Posts By Olivia Jefferson

A Breath of Fresh Air

Meet Kevin Kuhn, a NextGen Innovation Award finalist. For years, Kuhn has spearheaded high-risk, high-reward innovations at the EPA. His program, the Pathfinders Innovation Project, or PIP, has fundamentally altered the EPA’s former risk-averse culture to embrace big ideas that could yield even bigger environmental solutions.

Defending the Future

Time keeps on slippin’…at least that’s how it feels when you look at how fast technology is advancing. The speed at which the private sector is developing and implementing new technology has left government agencies like the Department of Defense scrambling to keep pace. In the recently released GovLoop guide, “The DoD of Tomorrow,” weRead… Read more »

The Secret to Good Government

Could the federal government’s COOs be managing agencies better? Ron Sanders, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton and the firm’s first fellow, sought to answer this question. In collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service, he and his company surveyed federal COOs to pinpoint the problems that COOs across the public sector frequently encounter inRead… Read more »

A Beacon of Hope

Meet Joan Mower, a NextGen Public Service Award finalist in the Advocate category. As head of International Media Training and Development at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Mower has improved millions of people’s lives across the world by tirelessly promoting press freedom and training the next generation of journalists to do the same.

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What the CIO Wants

What do the government’s tech bosses want? George DelPrete, a principal with the professional services network Grant Thornton, has the answers. For the 25th consecutive year, Grant Thornton and the Professional Services Council released their annual federal CIO survey, revealing the issues that concern the government’s CIOs the most. In an interview with Chris DorobekRead… Read more »

Leading by Serving

Meet Nicole Stillwell, one of our esteemed NextGen Public Service Awards finalists. As the Deputy Director of Digital Engagement for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, Nicole has done outstanding work improving the way the government communicates to citizens in emergencies. Putting people first, Nicole is leading by serving those with the most need.

When Hacking Helps

Hackers, hackers everywhere. If you’ve been following the news recently, the “hacker” label probably doesn’t give you a warm-fuzzy sensation. But hackers aren’t always bad guys. To the software development community, hacking simply means taking a piece of code and altering it. It can be used for wrongdoing, but it can also be used toRead… Read more »

Government: The Final Frontier?

Is cloud computing the next technological frontier? If it is, then enterprise cloud computing software companies like Box are like the equivalent of the USS Enterprise. Rather than exploring unknown boundaries of space, they push modern technological boundaries to reach new frontiers of business communication, sharing and collaboration. If cloud computing companies are the Enterprise,Read… Read more »

Screen the Chemicals, Save the People

Lab rats rejoice! There’s a new way to test common household chemicals. The EPA’s Office of Research and Development has started a new program that can screen thousands of industrial and household chemicals for hazardous effects without using animals. Chemicals, depending on their classification, have different degrees of research data gathered on them. For manyRead… Read more »

Recruiting Cyber Soldiers

Take a backseat, weather – cybersecurity breaches are taking over headline news. From the Sony Pictures hack to the IRS data leak, these breaches are a growing concern to the private and public sector alike. According to a 2014 CNN report, cyber attacks involving government agencies increased a staggering 35 percent between 2010 and 2013.Read… Read more »