Three leaders in the North Carolina Department of Information Technology have been honored by a national publication for being among the best in their fields.
Deputy State Chief Information Officer Tracy Doaks, Chief Customer Officer Jon Minshew and Chief Risk Officer Maria Thompson were among 50 state IT professionals recognized for excellence during the StateScoop 50 Awards in Baltimore on Sunday evening during the National Association of State Chief Information Officers' (NASCIO) midyear conference.
“The North Carolina Department of Information Technology has quality people serving at every level and in every field,” said DIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Eric Boyette. “These are three of our finest leaders and this recognition given to them by their peers and those who work closely with government IT shows we continue to move North Carolina in the right direction.”
- Doaks received a State Leadership of the Year honor. In addition to being Deputy State CIO, she leads the Service Delivery Division for DIT, focusing on providing services to state agencies, local governments, and universities. She was previously the Senior Director of Service Delivery for Duke Medicine and the CIO for the N.C. Department of Revenue. Since joining DIT in 2015, she has introduced service-based costing and service maturity assessments, leading implementations that resulted in $25 million in savings. She also moved the state into technology-forward services, such as cloud management, multifactor authentication for public safety users and soon-to-be released chatbot technology for the service desk.
- Minshew was honored as a State Up & Comer. As Chief Customer Officer, Minshew is responsible for the total relationship between DIT and its external and internal customers. He also serves as Director of Service Operations in the Service Delivery Division. During his short tenure in his new role, Minshew has unified the work of the service desk, incident management, network operations and business relationship teams and is leading the agency in filtering executive decisions through the lens of customer experience. Minshew is a Certified Public Manager, Certified Government CIO and Certified Mediator. He served in the US Navy during both the Desert Shield and Desert Storm initiatives.
- Thompson won recognition as a State Cybersecurity Leader. She joined the NC Department of Information Technology in 2015 as its first Chief Risk Officer. She has since developed an integrated statewide framework to manage information risk, including operations, security and data protection. Thompson promotes cybersecurity through multiple channels, including helping to establish a state-supported cybersecurity apprenticeship for disabled veterans and promoting cyber awareness and careers to students from elementary schools to universities. She sits on multiple state-level and federal cybersecurity boards, and is also a commissioner on the State Emergency Response Commission. She retired as the Cyber Security Chief for the Marine Corps after 20 years of service.
“For the fifth year, StateScoop is honored to highlight examples of the best leadership and work across the state and local government community,” said Jake Williams, StateScoop’s Associate Publisher & Director of Strategic Initiatives. “North Carolina has proven itself to be a leader in this community, especially over the last several years. We’re thrilled to honor Tracy Doaks, Jon Minshew and Maria Thompson for the work they bring to North Carolina DIT, as well as to the entire government IT community."
Hundreds of people and projects were nominated in the six award categories, which also honored state information technology executives, industry influencers and innovative projects, Williams said. StateScoop narrowed the field to about 170 entries and the publications readers cast more than 500,000 online votes to select the winners, he said.