My public career highlights and education: I spearheaded Charlotte’s first Citywide Strategic Technology Plan and led the city’s first strategic technology planning process, ensuring alignment between business and technology. I managed a $12 million Technology Infrastructure Rebuild Project, which modernized the city’s network and data centers, finishing on schedule and $1 million under budget. I authored a complete redesign of the city’s technology governance, paving the way for the establishment of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and the city’s first CIO. I also developed Charlotte’s first eBusiness Plan, improving service delivery, and led technology readiness efforts for the successful hosting of the 2020 Republican National Convention. Most recently, I created the city’s first 3-Year Strategic Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence to guide future innovation.
I hold a master’s degree in artificial intelligence & human factors from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Penn State. I completed MIT Sloan’s Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy program and the Certified Government CIO program at UNC-Chapel Hill. Additionally, I am a Six Sigma Green Belt (Purdue) and an E-Commerce Certified Professional (Learning Tree International).
What I like best about my public service is: I have always loved the opportunity to contribute in so many different ways toward something that makes a difference in our community. In local government, the demand for skills and expertise will always outweigh the available supply. There have always been opportunities to contribute toward many different initiatives and areas within the city, so you never get bored!
The best advice I’ve received: Don’t react too quickly to something that doesn’t hit you quite right initially. There are a lot of opportunities to misinterpret verbiage within an email or instant message. Your initial reaction may not be the correct one and it may be driven by emotion rather than logic. Sleep on it or take a short walk, and then if you still feel strongly about it, respond accordingly. You will almost always find a better message to deliver in response if you give yourself time to consider the true intent of the original communication.
One thing I wish more people knew about the Innovation & Technology Department at the city of Charlotte: This is not some cushy government job where you can sit back and cruise through a career. The demand for our services is high and technology is constantly changing. We have to continue to learn and reinvent ourselves constantly to stay on top of things. We have a lot of fantastic staff who, for various reasons, choose to work for the I&T Department at the City of Charlotte when they could be out making twice the income in the private sector. I’m proud of our folks and wish more people knew about the effort and talent that they demonstrate on a daily basis.
A project or initiative we’re currently working on is: As part of our overall strategic approach to adopting artificial intelligence within the city, we are building an AI Assistant for our 311 Call Center inhouse. The AI Assistant, currently wrapping up its second phase, already helps call center agents to find answers faster for our citizens. This allows the call center agents to answer more calls in a shorter amount of time and reduces the hold time for citizens. It also has an opportunity to reduce the learning curve for new call agents down from two months to being productive in a couple of days.
People might be interested to know that: I once successfully completed a full marathon.
