What’s better than having great customers and doing great work? Having a chance to brag about our teams with some pretty cool feedback. That’s exactly the case for these five FCGers on the USAID team. We’re shouting them out because they’ve been recognized by the agency for the exceptional work they’ve put in on behalf of Freedom Consulting Group.

Craig J, an FCG data scientist at the Center for Digital Development, was named the USAID “Digital Champion” and featured in their Digital Development newsletter. Because he’s just that awesome. Here’s just a sample from his feature in the newsletter:

How can we better think about using digital tools?

Remember that every tool has a social context. Tools are shaped by the goals, biases, and experiences of the people who design and build them. Then, they inevitably get re-shaped, reimagined, and put to different uses by the people who apply them. You also have governments then regulate how those tools can be made, used, sold, etc. At every step, tools are shaped by people’s decisions, and those tools shape the way people work and live. It can be kind of overwhelming to think about all that context all at once. Just remember that every tool we make – whether it’s a piece of software or a kitchen knife – has a lot of cultural and political “baggage” invisibly attached to it.

What is one thing you think everyone should know about your work?

That it really isn’t science fiction, even though sometimes it feels like it is. That’s my favorite part of what I do – imagining a future that’s different from the present. People sometimes think of developing countries as being stuck in the past, but in many ways the future is arriving there first. We need to be flexible and question our assumptions, so that we aren’t caught off guard by it.

In addition to Craig’s recognition, Brian B and David E created an instrumental map for a high-level meeting that resulted in a note from the division’s director. Way to go, team!

Also, Chad B co-authored a paper with the YouthMappers team that was published in Applied Geography, a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the publication of research that uses geographic approaches to resolve human problems that have a spatial dimension.

And last but certainly not least, Patrick G was given a big pat on the back from a manager on USAID for an official policy related to the collection, management, and reporting of geospatial data as a part of the GeoCenter team. It’s been an ongoing project for Patrick and is a huge deal to see it pushed across the finish line.

We’re proud of all the work we do here at FCG and it sure does feel good to know others are too. To learn more about some of the projects we work so hard on day in and day out, check out our Project Profile series.