Former Senior White House leader Lynn Overmann started on March 6 her new role as executive director of Georgetown’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, an organization which aims to equitably improve daily life through design, technology and policy, with years of government experience under her belt.

Overmann brings expertise in technology, policy and higher education to the role as well as plans to invest in her team and help improve the Beeck Center’s services. Overmann’s vision includes promoting a human-centered approach for individuals within and outside of the Center.

“One of the most important things a leader can do is understand who their team is and what they need, so a large part of my job is to support them,” Overmann told The Hoya. “So I’ve been doing that, and I’ve also been learning about the great work that’s already underway and finding ways that we may be able to grow beyond that work. The team is incredible.”

Overmann said the primary mission of the Beeck Center is to improve how people interact with government resources like student loan forgiveness, food stamps and unemployment assistance. 

“We interact with government every single day, even if folks don’t necessarily recognize it,” Overmann said. “What the Beeck Center does is we try to recognize those places. If we can bring data and technology and better design, it will make it easier for people on the other end of those services to access them.”

Overmann has held senior-level positions under Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s presidential administrations and most recently served as senior advisor for the United States Digital Service, a technology unit of the federal government, where she provided advice to federal officials, including U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and U.S. Digital Service Administrator Mina Hsiang.

Overmann also said her previous experience as a public defender has shaped her perspectives in her professional life.

“The first ten years of my career were in direct services working with folks who were amongst the most vulnerable in our populations and were at risk of having things go really sideways in the criminal justice system,” Overmann said. “That experience has really stuck with me throughout my career. With the Beeck team, we talk about being human-centered, and everyone is.”

Adam Bobrow (COL ’94), the co-convenor of the Beeck Center’s Unemployment Insurance Tech Coordinating Coalition for the Digital Benefits Network, said he is excited about Overmann’s hire. Bobrow, who worked alongside Overmann in 2015 in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, a department of the federal government, is familiar with Overmann’s work.

“She has the experience in and out of government to understand how digital innovation can improve service delivery for government programs,” Bobrow wrote to The Hoya. “Lynn’s exceptional skills as an administrator and fundraiser will ensure Beeck continues to move from strength to strength.”

Ashleigh Fryer, the storyteller-in-residence and interim director of communications for the Beeck Center who has been developing content to amplify the Center’s narratives since 2021, said she is encouraged by Overmann’s commitment to storytelling.

“In a few short weeks, she’s shown herself to be a thoughtful and dynamic leader whose experience in the civic tech space is unrivaled,” Fryer wrote to The Hoya. “Her strategic vision and commitment to storytelling will help bring our work to new audiences and grow our impact on the lives of individuals utilizing the systems we aim to improve.”

Vinith Annam, a state chief data officers network program manager at the Beeck Center, said he believes that Overmann will push the Center to ask the right questions regarding ongoing projects. 

“As a Program Manager, I think Lynn will ask important questions and provide valuable suggestions that will improve our work and project outcomes,” Annam wrote to The Hoya. 

The Beeck Center announced on Feb. 22 that it had received over $11 million in funding to enhance its projects on the access and delivery of public safety net benefits. The funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Families And Workers Fund, The Ford Foundation and the Beeck Family.

Overmann said that she enters her executive directorship with an understanding of the policy sphere, which overlaps with the human-centered approach to her work. 

“A really important lesson that has been learned in the policy world in the last 10 years is that getting the policy done is just the beginning of the story,” Overmann said. “We really need to be sure that we are delivering what is intended in those laws.”