Chief Data Officer
Dr. Kristen Honey serves as HHS’ Chief Data Officer (CDO) at ASTP/ONC and is part of the Office of the CTO. In 2020, during the COVID-19 response, Dr. Honey helped HHS to establish the OCDO and served as Acting CDO and Executive Director of Data Operations. Now returning to a mature OCDO and its data-driven team, Dr. Honey infuses her “people first, data always” ethos for leveraging the power of data across all HHS divisions to guide Departmental decisions, inform actions, and deliver results with a bias for action.
Dr. Honey has 15 years of experience spearheading evidence-based policy, open data, open science, open innovation, emerging technologies, and public-private partnerships to advance mission. Prior to joining HHS in late 2018, Dr. Honey served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), leading the Open Data portfolio and advising the U.S. Chief Technology Officer from 2015–2017. She worked in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), advising the Federal Chief Information Officer from 2017–2018. During her three years in the White House, Dr. Honey collaboratively led “MyData”—personal data in a human-centric way, like Blue Button for health data. Her Open Data efforts across two administrations codified U.S. data “open by default” into federal law with the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) of 2018. She built coalitions for digital solutions related to the PREVENTS suicide prevention, hurricane disaster response, disease outbreaks, biosecurity, and other White House priorities.
On the frontlines of the COVID-19 response for 18 months from the beginning of the pandemic through October 2021, Dr. Honey delivered large technical projects for HHS. She served on the digital “SWAT Team” in collaboration with the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, and HHS senior leadership to
- Build HHS Protect for COVID-19 data sharing.
- Build “HHS Vision” with COVID-19 Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem (sunset July 2021).
- Enhance HealthData.gov for HHS Open Data for the public.
As the Informatics Lead for the HHS COVID-19 Testing and Diagnostics Working Group (TDWG), Dr. Honey developed infrastructure for non-laboratory testing that became the FDA Diagnostic Data (DxD) Program to improve the collection, portability, and utility of data for real-world use. Her TDWG team delivered the COVID-19 At-Anywhere Diagnostics Design-a-Thon, TOPx Tech Sprints, Open Data for Good Grand Challenge, and HHS Innovation Accelerators to expedite progress and “co-create” solutions in the open with industry, academia, state/local/tribal governments, non-profit organizations, and the public.
Since joining HHS, Dr. Honey co-founded the $25M LymeX, Innovation Accelerator, CancerX with 200 external organizations, COVID-19 PandemicX Accelerator, and other cross-sector collaborations. She envisioned and established the HHS InnovationX team, Health+™ (pronounced “health plus”) Human-Centered Design program, and public-private partnerships.
Dr. Honey earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) with depth areas in biology and natural resource economics, plus a Ph.D. Minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her doctoral research and academic efforts focused on marine fisheries, water management, and applying complex adaptive systems theory to improve data-limited management decisions. Dr. Honey holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University. Given her expertise in complex, adaptive systems and passion for data, she thrives on “wicked problems” that demand interdisciplinary problem solving—including chronic, multi-systemic conditions like Lyme disease, Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (MECFS), and invisible illnesses with controversies. Where controversy exists, Dr. Honey believes we need more data.