Alumni Profile: Allison Plyer '90

A torrent of data to help stem the flood
Alum's nonprofit venture helping New Orleans surface after Katrina

By Sandra Guy

In April, The Brookings Institution was on the verge of releasing inaccurate information about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That's when Allison Plyer intervened.

As manager of strategic products for the Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works, Plyer '90 co-directs the organization's online data center, playing an important role in its mission to use statistics to help other nonprofits function at maximum efficiency.

"Allison's role was critical in explaining the limitations of the data we were using," says Matt Fellowes, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "She was much more aware than we were about the quality ... of the data."

The Kellogg School graduate acquired this knowledge by being in New Orleans and establishing relationships with local people who were collecting, managing and releasing post-Katrina details.

One key finding: a higher population estimate for New Orleans than anyone had anticipated, meaning that more people were returning to the ravaged city.

This was politically important, says Fellows, because such details influence public demand to authorize congressional spending to rebuild the affected communities.

But Plyer had more than a professional stake in helping repair the Big Easy. She felt the tragedy personally too.

She evacuated her home just before Katrina hit and watched from afar as her adopted city flooded. She found herself playing a crucial role in helping the nation respond to the disaster, by helping regional nonprofits plan and respond more effectively.   

Plyer and Knowledge Works continue to lead an effort to make information-sharing more efficient among area nonprofits. The goal: to effect positive social change by leveraging the power of diverse agencies to meet low-income people's needs.

Although the organization developed its Community Data Center Web site, gnocdc.org, to support these local efforts, Katrina transformed the online tool from a local asset to a critical source of information for journalists, researchers and federal agencies.

"We went from 2,000 unique visitors a month to 13,000 practically overnight," says the 44-year-old Evanston native, who has put her marketing expertise to work for nonprofits in Guatemala and the Bay Area, and companies such as AT&T and Lexus.

Post-Katrina, Plyer initially stayed with friends in Georgia where she fielded questions from The Wall Street Journal and New Orleanians wanting to know if their homes had flooded, and inquiries from first responders seeking a better orientation to the damaged city.

Eventually, Plyer drove to Chicago to stay with family — all the while updating the Knowledge Works Web site. "Once the scope of the disaster was known, relief agencies wanted to know how many people were in New Orleans? How many in surrounding parishes? How many in Texas?" Plyer says.

Only later did she learn that her own home had flooded, prompting her to race back to salvage what she could. She stayed with friends as she gutted her house. Throughout the ordeal she continued to provide key data about the changing nature of New Orleans' poverty rates, diversity in race and income, and the influx of labor to perform rebuilding. 

"Now we're helping everyone from the Census to Nielsen Media Research to try to track the demographic picture down here," she says.

Plyer uses the frameworks learned at the Kellogg School to stay focused on the true story of the recovery.

"An important lesson from Kellogg is that anecdotal information is highly suspect," she says. "It can help tell the story behind actual numbers, but it's not a solid indicator in itself."

Today, New Orleans is seeing an increase in evacuees returning and in the number of children in public schools. In March, Plyer was able to settle into her own new home — a second-floor condominium in an area that was spared the storm's wrath. While she jokes that she may never fully unpack, preferring to keep some valuables in waterproof containers, the Kellogg alum is clearly committed to Crescent City's long-term viability.

"We're in the pre-building process of what may take 10 to 30 years," says Plyer. "I'm just glad to be here to contribute to it."