How Summit and Guidehouse Helped Federal Student Aid Create a Better Customer Experience
In this three-part podcast series, Summit director of client development Kate Lynch Machado moderates a conversation between Summit director Samuel Dugger and Guidehouse partner Jay Hurt about how the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) used data and customer metrics to improve user experience and demonstrate its impact on students and borrowers.
In part one, FSA defined its end customers as students and borrowers as well as established clear customer output and outcome metrics.
In part two, we look at two large projects that have impacts across the entirety of FSA: NextGen and SABER.
And in part three, we examine the application of data analytics to FSA’s NextGen and SABER programs.
Listen to all three episodes above, and let us know what you think!
Fostering Connections at Virginia Tech
In the consulting industry, building and nurturing relationships is a cornerstone for success. Summit has been proud to maintain a relationship with Virginia Tech since 2019. The partnership began when Summit senior consultantKyle Crane(below) sat on a panel assessing students’ semester-long projects for the Department of Economics’ “R in Economics” course.
Since then, Summit has developed a strong pipeline of both undergraduate and graduate talent from the university, including students in economics, statistics, and computational modeling and data analytics (CMDA). Beyond coursework, Summit and Virginia Tech have a strong relationship supporting one another professionally as well: in October, Crane spent a week in Blacksburg to bolster existing relationships and forge new connections across campus. Read more on theSummit blog.
In this podcast, Kayla Andriate, a manager at Summit Consulting, discusses performing cohort-level reestimates for programs with thousands of homogeneous loans, which requires statistical and econometric techniques. Andriate is an expert in performing annual reestimates for federal credit programs that have large loan cohorts, and she has been serving and leading engagements that extend loans for farms and small businesses for almost 10 years.
Aaron Snyder, interim director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Corps Water Infrastructure Financing Program (CWIFP), discusses the program, which enables local investment in infrastructure projects that address community water resource needs, promote economic prosperity, and improve environmental quality.
Missed an episode? Listen to past Federal Credit Fridays here.
About Federal Credit Fridays: The U.S. government is one of the largest lenders and credit guarantors on earth. Its portfolio is estimated at over $3.6 trillion, as measured by loan assets and the face value of loan guarantees. The government uses credit for a wide variety of policy missions, including housing, higher education, small businesses, rural and urban economic development, infrastructure, and export promotion, among others. This podcast will familiarize you with the vast world of federal credit, and we hope that you’ll learn about similarities and differences between these programs as well as the importance of their work to achieving policy missions within the framework of public-private collaboration.
Kaiser Permanente (KP) manages a $400 million social impact investment fund that requires collection of project-level investment data from financial institutions while also providing updates to staff and senior leadership via data visualizations on the portfolio’s impact in economically underserved communities. Ensuring users report accurate, relevant data for each asset class and sector was crucial for future reporting on the portfolio’s impact.
Summit leveraged Amazon Web Services to develop a customized web application to help KP staff manage the social impact investment fund by facilitating easy access to the portfolio as well as comparisons of project outcomes against internal metrics and external data. The team and staff at KP now have a reliable, efficient, and scalable customized application to support data collection and reporting for a $400 million social impact investment fund.
Curious about our other case studies? See more here.
Summit Named a 2024 #Elev8 GovCon Honoree by OrangeSlices AI
Summit participated in the inaugural Elev8 and Engage GovCon event on November 29, held by OrangeSlices AI. Summit director Kate Lynch Machado, senior consultant Antonia Baker, and founding partner Albert Lee were thrilled to attend and represent the firm.
Summit was named one of the 2024 Elev8 GovCon honorees for developing not only efficient and effective solutions that create positive and impactful results for the federal government but also for creating a culture that establishes excellence for ourselves, our partners, and our clients. Elev8 GovCon honorees must meet high standards for company culture, engagement, and giving back.
And stay tuned: founding partner Albert Lee will be interviewed on an OrangeSlices AI podcast in mid-January 2024, which will focus on how Summit drives our success through collaboration and teamwork.
Summit Presents Black Lung Study Findings at AcademyHealth Conference
On December 12, Summit senior consultants Teresa Kline(left) and Kyle Crane presented their team’s findings at the AcademyHealth 16th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health. Summit conducted the Black Lung Incidence Study for the Mine Safety and Health Administration to examine black lung cases and deaths in the United States. A key piece of the scope of this study was to understand whether black lung incidence is higher among specific subpopulations of interest, including the Navajo Nation.
The team used publicly available datasets and conducted a literature review and interviews with subject matter experts. They determined that data suppression and undercounting of cases due to lack of trust in or access to healthcare may affect the results of quantitative analysis. Statistical models designed to estimate black lung prevalence in the Navajo Nation estimated that black lung prevalence is higher than reported in five of six counties within the Navajo Nation. These findings highlight the need for additional research focused on the health impacts of coal use and coal mining in the Navajo Nation.
Summit Speaks at Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Conference
On October 25, Summit senior analyst Gunnar Ingle(above and below right) and senior consultant Ryan Kling (below left) and presented at the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology’s Research and Policy Conference in Hyattsville, Maryland. Their presentation, “Rule-Based Data Validation and Reconciliation of Survey Responses,” covered their ongoing work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Summit Updates Go Live on the Department of Labor’s Microsimulation Model on Worker Leave
Summit was excited to see our new updates to the U.S. Department of Labor’s popular Microsimulation Model on Worker Leave go live the week of November 6. The model can be used by researchers and federal, state, and local policy makers to estimate the effects of various worker leave scenarios and policy options on worker leave-taking behavior, and to estimate the benefits paid as well as costs of administering any given program.
Fellow data lovers will appreciate that the Department of Labor produced an updated, open-source, publicly available tool. The agency also included additional data files, a user manual, and a data dictionary that researchers can use themselves, as well as a helpful interface for nontechnical users!
🏃Summit Senior Consultant Runs NYC Marathon🏃
Summit is so proud of senior consultant Olivia Hebner for not only finishing the New York City Marathon on November 5 but also for raising more than $5,000 for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation in remembrance of her mother, Sara Hebner. Way to go, Olivia!
Conferences & Partnerships
Summit Speaks at AWS Generative AI Learning Day
On October 20, Summit director Josh Goldberg spoke on a panel titled “AI in Use: Practical Applications for SMB Partners,” where he discussed opportunities, risks, and trends in generative AI.
Summit Attends Elevate: The Digital Transformation Conference for Federal Contractors
On October 26, Summit director Kate Lynch Machado and senior consultant Antonia Baker attended the TechnoMile conference and talked about modernizing and maturing Summit’s business development and capture processes and using TechnoMile to do so.
Summit Visits Data Foundation’s govDATAx Conference
Summit directors Sarah Cunningham and Kate Lynch Machado manned a booth at the govDATAx conference, “Strengthening Democracy: Data and Evidence in Action,” on November 7, where they talked about our mission and work delivering data-driven solutions to help make government effective and society just.
Don’t see anything that fits your expertise? Apply to future roles at Summit by submitting your résumé now!
U.S. Department of Defense
NuvoSum — Office of Strategic Capital
Summit will be helping the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) set up a new lending program. Our work started with an A-129 review and will continue with supporting OSC in populating the President's Budget. In 2024, we will move at full speed into program development.
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) — NextGen Program Office and SABER Support
Summit was awarded additional funding and a 3-month extension to continue providing program management support for FSA’s Next Gen Program Office and Student Aid and Borrower Eligibility Reform (SABER) initiatives. Summit supports the modernization of FSA’s IT systems and business processes underpinning the delivery of federal aid to millions of students each year through risk management, schedule management, acquisition management, communications, and process improvement support.
Fannie Mae
Model Risk Management, AI/ML Validation Support
Summit won an extension of our current work until March 31, 2024.
Model Risk Management, Dodd Frank Act Stress Test (DFAST) Support
Summit won additional funding to complete work in 2023 that has now extended beyond DFAST to governance of vendor models with embedded AI/ML.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
Loan and Lender Monitoring System Summit is the subcontractor to Deloitte on the SBA’s Loan and Lender Monitoring System contract. They have exercised the option year to officially take over the contract from the incumbent, so we will now work with Deloitte to deliver monthly, quarterly, and annual reports on the SBA’s 7(a) and 504 program portfolios, modernize the Lender Information Portal from .Net to Tableau, modernize the reports from Excel and PowerPoint to Tableau, and convert and modernize reporting scripts from SAS to Python. We may also support the modernization of the Lender Risk Framework models, PARRiS (for the 7(a) program) and SMART (for the 504 program) used to measure lender risk. The option year tasks represent an expansion of our base year work.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Water Infrastructure Finance Study
Summit will be hosting technical working groups with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the country’s largest public health advocacy group, to inventory existing funding sources for water infrastructure projects and explore opportunities for social impact investments and philanthropic grants. Of particular importance will be filling funding gaps for the most economically disadvantaged communities nationwide to install and modernize their water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.
St. George’s University
Market Research, IV&V
Summit validates the statistics reported by Saint George's University about their placement and test passing rates. This is a continuation of the work started this past summer.
State of Montana
Broadband Support
Summit was awarded additional funding to launch the next phase of our support of Montana’s BEAD and DE broadband programs. Summit is leading the stakeholder outreach activities and collaborating on the application process development. In the new year, we will be expanding our role to include technical assistance, application review, and monitoring.
Missed a newsletter? Read past editions in the archive.
Summit Consulting, LLC, 777 6th St. NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC 20001, USA, 202-407-8300
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