Meet two queer civic leaders using data and design to improve Baltimore’s city operations

Queer visibility remains vital for advancing LGBTQ rights and preserving the safety of folks who might identify as queer. This begs the question: How do we use our platform to raise the profiles and well-being of our LGBTQIA+ community in Baltimore beyond Pride Month?

A possible answer: We can engage in conversations with various queer individuals or groups in Baltimore or any of Technical.ly’s markets. These individuals hold a variety of interesting professional positions, all while navigating the intersection of queerness.

Roxana Beyranvand, a senior program manager in the Mayor’s Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI) within the City of Baltimore’s government, told Technical.ly of her fondness for Baltimore’s neighborhoods like Mount Vernon and Patterson Park — the latter of which is where her partner and one of her favorite restaurants, Little Donna’s, reside. Roxana, a multiracial professional and alum of Notre Dame University, acknowledged the earlier need to hide aspects of her identity and, inherently, her queerness at times to avoid what she called “professional barriers.”

Beyranvand, who wears glasses with red frames, works with colleague Cameron Morgan, a nonbinary lead civic designer at OPI who has a silver studded nose ring and resides in Northeast Baltimore with their wife. Morgan, who identifies as a “sad kid,” shared how Baltimore played a healing role in their life following some familial losses. The Tennessee native is an alum of Maryland Institue College of Art (MICA) and pointed to “belonging” in Baltimore throughout the interview.

“I think what Baltimore gave me was a sense of like, belonging and community pretty immediately,” said Morgan.

What does OPI do?

Morgan said OPI is exploring the question: How might we use both data and design to create sustainable change for the city of Baltimore?

“I think that change-making work doesn’t always have to be this, like, huge explosive total overhaul,” they said. “[It doesn’t have to be,] ‘We’re rebranding.’ [Rebranding] everything is great but [we focus on] really sustainable change, whether that is large or small.”

Year-round, both Beyranvand and Morgan work for the “internally focused” agency, which was formed through a merger between CitiStat and the city’s innovation team. Their charge is to build trust — both with OPI’s partners and externally with residents, businesses and the broader community — to try and inspire innovation in Baltimore City, as well as foster equitable and efficient government operations.

2023 at OPI

This year, Beyranvand and her team embraced OPI’s mission by organizing Baltimore Design Lab MINI sessions. Beyranvand said the series started as “Design for Breakfast,” where former OPI teammate Emily Ianacone would offer coffee and bagels to attendees pre-pandemic. Despite the name change, the aim remains to offer insights and resources to a “community of learners.” Topics covered encompassed subjects such as “Ethics of Data & AI” and “How to Design Great City Services.” Morgan said OPI has had attendees from Portugal and Brazil. She lent insight into the culture of those sessions on the call.

“So the mini-sessions range anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes,” she said. “We always want to keep Q&A and discussion as a part of what we do, because we do very much identify as, like, bringing together a community of learners — that even if the subject matter expert is speaking, that they are learning, too, in this space, and that we’re all sort of peers.”

A Friday session will focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) instead of resolutions. OPI staffers share with attendees how they measure and track the way they shape services for Charm City residents. Attendees can use the session to discover ways to adapt KPIs, typically a professional tool, for their personal development in 2024.

📢Save the date!
Join our final Baltimore Design Lab session of 2024.
We help our community to learn about design, data, and program management skills.
📑TOPIC: New Year KPI’s, Not Resolutions
🗓️DATE: Friday, Dec. 8
⏰TIME: 9:30AM EST
📍LOCATION: Virtual
More info🔜 pic.twitter.com/KKQQOepIKQ

— Baltimore Office of Performance & Innovation (@BaltOPI) November 22, 2023

“I have mine posted [on a vision board], and sometimes it changes, too,” Beyranvand said. “I think that’s, that’s the dynamic thing about life and goals. They’re, they’re shaping, and you have to set some so you have a target, but always stay open to, to change and pivoting.”

“I think that it’s important to have goals as they help orient the direction of where you’re moving toward,” Morgan added.

As the year closes, OPI is supporting Baltimore’s Department of General Services (DGS) to fill some of its “hard to fill roles” like mechanics and technicians. DGS does things like keep Baltimore running through snowy weather.

RSVP for “KPIs, Not Resolutions”

Beyranvand and Morgan discussed their goals for the upcoming year during the call. They may be highlighted in an upcoming article featuring the resolutions of tech and community leaders in Technical.ly’s markets. What professional and community resolutions are you setting for 2024? Share with us at baltimore@technical.ly.