StateScoop honors 50 innovative IT leaders and programs

Editors Note: This story was updated to include photos from the awards reception (below).

The votes are in and StateScoop is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 StateScoop 50 Awards, which honor the best and brightest who make state and local government more efficient and effective.

“We are thrilled to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments and innovations of the top 50 state IT leaders from government and tech who are making meaningful contributions to their organizations and communities,” said Goldy Kamali, CEO of Scoop News Group, publisher of StateScoop and its affiliate website FedScoop.

This year’s winners, which includes IT leaders and initiatives from California to Maine, were selected from the 100 top-ranking nominations submitted across six categories by the readers of StateScoop earlier this year. Readers were asked to identify visionary leaders, programs and rising stars that best highlight the transformational changes being made in state and local government.

Approximately 10,000 individuals from the state and local IT community across the U.S. logged on to StateScoop.com to cast their votes from late March to mid-April to determine this year’s StateScoop 50 Awards winners.

“My team and I were delighted by the tremendous response in terms of the number of nominations and the number of votes we received from our readers,”  Kamali said.

The winners were honored at a special reception held Monday evening during NASCIO’s midyear conference at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia. (View pictures from the event, below.)

2015 StateScoop 50 Winners:

Golden Gov: State Executive of the Year 2015

• Ron Baldwin, CIO/State Information Technology Service Division, Montana
• Paul Baltzell, CIO, Indiana
• David Behen, director & CIO, Michigan
• David Cagigal, CIO, Wisconsin
• Monica Coughlin, chief strategy officer, Colorado Governor’s Office of IT
• Adel Ebeid, chief innovation officer, Philadelphia
• Craig Orgeron, CIO/ITS, Mississippi
• Carlos Ramos, CIO, California
• Calvin Rhodes, CIO/Georgia Technology Authority, Georgia

State Leadership Award 2015

• Kishor Bagul, CTO/ ITS, New York state
• Patrick Fernan, DMV division administrator, Wisconsin Department of Transportation
• Tim Garza, agency CIO, California Department of Natural Resources
• Steve Nichols, CTO, Georgia Technology Authority
• Laura Rudy, treasurer, Stafford County, Virginia
• Jim Smith, CIO/OIT, Maine
• Rep. Eric Swalwell, California member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• State Rep. Max Tyler, Colorado General Assembly

Industry Leadership Award 2015

• Todd Akers, VP, public sector, Acquia
• Michael Donlan, VP, U.S. state and local government, Microsoft
• Greg Herbold, director, SLED National Programs, HP
• Tom Kennedy, VP, public sector, Symantec
• Robert Knapp, COO, NIC
• Shawn Rodriguez Sr., director, state and local government and education, NetApp
• John Stuhrenberg, VP, government—education, AT&T

State Up & Comer 2015

• Jason Allison, CIO/executive director, Agency for State Technology, Florida
• Jose Colon, CIO, District of Columbia DOT/Office of IT & Innovation
• Nikhil Deshpande, director, Georgia.gov Interactive, Georgia Technology Authority
• Sandra Longs, training manager, Prince George’s County, Maryland/OIT
• Sara Marshall, director of Business Intelligence & Analytics, state of Indiana
• Madeline Paguio, Web services manager, Information Technology Agency, city of Los Angeles

Innovation of the Year 2015

• Central Business Licensing & Registration Portal, Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development
• Innovating Municipal IT: Accessing Technology & Democratizing Data in Philadelphia, Office of Innovation and Technology, Philadelphia
• Management & Performance Hub, state of Indiana
• Maryland Safety Inspection System, Maryland State Police
• my.IN.gov, Indiana Office of Technology
• myStafford Citizen Portal, Stafford County, Virginia
• PMO Agile Center of Excellence, Maine Office of IT
• Responsive Web Design Implementation, Georgia Technology Authority
• Transportation Online Permitting System (TOPS), District of Columbia DOT

State IT Program of the Year 2015 

• Dept. of Revenue Infrastructure Modernization Initiative, Colorado Governor’s Office of IT
• Innovation Center, state of North Carolina/OITS
• Maine Corporate Fraud Monitoring, Maine Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions
• Maine State Communications Network (MSCommNet), state of Maine/OIT
• NY Drupal Project, New York state/ITS
• Program Eligibility & Application Kit (PEAK), Colorado Governor’s Office of IT
• Strategy to Execution Framework, state of Wisconsin/OET
• The Drupal Project, city of Los Angeles IT Agency
• The Maryland Cloud, Maryland Department of IT
• Vermont Content Management System, state of Vermont
• Veteran’s Registry Application, Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs

More than 150 state CIOs, IT officials and industry executives turned out for the StateScoop 50 Awards reception.

See who made the StateScoop 50 Awards list in 2014.