Workforce and People

Jonathan Wisbey, the chief technology officer who was involved in several of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s IT initiatives — including the use of surveillance technology and the smart cities program — has resigned.

He takes over the state’s Department of Information Technology from acting head Raja Sambandam, who returns to his previous job as chief information security officer. Mantos has more than 30 years of IT experience.

Colin Ahern, former deputy director of New York City Cyber Command, has accepted the newly created position. He brings years of cybersecurity experience across the government and private sector to the role.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also put two leaders in charge of the effort, including a city data specialist reporting to her office. The new effort builds upon a push to give more students Internet access at their homes.

The Boston-based startup accelerator has chosen five startups — four from the U.S. and one from Austria — for its 12-week Breakthrough to Scale program, and many of them propose tech solutions to workforce training.

Golub has led the county’s IT efforts since August 2017. In his new role, he will focus on Oracle Cloud’s mid-market vertical, which includes local government organizations across the country.

Nelson Moe, the former CIO for the commonwealth of Virginia, has shifted from the public to private sector with his recent appointment as the sales strategy principal for IT solutions provider Iron Bow Technologies.

A partnership between a Michigan-based STEM education center and Kellogg Community College is hosting hands-on tech classes at little to no cost for kids aged 8 to 18 throughout the summer.

The California cloud software firm has released a product designed to handle some of the most redundant and tedious tech tasks for government as public agencies are dealing with IT hiring and retaining challenges.

San Diego County’s second largest city has announced a new IT director in Jose Cisneros. Cisneros comes to city service with more than two decades of network and cybersecurity experience from the U.S. Navy.

In the ongoing quest to improve cybersecurity for North Carolina’s government and its residents, Chief Risk Officer Rob Main says a better workforce pipeline would take his agency to the next level.

Twenty-one states have a CPO position, up from just 12 in 2019. States appear to be recognizing the need to tackle privacy as government data collection grows, but CPOs still struggle to get enough funds.

Mendel brings nearly 20 years of experience to the role, including working as the county's radio communications division director. Now, he picks up where former CIO Tanya Hannah left off.

New York Chief Information Officer Angelo "Tony" Riddick explains the state's cluster CIO model and discusses how his office is working to expand broadband and close the digital divide.

The White House is set to nominate Phil Washington, former CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to be the next FAA administrator, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.

The university will use funding from the state and industry partners to establish a new laboratory for its FIREStarter program, with hardware and software to accommodate hands-on training and future research.

Nationwide, organizations are grappling with drastic changes to the workforce. But some are taking this as an opportunity to bring people from historically underrepresented backgrounds into the tech sector.

CISA Director Jen Easterly and National Cyber Director Chris Inglis promote collaboration — but will their successors do the same? Does describing the work as “data care” not “cybersecurity” help with talent recruitment?