FluxxCon2026 Speakers

Scrub, Rinse, Repeat: Getting Your Data AI-Ready

AI tools are only as useful as the data, workflows, governance, and context behind them. Before AI can support smarter reporting, automation, or strategic insights, organizations need to confront the data debt already living in their systems.

In this session, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Grantbook will share how they tackled the most comprehensive data cleanup initiative in the Foundation’s history—addressing more than 80,000 records, fields, reports, templates, and other system artifacts accumulated across 30 years of grantmaking.

But the goal was never simply to complete a large cleanup. The work also surfaced a broader challenge: how do you prevent data debt from accumulating again, preserve the meaning behind the data, and create a foundation that can support future analytics, automation, and AI? The next step is moving from episodic cleanup to continuous data-quality management—strengthening definitions, ownership, documentation, validation, relationships, and upstream practices so trusted context travels with the data.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for sizing and prioritizing data debt, and an understanding of why AI readiness is not simply about connecting a model to a grants system: it requires data that is trustworthy, understandable, well-governed, and supported by the business context AI cannot reliably infer on its own.

Rhea Vaz

Senior Implementation Consultant

Grantbook

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Rhea Vaz · Grantbook

As a Senior Implementation Consultant at Grantbook, Rhea (she/her) partners with grantmakers to design and implement technology solutions that support their unique grantmaking processes. She specializes in solution architecture, system design, and complex software implementations, helping foundations optimize their grants management systems and translate business needs into effective, sustainable solutions. Outside of work, she enjoys a good comedy show, petting any cat she comes across, and indulging in some binge-worthy reality TV.

Amy Ticsay

Data Officer

The David & Lucile Packard Foundation

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Amy Ticsay · Packard Foundation

Amy Ticsay is the Data Officer at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she leads data strategy, grants data management, analytics, and operational insights to support effective grantmaking and evidence-based decision-making. As part of the Grants Data & Operations leadership team, she works across systems, teams, and workflows to strengthen how the Foundation uses data to improve operations, guide strategy, and advance mission impact. Amy also co-leads the Foundation’s cross-functional Data, Analytics, and Insights team, focused on improving data governance, quality, access, and use throughout the organization. Her work centers on translating complex information into actionable insights, building data-driven practices, and helping teams use technology more effectively. Before joining the Packard Foundation, Amy held strategy, operations, and analytics roles across technology, telecommunications, healthcare, and consulting, including at VMware, AT&T, Oracle, Stanford Health Care, and PwC. She holds bachelor’s and MBA degrees from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and is pursuing a Master of Applied Science in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence.

Linda Smith Gargiulo

Business Solutions Officer

The David & Lucile Packard Foundation

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Linda Smith Gargiulo · Packard Foundation

Linda Smith Gargiulo is a Business Solutions Officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she focuses on grants management systems, data quality, and staff training. With over a decade at the Foundation and a background in technical training and curriculum development, she brings a practical, people-centered lens to AI readiness in philanthropy.