Data Centers and Community Primer

Register for This Event

Member Price: $0

Nonmember Price: $50

Midwestern communities are powering the future of artificial intelligence and cloud computing through the exponential growth of data center operations breaking ground in our region. These infrastructure investments have impacts on economic and environmental resources that are not always well-understood or anticipated. Through this fact-based primer on data centers, foundation leaders can be informed partners working to drive effective decision-making and strategy development within their own communities.

What you’ll take away:

Fact-based insights on the topic of data center operations and implications on communities.
Questions to ask to understand the benefits and drawbacks of data centers for your region.

Speaker

Caucasian female with short curly brown hair and black blazer

Kate E. Stoll

Project Director, Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues at the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Kate E. Stoll is Project Director for the Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The EPI Center builds trusted relationships between experts and decision makers at all levels of government to make it easier for policymakers to access and incorporate scientific evidence into their decision-making processes.

Kate served as Senior Policy Advisor at the MIT Washington Office from 2014 to 2022. Prior to MIT, she served as a Congressional Fellow with the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. From 2011 to 2013 Kate was an AAAS S&T Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation.

Kate served as Chair of the AAAS Committee on Science and Engineering in Public Policy in 2022 and as a member of the Board of Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies from 2019-2025.

She received a B.A. in Biochemistry from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 2004, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2010.

Who May Attend

This event is open to grantmakers of all types, however, the program will be targeted toward:

Place-based foundation staff and board members interested in understanding this emerging issue.
Health and environmental funders interested in gaining insight into the resource implications of data center operations in communities.

This resource is part of the Midwest Partnership Series, a collaboration between IPA, Council of Michigan Foundations, Philanthropy Missouri, and Philanthropy Ohio.