#219: Mara Abrams - Making the Best Ideas Count

As the head of innovation for the U.S. Census Bureau, Mara Abrams is on mission to bring the 2020 census into the 21st century. In her role as the founder & co-director of the organization's open innovation lab, Mara leads a nimble team that creates and deploys prize competitions, crowdsourcing, accelerators, design workshops, etc and much more in effort to to increase participation in the 2020 Census; which determines how $700 billion of annual Federal funding is directed throughout the country. Her work history includes inventive stints Nike and Jaguar as well as her own foundation she ran for a number of years, teaching filmmaking to disadvantaged youth. Recorded live at WeWork (We.co/crush), Mara discusses overcoming perceptions, assembling creative minds, and how nearly dying affected her approach to work and life.