Ann Dunkin

New CIO at EPA; GSA gets another OMB detailee.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is promoting from within for its new chief information officer. NASA is losing a key senior technology executive to retirement.

Ann Dunkin has been named chief information officer at the Environmental Protection Agency. Her first day on the job was Monday, Feb. 23. Dunkin previously served as senior adviser to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

The two cyber breaches at the Office of Personnel Management have got the attention of the media and federal managers. It’s also landed on the plates of many chief information officers. “Everyone in the government…

The federal technology community is seeing a lot of key senior executives switch roles or leave government, including new officials in charge of data analytics at GSA and EPA.

Ann Dunkin, the EPA chief information officer, said her office hasn’t been updated since 1999 and was in a severe need of a new approach to meet internal and external customer needs.

The CIO Council is trying to bring the capital planning and investment control (CPIC) process in line with the desire by agencies to use agile development for IT programs.

Agencies need clearer hiring authorities from the Office of Personnel Management to successfully recruit and hire new tech talent, said Beth Killoran, acting CIO at the Health and Human Services Department. HHS has a 40 percent vacancy rate among its cyber and IT infrastructure workforce.

More than a year after agencies first began embedding digital services teams into their organizations, IT leaders are seeing the benefits of adopting a more agile, incremental mentality — rather than bending to old policies and standard protocols.

Robert Silvers becomes the first permanent assistant secretary for cyber policy at DHS in about a year.