Abstract
If you live in any city long enough, chances are you’ll come across a rat. Few people enjoy the experience, yet many DC residents don’t report every rat they see. So, DC’s 311 service request system only helps identify some of the places where rats live. To help the DC Health Rodent Control team find rats that go unreported, we built a statistical model to predict the locations of rat burrows. While our model wasn’t good at predicting where the Rodent Control team would find unreported rat burrows, it was very good at prioritizing which 311 complaints were most likely to lead to the discovery of a rat burrow. However, the Rodent Control team found that this information would not substantially improve their operations.

Bio
Sam Quinney is the Director of The Lab @ DC. Under his leadership, The Lab works to generate timely, relevant, and high-quality evidence to improve lives in the District.

Sam joined the Lab in January 2016 as its first full-time employee. Prior to joining The Lab @ DC, Sam worked at the US Department of Education (ED) and White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team. In behavioral science, Sam worked to embed behavioral insights and rigorous testing within the department’s outreach to struggling student borrowers. In K-12 education, Sam contributed to the development and evaluation of many ED initiatives related to school turnaround, high school graduation, teacher preparation, and college choice.

Sam previously worked as a Fellow under Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, where he helped design a more cost-effective use of commercial loading zones and a 311 data tool used to predict and prevent outbreaks of rodent activity across the city. Prior to living in Chicago, Sam was a 7th Grade U.S. History teacher in Philadelphia and a Coordinator for a college readiness program serving low-income youth from neighborhood high schools.

Sam was a 2013 Presidential Management Fellow and a 2007 Teach For America Corps Member. Sam holds a B.A. in political science and writing from Villanova University, a secondary teaching certification from University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Sam lives in Ward 6 in Capitol Hill East with his wife, Kelly, a teething son, Isaiah, and their dog, Nova.