Kelly Fletcher, chief information officer (CIO) at the U.S. State Department, outlined some of her key priorities for 2023 this year during a Feb. 16 online event organized by Billington CyberSecurity.
One of those priorities, Fletcher said, is to reduce “administrative friction” that gets in the way of the State Department’s execution of its mission.
“My goal is to reduce administrative friction this year – we want to continue folks to be able to work from home, and for some folks who are coming back, but we want this to be equitable. We want you to be able to do some of that [work] from home,” stated Fletcher.
Fletcher also talked about the need to build more trust among her colleagues and department leadership, considering she started work as the agency’s CIO only late last year.
“I think I’m new [and] I need to build trust with my own team and I need to build trust with my leadership and frankly, the State Department more broadly,” stated Fletcher.
Fletcher also updated that the State Department is getting ready to award its $10 billion Evolve IT services contract vehicle in the near future. “We’re going to award Evolve – It’s actually going to be how the department buys IT and all kinds of IT services. The exciting thing about Evolve is that it’s department wide,” she said.
