Graduate School
Boston University

Undergraduate School
Oberlin College

Mentor
Amy Dain, Dain Research, Former Rappaport Policy Fellow and Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
City of Boston, Department of Innovation and Technology

Supervisor
Kelly Mackey, Business Analyst

Description of Fellowship
Anna worked at the City of Boston’s Department of Innovation and Technology. In order to make the permit application process easier for constituents, the City of Boston is moving permit applications to the new Boston Permits & Licenses portal at boston.permits.gov. This summer, Anna furthered this work by moving four fire department applications onto the portal. Customers currently complete these four applications by hand and submit them in person at the fire department office, and so the online submission option will be a substantial process improvement for both customers and fire department staff. As part of the transition to the online portal, she also worked with the business owner at the fire department to make these four applications’ permit review workflows more efficient. Finally, she developed tools and documentation that the permitting team at Boston’s Department of Innovation & Technology can use in similar work on other permit types and at other departments.