data Day 2026, bringing together 500+ state employees, data professionals and innovation leaders for a full day of learning, collaboration and inspiration.
In an era of rapid technological change, this year's theme—"From Data to Impact: Building Indiana's Intelligent Future"—challenges us to transform how state government uses data. As artificial intelligence and emerging technologies expand what's possible, the fundamentals matter more than ever: strong governance frameworks, robust privacy protections and the analytical skills to turn data into decisions. Data Day 2026 explores both the innovations reshaping our work and the strategic foundations that make those innovations trustworthy and effective.
Data Day 2026 Session Tracks:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Emerging Technology
- Data Governance & Privacy
- Visualization & Analytics
- Data in Action
Who Should Attend
Data Day is designed for:
- Directors and agency leaders seeking data-driven solutions
- Chief Data Officers and governance professionals
- IT directors and technical staff
- Data analysts and scientists
- Program managers and policy leaders
- Anyone working to improve government through better data use
No advanced data skills required. Sessions range from introductory to advanced, with something valuable for every experience level.
Cost: Free for state employees and Indiana data community members
Lunch: Provided for attendees
Location: Indiana Government Center Conference Center & Auditorium, Indianapolis
Registration Information - Closes April 27 at Noon
Data Day session registration now available - Closes April 28 at Noon
Keynote Panel—From Data to Impact: AI in Public Service
9:00 – 9:50 a.m. in the Auditorium
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the work of public service — and the leaders closest to it are asking the same questions you are. How do we deploy these tools at scale? How do we do it responsibly? And how do we build a strategy that lasts?
The Data Day 2026 keynote brings together leaders from industry, government and the privacy and policy community for a moderated panel exploring the full lifecycle of enterprise AI adoption. From the tools entering the workplace to the rollout of Copilot happening right now across Indiana state government to the policy and regulatory guardrails shaping responsible use — this conversation covers where we are, what's working and what comes next.
Moderator
🔵 Pete Miller Chief Data Officer, State of Indiana
Panelists
🔵 Scott Wiltsey AI Workforce Solution Sales Director, Microsoft - The industry perspective on how AI tools are being deployed at scale across organizations. See bio
🔵 Erik Huntoon Deputy IT Director, Indiana Office of Technology - The practitioner's perspective — leading the rollout of Microsoft Copilot for state government across Indiana's GCC environment.
🔵 Stan Crosley Managing Partner, Crosley Law Offices and IAPP - The policy and regulatory guardrails that shape responsible AI adoption, drawing on more than 25 years of privacy and data strategy experience.
Data Day Breakout Sessions
10 a.m. Block
| Room Location | Presentation Information | Description |
|---|---|---|
Auditorium 10 a.m. | No PhD Required: A Practical Guide to AI in the Workplace Presenter: Dr. Zach Horton, Principal Data Scientist, Indiana Management Performance Hub Track: AI & Emerging Technology | AI increasingly finds its way into organizational and policy discussions, but knowing what to do with it is a challenge many people share. This session showcases ways AI has impacted organizations both in and out of state government and offers practical guidance on finding opportunities to leverage this exciting technology. Whether you're just getting started or looking for new use cases, this session provides an accessible, real-world look at what's possible. |
Conference Room C 10 a.m. | Minimum Viable Governance: Balancing Control and Agility Presenters: Matthew Stucky, Data Governance Lead, Indiana Department of Health and Chris Schilling, Data Governance Program Manager, Indiana Management Performance Hub Track: Data Governance & Privacy | Too much governance slows projects; too little exposes organizations to risk. This session introduces Minimum Viable Governance — a practical, risk-based approach delivering just enough structure to manage risk without stifling agility. Learn the core principles, see practical examples from data and cloud governance, and hear how IDOH is applying MVG to streamline policies and enable faster delivery. Leave with actionable steps to implement MVG in your own organization. |
Conference Room 1 10 a.m. | Using the Indiana State Cancer Registry to Evaluate a Community Cancer Cluster Near an EPA Superfund Site Presenter: Taylor Eisele, Cancer Epidemiologist, Indiana Department of Health Track: Data in Action | Following community concern about an EPA Superfund site in Martinsville, Indiana, IDOH conducted a 20-year retrospective analysis using the Indiana State Cancer Registry. This session walks through the methodology, findings, and challenges of cancer cluster investigations — including why they rarely establish causal links between environmental exposures and cancer outcomes, and why clear public communication about interpretation constraints is essential. |
Conference Room 4 10 a.m. | Monitoring Local Acute Respiratory Disease Trends Using an Interactive Data Dashboard and Custom Alert Thresholds in Marion County Presenter: Alexandra Curtis, Epidemiologist, Marion County Public Health Department Track: Visualization & Analytics | State and regional respiratory disease trends frequently differ from local patterns in Marion County. This session presents county-level severity thresholds developed using emergency department data and the Moving Epidemic Method for RSV, influenza-like illness, COVID-like illness, and a broad acute respiratory indicator. Learn how an interactive Power BI dashboard was built to track these trends, how stakeholder input refined the approach, and how the alert system was incorporated into existing communication processes to support unified public health action during flu season. |
11 a.m. Block
| Room Location | Presentation Information | Description |
|---|---|---|
Auditorium 11 a.m. | Getting More from Copilot: Practical Prompting for State Agencies Presenter: Colin Stauffer, Partner Track: AI & Emerging Technology | Most state employees have access to Microsoft Copilot but few are using it to its full potential. This hands-on session covers prompting best practices and live demonstrations showing how agencies can use Copilot to draft, summarize, research, and streamline everyday work. |
Conference Room C 11 a.m | How you can help shape AI at the State of Indiana Presenters: John Stark, Director of Data Governance and Scott Maitland, Director of Enterprise Solutions, Indiana Management Performance Hub Track: Data Governance & Privacy | Artificial Intelligence is transforming how the State of Indiana delivers services, solves problems, and plans for the future—but the most powerful innovations start with you. In this session, MPH will walk through the practical ways you can engage with enterprise AI efforts. Learn how staff across your agency can take an active role in AI governance, participate in our growing AI communities of practice, and contribute directly to long‑term AI strategy by joining user groups that will help shape enterprise use‑case development. Whether you're an AI beginner or already exploring its potential, this session will show you where your voice fits and how you can help guide responsible, meaningful AI adoption across the State. |
Conference Room 11 a.m. | Visualizing Obstetrics Care Gaps for Hoosiers Using Drive-Time Analysis Presenter: Sarah Feeney, GIS Analyst and Public Health Geographics Team Lead, Indiana Department of Health Track: Visualization & Analytics | Long travel times to birthing hospitals are major barriers to care, particularly in rural areas. This session presents a geospatial analysis of transportation access to Indiana's 73 perinatal hospitals using drive-time catchments. Learn how 130 census tracts — home to nearly 469,000 Hoosiers — were identified as low-access communities, and how an interactive ArcGIS Online dashboard built with the IDOH Women, Children and Families Commission helps visualize geographic gaps in perinatal care access across the state. |
Conference Room 4 11 a.m. | UAV Mapping and Data Collection in Emergency Response Presenter: Michael White, Hazmat Specialist and UAV Pilot, Indiana Department of Homeland Security Track: Data in Action | During the 2024 Winchester Tornado, IDHS provided emergency mapping, live aerial video feeds, and damage data collection within two hours of the event, delivering constant data for the first 48 hours. This session explores how UAV technology supports real-world emergency response — from rapid deployment and aerial assessment to providing actionable data for on-the-ground decision-making during critical incidents. |
1 p.m. Block
| Room Location | Presentation Information | Description |
|---|---|---|
Auditorium 1 p.m. | Your Documents Have Been Holding Out on You: Introducing DocuSage Presenter: Theodore Stumpf, Senior Data Scientist, Indiana Management Performance Hub Track: AI & Emerging Technology | DocuSage is an in-house document intelligence tool enabling natural language querying, automated data extraction, and conversational document chat powered by large language models. This session demonstrates what DocuSage can do and where it fits into your workflow, then looks under the hood at Retrieval Augmented Generation, document chunking strategies, and agentic AI — along with an honest discussion of the limitations and trade-offs inherent to these approaches. |
Conference Room C 1 p.m. | Linking Local Health and Homelessness Data to Inform Practice and Policy Presenters: Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, PhD, CEO, Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP) and Sarah Wiehe, MD, MPH, Jean and Jerry Bepko Scholar in Pediatrics, Indiana University Track: Data in Action | A collaborative study by the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention and Indiana University links Homeless Management Information System data with Medicaid and Indiana Network for Patient Care data to examine healthcare utilization among individuals experiencing homelessness. This session explores the methodology, early findings, and parallel efforts to address legal, governance, and operational barriers to a real-time social health information exchange — advancing coordination across health and social service sectors for a highly vulnerable population. |
Conference Room 1 1 p.m. | Practical Scenarios for Integrating Indiana's Imagery and Elevation Data Presenters: Shaun Scholer, Imagery and Elevation Program Manager and Tim Clark, Technical Specialist, Indiana Geographic Information Office Track: Visualization & Analytics | An accessible introduction to geospatial imagery and how it supports everyday mapping and decision-making. Learn what imagery is, how it's collected, and what types are available for Indiana. The session also introduces LiDAR-derived Digital Elevation Models for visualization and basic analysis, with practical examples of accessing imagery and elevation data using open-source tools like R, QGIS, and more. Designed for new and experienced users alike. |
Conference Room 4 1 p.m. | School and Student Safety Dashboard: How Analyzing Behavioral Threat Data Saves Our Students Presenter: Megan Barber, Data and Reporting Specialist, and Brad Ferris, Academic Achievement & Analytics Officer at Hamilton Southeastern Schools Track: Data in Action | In the past three years, Hamilton Southeastern Schools has built a robust behavioral threat assessment program — and with that new data came a need for analytics. This session walks through how the HSE Ed Tech team created a digital intake form feeding into a Power BI dashboard that aggregates behavioral threat assessments by gender, race, IEP status and other demographics. Leaders use the dashboard to identify disproportionalities, target solutions to inequity and flag students indicated as high risk. The work brings together data analysts, policy professionals, counselors and safety officers — and future development includes adding student outcomes to enable predictive and prescriptive analysis. |
2 p.m. Block
| Room Location | Presentation Information | Description |
|---|---|---|
Auditorium 2 p.m. | US Privacy in 2026 Presenter: Stan Crosley, Managing Partner, Crosley Law Offices and IAPP Track: Data Governance & Privacy | An overview of the current U.S. privacy landscape and the importance of privacy standards for government and private sector personnel. Stan Crosley brings more than 25 years of privacy and data strategy experience, including serving as Chief Privacy Officer at Eli Lilly, co-Director of the IU Center for Law, Ethics and Applied Research, and leadership roles with the Future of Privacy Forum and Information Accountability Foundation. An accessible look at where U.S. privacy stands today and what to expect heading forward. |
Conference Room C 2 p.m. | The Mayor's Favorite Meeting: Scaling Performance-Management-as-a-Service in South Bend Presenter: David Finley, Director of Data and Performance, City of South Bend Track: Visualization & Analytics | South Bend evolved traditional stat meetings into lean Data Huddles powered by a "Danger Zone" diagnostic framework. The City Service Tracker flags service requests falling below 90% on-time completion for three consecutive months, pivoting discussions from passive review to active intervention. Results include a 21% improvement in solid waste delivery times and pothole reporting accuracy jumping from 60.7% to 97.9%. Walk away with a blueprint for designing your own data-to-action pipeline. |
Conference Room 1 2 p.m. | Transforming Meteorological Data Processing for Air Quality Modeling Presenter: John Welch, Senior Environmental Manager, Indiana Department of Environmental Management Track: AI & Emerging Technology | Air quality models need accurate weather data, but preparing it was a slow, manual process — up to eight hours per site. IDEM used automation to cut processing time by more than 90%, improving accuracy and simplifying quality checks. Learn why weather data matters for air quality predictions, how automation transformed a complex manual process, and how teamwork and technology combined to make it possible. |
Conference Room 4 2 p.m. | A Demonstration of the Potential of Health Workforce Data to Impact Health Workforce Policies and Initiatives in Indiana Presenter: Brittany J. Daulton, PhD, MS, Assistant Clinical Professor and Associate Director, Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy Track: Data in Action | This presentation demonstrates the power of health workforce data through three Indiana case studies: linking CNA license data to nursing career pathways — leading Ivy Tech to create a new credit program; assessing the behavioral health training pipeline — informing two recently passed bills; and analyzing foreign-educated nurse data — contributing to legislation that increased the percentage of internationally educated Indiana RNs from 0.8% to 2.0%. Real data driving real policy outcomes. |