The Veterans Affairs Department’s most senior technologist has received top honors for his leadership in information resources management.
Roger Baker, VA CIO, received the award June 12 at the AFFIRM Leadership Awards Luncheon at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. He received the Executive Leadership in Information Resources Management – Civilian award.
Under his direction, VA has been setting an example of how agencies can update and modernize their network infrastructure, with Baker spearheading efforts in cloud adoption and IT systems consolidation, his nomination said.
In accepting his award, Baker offered a few words on what leadership means and highlighted the focus on outcomes.
“I think a leader has to be the rock that results are built on in an organization, and really has to be focused on delivering those results,” he said. “In the end, results are all that matter. We spend a lot of time on process in the government [but] process doesn’t serve veterans. Process doesn’t serve the taxpayers. Process doesn’t serve all of our other mission focuses.”
Baker, who also is assistant secretary for information and technology, has served as VA’s CIO since May 2009. His previous role to that appointment was as president and CEO of Dataline LLC, an IT services and integration company.
Other 2012 AFFIRM Leadership Awards winners include:
Executive Leadership in Information Resources Management – Defense
Maj. Gen. Earl Matthews, director of cyberspace operations, Office of Information Dominance and CIO, Air Force
Executive Leadership in Information Resources Management – Intelligence
Al Tarasiuk, intelligence community CIO, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Executive Leadership Award for Industry
Todd Ramsey, general manager, U.S. federal, IBM
Leadership Award in Acquisition and Procurement
Oliver Voss, manager, headquarters procurement division, Environmental Protection Agency
Leadership Award for Service to the Citizen
Prudence Goforth, web communications and new media division director, Health and Human Services Department
Leadership Award for Service to the Country
Robert Tosatto, captain, U.S. public health service director, Division of Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps, Office of the U.S. Surgeon General
Leadership Award for Innovative Applications
Sara Schroerlucke, director, Northern Border Division, Office of Technology Innovation and Acquisition, Homeland Security Department
Leadership in Service to the Government IT Community
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), House of Representatives
Leadership in Service Excellence
Carpool App Team, Transportation Department
Leadership in Technology Innovation
GSA Sustainable Facilities Tool Team, Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, General Services Administration
Leadership in Health Information Technology
Make the Connection Team led by Sonja Batten, deputy chief consultant for specialty mental health, VA
Leadership in Cybersecurity
Heidi Avery, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security, National Security Staff
Leadership in Human Capital
Barbara Whitelaw, chief of staff, Office of the CIO, DHS
Special Recognition Award
Tim Schmidt, deputy CIO, Transportation Department
Posted by FCW Staff on Jun 13, 2012 at 6:59 PM0 comments
The nation’s largest federal employee union is losing its president.
John Gage, who heads the American Federation of Government Employees President, announced in a letter to union members that he’s stepping down from his position.
Gage called his near-decade-long tenure as president at the union as “challenging but invigorating.”
“Along the way, there have been exhilarating wins and hard losses, one after another,” he wrote. “Always they were accompanied with the reality of the next organizing drive, the next demonstration, the next election.”
Gage, who’s 66, said he didn’t decide to step down because he wanted to retire but because he wanted to “contribute to the labor movement in other ways.”
"I have a growing family that I've kind of neglected," he told the Baltimore Sun in an interview.
In the next 10 weeks, Gage plans to wrap up his time at AFGE by completing negotiations on the organization’s first contract the Transportation Security Agency and ensuring continued representation for the union’s members.
No word yet on who’ll replace him, but Gage said he plans to leave the office of the national president in “excellent shape” for his successor.
Posted by Camille Tuutti on Jun 06, 2012 at 6:59 PM0 comments
Post-GSA's spending scandal, the last thing one would expect is a mind reader as entertainment at an event attended by feds. But that’s exactly what happened at the Management of Change conference June 5 when Robert Priest, a self-proclaimed mind reader and former Army PSYOPS trained practitioner, gave a presentation on how to hack a mind.
“I don’t do anything with the spirits or the occult, I’m not the son of a gypsy witch and I haven’t been struck by lightning,” Priest told the audience as ways of introducing himself.
Using his background in psychology and something called “mind scripting,” Priest put on a show that rivaled any other illusionist’s. But the secret to his seeming clairvoyance was a background in neurolinguistic programming and use of psychological principles. Priest made no secret about that his craft was something everyone could learn if they invested the time, adding jokingly it took him 20 years in the Army to develop his skills.
But for those uninitiated, it seemed almost like magic.
To kick off his show, Priest used Zener cards, the well-known psychic test developed in the 1930s. Each of those cards display different sign: a circle, a plus sign, a square and a star. He asked the audience members to think about one of those signs, “whatever you feel drawn to,” he said. (Yours truly chose the star.)
When he asked how many picked the square, only a few of the audience members raised their hands. “Maybe 2 percent,” Priest estimated.
“I find that those who pick the square are intelligent and decisive,” he said, flipping over the card with the square to show that the back of it said “intelligent and decisive” in capital letters.
Next, he asked how many picked the plus sign and only a few audience members indicated they had done so. “About 6 percent,” Priest said.
“The plus-sign people tend to be creative and ambitious,” he said, showing that the back of the card stated the two adjectives.
As he moved onto the next sign, an equally small percentage of audience members revealed they had picked the circle. People who choose that sign tend to be flexible, Priest said.
With the last card in hand, it became obvious that most audience members had picked the star. And it also became obvious that Priest had known they would. Printed on the back of the card, the purported personality traits of people who gravitate toward the star, was: “Drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll!”
Posted by Camille Tuutti on Jun 06, 2012 at 6:59 PM0 comments