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Molly O'Neill: How IT Drives a Federal Agency's Global and Local Collaboration

This is from the Aug. 6th update at EnterpriseLeadership.

Molly O'Neill
CIO of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency

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Molly O'Neill has both a technology role and a policy role at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. As an assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Environmental Information, she oversees the life cycle of information to support the agency's mission of protecting health and the environment. O'Neill's role as CIO includes overseeing the agency's strategic information planning, investment and information policies, enterprise architecture, and information security program.

In both her technology and policy roles, O'Neill is working toward the same goal - helping the EPA use technology to collaborate and exchange information with the widest possible network of bright minds around the world. The EPA employs about five percent of the U.S. environmental workforce. The majority of this workforce consists of people who work in state government, in consulting firms, in private industry, and in academic institutions. She says, "Environmental issues are huge. People work at the EPA because they believe in its mission. We want to reach everyone who has a thirst for knowledge about environmental issues."

In this podcast, O'Neill talks about the EPA's Web 2.0 initiatives. As she puts it, "to reach out and grab the world globally, as well as locally." She also explains how the EPA's formal process for making IT investment decisions works, and how the EPA has been at the forefront of the green data center movement.