EPA Data Governance Council

Meeting Summary - February 28, 2022

General Updates

•	EPA's Chief Data Officer, Richard Allen, welcomed the group.

•	Heather Barnhart presented a high-level overview of the DGC Operational Plan FY 22 - FY 23.

•	Ongoing DGC project updates are available in the 02/28/2022 DGC Project Updates wiki.

DGC Subcommittees Update

•	Richard Allen reviewed the 2022 DGC subcommittees and leaders.

•	Governance Subcommittee (Lead: Heather Barnhart)

o The Governance Subcommittee will need another lead as the current lead's detail ends in
March.

•	Communications Subcommittee (Lead: Stephanie Montrallo)

•	Metadata Stewardship Subcommittee (Lead: Aaron Zull)

•	Data Skills Training Subcommittee (Leads: Janet Kremer & Anthony Deloach)

•	CRADA Subcommittee (Lead: Steven Fine)

•	Data Inventory Subcommittee (Leads: Kaitlin Kean & Janet Kremer)

•	Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee (Lead: Jan Krysa)

o Amar Singh offered to co-chair the Al subcommittee.

•	The group discussed proposals for additional subcommittees.

o Time Data (Proposed by Anthony Deloach)

¦	Create opportunities to increase efficiency.

o Financial and Administrative Data Assets (Proposed by Stephanie Montrallo)

¦	Michael Hardy (OMS/ARM) is leading a workgroup to improve access to financial and
administrative data.

¦	Action: Stephanie will follow up with Michael Hardy to determine how we can engage
with their workgroup.

o Data Standards (Proposed by Sean Watford)

¦	It is difficult to consume data from other parts of the Agency. We spend a significant
amount of time converting data into a useable format. This workgroup would formalize
a plan to evaluate and adopt certain data standards across the Agency.

o Master Data Management (Proposed by Eric Roberts)

¦	There are ongoing efforts, but how do we accelerate progress (i.e., making data
available via web services where it makes sense, providing common platforms where it
makes sense)?

o Action: Subcommittee proposers will write up a brief description of the proposed groups so that
we can distribute a survey to the DGC assess the level of interest.

Data Maturity Priority Activities CY 2022

•	The Data Maturity Subcommittee discussed interpretations of the Gartner IT Score for Data and
Analytics results.

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•	The following inputs guided in the Subcommittee's identification and prioritization of priority activities.

o Prioritization proposed from Gartner IT Score for Data and Analytics results,
o The Subcommittee nuanced interpretation of the results,
o Analysis of the 2021 ITPR data discussions.

•	CY 2022 data maturity priorities:

o Build and communicate a data governance strategic plan,
o Enhance our enterprise data inventory including stewardship to maintain it.
o Plan strategy to develop data skills and communicate those activities.

Data Skills Report and Next Steps

•	The Data Skills Survey Findings Report is finalized.

•	We are now looking for feedback on how we conducted the Data Skills Survey.

•	The next steps are drafting a scoping document to review and refine with the Data Skills Curricula and
Training Subcommittee.

•	The subcommittee will kick off mid-March.

FY 2021 ITPR Data Discussion Summary Report and Lanes of Opportunity Next
Steps

•	The CDO FY 2021 ITPR Data Discussions Summary Report includes key takeaways for EPA data
challenges and opportunities. The highest volume of feedback was related to data management, data
governance and data centralization.

•	Next steps are to share the summary report with regional and program office points of contact.

•	The Lanes of Opportunity (LoOps) address some of the themes from FY 2021 ITPR Data Discussions.

•	The LoOps will be incorporated into the DGC via two recurring activities:

o Deep dive presentations (once per quarter)
o Quarterly updates

•	The goal is to keep the DGC informed and engaged with efforts occurring in different parts of the
Agency. There may be opportunities for DGC members to:

o See potential for a LoOp to intersect with their office's line(s) of business,
o Add value to the LoOp in the form of a different perspective.

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