Workforce and People

Although the feared overnight replacement of workers by robots has not come to pass, major social and economic questions about the management of an increasingly automated labor market remain.

The city of Reno has announced the appointment of Craig Franden, who has more than 20 years of public IT experience, to the Department of Information Technology director position. Franden replaces Kannaiah Vadlakunta in the role.

Albany State University is partnering with IBM to create the Cybersecurity Leadership Center where students will have access to the company's software, immersive training courses and certifications.

The partnership will open the door for about 3,000 students from over 50 schools in the city to apprenticeship opportunities for some of the city’s leading employers in the finance, technology and business ops fields.

Karen Dahut worked on cloud, data science and other technologies at the consulting firm, and has experience working with public agencies. The recently launched Google Public Sector helps governments improve digitally.

Gabe Klein has been named as the head of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, charged with overseeing the buildout of some 500,000 high-speed public chargers across the nation, among other projects.

Aldridge, who has served as the city’s chief information officer since May 2021, will join the business development consulting firm Gartner, the city announced Tuesday. His last day in city service will be Oct. 4.

Five new ed-tech startups will join this year’s EDTECH WEEK conference in New York City to network and pitch their ideas to investors on Wednesday’s demo day. All are working on digital training and upskilling.

The company Winsor Learning will offer free professional development resources for teachers to help combat declines in K-12 reading and math test scores that have steepened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

White House efforts to strengthen the cybersecurity workforce nationwide took several new steps forward over the past few months.

As CIO in Asheville, he moved the city to the cloud, expanded free high-speed Wi-Fi, boosted cybersecurity and built better relationships with residents. He joins a county that has recently won praise for its tech efforts.

Turning old office buildings into housing is hardly new, but expected cutbacks in office rentals as companies adapt to remote work prompted by the pandemic have spurred new interest in doing so among landlords.

Local employers — such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, Unum, Cigna and Freightwaves — have shifted their Chattanooga offices to mostly remote and hybrid work, and are allowing many workers to do their jobs at home.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran announced the $750,000 educational grant for the Friends University cybersecurity program last week. The grant funding will go toward scholarships, technology and equipment.

As we emerge from the most life-changing pandemic in a century, discouraging workplace trends, like "quiet quitting," are commonplace. So what works to improve morale and productivity?  

A week after taking over as chief technology officer for the Georgia Technology Authority, Dmitry Kagansky shared his vision for the agency and how he hopes to optimize state IT across the board.

Heidi Norman explains Pittsburgh’s agency-level data coordinator system and how they’re modernizing the city’s legacy IT infrastructure and learning from academic and nonprofit partners.

Kelly, who just finished his third year as the state’s chief data officer, announced his plans to retire from the Department of Information Resources. His last day with the agency is Sept. 16.