GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts

Social Security Administration maintains and administers the benefits and records of tens of millions of Americans nationwide for retirement payments, as well as benefits for disability and survivors. With the growing eligibility pool over the next decade, IT modernization is imperative. Agency veteran Sean Brune discusses the agency's immense changes he's seen over his career and how he sees emer...

The 2022 HIMSS Conference in Orlando offered many exciting insights into the future of health IT. Senior Researcher Melissa Harris and Staff Writer Sarah Sybert were on the ground and now provide their top five takeaways from the conference. Topics include change management, APIs, interoperability, synthetic data, and expanded telehealth to combat future health crises.

Live from HIMSS, Former Department of Veterans Affairs CIO James Gfrerer discusses the importance of bridging business perspectives with tech-minded federal leadership. He reflects on his time in the role, some surprises he uncovered along the way and the importance of partnerships in technology modernization.

Measuring how new technologies are succeeding in health care require a more purposeful approach. Ryan Vega, chief officer of the Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning at Veterans Health Administration, discusses a new framework that is helping health-focused developers create personalized tools incorporating more automation and streamlined workflows.

One of the most promising capabilities set to impact health care is the application of artificial intelligence in all areas of the health care ecosystem. Lead coordinator of the Department of Veterans Affairs AI Tech Sprints, Rafael Fricks, joins us from HIMSS to talk how his tech sprints are improving data collection and predictive heath care for vets.

Our senior researchers are on the virtual red carpet for the first annual Flycademy Awards! Celebrate the year in federal IT with categories like Zero Trust Advocate of the Year, the FITARA Award, Cloud Thought Leader of the Year, and more.

It's an exciting time for electronic health records, especially for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Its notable EHR program went through a reorganization over the past year. Joining us from the new EHR Modernization Integration Office is Acting Deputy CIO Laura Prietula who will be instrumental in communicating with on-site staff about the system. But before this role, she's had a longstanding...

It's tax season, and senior researchers Melissa Harris and Kate Macri are here to guide you through the latest developments at the IRS. Topics include IRS Free File, cybersecure procurement, and our favorite winter Olympic sports.

In this inaugural episode of Flywheel Friday, senior researchers Kate Macri and Melissa Harris react to GovCIO Media & Research's AI Gov: Future Workforce event. Topics include telework and recruiting, misconceptions around automation and AI, and the true meaning of DevSecOps. Featured perspectives include Veterans Affairs' Todd Simpson and Gil Alterovitz, CISA's Martin Stanley, Defense Digital Se...

When Air Force veteran Vaughn Noga started as CIO at the Environmental Protection Agency in 2018, he set out six "wildly important" goals. From building a cybersecurity-aware culture to going paperless, Noga breaks down each of those and explains how they are now more important than ever for EPA's environmental protection mission.

Army CIO Raj Iyer discusses his goals for 2022 IT transformation and why he believes data will be a critical asset to multi-domain operations. Iyer's plan is to democratize data for the next generation of soldiers. Part of that effort includes integrating artificial intelligence and associated talent, a challenge facing the Defense Department overall.

With a massive IT transformation effort, the longest tax filing season in history and a series of pandemic relief payments, IRS CIO Nancy Sieger talks how the current tech climate is leading to the agency bringing improvements to the taxpayer experience. Sieger's role at the agency has evolved immensely, but she has an intricate understanding of the customer service experience roadmap that the age...

Federal employees have until Nov. 16 to apply for funding on new tech ideas as part of a new investment round with GSA's 10x. Administrator Robin Carnahan has had a prominent career in public service, one that has honed in on modernized technology and digital services to improve how government delivers. Early in her legal career, Carnahan worked to automate manual processes and overhaul citizen-fa...

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Deputy Secretary Donald Remy discusses his path in the military and to the agency, one he cherishes because of the role it has had in his own family. With the agency's key role in serving veterans after service through benefits and support, Remy updates GovCast on the achievements VA has made in electronic health records, vaccinations, pandemic support, overall...

Federal Communications Commission CIO Francisco Salguero reflects on his time in office as he departs for industry. Many of the initiatives he oversaw during his career included cloud migration, data center consolidation and even telehealth, as FCC had a hand in standing up telehealth grants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Salguero discusses the impact of technology on various regulatory and moderni...

The IRS is amid a huge technological modernization push, and leading its Office of Online Services is Executive Director Karen Howard. She brings a customer-centric approach to her leadership of various initiatives that are impacting the overall taxpayer experience. This includes the business transformation around technologies like digital chat, easy access to data and, of course, security of that...

The IRS is undergoing large tech transformation efforts, and one office key to that is the now year-old Enterprise Digitalization and Case Management Office co-directed by Justin Abold-LaBreche. He shares his journey to the agency from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. military, and why he made these career pivots to technology. He also discusses efforts the office is tackling to im...

With the onset of the pandemic came the urgent need to modernize government toward an increasingly digital future and build off past tech initiatives around cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital services. Accenture Federal Service's Kyle Michl and Chris Copeland discuss the key areas to enable this vision using concepts like digital twins, virtual environments and data management. T...

The Government Accountability Office's first chief data scientist stepped into the role with a mindset of helping agencies tackle their biggest challenges with technology. Taka Ariga discusses the recent AI Accountability Framework and how it can enable agencies to make their artificial intelligence efforts standardized and ready for the next audit.

Chief Procurement Officer Shanna Webbers is taking IRS' "One Team, One IRS" motto to heart — leading a team of contracting professionals to introduce innovative solutions like robotic process automation and AI to streamline workflows. Webbers discusses the importance not just modern tools, but also an inspired workforce has in bringing the agency to the next generation of tech.

International Trade Administration CIO Rona Bunn discusses standing up a new customer portal, virtual services and other support tools for businesses conducting international trade and exports. Bunn sees the power of technology and a modern workforce for ensuring the U.S. maintains fair trade through research and compliance of international law.

Despite the disruptions of the pandemic, processing claims and delivering benefits to veterans increased over the past year. Acting Under Secretary Thomas Murphy discusses the progress still ahead, including improvements to the GI Bill, digitization, automation technologies and more. Thanks to a career in the private sector, Murphy sees the importance of delivering services faster and sees great p...

The National Cemetery Administration has been undergoing large modernization and expansion over the years. Largely influential to that has been current Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ron Walters. He discusses two key programs ahead of this Memorial Day allowing the public to learn about a veteran's life and leave tributes whether in person at cemeteries or digitally via the Veterans L...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' mission touches many facets of our lives. As Chief Data Officer Beth Puchek puts it, USCIS really is a data agency. With a background in mechanical and architectural engineering, Puchek discusses her fundamental approach to the agency's data strategy and how she is working to grow the concept of citizen development to make data more accessible, interopera...

Coming from an established career in the private cybersecurity sector across various startups, Rob Wood felt a calling to public service last year when he joined the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid as CISO. He is working to make security more accessible for all end users, who include more than just the security professional — lawyers and clinicians, too. One way CMS is doing this is by testing t...