Workforce and People

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.

When asked what they’d invest in if funding were no object, many state chief information officers gave the same answer: hiring more people and developing current staff.

Chief Information Security Officer Brian Tardiff will take the helm in an interim capacity, as Kumar makes his return to the private sector. The state will conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

Dmitry Kagansky, the state's first chief cloud officer, has been named as the replacement for longtime Chief Technology Officer Steve Nichols. Nichols stepped down last month for a private-sector role.

Wittenburg brings three decades of experience to the North Carolina city, which lost its CIO to Texas earlier this year. His four years as Tempe CIO included digital equity and data transparency work.

John Quinn, head of Vermont’s Agency of Digital Services, has announced his impending departure from the role after five years, and will be taking on a position in the private sector with Government Sourcing Solutions.

Noting the efforts of health care workers during COVID-19, a private research university in New York is cutting online tuition in half for the College of Professional Studies for employees of local health care systems.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York surveyed service sector and manufacturing firms about remote work, and how it is affecting them, asking primarily about the impact it has on productivity.

In a brave new world of hybrid work — or not — IT leaders rethink what it means to work for the public sector and what investments are needed to keep everyone connected.

An initiative in Connecticut aims to expand programs at colleges across the state in emerging and in-demand fields such as cybersecurity, virtual modeling, software development and digital analytics.