Russ Nichols is scheduled to appear next week before the Senate Rules Committee, which is considering his appointment to head the Division of Enterprise Information Services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The Feb. 17 hearing comes nearly a year after Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Nichols, a 26-year veteran of state government who has served as interim director since the beginning of 2015. He stepped into the role after Joe Panora retired.
Previously Nichols headed the department’s enterprisewide Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS). As project director for three years, he guided the $245 million project to completion, which replaced and consolidated more than 40 aging electronic and paper database systems. His work earned him the department’s Administrator of the Year award in 2014.
With the SOMS project in place, Nichols has said CDCR, which is the largest correctional system in the United States, needs to explore the next wave of technology to help the department access more real-time data, such as remote controls, drone-like technology, camera monitoring, information alerts and body cameras. The department is seeking ideas from the vendor community.
Nichols’ other leadership roles at the state have included data processing manager at the Office of California Correctional Health Care Services from 2010 to 2012 and technical project manager for the MyCalPays project at the California State Controller’s Office from 2007 to 2010.
Nichols also spent 15 years working at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as an application and customer services manager, and he worked at the Employment Development Department from 1997 to 1999.
Nichols is a Sacramento State University graduate and certified Project Management Professional (PMP). In 2012, he was honored with an IT Leadership Award at the CIO Academy.
Nichols’ appointment must be approved by the Rules Committee and the full state Senate.
