History has shown that large-scale crises accelerate pre-existing trends, exacerbate inequities, and permanently change societies and civic life. Large scale disasters produce an enormous break in the status quo followed by continuous change. Crises drive up the demand for data as decision makers grapple with understanding rapidly changing conditions. Objective data is needed to ensure that recovery efforts in the months and years ahead lead to a more just and equitable society. Pandemic to Prosperity offers a comprehensive overview of the Covid-related impacts on our lives and livelihoods, governments, civic institutions, and overall well being.

Recovery from the pandemic and deep economic crisis will vary across communities, and different populations will face various barriers to achieving shared prosperity. Pandemic to Prosperity’s thoughtfully-curated data serves to illuminate the challenges facing the nation’s most vulnerable. In addition, this reliable source of wide-ranging, impartial information will be valuable in aligning public and private sector efforts and reflect progress made, or the lack thereof, over time.

The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) developed the Pandemic to Prosperity series. It builds on NCoC’s data infrastructure and advocacy network developed for its national Civic Health Index, and leveraging the authors’ success with The New Orleans Index, which informed many public and private decisions and actions post-Katrina. This series is designed to enable a solid understanding of the damage to lives and livelihoods as the pandemic continues to unfold, especially as we enter the era of vaccines, and the nation grapples with new shocks and stressors such as disasters and civil unrest; it will also examine aspirational goals around strong and accountable government, functioning institutions from child care to internet access to local news availability, effective civic participation, and outcomes for people by race regarding employment, health, housing, and more. With each new report in the series, indicators will change as the recovery transitions. This report highlights mostly state-level metrics with breakdowns by race, gender, and age where available, relying on both public and private data sources.

About the Team

Allison Plyer

Chief Demographer, The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana

Dr. Plyer is also author of The New Orleans Index series, developed in collaboration with Brookings to analyze the state of the recovery post-Katrina and later to track the region’s progress toward prosperity. She is also a co-author of The New Orleans Prosperity Index which examines the extent to which economic outcomes have improved for black New Orleanians since the end of the Civil Rights era. She served as an editor for the Brookings Institution Press volume entitled Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita. Allison is an international expert in post–Katrina demographics and disaster recovery trends and frequently provides commentary on recovery and development to media such as NPR, the Associated Press, the New York Times, and USA Today. Allison received her Doctorate in Science from Tulane University and has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Alysha Rashid

Policy and Data Consultant

Alysha is a policy and data consultant with a focus on building a more equitable society through a social and racial lens. She supports nonprofit and government organizations across policy areas using data analytics and visualization to promote data-informed decisions for marginalized populations. Previously, Alysha’s focus was on increasing college access and success for underrepresented populations, developing her expertise as an admissions counselor, a high school college advisor, and ultimately a nonprofit administrator. As the Director of Program and Operations for America Achieves and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ CollegePoint initiative, she oversaw day-to-day programming and led the data operations, working closely with the research and evaluation team. Alysha co-created an Anti-Racism Discussion Series for postsecondary institutions. She received her MPP from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and her BA from Adelphi University.

Elaine Ortiz

Lead Data Analyst, NCoC

Elaine is an expert in economic and demographic data for applied research to support informed decision-making and more resilient communities. She has 20 years experience in research design, implementation, data analysis, statistical methods, and writing on complex and technical topics for a lay audience. Elaine’s work in data dissemination is grounded in the importance of user-centered design and strategic communications for reaching targeted audiences. She is an expert in federal statistics (e.g. ACS, Census) and private sources of data (e.g. EMSI, Moody’s). Elaine has an MS in urban and regional planning from University of Iowa and a BA in economics from Hanover College.

Taylor Savell

Program Manager, CQR, NCoC

Taylor is the Program Manager for the Census Quality Reinforcement Task Force at the National Conference on Citizenship, where she focuses on 2020 Census issues such as data quality, and the use of census data for redistricting and federal funding. Prior to NCoC, Taylor worked at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation and co-authored the website USApportionment.org, which was the go-to resource for census watchers and journalists in the lead up to the release of the 2020 Census data for congressional apportionment. Taylor is a graduate of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University where she received her BS in International Politics.

Previous Contributors

Denice Ross

Senior Fellow, NCoC

Denice is a Director at the National Conference on Citizenship and a Fellow at Georgetown’s Beeck Center. Her recent focus is on data quality and the 2020 Census. Denice comes to this work from New America, where she studied the power of networks to advance progress on big challenges. As a Presidential Innovation Fellow (2014-5), she co-founded the White House Police Data Initiative to increase transparency and accountability and worked with the Department of Energy to improve community resilience in disaster-impacted areas. Earlier, she served as Director of Enterprise Information for the City of New Orleans, establishing their open data initiative, now recognized as one of the most successful in the country. Prior to government, Denice co-directed The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana, a non-profit data intermediary. She brought a data-driven approach to numerous post-Katrina community planning initiatives and co-founded the first new childcare center after the storm.

Jeff Coates

Research Director, NCoC

Jeff Coates leads the organization’s Civic Health Index initiative and program evaluation. He previously worked at the Knight Foundation as Strategic Initiative Associate, where he managed grants totaling over $20 million, including supporting Knight’s Soul of the Community project. Prior to joining Knight, he worked at the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership, where he collaborated with more than 50 nonprofits to develop strategic plans for long-term recovery. Earlier, he served with the American Red Cross’ Hurricane Recovery Program in New Orleans and also co-founded the Recovery Action Learning Laboratory (RALLY) Foundation, a nonprofit that monitored and evaluated post-disaster programs. At Rally, Jeff developed assessment tools, formulated data collection methods, and directed the collection of primary data for the assessment and evaluation of programs implemented in the Gulf region by large-scale international organizations such as Mercy Corps, World Vision, Save the Children and the Department of Justice.