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Grants manager Mike Rutkowski was chosen among his peers to attend a Health and Human Services Data Act Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 13. As a board member of the National Grants Management Association (NGMA), Rutkowski was part of a select group of experts reviewing the test models for the Health Services oversight of the DATA Act of 2014. These models were developed over the past 15 months and will be tested at various conferences this year, including the NGMA conference that he will also be attending this March.  

With only 16 invitees, the list of included participants includes private industry and various government agencies on both the federal and state levels, as well as other educational institutions.  
 The intent of this particular meeting was to provide the final approval and/or tweaking of the test models before they are tested more widely over the course of the next year. A final roll-out of the changes is anticipated for 2017. This process will provide a more uniform reporting structure for grants with less duplication of effort by the grantees. According to the DATA Transparency Coalition website, the DATA Act of 2014 is "transforming federal spending information from disconnected documents into open, searchable data. It’s America’s first open data law, and it promises to deliver better transparency to citizens and the public."  For his part, Rutkowski was honored and excited to have the chance to collaborate with other grants managers and data experts from around the country. "This is a great learning opportunity for me and also allows me to bring ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹ÙÍø's name to a broader audience," he says.  

When he returns, Rutkowski plans on sharing the expertise he gleans from the experience with his colleagues at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹ÙÍø. "It's exhilarating to be part of this important conversation," he says, "and to be able to impart what I learn there to the work we do every day at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹ÙÍø."