Emily Theis
I care deeply about making government work better for the people it serves. My background in journalism graphics gives me a strong foundation in visual storytelling and quickly navigating complexity. I love working with thoughtful, friendly teams that ship great work backed by clear decisions. Outside of work, I'm a musician, sewist, and runner.
I'm the Director of Product for CiviForm, an open-source platform that helps governments consolidate benefit applications so residents can actually find and access the help they're owed. CiviForm is stewarded by Exygy and was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025.
Before this, I spent five years at the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the CTO — the proudest work of my career. I led product on the flagship VA.gov benefits tools, where my team remediated 100,000+ silently failed benefits submissions, delivering $75M in backpay and waiving $1.65M in unnecessary debt. We also built first-of-its-kind automation software that saved Veterans 5,000+ waiting days by eliminating unnecessary exams when recent medical evidence already existed.
I got to VA through 18F, where I worked on federal technology projects across VA, DOD, and USDA. Prior to that, I was Head of Producers at Upstatement, where I guided strategic design and engineering projects for clients like On Being, PBS NewsHour, Harvard Gazette, Emergence Capital, and the MIT homepage and undergraduate admissions. I started my career as an editorial designer and illustrator at The Boston Globe and The Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
I'm a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. My solo indie pop project is just my last name, Theis, and I've played shows around Boston and Chicago. More on that: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Instagram.
I like sewing (especially quilting), running, yoga, and writing. I occasionally teach sewing classes at Sew on Central in Evanston. I've published writing about missing my time in Minneapolis and minimizing my wardrobe after college. I created the Breakup Survival Guide, a site powered by listeners of the Death Sex & Money podcast that serves up randomized heartache cures. The project was graciously profiled by the Poynter Institute, as well as Jetzt, the digital magazine from Germany's biggest nationwide newspaper (wunderbar!).
I'm always up for making friends, so get in touch via any Internet method you please!