Team

Derek Eder is an entrepreneur, developer and a leader of the civic technology community in Chicago. He uses data, builds tools, and organizes people in Chicago to democratize power.

Derek is Founder and Partner at DataMade, Co-Founder of Dedupe.io, a machine learning service that de-duplicates and find matches in spreadsheets and databases, and Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Chi Hack Night, a free, weekly event in Chicago to build, share and learn about civic technology.

He has built and collaborated on dozens of civic and data applications including 2nd City Zoning, Chicago's Million Dollar Blocks, Councilmatic, Decarb My State and Dedupe.io.

Forest Gregg is trying to find ways that information and information technology can help the people of Chicago recognize, understand, and address our shared challenges and opportunities. As a partner at DataMade, he works with clients, helps staff grow, and looks for ways for our company be better for our clients and for ourselves. He has been trained as a sociologist – particularly in quantitative methods and urban sociology. The statistics and machine learning training is useful on projects like dedupe and usaddress; the urban sociology training is useful for projects like Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks and Where to Buy. From a spell as professional juggler, Forest is pretty good at games of accurate, under-handed tossing.

Hannah Cushman Garland is a wayward journalist turned software developer based in Chicago. She cut her teeth on public life in mid-Missouri, covering municipal economic development (ask her about enterprise zones) and elections. An alumna of the Missouri School of Journalism and a veteran of the Associated Press, Hannah remains deeply interested in people, systems, and power. She brings a healthy skepticism to technology, believing that it can alleviate specific pain points but is rarely a solution in and of itself. At DataMade, Hannah is a cultivator of team growth and a steward of the DataMade stack. She has led or contributed to a number of years-long projects, including LA Metro Councilmatic, the Illinois Public Salaries Database, and WhoWasInCommand, and takes great pride in working in partnership with longtime clients to improve upon them. In her spare time, Hannah enjoys home improvement, eating just about anything, and simply existing in the company of her husband, pets, and plants.

Xavier Medrano is a developer dedicated to learning. From dismantling his game systems to fix them during junior high, to spending free time coding after graduating college, he chases the feeling of figuring out a problem. He enjoys fantasy stories, solid soundtracks, and has as much fun cooking up code as he does cooking up a meal.

Hayley Owens is a developer from Chicago, by way of North Carolina. In addition to software, her interests include information design, philosophy and music. She loves finding creative ways a community can use technology to democratize its archives and take care of one another. You can probably find her making collages and watching the WNBA.

Monkruman St. Jules is a developer from Miami, Florida. His interests include using technology to make government more accessible and information more free, especially as it relates to issues of democracy, justice, and equity. Outside of work, he loves music and politics.