Now heading Information Technology Services as director and CIO is Dorothy Parks, an employee of the department for about three years, most recently as assistant director and before that as deputy director of enterprise applications, according to an announcement from the county.
“Dorothy has managed several IT disciplines throughout her career and brings invaluable understanding to a dynamic and essential field,” said Gwinnett County Administrator Glenn Stephens in the statement. “She is a leader with strategic vision and experience to help us navigate the future.”
Parks has held more than half a dozen private sector leadership roles over more than 30 years in the technology industry, including as chief technology officer and division president of the IT staffing company Atlantic Partners Corp., as a principal at an IT business consulting firm called DAP Services, as chief technology officer at Adilys Data Protection Strategy and Solutions, in corporate IT positions at Wyndham Worldwide, and as vice president of enterprise applications at the now-defunct Cendant Corp.
Encompassing close to 1 million residents northeast of Atlanta, Gwinnett County has been an active innovator over the past several years. Among other things, its projects have included a $50,000 grant for software to connect former inmates with employment and housing resources, almost $38 million on a new STEM high school, smart water meters, new transit options, $456,000 to encrypt data, and a $4.4-million joint project with the Georgia Department of Transportation to install smart city tech along four busy roadways.
