Paul Sorenson is a Co-Director of the Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC) at the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL), where he also founded and leads the collaborative St. Louis Regional Data Alliance (RDA). The RDA supports local governments, nonprofits, funders, and universities in using data for community benefit, building a membership of over 360 local data stakeholders and establishing a shared open data portal, the Regional Data Exchange, that organizes over 400 local datasets. The RDA also serves as the “data backbone” for the St. Louis Community Information Exchange (CIE), working closely with United Way 2-1-1 and its partners on to share referrals across health and social service providers. As part of this work, Paul recently published a white paper on Tackling Data Dilemmas in Social Care Coordination with Open Referral, a national interoperability initiative. Paul received his Master’s in Social Work from Washington University and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science from UMSL.
