New York City’s chief digital officer steps down
New York City’s chief digital officer is leaving her public service post this week and heading to business school at Harvard.
Jessica Singleton, who served as the digital director on Bill de Blasio’s New York City mayoral campaign, and was part of the digital team for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, has been leading New York City’s digital initiatives since 2014. She was promoted to chief digital officer in 2015. She made the announcement about her departure in the city’s digital newsletter on Wednesday.
“We honed a new three-part framework to support the tech ecosystem’s growth: human capital and talent, access and infrastructure, and government’s own innovation,” Singleton wrote in her post. “That framework has guided us as the organizing principle for our work and the way we measure our progress.”
Her office helped create Computer Science for All, a public school program expanding computer education to 1.1 million students. During her tenure the International Innovators Initiative also drew entrepreneurs to New York from around the world.
“In the last 2.5 years since this administration began, we’ve built an army of smart, creative, and eager folks making all of the above possible, and more,” Singleton wrote.
Singleton said she spent a long time making her decision to leave. “Our tech ecosystem is one of the fastest growing in the world,” she said.
Her post, titled “See You Soon,” hints that she may return to public service at some point. In the meantime, the mayor is searching for her replacement.
“The process is well underway, and we’ve been seeing exciting candidates for this position. Jessica has been deeply involved in the search for her replacement – who will undoubtedly be highly capable and will build upon the great work Jessica has undertaken here at City Hall,” Natalie Grybauskas, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office wrote in an email to StateScoop.
