Leading During a Crisis: Exploring best practices and leadership tactics to respond in a crisis situation

Marguerite Beirne

CIO, Westchester County Department of Information Technology (DoIT)

Over her 30 year career, Marguerite Beirne has held a number of IT executive management positions in diverse industries. As the current CIO for Westchester County, Ms. Beirne manages a budget of approximately $45 million and sets the strategic direction for the County’s use of technology in all areas of operation.

Ms. Beirne began her career at Westchester County in 2006 and has served as CIO under three administrations. She has also directed technology efforts for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. Under Ms. Beirne’s leadership, Westchester County has been ranked as one of the “Top 10 Digital Counties” in the United States and received several awards for public sector innovation.

Ms. Beirne received her Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from SUNY Buffalo and her MBA from CUNY Baruch. She currently holds ITIL certifications. She is a member of the NYS Local Government Information Technology Directors Association.

Stephanie Dedmon

CIO TN Department of Finance & Administration

Stephanie Dedmon was named CIO for the State of Tennessee in October 2018. In this role she is responsible for all operational areas of the state’s central IT organization, Strategic Technology Solutions. This includes managing the team’s IT service delivery, technical infrastructure development and support and customer service management and a workforce of over 1300 IT professionals.

As Deputy CIO, Dedmon was previously responsible for the Enterprise IT Transformation (EIT) initiative that furthered the State’s enterprise IT organization by transitioning over 800 Executive Branch Department IT employees to STS. Prior to being named Deputy CIO in November of 2015, Dedmon served as the Director of Business Solutions Delivery (BSD), also within the Department of Finance & Administration. BSD was created in late 2011 to build a team of experienced senior project directors, project managers and business analysts to help lead the state’s most complex IT/business solution implementations and improve project delivery success rates.

Prior to joining the State in 2005, Dedmon was an Associate Partner with Accenture in Nashville and served as project director on many public sector software implementations. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University (TTU) in Cookeville, Tennessee and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, also from TTU. She also received her Project Management Professional certification in August of 2012.

Dedmon is a member of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) where she serves as a Director on the Executive Board and as Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee. She is also a member of the Nashville Technology Council, Women in IT Tennessee and the Nashville Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. In March 2018, she was named one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for her work on the State’s IT transformation. Stephanie Dedmon was also the recent recipient of the George H. Bass award for Leadership in State Government in October of 2019.

Teri Takai — Moderator

Co-executive Director, Center for Digital Government

Teri Takai is the Co-executive Director of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. She worked for Ford Motor Company for 30 years in global application development and information technology strategic planning. From Ford, she moved to EDS in support of General Motors.

A long-time interest in public service led her to the government sector, first as CIO of the State of Michigan, then as CIO of the State of California, and subsequently the CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense, the first woman appointed to this role. She then served as the CIO for Meridian Health Plan. She is a member of several industry advisory boards.

Teri has won numerous awards including Governing Magazine’s Public Official of the Year, CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame, Government Technology Magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers, the Women in Defense Excellence in Leadership Award, and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.