Katie Johnson

I build data pipelines and civic tools —
as a developer, researcher, and Citizen.

I help government agencies, journalists, and civic organizations use AI and open data to make public systems more legible — and participation more possible.

My work sits at the intersection of two systems simultaneously — organizational systems (government, institutions, civic infrastructure) and cultural systems (power, privilege, how people relate to each other). I start from a theory of change before I build. I care about who gets access, whose voice is heard, and what infrastructure makes participation possible.

How could we work together? → Let me know!

How I Approach the Work

I start from a theory of change before I build. Before writing code, I want to understand: what lever does this touch? Who are the stakeholders? What does a good ending look like? This isn’t hesitation — it’s systems thinking applied before design.

I hold my expertise lightly and lead with learning. I don’t assume I know everything, and I ask collaborators to help shape what gets built. I frame my technical contributions — data, AI, UX — as tools in service of a vision others help define, not solutions I impose.

I care about facilitation as a discipline equal to engineering. The Informed Seattle work isn’t just an LLM pipeline — it’s designed to enable conversation, weave stories together, and create feedback loops between citizens and government. Facilitation is a design value, not an add-on.

I’m drawn to work that is legible at scale but meaningful at the individual level. The city council tool is meant to show aggregate neighborhood sentiment on a map and let one person say “here’s how this ordinance affects my family.” I want both layers.

My Relationship to Impact

I want my work to touch a lot of people, but through systemic change — not through scale for its own sake. I’m interested in changing the conditions that allow people to participate, not just reaching a large audience. There’s a through-line in everything I do: who gets access, whose voice is heard, what infrastructure makes participation possible.

I’m also honest with myself that tools don’t stand alone. The tool won’t achieve its goals without the human and organizational context around it. That keeps me from over-indexing on the artifact I’m building.

How I Collaborate

I work best when there’s genuine co-creation — I bring a draft and invite others to reshape it. I’m energized by thought leadership that operates from multiple angles at once, and I’m drawn to people who can contribute expertise I don’t have: policy, demography, community organizing, evaluation research.

I notice when I’m doing the “bridging” work — translating between people, domains, or emotional registers — and I’m learning to make that a conscious choice rather than a reflex.

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