NASCIO Honors Louisiana CIO Richard “Dickie” Howze With 10 Year Service Award

LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, April 4, 2023 — today, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) recognizes Louisiana Chief Information Officer (CIO) Richard “Dickie” Howze with the association’s Decade of Leadership Award. Howze celebrates ten years as the CIO for the State of Louisiana this month and is one of only a handful of CIOs who have achieved this milestone.

NASCIO president and Tennessee CIO Stephanie Dedmon congratulated Howze saying, “Dickie’s leadership in the state of Louisiana can be seen in the state’s modernization and consolidation efforts and especially in their commitment to cybersecurity. He has also demonstrated his resilience by leading the CIO organization through the technology demands and impacts of major hurricanes and storm damage.”

As Louisiana CIO, Howze has overseen countless projects for in-scope state agencies, including implementation of online bidding for the Office of State Procurement; modernization and consolidation of state print and mail management; improvement of network security with enterprise-secure baseline migration; architecture of cutting-edge remote office and disaster recovery connectivity solution; implementation of LaGov Budget Development System as well as web content filtering for all in-scope agencies; and advancement of governmental transparency and accountability via the Louisiana Checkbook searchable website. Louisiana also has become the first state ever to implement a virtual remote-identity verification system for Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applicants.

Before being appointed as state CIO, Howze served various other positions in Louisiana state government.

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