Read the system before making the recommendation
Federal program risk does not live in one spreadsheet cell. It sits across grant terms, renewal evidence, institutional capacity, public money, and the students a program is meant to reach.
The work covered higher-education programs totaling $72 million and reaching 65% of U.S. enrollment, including federal grant and renewal review inside the Office of the Assistant Deputy Secretary.
Separate evidence from confidence
The operating task was to make each recommendation traceable: what the record established, what remained uncertain, how much exposure sat behind the uncertainty, and which new evidence should change the decision.
That distinction matters in public systems. A polished recommendation can hide weak evidence; a careful risk register keeps the reasoning available to the next reviewer.
What the work produced
The output was not a campaign. It was a clearer account of institutional risk - what could fail, where the exposure sat, and how to make a consequential decision reviewable rather than merely persuasive.