Author: Meribel Briggs
The Best of North Carolina Technology Awards were presented at the N.C. Digital Government Summit in Raleigh on August 14 to recognize the hard work and dedication of our state and local agencies, universities and community colleges and their amazing employees.
These awards celebrate the innovative, cost-effective and secure solutions that are making a real difference for the people of North Carolina. Scroll through the photos of the recipients below and then read on to learn more about their accomplishments.
Best of North Carolina Technology Award Recipients
View additional photos at https://flic.kr/ps/3iXtzq.
N.C. Department of Adult Correction
Recipients: Chris Fuquay, Ed Myers, Lance Golden, Ted Johnson
Achievement: Hurricane Helene’s destruction left several N.C. Department of Adult Correction facilities in Western North Carolina without power or network connectivity. These outages disrupted offender management systems, communications and daily facility operations, impacting more than 2,000 inmates and hundreds of staff. The NCDIT-Adult Correction network team, led by Chris Fuquay and including network engineers Ed Myers, Lance Golden and Ted Johnson, played a crucial role in restoring service. They quickly procured and deployed Starlink satellite internet systems to provide broadband access without relying on damaged local infrastructure. Their innovative approach and swift action enabled staff to resume normal operations and maintain secure facility communications, demonstrating exceptional resilience, leadership and dedication. Their work also presents a scalable model for improving resilience at other rural or at-risk sites across the state.
Greenville Utilities Commission
Recipients: Brandon Moore, Chris Hurdle, Allen Watkins
Achievement: Recognizing the significant threats facing public utilities operating Critical Infrastructure, the team embarked on a significant cybersecurity improvement initiative. They collaborated with electric, gas and water operating depts, leveraged partnerships with East Carolina University and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA), and employed continuous process improvement concepts. GUC’s Center for Internet Security (CIS) score increased 45% and 92 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outcomes were addressed. A CISA led penetration test provided an initial score of 862. At the end of a 90-day remediation period, GUC reported on progress made and received a final score of 62, an 800-point reduction in risk!
Fayetteville Technical Community College
Recipient: Michael Stevens
Achievement: Michael has demonstrated exceptional technical expertise and foresight throughout his career, optimizing and securing network systems to meet the needs of the academic community. A key achievement in the past year was leading the adoption of Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all college members, saving significant costs while enhancing cybersecurity. His proactive approach ensured resilience against digital threats. Beyond technical skills, he fosters mentorship and collaboration, sharing knowledge and supporting team growth. His approachable, hands-on leadership style has been instrumental in the success of the division, ensuring both smooth operations and continuous adaptation to new technologies.
N.C. Department of Public Instruction
Recipient: North Carolina Student Information System Migration Team
Achievement: This outstanding team led the technical & business transition of the Student Information System (SIS). They demonstrated exceptional leadership, collaboration and problem-solving throughout a complex and high-stakes migration impacting every public school family, educator and students. They successfully managed data integrity, ensured minimal disruption, and provided critical training and support. Their work enabled a smooth transition that now supports improved school core operations, reporting and user experience.
NC Department of Commerce
Recipients: Chinita Arceneaux, Tara Scarberry, Leslie Curry, Neelam Mathur, Crystal Pitts, Raju Gadiraju
Achievement: In February 2025, the Division of Employment Security (DES) launched Felix, North Carolina State Government’s first generative AI assistant. Felix provides secure 24/7 assistance to claimants, reducing waiting times and increasing claim accuracy. DES staff and vendor partners leveraged AWS services like Bedrock, Lex, Lambda and OpenSearch to develop Felix. Felix is trained on a curated knowledge base to ensure accurate, timely responses. This scalable framework enables rapid, cost-effective expansion for future use cases. It sets a model for responsible, citizen-focused AI in government aligning with North Carolina’s Responsible AI Principles and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services
Recipients: Rajeev Kotrannavar, Prakash Talreja, Sailaja Nagineni, Melaine Whitener, Christina Bunch, Brian Dickerson, Dimple Katira, Robin Groth, Paul Garcia, Sean Robertson, GDIT
Achievement: To enhance NCDHHS platform security and safeguard data, the NCDHHS Information Technology Division, Medicaid and NCDIT teams implemented Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for various Medicaid applications, including EPS, PCDU, PASRR, EVV and, more recently, NCMMIS (aka NCTracks).
During the State Fiscal Year 2024-25, MFA was rolled out for NCTracks in two phases:
- Phase 1: Rolled out MFA to 10,000 operational users, including state and county staff and select providers.
- Phase 2: Rolled out MFA to over 130,000 providers statewide.
This achievement was made possible through excellent collaboration, partnership, planning and execution between the respective teams.
N.C. Office of State Human Resources
Recipients: La'Quita Alston, James Weston, Kevin Lavoie
Achievement: OSHR implemented LinkedIn Learning on a statewide level. While at first glance this sounds simple, it was incredibly complex. It required license amendments for several products, altering prior learning curriculums and agency assignments, and decommissioning LinkedIn Learning in other agencies so that it could be deployed statewide. There were many security considerations, group configurations to manage career pathing at an agency level, and integrations to this cloud-based library that maintains a transcript in our learning management system. This complex project was executed in less than two months.
N.C. Department of Environmental Quality
Recipient: NCDEQ Infrastructure & Security team
Achievement: As a part of its mission to provide environmental stewardship for the state, NCDEQ operates secure, customer-focused and innovative services, tools, maps and permitting systems. Matthew Rogers high-performing team is a critical part of this operation. They are rigorous in their security posture, yet responsive to the needs of the business and end-users. From permitting transformation to fending off a CrowdStrike outage, the Infrastructure & Security team delivers unwavering infrastructure and security support for dozens of mission-critical projects.
N.C. Department of Information Technology
Recipients: Business Relationship Managers, Enterprise Applications, Enterprise Customer Experience, Enterprise Operations, Hosting Services, Identity Management & Converged Platforms, IT Service Excellence, NCDIT Service Desk, Network and Telephony Engineering, Network Security and Infrastructure Operations, Project Management Office
Achievement: The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s two-year Mainframe as a Service project involved transitioning mainframe services from an in-house setup to a vendor-provided hosting service. More than 1,000 applications used by 12 state agencies were successfully migrated in a seamless transition that exemplified exceptional collaboration and dedication, extensive planning, mock testing and risk mitigation strategies. The transition ensured continuity of critical services for North Carolinians, enhancing scalability, security, and efficiency. The project’s success is a testament to the teamwork and persistence of more than 50 people from 11 NCDIT teams, proving that great achievements are built on collaboration.
City of Raleigh
Recipients: Chris King, Bryce Clodfelter, Michael Mears, Jackie Stewart, Chad Foley, Peter Sherman, Veronica Luna, Kyle Mankes
Achievement: The City of Raleigh IT team did outstanding work in launching 'Ask Raleigh', a modern, customer-facing customer relationship manager (CRM) built on ServiceNow Public Sector Digital Services (PSDS). They replaced an outdated platform with a seamless system that integrates the city’s GIS data and enables bidirectional connections with Cityworks. This powerful solution helps prevent citizens from submitting requests outside city limits or for non-city-maintained roads, while providing staff with real-time data about known issues and fixes in progress. Their innovative work has significantly improved efficiency, transparency and citizen engagement, showcasing exceptional technical skill, collaboration, and a deep commitment to high-quality public service.
N.C. Department of Transportation
Recipients: Beverly Leathers, April Pitts, Jodi Burnette, Tracy Rice, Michelle Kelley, Ananthi Rajapandian, Umesh Nomula, Calvin Jackson, Eddie Leggett, Renuka Gottimukkala, Chris Brock, Joseph Johnson, James Merricks, Ward Scott, Patrick Doran, Ashok Patlolla, Susie Annamneni, Rahul Chavan, Sridhar Narasimhan, Jaison Peterson
Achievement: Beverly Leathers and her team completed NCDOT's Automation Platform Project, which not only met its goals but significantly exceeded expectations by transforming the school bus driver training intake process. The team digitized the Prospective School Bus Driver Questionnaire, eliminating hours of manual work. The solution supports 4,800 trainees annually, reducing intake processing time from four hours to just 10 minutes per class. The platform also ensures secure document storage with automated retention and provides a user-friendly experience for staff and trainees. The result: a more efficient, accurate and scalable process that saved time, reduced errors and improved service delivery.
N.C. Office of the State Controller
Recipients: Vinit Patel, Rubie Bermundo, Mark Bukolt, Angela Billingsley
Achievement: The OSC Team significantly improved the Integrated HR-Payroll System's security by strategically integrating Ksplice technology and AWS automated operating systems (OS) patching. This innovative solution delivers seamless, in-memory patching without reboots, combined with automated patching to reduce downtime and minimize operational impact. Through collaborative efforts with Amazon Managed Services, OSC staff delivered enhanced security with improved efficiency.