TheBridge profile: Damika Barr
Name: Damika Barr
Current city: Bay Area, CA
Current job: Public Policy and Government Relations Lead, Verily Life Sciences (An Alphabet Company)
Past job: Regulatory Compliance Counsel (Health), Lyft, Inc.; Public Policy Manager, AmeriHealth Caritas
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? I am not a coffee drinker, so I will meet you at your favorite coffee shop.
Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. I learned early on not to bind to one goal, one product or one outcome because the product may pivot, funding could fall through and policy activity could shift. Give yourself a moment to regroup and then charge back with a new way to succeed.
Q. Job advice in three words? Follow your mission.
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap innovation and regulation? The global COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on how technology can support gaps in care. Verily has two products aimed at safely navigating through this pandemic. Our Baseline COVID-19 program is a connected and secure solution to support individuals from screening through testing and receipt of results, which is done under physician direction. Healthy at Work integrates COVID-19 testing, symptom screening, population analytics and ongoing safety controls to help organizations operationalize their plans to return to work and campus. Both products were built in collaboration or in consideration of government guidance, and laws governing privacy of sensitive information.
Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? The true technology needs for their constituents. Local elected officials are particularly attuned to community needs.
Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? How to trust in what was once unimaginable technology.
Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? Gimlet Media’s Uncivil podcast. The podcast was recently released in 2017, but it is timely in this current movement of anti-racism.
Q. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself in the beginning of your career? Your journey will not be a straight path and that is okay. Keep going.
Q. Favorite app? LinkedIn
Q. If you had to live in another city, which would it be? Washington, DC
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