Ricardo Basurto-Dávila will head one of San Diego County’s Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics as Chief Evaluation Officer.
Selected from a group of six finalists from more than 200 candidates, Basurto-Dávila is tasked to increase the county’s ability to collect, share and analyze data to help county leaders create and improve policies and programs. The data provided through Basurto-Dávila's leadership will address priorities such as mental health, homelessness, equity, racial justice, and climate change.
“I am beyond excited!” Basurto-Dávila said. “I have a passion for finding the most effective ways to use data to help government leaders make their best decisions and San Diego County’s Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics creates the perfect opportunity to do that.”
County supervisors voted last May to create the Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics. According to the county, it is still under development.
A national search firm hired by the county spoke with over 40 leaders region-wide to develop a pool of candidates.
Basurto-Dávila most recently was a principal analyst at the County of Los Angeles Chief Information Office, where he led a data-science team with the county’s Analytics Center of Excellence.
Before that, he served the County of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Health as a health economist, where he developed and lead a team that conducted economic evaluations and health impact assessments of public policies.
Basurto-Dávila also helped use data analytics to evaluate U.S. and international responses to the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We conducted a nationwide search to find Ricardo and he brings a wealth of academic, research, and data science experience to our County,” Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer said. “His experience in leading evaluation teams for the County of Los Angeles in the areas of health, justice, housing, and social services will serve our Board perfectly as they look to create and improve policies. I’m excited that he will lead our efforts to become a national leader in the field of data-driven, evidence-based policymaking.”
