Taking aim at one of California\u2019s most innovative procurements in recent years, California Health and Human Services (CHHS) has called on Adam Dondro to be its agency information officer (AIO) and Tony Fortenberry to be its deputy director for the Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS).<\/p>\n
The officials\u00a0are jumping into two positions with\u00a0that will oversee a massive overhaul to the state\u2019s child welfare management system for case workers. If successful, the system will be one of the first large-scale systems with open source code, while\u00a0discarding the traditional long-term contracting model in favor of multiple contracts with vendors on shorter deadlines. The work replaces the state\u2019s current system, now more than 20 years old, and may save millions nationally\u00a0since the code can be reused by other states.<\/p>\n
As AIO, Dondro will be placed at the Office of Systems Integration (OSI),\u00a0oversee the technology and governance functions and coordinate strategies and activities for technology offices throughout the agency and its partners.\u00a0The position will deal with decision related to agency structure and policy. Dondro has worked for the state since he began his career as a legislative aid for the California State Legislature in 2005, according to his Linkedin profile. Previous to his current promotion, he served as the assistant director of the California Social Services Department for nearly four and a half years, and before that\u00a0served the California Technology Agency as its assistant secretary of external affairs.<\/p>\n
Dondro leads a team of 15 who will coordinate their work with CHHS department chief information officers and chief technology officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdam\u2019s enterprise view of data, architecture and planning will serve us well as OSI supports the critical systems on which so many Californians depend,\u201d said OSI Director John Boule in a statement.\u00a0\u201cHis emphasis on efficiency, innovation and customer service will benefit the departments we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortenberry served as a project director for CWDS in 2016 and has more than 25 years of industry experience. Much of this has been gathered through 11 years as a management consultant for various state agencies like the state\u2019s Public Utilities Commission, Department of Fish and Game, California Technology Agency and the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, where he worked on\u00a0IT\u00a0procurement, contract management, and vendor performance evaluation. Fortenberry\u00a0was also the chief information officer for the city of Northglenn, Colorado, between 2001 and 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased to have Tony join OSI as a deputy director to lead this innovative project,\u201d Boule said of Fortenberry. \u201cTony\u2019s vast\u00a0experience in product design, organizational strategy, agile methodologies and open source software is\u00a0a tremendous resource for our agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortenberry will join Department of Social Services Deputy Director Kevin Gaines and County\u00a0Welfare Directors Association Executive Liaison\u00a0Penni Clarke as members of the child welfare management systems\u2019\u00a0executive leadership. The team has been working since 2015 to reimagine the system that is used to help coordinate county child protective services programs, foster home approvals,\u00a0licensing, and other state services that protect children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s first code\u00a0release was in March, and the agency reports it will release further\u00a0updates soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adam Dondro and Tony Fortenberry will help overhaul a child welfare management system that endeavors to do a few things differently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":39356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20648,20647,4677],"tags":[83,13703,5270,2211,334,268,174,4,75,44,29,23,12,7,6,5],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-8016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-services","category-modernization","category-state","tag-modernization","tag-digital-services","tag-workforce","tag-tony-fortenberry","tag-open-source","tag-health-it","tag-open-government","tag-tech-news","tag-procurement","tag-california","tag-states","tag-innovation","tag-state-local-news","tag-enterprise-services","tag-software","tag-it-infrastructure"],"yoast_head":"\n