Robert Burack Email & Phone Number

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

We collaborate with purpose-driven organizations, using facilitation, strategic planning, and interpretive planning to address problems that matter.• Co-Founder and Principal of a consultancy primarily serving non-profits and governmental entities. Past clients have included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (a series of human-centered design workshops for adolescent health leaders; process redesign to improve disaster response), Boston Public Schools (user research facilitation), Virginia Legal Aid (2017-2020 strategic plan), Bridgeway Capital (launching the country's first accelerator for craft manufacturers), the Mississippi Museum of Art, and the Legal Aid Justice Center (strategic plans).• Current engagements include a strategic plan for a nationally-leading, $1B human services agency, an interpretive plan to aid the transformation of playwright August Wilson's childhood home into an arts center, managing the launch of a national maker brand, and facilitating strategy sessions for the executive team of a national voting rights organization.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Through Brocade, I work with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) and its leadership as an in-house strategy consultant. DHS is a $1B (annual budget) government agency that serves over 200,000 people per year through a network of contracted providers. My strategy work at DHS has included: co-facilitation of an agency-wide strategic planning process, strategy and research support for a redesign of a system of family support centers, and redesign of a set of tools judges use to assess pre-trial risk.

New York, New York, United States

A design research lab focused on the future of indigenous artisans.The artisan sector is a $32B industry. Why, then, are the majority of indigenous artisans living in poverty and socially marginalized? The DEED (Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design) Lab, housed within the Parsons School of Design at the New School, seeks to discover how a commitment to transparency in the companies who market artisan goods might lead to better-informed consumers and faired wages for artisans. Additionally, we ask: what additional capacities might artisans need to be treated, respected, and paid as designers?• Conduct interviews with founders/leaders of global artisan companies and initiatives.• Distill learnings by collaboratively writing a series of case studies, which were published in Winter 2020.• Visual articulation of current and proposed future artisan business models.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

The preeminent voice for innovation in government. Civic Analytics Network• Provided support for CAN - a network of leading urban Chief Data Officers (CDOs) who are using open data, predictive analytics, and data visualization to address pressing social issues and transform the way government delivers services.• Trained and spoke on using human-centered design to realize user-centered government, with a focus on the integration of these approaches into human service and economic development efforts, as well as digital services teams.• Participated in a working group of CDOs aimed at building collaborative training resources for city employees across the US, including shared curriculum on data and analytics, human-centered design, and process improvement.• Wrote government innovation features for Data-Smart City Solutions, with over 50,000 monthly readers.City of Pittsburgh• Embedded within the City of Pittsburgh to advance special projects around open data and data-driven decision making, and to help guide the City’s approach to user experience (UX) research.• Lead trainer and curriculum designer for a City academy focused on improving internal performance around design thinking and data communication.• Co-authored and designed the City's first open data progress report, documenting public use cases to advance support of and investment in open data.Allegheny County Department of Human Services• Advised an effort to collaboratively design - with clients, case workers, and other partners - a first of its kind engagement portal for the county's 200,000 human service clients.• Advised an effort to overhaul client feedback methods through the use of technology, including instituting SMS surveying and a provider rating platform.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

35th largest U.S. grantmaking foundation, by asset size.Innovative Approaches to Economic Development• Forwarded the foundation’s regional creative economy and manufacturing innovation agenda, which involved coordination with a large and complex set of regional and national stakeholders and grantees.• Co-designed and led Etsy Manufacturing’s Pittsburgh launch, which connected manufacturing firms and designers; heralded by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a “perfect match.”• Project management of a pilot accelerator effort to grow craft businesses into micro-manufacturers that realized over $200k in economic impact; led the effort through 60+ stakeholder meetings and negotiations with wholesale buyers and real estate developers.Research to Practice• Researched state-based interventions to address the opioid overdose epidemic, with an emphasis on strengthening the state’s prescription drug monitoring program; resulting report used by Human Services team.• Reviewed ten years of the foundation’s higher education grant making (165 grants, $172M) and drafted recommendations for re-approaching outcomes measurement and broader impact assessment.• Interviewed entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood to build business profiles and capture their experiences with inclusive entrepreneurship programming; recommendations from resulting report informed changes in the foundation’s capital access grant-making.Program Officer Support• Served as the handler for a consultant’s multi-day visit, including facilitation of interviews with major grantees.• Drafted write-ups (grant summaries) for Senior Program Officer and Grants Manager review.• Gained understanding of inner workings of a major private foundation, and Pittsburgh’s philanthropy community.

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

A national nonprofit leading 20,000 college students each year in contributing 1.3 million direct service hours.Relationship Building, Training, and Consultation• Managed relationships with 200+ service-learning/civic engagement centers on campuses nationwide, recruiting new schools, developing benefits to members, and providing thought leadership on social justice curriculum.• Training, strategic planning, and program consultation for service-learning professionals and student leaders; facilitation of over 300 workshops and on-site consultations at campuses.• Developed 11 national conferences (Alternative Break Citizenship schools), including ones focused on neighbor-driven rebuilding efforts in New Orleans, asset-based community development approaches in Atlanta, and criminal justice system and re-entry reform in Houston. Community Impact Assessment• Designed and forwarded the first set of impact assessment tools available in the service-learning sector; trained and consulted with campuses on impact assessment and community partnership building.• Oversaw the piloting of an assessment process at 12 institutions over the course of an academic year and led the subsequent refinement; elements of the process have become best practices.Strategic Partnerships and Branding• Functioned as the Chief of Staff to the Executive Director during second year of employment.• Formed and maintained strategic partnerships (including with the National Park Service, Intel, PBS, BBC).• Moderated a monthly Active Citizen speaker series that featured community-minded luminaries, including Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur fellows, federal leaders, activists, and organizers.• Co-led a brand and website overhaul; used insights to design and deliver a branding workshop for non-profit partners, which remains Break Away’s most requested workshop three years later.

Master Of Strategic Design And Management

Master Of Public Management (Mpm), H. John Heinz Iii College

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Political Science

Received the highest academic given award: Maize & Blue Distinguished Scholar Award — bestowed upon 13 graduates, annually.