VOL. 10 – June 29, 2023

🎉 Celebrating Summit’s 20th Anniversary 🎉

Summit was honored to commemorate our 20th anniversary on June 15! We’re so thankful clients, former Summiteers, and current staff came out to celebrate this amazing firm that Albert Lee founded back in 2003. The weather on our rooftop was gorgeous—check out that sunset—and we enjoyed catching up with one another and making new connections. Here’s to the next 20 years . . . and beyond!

Albert Lee Talks to Real World Data Science About His Career Journey

On June 28, Summit founding partner Albert Lee was profiled in Real World Data Science, a publication of the Royal Statistical Society. In the article, Lee describes his career journey and how living his identity has conditioned him to be comfortable with differences and use empathy. “My gender and identity have given me important perspective as a data scientist and an entrepreneur,” he says. “Living my identity takes courage. It is the same courage necessary to start a new business.” Lee was nominated by the American Statistical Association’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Committee.

Listen to the Latest Episodes of Complexity Simplified

• Summit Director Josh Goldberg and the Honorable Seth Appleton Discuss Digital Mortgages and Next Gen Transformation
  The Honorable Seth Appleton sits down with Summit’s head of data science and mortgage finance leader Josh Goldberg to discuss key topics related to Ginnie Mae’s launch of digital mortgages as part of the Next Generation transformation of its business and securitization platform.
  
  
• Summit Leaders Discuss the Future of Evidence-Based Policy Making
  The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, or Evidence Act, established a strong framework to advance the federal government’s use of evidence in implementing and improving government programs. On this podcast, Summit founding partner Albert Lee, partner Anthony Curcio, and director Sarah Cunningham look at what progress has been made and peek into what lies ahead for evidence-based policy making.
  
  
• Adriel Harvey Joins Summit as a Senior Manager
  Adriel Harvey recently joined Summit Consulting as a senior manager. Before coming to Summit, Harvey spent more than two decades in progressively more complex positions in the federal government, providing leadership at the Government Accountability Office, Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as within the intelligence community.

What’s New on Federal Credit Fridays

Episode 15: Welcoming Chad Parker to Summit

In this podcast, partner Anthony Curcio sits down with Chad Parker, a senior advisor to Summit and our clients. Before joining Summit, Parker served rural America for more than 31 years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development, retiring as a deputy administrator for community facilities.

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.

Our Newest Case Studies

Communications Management for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid

The Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) faced two key challenges in maintaining high levels of engagement for both internal and external stakeholders in a rapidly shifting federal student aid environment. The Summit team’s communications management support enables large-scale collaboration crucial to successfully capturing dependencies and risks and maintaining project schedules under competing agency priorities. With our team’s support, FSA’s external campaigns, such as the FAFSA renewal and return to repayment related to the student loan payment pause, successfully reached 16 million students, parents, and borrowers.

Broadband Access Public Engagement Campaign for the State of Montana

The Montana Department of Administration was tasked with developing a Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) 5-year action plan and digital equity plan to utilize federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to expand broadband access across the state. Leveraging the Summit team’s final stakeholder engagement report, the state of Montana was able to draft a robust and compliant 5-year action plan to outline the path forward for expanding broadband infrastructure in a way that also promotes and prioritizes digital equity.

Curious about our other case studies? See more here.

Watch Summit’s Webinars!

On April 13, Summit director Josh Goldberg, senior manager Corey West, and director Kate Lynch Machado hosted a free live webinar entitled “The Impact of Investors on Local Housing Markets and Potential Policy Implications.” They gave their expert takes on the impact of investors who purchase residential properties and what’s happened over time in a few large U.S. counties. Watch on Summit’s YouTube channel, or click the image below. You can also read our deep-dive analysis on the Summit blog.

And on May 17,  we held a live webinar during Infrastructure Week with subject-matter expert Chad Parker, director Kate Lynch Machado, senior manager Sam Seong, and federal program evaluation consultant Kami Ehrich. Watch on Summit’s YouTube channel or click the image below to hear strategies on mitigating issues Infrastructure Act programs are currently facing, listen to lessons learned from the early stages of the program life cycle, and learn what can be done to improve loan and grant program implementation in the future. 

A Closer Look at Investor Impact in the Duval County, Florida, Housing Market

As a follow-up to our live webinar, the team at Summit Consulting is determined to quantify the impact of investor involvement on the origination of loans for owner-occupied loan applicants. The analysis performed on Duval County, Florida, is in accordance with Summit’s previous fair lending analyses that accounted for the borrower’s creditworthiness, protected class status (i.e., race and ethnicity), and concentration of minority residents in the borrowers’ census tract. Duval County includes the city of Jacksonville.

Read more of our analysis on the Summit blog.

Summit sponsors the AGA PIO-CFO Summit on May 4

Summit was excited to sponsor AGA’s PIO-CFO Summit held in Washington, D.C. on May 4 and have a booth in the Solutions Hall. The summit educated attendees about evidence-based policy from leaders in government and at nonprofit organizations. 

Summit directors attend the AWS Summit on June 7–8

Summit directors Samuel Dugger and Josh Goldberg represented the firm at the AWS Summit in Washington, D.C. on June 7 and 8. They gained insights that will help our work in the public sector, such as using cloud technology to drive culture change, digital transformation, and infrastructure modernization. Summit is proud to be an AWS Partner.

Summit director attends virtual Mortgage Bankers Association showcase on June 21–22

Summit director Josh Goldberg attended the online MBA Single-Family Research and Economics Showcase on June 21 and 22. The showcase highlighted the most current results and insights from MBA’s residential surveys, forecasts and reports and is led by MBA’s chief economist, Michael Fratantoni, PhD.

Summit Welcomes Our 2023 Summer Associate Class

On June 1, Summit was thrilled to welcome our summer associate class for 2023! Each year we welcome interns from across the United States, and this year is no different. This year’s interns come to us from Virginia Tech, the Johns Hopkins University, George Mason University, Mercyhurst University, University of Florida, Oregon State University, University of Maryland, and University of Missouri-Saint Louis. We’re pleased to be a part of helping to build the next generation of experts in data science, federal finance, program evaluation, business modernization, and risk analytics and modeling. 

On June 8, Summiteers celebrated Pride Month at CitySwing and had a blast as always! A big thank you to founding partner Albert Lee for hosting and championing the cause of Pride. As Albert says, “During Pride Month—and always—Summit Consulting stands in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Everyone is right to be proud of who they are. Together, we can create a future where all feel safe, valued, and celebrated.”

 We’re hiring!

See all open roles here: https://www.summitllc.us/careers

Apply now and join our dynamic team dedicated to making government effective and society just:

• Budget Analyst
• Data Scientist Consultant
• Project and Procurement Analyst
• Senior Data Scientist (AI/ML)
• Solution Architecture Analyst
• Solution Architecture Consultant

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Single Family Post Claims Support

Summit is tasked with selecting claims for review by HUD to detect unallowable expenses reimbursed to mortgage servicers and extrapolating the findings to the respective servicer’s full population of reimbursements. This is year 4 of our contract and—depending on how you count it—our 11th year supporting this office.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) — Automated Editing and Imputation System

Summit will continue to support NASS in creating and implementing an automated survey editing and imputation system.

U.S. Small Business Administration

Program Evaluation and Capacity Building Support
Summit won the 5-year multi-award Evaluation, Research, and Evidence-Building Services to Support Performance Management Blanket Purchase Agreement.

Office of Capital Access — Loan and Lender Monitoring System

Working as a subcontractor to Deloitte as part of the Deloitte-Experian team, the team will begin taking over the Loan and Lender Monitoring System contract from Dun & Bradstreet, the incumbent. Summit will have primary responsibility for two tasks: (1) developing, refining, maintaining, and improving the lender risk frameworks used for the 7(a) and 504 portfolios and (2) performing regular and ad hoc credit risk analyses and reporting.

Office of Performance, Planning, and the Chief Financial Officer — CARES Act Support

Summit will continue providing data analysis and dashboarding support for the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program.

U.S. Department of Transportation

Maritime Administration (MARAD)

Summit will continue maintenance support for credit subsidy and portfolio management tools as well as budget formulation and reestimate calculation support for the Department of Transportation’s MARAD Title XI Program.

Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)

Working Capital Funding Audit Support

For DFAS, Summit supports Williams Adley’s financial audit for four Department of Defense programs through statistical sampling. Summit has been supporting the financial audit since 2011. 

States of California, Nevada, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas

Broadband and Digital Equity Support Services

Summit won a contract as a subcontractor to HR&A Advisors to support them with broadband and digital equity support services. Summit provides data analysis and dashboarding support for broadband digital equity surveys serving six states across the United States.

U.S. African Development Foundation

Developing a Microloan Program in Africa

Summit will be working as a subcontractor for TPGI CPA to support the African Development Foundation in developing an execution plan for a microloan program in Africa. This project encompasses research, feasibility study, analysis, budget, and documentation required for submission to the Office of Management and Budget.

Missed a newsletter? Read past editions in the archive.