Marybel Batjer, secretary of the Government Operations Agency, this week was awarded the Elizabeth Hill Public Administrator of the Year award. The American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) honors “local exemplars of public administration.”
“It was a distinct honor to receive the American Society for Public Administration’s Elizabeth Hill Public Official of the Year award, named for one of the finest public servants with whom I had the honor to work,” Batjer said in a statement to Techwire. “The true recipients of this award, however, are my hard-working colleagues at GovOps. It is they who deserve the credit for accomplishing so much.”
***
Cybersecurity education is a priority for the California State Assembly, with select members as key partners with the California Cyberhub in creating and promoting events like the California Mayors Cyber Cup. More than 160 middle and high school students competed in the California Mayors Cyber Cup competition. The event, organized by the California Cyberhub and principally funded by the California Community Colleges, Information and Communication Technology/Digital Media Sector, was a product of collaboration by business, government, and educational partners. Here are the winning teams.
***
Los Angeles CIO Ted Ross picked up a nice honor recently: He was named CIO of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal. The honor was given at the magazine's annual awards ceremony in April.
“Under the leadership of Mayor Eric Garcetti, the City of Los Angeles' Information Technology Agency (ITA) works with agencies and departments across the City to develop world-class IT infrastructure and applications that provide our citizens, businesses and visitors with the digital services they expect from a leading global city,” says a news release from ITA.
The magazine says of Ross: “Ross has over 22 years of private and public sector technology experience, earning various awards along the way, including a 2017 U.S. Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver from Government Technology magazine and 2017 Best Cybersecurity Team award from Secure Computing magazine. Under the leadership of Mayor Garcetti, Ross has been able to implement initiatives that earned the City of Los Angeles the #1 Digital City in America award for 2016 & 2017 from the Center for Digital Government. Ross is a frequent writer and presenter on smart cities, innovation, and diversity, including features in Fortune magazine and The Economist. He has been an invited speaker at the Milken Institute, Wall Street Journal Chief Information Officer Summit, Microsoft Gov Tech Summit, LA Economic Development Corporation, CityAge, a16z Tech Summit, NASSCOM (India’s largest IT conference), and other major venues. To help future generations in an era of unparalleled innovation and disruption, Ross has volunteered for years as a guest lecturer at USC and CSU Dominguez Hills.”
***
CompTIA has announced that Gregg Descheemaeker of Intel, director of U.S. SLED (state, local, education), is the newest member of the organization's Executive Council. Descheemaeker has more than 20 years of expertise in education/government/business transformation, wired/wireless network and Data Center infrastructure, server and storage architecture, supply chain solutions, and enterprise applications. He has been with Intel since 1999.
Other members of the Executive Council include: Claire Bailey, Director, Federal, State and Local Solutions, Compuware; Charles Collier, Managing Director of Advisory, KPMG; Graeme Finley, IT-Global Public Sector Practice Director, Grant Thornton; Mike Foulkes, Director, State and Local Government Affairs and Worldwide Political Compliance, Apple; Maggie Hallbach, Vice President, Government and Education, Verizon; Lisa Mattivi, Vice President and Managing Director California Enterprise, IBM; Ryan Oakes, Managing Director Public Sector, Accenture; John Punzak, National Business Development Manager, SLED, VMware; Shawn Rodriguez, Regional Vice President, U.S. SLED, ForeScout Technologies; and Juliane Swatt, Senior Vice President, State and Local Government Solutions, Public Sector, Conduent.
Who's Winning Awards, Honors and Distinctions?
When government IT leaders are recognized for outstanding service, it's important to acknowledge that. And the same goes for the kids of California who will be tomorrow's IT leaders.
