Initiative Leadership
The Open Referral Initiative has facilitative leadership that supports relationships across our network, manages prioritized projects, and administers this website.
Greg Bloom – Founder and Lead Organizer
Greg Bloom founded and is the lead organizer of the Open Referral Initiative. He is also Inform USA’s Strategic Advisor, and a visiting scholar at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop on the Commons. Previously, Greg managed communications for Bread for the City in DC. He is a cooperative developer and community organizer. He has published writing in the Cambridge Handbook of Commons Research Innovations, In These Times, Civic Quarterly, and Code for America’s Beyond Transparency.
Chris Hwang – Program Manager
For almost 30 years, Chris Hwang served mid-sized public agencies and nonprofits as a researcher, evaluator, and technology director of human services and education programs, specializing in extracting utility in data for greater social good. Chris oversaw the development and implementation of tools to support front line case workers, community liaisons, warm-line care coordinators, and thousands of college-bound youth. She leverages her background in economic forecasting, public health, strategic planning, community health and development, education, and mobility advocacy to engage diverse stakeholders in translating needs and aspirations into concrete, implementable, sustainable partnership-driven solutions.
Technical Committee
The Open Referral Initiative’s Standing Technical Committee (TC) governs the development of the Human Service Data Specifications (HSDS).
The Technical Committee is comprised of active members of our community of practice – including people with experience in developing industry standards, managing resource directory information across dozens of systems, and designing and deploying open source software.
The Charter for the Committee is here. Nominations for new committee members can be made in our forum.
Committee members include:
Jennifer Abels (incoming)
The Director of Standards & Excellence at Inform USA, Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a master’s degree in Community Counseling. She brings over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, with a strong focus on information and referral services. Her career in this field began at a statewide 211 organization, where she held a range of roles—from call specialist to database support and ultimately, database management. Currently, through Inform USA, Jennifer oversees the Accreditation process for organizations seeking to demonstrate compliance with national industry standards.
Devin Balkind
Devin is a technologist and software producer passionate about bringing open source and open data solutions to the world. He is the Director of Product and Technology at GridMarket, a distributed energy consultancy; a director of Sarapis, a nonprofit that makes software in the public interest and a board member of Sahana Software Foundation, a nonprofit that makes open source software for disaster relief initiatives. He’s been working with the Open Referral initiative for over a decade.
Kate Lambacher
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Sasha Reinoso
As the founder and lead of Do Good Data, Sasha Reinoso leverages 15 years of experience in the information and referral field to help organizations enhance their data quality, optimize service delivery, and build collaborative partnerships. Her strategic guidance and practical insights have helped empower local, regional, and statewide organizations across 14 states to improve their efficiency, effectiveness, and impact within the community. Sasha has maintained the Inform USA Community Resource Specialist – Database Curator (CRS-DC) certification since 2013 and was named Inform USA’s CRS-DC of the Year in 2023.
Mike Thacker
Mike Thacker has an academic background in Engineering and Economics. Following experience in certification in the Oil Industry, Mike set up Porism Limited for software development in 1989. In 2002, Porism created the electronic service delivery toolkit (esd-toolkit), used by most English councils to share expertise in e-enabling services. Porism, led by Mike, became the English Local Government Association’s technical partner and esd-toolkit formed the backbone of the LGA’s current LG Inform and LG inform Plus services.
Skyler Young
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Technical Stewards
The Open Data Services Cooperative stewards Open Referral’s core technical product, the Human Service Data Specification, and associated documentation.
Matt Marshall, Open Data Services Cooperative
Matt has an academic background in Digital Civics utilising participatory methods to design, deploy, and evaluate digital tools and data models for accountability with small Non-Profit organizations in deprived urban areas in North East England. Matt joined Open Data Services in 2018 and has been at the frontline of data standards adoption ever since. Working with data initiatives such as 360Giving and Open Contracting as well as Open Referral, Matt has experience in standard development across multiple domains and expertise in delivering training and support for publishers and users working with open data standards.
Fiscal Sponsor and Advisor
Aspiration, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is the fiscal sponsor of the Open Referral Initiative. We are grateful to them for their support! And many thanks to Aspiration’s Executive Director Allen Gunn, aka Gunner, for over a decade of mentorship and expert facilitation.