Jessica Cole

Civic builder, urbanite | Cofounder @USDResponse | alum Tech Policy Fellow @AspenInstitute @CodeForAmerica @yale | Taker of field trips, believer in people.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Some big news @USDResponse & for me personally - today we launch our search for our next CEO, and in Dec I'll be transitioning from full-time to an org advisor.

This is the best team & mission imaginable. You should apply.
https://t.co/h77EGBYEbe

[U.S. Digital Response @USDResponse]

🥳 Big news at @USDResponse: After hitting major milestones, we’re looking for our next CEO to help guide USDR to our next chapter.

❤️‍🔥 What’s more, we’re thrilled to announce that @pahlkadot is joining our board of directors!

https://t.co/JBNJ3hMyaC

[Coding it Forward @CodingItForward]

📢@CodingItForward is seeking mentors to support early-career technologists for Summer 2026. If you have 3+ years of full-time public interest tech experience, help us uplift the next generation!

Apply by Friday, May 15 https://t.co/6US8pHB0UD

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Listened to an education talk where they said they focused on limiting student device use while walking the halls/campus and that change alone led to so many more nourishing interactions.

Wondering how that would feel at a city scale. A “no devices en route” intervention?

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

love the idea of hosting a community-wide baby shower to connect people with resources, as featured in today's @newhavenindy https://t.co/TgH5JxvPpA

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Would be such a public good to pass on some of the tacit experience and norms that otherwise only gets carried through much larger institutions

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Are there any programs where newer CEOs/EDs/board members get to shadow the workings of established boards for a meeting or two?

If not, there should be.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

september is a month for poems and for otherwise
https://t.co/YR6rEIzZqM

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

The work to be done in this world is so interesting and meaningful. Some days I can’t believe we get to do it.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

must read @pahlkadot, featuring @MattMahanSJ

"I want to find the politicians who are reforming the machinery of government so that it actually works, describe how they spend their time..and how they conceive of their jobs that’s different from others."

https://t.co/S4nGTGGrib

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

@AndreaCoravos @KumarAGarg you two would be great co-conspirators

[Santi Ruiz @rSanti97]

So this is a great question.

State capacity is an annoying political science term, and classically the definition is something like “a state’s ability to achieve its goals.” If you’re assessing early states, you’re asking a couple basic questions about state capacity:

- Can they collect taxes? Or grain?
- Can they muster men for an army?

If they can, they have “high state capacity” in those domains. As you get closer to the present day, states try to do more things, so you’re measuring the state’s “capacity” to do those things: like providing a social safety net, or to regulate a given market. It often implies a particular focus on implementation. The king says, “Let it be done.” Okay. Now what? How does “it” actually get “done”?

Also, state capacity gets used in the modern day to talk about governance generally, at multiple levels. Although NYC is a city, you could talk about the fact that trash gets dumped out on the street as a failure of state capacity.

State capacity is a pretty contestable term, obviously. Do we want more state capacity? For most people, it depends on the domain: maybe you want the state to be better at deporting people who are here illegally, but worse at regulating crypto. Or vice versa.

I write https://t.co/ucgoUX3exu for a couple reasons. For one, I’m just interested in how policy actually happens. I think the stories of the people who are told by Congress or the President “go do this thing” can actually be quite fascinating.

But I’m also pretty convinced that a lot of things people think are problems with policy are actually problems with state capacity. Often, the American people have tasked the government with doing something, and we just don’t do it very well, because we haven’t built a system that would be able to do it well.

So the project is an attempt to figure out if that’s true — and how we can fix American state capacity if it is.

[Aspen Policy Academy @AspenPolicyAcad]

⏰ The application for our summer 2025 Science & Technology Policy Fellowship closes tomorrow at 11:59pm PT! This full-time, paid opportunity introduces Fellows to real-world policy training and a tight-knit network. Don’t miss your chance to apply 👇: https://t.co/S070Z7mIRC

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

@realsaadasad @USDResponse thank you for everything, @realsaadasad. This field is lucky to have you in it.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Hosting an annual reflection ritual for friends today for the 11th(!) yr. Repeated community is so forever precious.

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

Byung-Chul Han on rituals and time, beautiful

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

@__drewface Love this

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

AND a Statecraft? An embarrassment of policy wonk riches @rSanti97 @IFP https://t.co/yu9I2MMRUK

[Niskanen Center @NiskanenCenter]

BONUS: @pahlkadot and @ad_greenway just chatted with @rSanti97 today about some of the report highlights.

Check it out:
https://t.co/501ZVOKYLM

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Get in, state capacity crew. This is the deep dive! From some of the best.

@pahlkadot @ad_greenway & tons of collaborators

[Niskanen Center @NiskanenCenter]

🚨Massive new report from @pahlkadot + @ad_greenway:

Our roadmap for effective, efficient government.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

5 days ago my friend forgot her fancy hot cocoa mix at my apartment.

4 days ago, I began a tradition of having a 3pm cup of hot cocoa each workday.

…when do I tell her.

[Dr. Maya C. Popa @MayaCPopa]

"We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us."

[Joseph Fasano @Joseph_Fasano_]

Woolf was feeling it.

[Jessica Cole @jessunscripted]

Sometimes, when the light