“The team was highly engaged, efficient, and consistently motivated, which made the collaboration both productive and enjoyable... [The Fellows] brought the right mix of skills and competencies needed to successfully tackle nuanced and complex projects.”

—Christopher Paul, Chief Privacy Officer, County of Santa Clara, California

“Paragon Fellows helped us with Language Access—specifically, in support of the Office of New Americans created in 2024 to assist immigrants in the St. Louis area. Their research laid the groundwork for developing a comprehensive language access plan for our city, and their final report included actionable recommendations that will undoubtedly improve language access services for our residents.”

—Simon Huang, Chief Technology Officer, City of St. Louis, Missouri

“[Paragon's] work provides the foundation material for us to develop our AI Literacy Training. Without this work, we would be significantly delayed in moving forward with this type of training, and I am not sure when the program development would have started.”

—Stephanie Deitrick, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, City of Tempe, Arizona

“[Paragon's work] will kick-start the City’s implementation of new data policy along-side our in-flight data migration project. I really appreciated that the team was willing and able to help build a proposed roll-out plan into their recommendations, so it wasn’t only policy language, but some guidance on managing the change with the City with an eye on ensuring the policy fits our varied business needs and practices.”

—Jesse Neidigh, IT Director, City of Missoula, Montana

“Paragon Fellows helped our city create a comprehensive AI procurement framework, establishing a structured approach for evaluating AI technologies against core values such as privacy, security, equity, and transparency. This framework will directly benefit over 15,000 residents and ensure all future AI applications align with ethical standards and serve the public responsibly.”

—Melanie McDonough, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Lebanon, New Hampshire

“The Fellows developed a recommendations report for updating our digital accessibility policies. The insights and guidance the team provided will be instrumental in shaping our policies and ensuring that our digital platforms are inclusive and accessible to all. [What stood out to me the most was] the student dedication. It was very clear that they wanted to get this right for us and for our constituents.”

—Cassandra Hill, Digital Inclusion Coordinator, City of Madison, Wisconsin

“While Georgia now has an AI policy in effect, the massive boom of generative AI has brought with it specific challenges. Paragon Fellows worked with the GTA to recommend enforcement and education mechanisms to address generative AI's potential effect on government operations at the state level. The work produced by Paragon will help inform a GenAI policy that contains guidelines for the use of generative AI by all 40,000 state employees.”

—Nikhil Deshpande, Chief Digital and AI Officer, Georgia Technology Authority

“By helping our Bureau understand the processes, biases, lessons learned, and risks associated with the design and usage of AI in the domain of security, our policymakers will be better able to communicate and draft relevant and forward-looking guidance on the transfer of AI capabilities embedded in defense articles such as lethal autonomous weapons. [Their] work is important to their country.”

—Philip Y. Kao, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. State Department