Scott Zufelt, deputy director of the Office of Analytics, Pima County, Arizona

What have you accomplished in your role that you want people to know about?

We are a new department with Pima county, so we have brought data to the forefront of the decision-making process. So instead of using data in hindsight to back up our decisions, we’re trying to bring data to the forefront so that you would use the data, analyze it and then make informed decisions. That has been really good for us. The latest thing that we’ve done is we’ve finished our migration to Power BI in the cloud.

What’s something about data analytics that you think other people in government should know about, especially non-technical folks?

Data can be a great ally. They should be able to find the information that they need and have it at their fingertips, and they shouldn’t be afraid to see what the data actually tells them.

What’s your prediction for 2022?

I think 2022 will be a year of change for us. Following the years that we’ve had, we’re hoping that COVID becomes less of a factor in our daily lives and we can really get back to doing what we do best, and that is serving our constituents.