Health and Human Services CIO to leave

Department of Health and Human Services Chief Information Officer Melissa Chapman will resign from her position Oct. 17.

Chapman will join Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Nov. 1 as a senior associate working in information systems to support work in health care and homeland security, according to a Booz Allen spokesman.

Chapman became deputy assistant secretary for information resources management and CIO in June 2002. She has spearheaded the department's information technology consolidation effort and development of federal health architecture standards.

Kathleen Heuer, deputy assistant secretary for performance and planning, will take on interim CIO duties until HHS officials find a replacement, the spokesman said.

Before becoming HHS CIO, Chapman was an executive with the Food and Drug Administration, most recently as the acting CIO. She oversaw more than $200 million in IT expenditures.

She has also been a senior manager at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation Research Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research. She led the development of the FDA e-commerce systems through the electronic review of drug applications.

Chapman graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering.