2021 StateScoop Award Winners

Several months into the pandemic, Jennifer Ricker was named acting secretary of the DoIT, while also maintaining the duties of her former role as assistant secretary. She successfully assumed responsibility for both roles while leading the state's response  on information technology, including stabilizing systems to handle the increased workload, quickly introducing workflow automation, and expanding applications and tools to support the virtual delivery of services. Ricker is guiding outreach efforts for staff to remain connected while working remotely and is recognized as a leader with the ability to deliver results.

Lori Sorenson was getting settled into her new role as Illinois' Chief Technology Officer (CTO) when the pandemic dictated a change in all agency priorities. She pivoted the state's technology direction and led her team in "running to the fire." She accelerated pandemic response projects, while continuing ongoing initiatives including infrastructure transformation, website modernization, redesigning service management and expanding broadband across Illinois and launching a K-12 consortium. Sorenson's hard work and dedication set the pace for deliverables and, as Illinois' first female CTO, she serves as a positive role model for women in public service and technology.

Illinois Chief Information Security Officer Adam Ford leads a multitude of statewide information security projects, all with the common goal of protecting his home state. Adam is a catalyst for establishing election security in Illinois and leads the Cyber Navigator program to support local governments. Co-chair of the Illinois Terrorism Taskforce (ITTF), Adam also occupies a seat on the Executive Cyber Security Oversight Committee with several other agencies focused on delivering security and protection to the data and citizens of Illinois. Adam's latest project, Identity Management, will deliver employees a single identity and log-on, another big step in securing information.

In May 2020, the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) collaborated with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to design and build a modern contact tracing platform on Salesforce. Integrated with Illinois' National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (I-NEDSS), the platform went live in less than 4 weeks and incorporated soft-phone capabilities. Since its roll-out to a distributed workforce of 3,100, IDPH and Illinois' 97 local health departments have made over 1 million calls to confirmed cases and close contacts to slow the spread of COVID-19. 500,000 health assessments coordinated care and enabled Illinois residents to quarantine successfully.