NASCIO Outlines Importance of Digital Accessibility Coordinator Role in State Government

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, November 28, 2023 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) today released a brief on the importance of a statewide digital accessibility coordinator position and why the role is important. The primer outlines the roles and responsibilities of such a position (commonly referred to as chief information technology (IT) accessibility officer, chief information accessibility officer and other titles), why it’s important and advice for states who do not have such a role.

“With the expansion of digital government services, accessibility is an imperative,” said Meredith Ward, NASCIO deputy executive director. “With nearly 40 percent of citizens over the age of 16 now having at least one disability, making these digital services accessible is more important than ever.”

There are at least 15 states who have a digital accessibility coordinator role who heads the digital accessibility team and many more who have plans to create the positions who contributed to this report.

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Members Give Back During NASCIO 2023 Annual Conference

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, October 24, 2023 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) donated over $36,000 to American Indian OIC as part of the association’s Give Back program. American Indian OIC is a Minneapolis-area nonprofit that offers – through its Takoda Institute – free vocational IT training to help students secure living wages in high-demand careers.  Their short-term training provides the opportunity for a living wage in high-demand careers. NASCIO’s 2023 Annual Conference was held in Minneapolis earlier this month.  

Donations were collected during the NASCIO 2023 Annual Conference and NASCIO state, corporate and nonprofit members donated through individual contributions. NASCIO corporate members Accela, Akamai, Cloudera Government Solutions, CoreView, CrowdStrike and Esri sponsored this year’s Give Back program and contributed to the donation total.  

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Announces Association Leadership for Coming Year

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, October 17, 2023 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) announced the association’s executive leadership for the new program year. James Weaver, Secretary of Technology and Chief Information Officer for the State of North Carolina, will be president; Amanda Crawford, Executive Director and Chief Information Officer for the State of Texas will be vice president; and J.R. Sloan, CIO for the State of Arizona, will be secretary/treasurer.

Additionally, Chris Rein, Chief Technology Officer for the State of New Jersey, will be joining NASCIO’s Executive Committee as a new director.

Paul Baltzell, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development with Salesforce, will be NASCIO’s Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) chair and Stuart Davis, Vice President, Consulting Expert with CGI Technologies and Solutions, will be CLC vice chair. CLC members promote information sharing among public and private sector members, providing expertise to NASCIO issue focus areas and supporting projects. The CLC chair and vice chair hold advisory, non-voting seats on NASCIO’s Executive Committee.

NASCIO’s 2023-24 Executive Committee leaders are:

President
James Weaver, Secretary of Technology and CIO, State of North Carolina

Vice-President
Amanda Crawford, Executive Director and CIO, State of Texas

Secretary/Treasurer
J.R. Sloan, Chief Information Officer, State of Arizona

Past President
Stephanie Dedmon, Chief Information Officer, State of Tennessee

Executive Committee Directors:

Tracy Barnes, CIO, State of Indiana
Katrina Flory, CIO and Assistant Director, State of Ohio
Alan Fuller, CIO, State of Utah
Denis Goulet, Commissioner and CIO, State of New Hampshire
Chris Rein, CTO, State of New Jersey
Shawnzia Thomas, CIO, State of Georgia
Tarek Tomes, Commissioner and CIO, State of Minnesota
Trina Zanow, CIO, State of Wisconsin

Paul Baltzell, ex officio
Stuart Davis, ex officio

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Honors Three Public Servants with State Technology Innovator Award

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Minneapolis, MN., Wednesday, October 11, 2023 —The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) presented the State Technology Innovator Award to three deserving public servants during the NASCIO 2023 Annual Conference. The NASCIO State Technology Innovator Award honors outstanding state government employees who have made contributions to advance state technology policy through the promotion of best practices, adoption of new technologies and advancements in service delivery. Nominations were gathered from NASCIO members and selected by the NASCIO Executive Committee.

The following are the recipients of the NASCIO 2023 State Technology Innovator Award:

Roger Gibson
Chief Operating Officer, Office of Information Technology (OIT) – State of New Jersey
Nominated by: Christopher Rein, Chief Technology Officer, State of NJ

In the State of New Jersey, Roger has implemented strong operational standards; increased use of effective metrics, data and analytics; and overseen the creation of operational dashboards. As New Jersey shifts to a strong focus on both cloud adoption and low code / no code platforms, Roger has led the charge, with an unprecedented thirteen state agencies migrated and trained. Roger has inspired and mobilized the OIT team and driven positive change.

In his nomination, New Jersey CTO (CIO) Chris Rein wrote, “Roger’s unparalleled balance of visionary thinking with operational pragmatism have dramatically improved, and created an actual shift within, the way we deliver services to our agency customers and the residents of our state. I have witnessed Roger’s remarkable contributions and unwavering commitment to driving improvements, innovation and the advancement of our state’s strategy and technological landscape.”

Susan Kellogg
Chief Deputy State Chief Information Officer and Chief Services Officer, N.C. Department of Information Technology
Nominated by: Anne Johnson, Communications Specialist, N.C. Department of Information Technology

Susan leads the Internal Operations Division, a 350-person team that provides enterprise application and infrastructure services to 375 state agencies, local governments and educational institutions in North Carolina. Susan has led a transformation of the division in how the staff works and delivers services. She positioned her team to be more focused on architecture, strategy and governance by reorganizing the division, defining and reassigning roles, recruiting talent for positions better aligned with customer needs and initiating enhanced, transparent communication with staff and customers.

As NCDIT expanded its services portfolio for a growing number of public-sector customers, Susan structured her division to empower staff to envision and implement better ways of serving customers. She also led efforts to expand and enhance communication among the more than twenty agency CIOs, enabling more efficient, timely conversations about IT challenges and successes among public-sector IT leaders in North Carolina. Susan has aligned NCDIT to support North Carolina’s statewide IT strategic plan and its goals to transform service delivery and promote an inclusive, diverse workforce.

Alex Wong
Chief Information Technology Architect, Kansas Office of Information Technology Services
Nominated by: Allie Denning, Director, Public Affairs, Kansas Office of Information Technology Services

In the State of Kansas, Alex is pursuing a platforming approach to provide government services to enhance the customer experience. He launched an IT Job Standardization project to standardize IT job titles and descriptions which has led to an increase in the retention of IT workers and created a career path that spans across the executive branch. Alex is also spearheading an enterprise licensing platform that will modernize agencies’ credentialing systems and played a critical role in securing federal dollars for this project. Alex is also working with the internal team to implement identity and access management and also worked to help secure federal funding for this project.

Alex also created a data architecture that will allow common data sets to be used across different channels and wrote a generative AI policy for the state which sets acceptable use and protects privacy and intellectual property rights. Knowing that generative AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace and that the full extent of its potential is still unknown, Alex wrote the policy so that it can evolve with the technology. While it is currently an internal policy for the Kansas Office of Information Technology Services, the goal is for the policy to be adopted as a policy for the state’s executive branch agencies. The policy went into effect in the summer of 2023.

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Honors Illinois State CISO Adam Ford

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Minneapolis, MN., Wednesday, October 11, 2023 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has named Illinois CISO Adam Ford as the recipient of the 2023 Thomas M. Jarrett State Cybersecurity Leadership Award. The program was created to pay homage to Thomas M. Jarrett, past president of NASCIO (2004 – 2005), for his passion for cybersecurity and honors state chief information security officers (CISOs) for exceptional accomplishments in their field. This award evolved from the Thomas M. Jarrett Cybersecurity Scholarship, being renamed in 2020 to reflect the vital role state CISOs hold in state cybersecurity efforts and their deeper involvement with NASCIO.

Adam has been Illinois CISO since 2019 and has played a crucial role in promoting cybersecurity, advancing the state’s cybersecurity posture and implementing best practices. Specifically, Adam has:
• Enhanced the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and implementing robust security frameworks.

• Collaborated with stakeholders and developed comprehensive cybersecurity practices and implemented strong security controls, encryption protocols and access management systems to safeguard data and networks.

• Led initiatives to enforce multi-factor authentication for network and system access, and is driving efforts to transition the state’s network to a zero-trust architecture.

• Actively fostered public-private partnerships, which has resulted in improved information sharing, joint training exercises and coordinated responses to cyber incidents.

• Established robust incident response plans and regularly conducts exercises and simulations to test the state’s readiness in the face of cyber incidents.

• Advocated for swift and coordinated responses to minimize the impact of breaches and restore services rapidly.
In his nomination of Adam, Illinois CIO Sanjay Gupta wrote, “Throughout his tenure, Adam Ford’s unwavering commitment to promoting a culture of cybersecurity, advancing the state’s cybersecurity posture and implementing best practices has been evident. His visionary leadership and tireless efforts have positioned Illinois as a model for other states, demonstrating how to build a resilient and secure digital ecosystem.”

To view past recipients of the Thomas M. Jarrett State Cybersecurity Leadership Award, visit nascio.org/awards.

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Announces Recipients for NASCIO 2023 State IT Recognition Awards

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Minneapolis, MN., Wednesday, October 11, 2023 —The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has announced recipients for the NASCIO 2023 State IT Recognition Awards. This year nearly 100 submissions were received from NASCIO member states and territories and over 80 NASCIO members served as volunteer judges.

The award nominations showcase the use of information technology to address critical business problems, more easily connect citizens to their government, improve business processes and create new opportunities that improve the lives of citizens. To ensure states have access to the innovations and leading practices of their peers, all award submissions have been added to NASCIO’s Awards Library.

NASCIO Awards Committee co-chairs, Tarek Tomes, commissioner and CIO for the State of Minnesota and Trina Zanow, CIO for the State of Wisconsin, announced the recipients at the awards and recognition dinner at the NASCIO 2023 Annual Conference.

Award recipients for the 2023 State IT Recognition Awards are:

Business Process Innovations
State of Michigan: Michigan All in for the User, Our HCD Strategy

Cross-Boundary Collaboration & Partnerships
State of North Carolina: NC eLink: Completing the Picture to Improve Constituent Services

Cybersecurity
State of Hawai’i: Surfing the Cyber Risk Monster Wave

Data Management, Analytics & Visualization
State of California: All-Hazards Dashboard

Digital Services: Government to Business
State of Tennessee: Transforming Agriculture Licensing & Permitting: Milking Enterprise Innovation for Streamlined Processes

Digital Services: Government to Citizen (3-way tie)
State of Minnesota: Delivering Swift Relief to Minnesota’s COVID-19 Frontline Workers
State of Ohio: Streamlining Access to Child Care Benefits
State of Tennessee: MyTN: Placing Government in the Palms of Citizen Hands

Emerging & Innovative Technologies
State of Minnesota: Digital Bridges: The Future is Here

Enterprise IT Management Initiatives
State of Indiana: SEAL: Continuing to Hire the Next IT Professionals

Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations
State of North Carolina: ATSC 3.0 in Public Safety Communications

State CIO Office Special Recognition
State of Minnesota: How AI Enhances Driver and Vehicle Services for Minnesota Residents

To review these and other submissions, please visit NASCIO’s Awards Library: www.NASCIO.org/awards.

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO Honors New Hampshire Commissioner and CIO Denis Goulet with its Meritorious Service Award

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Minneapolis, MN., Wednesday, October 11, 2023, The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) recognized Denis Goulet, commissioner and chief information officer (CIO) for the State of New Hampshire, with the association’s Meritorious Service Award. NASCIO created the Meritorious Service Award several years ago, honoring leadership in state government and dedication to the advancement of NASCIO’s mission.

Denis Goulet’s leadership tenure has epitomized NASCIO’s unofficial motto of “expect surprises.” After serving on the executive committee for two years, Denis was elected Vice-President for the 2019-2020 program year. After about three and a half months, the president at the time accepted a new leadership assignment by his governor and Denis was elected president by his fellow executive committee members at the end of February 2020. Denis led the association through COVID-19 uncertainty and disruptions and carefully led the association through many tough decisions. His thoughtful, inclusive and measured leadership enabled NASCIO to not only survive during this time, but to provide new value to members and serve as a much-needed connection point.

In the midst of the uncertainty that the pandemic brought, Denis moved forward with his presidential priority of business relationship management which produced a publication and guide for states in this area. On behalf of NASCIO, Denis also testified before two subcommittees of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security, focusing on cybersecurity challenges facing states and local government systems and urging Congress to pass a dedicated cybersecurity grant program for state and local government. Denis has been fully engaged with NASCIO since his appointment as commissioner and CIO in New Hampshire. Outside of his tenure as president, Denis has served as a co-chair of the Awards Committee twice, is a frequent speaker at conferences, forums and webcasts and has often represented NASCIO at engagements with strategic partners.

His service to his home state of New Hampshire has also been exemplary. Following more than three decades at private-sector software companies, Denis was appointed commissioner of the Department of Information Technology for the state of New Hampshire in February 2015 by former Governor Maggie Hassan. He is now entering his fourth term, which is a relatively long tenure for a state CIO. During his time in office, Denis not only helped the state build its digital presence but provided pandemic leadership and crafted the first strategic IT plan for New Hampshire in more than a decade. Under Denis’ leadership the state has also vastly improved its cybersecurity posture, migrated toward more cloud platforms, implemented multi-agency/enterprise solutions and significantly upgraded its network systems and infrastructure.

 Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

State CIOs Focus on People First in Meeting Current and Future IT Demands

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Minneapolis, MN., Tuesday, October 10, 2023 – The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released today the 2023 State CIO Survey, The Force of Automation and the Reality of Modernization. The report includes responses from 49 state CIOs on eight topics.

“This year’s survey focuses less on future plans and aspirations and more about what actions state CIOs are taking today,” said NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson. “But, we still left plenty of room for CIOs to contemplate the future of the CIO organization.”

The survey topics this year include some stalwarts like cybersecurity, emerging technology, cloud, legacy modernization and data management and also includes some topics with a new angle—some that might have been covered before, but with a new spin on the questions asked. The report also includes questions on workforce in many of its sections. Workforce challenges, including continuity of leadership, have and continue to have an impact on the state CIO’s ability to deliver services both now and in the future. There is also a focus on automation and, based on trending adoption, it is anticipated that there will be further utilization of automation tools and services to streamline business processes; enhance digital citizen experience; and strengthen states’ cybersecurity posture.

The complete report is available on NASCIO’s website www.nascio.org/resourcecenter.

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO and Accenture Release Capitals in the Cloud Part II: Changing the Cloud Conversation

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, October 3, 2023 — Today the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Accenture released the second in a series on the maturity of state government employment of cloud capabilities, Capitals in the Cloud Part II: Changing the Cloud Conversation. The study revisits the first in the series by NASCIO and Accenture, which was published in 2021, and created a baseline for evaluating the maturity of cloud adoption across state governments. This second report presents longitudinal analysis, patterns of success and recommendations for overcoming persistent barriers to change with cloud services.

“This report looks at progress that states have made in the past two years and recommendations for further progress,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO executive director “It’s clear cloud services have become a critical component of the state CIO operational portfolio.”

State health and human service departments are the leading adopters of cloud computing. Many have implemented cloud solutions to enhance operations and service delivery, especially for benefits claims processing and case management-based workloads. Other state functions shifting to the cloud, but not as fast, are employment services, transportation, HR/workforce management and education.

“The move to cloud computing is about states striving to improve services and outcomes for citizens and better manage government operations within tight resource constraints,” said Anita Puri, Accenture Public Service global managing director. “It is an essential tool for state governments to become more adaptable and resilient in the face of continual change and volatility.”

Additional highlights from the report are:

  • 88% of state CIO respondents are expediting cloud adoption across operational domains.
  • 74% of respondents say security is the most important benefit of cloud computing.
  • 30% of respondents have completed a cloud strategy or roadmap, and the remaining 70% are actively developing strategies to optimize the cloud’s potential.
  • A substantial 60% of organizations have also incorporated cloud adoption into their enterprise IT governance process.
  • Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are increasingly common, with 23% of states’ total system and application catalogs utilizing Infrastructure as a Service and Software as a Service, double the level in 2021.
  • 53% of CIOs indicated workforce skill shortages and lack of staff are impeding their organization from adopting cloud services.

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

NASCIO, Center for Digital Government and IBM Release Report on Preparing for Future Shocks

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Lexington, KY., Thursday, September 28, 2023 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), the Center for Digital Government (CDG) and IBM today released a report entitled, Preparing for Future Shocks in State Government. The report is intended to help frame what future disruptions may look like for state chief information officers (CIOs) and how they can effectively tackle them.

 The report includes highlights of over twenty state CIO interviews on the topic of resilience. The interviews uncovered key themes about the threats state governments face and the tools, processes and resources CIOs need to build more resilient organizations. CIOs are facing issues from future public health crises and cyber threats to climate change, workforce shortages and disruptive new technologies. The research looked at how CIOs approach resilience from multiple perspectives: enterprise resilience, IT resilience, workforce and employee resilience and personal resilience.

Doug Robinson, NASCIO Executive Director, commented, “The past few years have presented a multitude of challenges and increased demands on state CIOs. State CIOs have had to be resilient in the face of uncertainty to lead their organizations.

“Responsible AI and Automation are essential elements of state leaders’ IT modernization strategies as they strengthen resiliency,” said Frank Attaie, General Manager for IBM’s U.S. Public Market. “This roadmap will help state CIOs as they extend their capabilities and agility in responding to future disruptions and we look forward to collaborating with them.”

“CIOs play an important and unique role in state government resilience,” said CDG Senior Vice President Teri Takai. “Our research shows they are working closely with traditional emergency management teams for both cyber incident response and physical disaster recovery. They are at the forefront of confronting public sector talent shortages, and leading statewide discussions around technology modernization to reduce threats to critical government services.”

To read the publication, visit NASCIO’s Resource Center.

 

 

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About NASCIO 

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers is the premier network and resource for state CIOs and a leading advocate for technology policy at all levels of government. NASCIO represents state chief information officers and information technology executives from the states, territories, and the District of Columbia. For more information about NASCIO visit www.nascio.org. 

 

AMR Management Services provides NASCIO’s executive staff.  For more information about AMR visit www.AMRms.com. 

 

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

 

About CDG

The Center for Digital Government (CDG) is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Through its diverse and dynamic programs and services, the Center provides public and private sector leaders with decision support, knowledge, and opportunities to help them effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21st century.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.