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7
<br />STATEMENT OF-QUALIFICATIONS
<br />Shaer-lon Howle Tufts, PhD, is the director of the Center for Public Technology at the University
<br />of North Carolina's School of Government. In 2010; Shannon was selected as one of the
<br />nation's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers by Government Technology magazine (see
<br />http://www.~ovtech.com/ 747367). Dr. Tufts designed-and impl"emented the first local
<br />gov-ernment Certified Government Chief Information Officers program in the nation,
<br />successfully graduated the inaugural class in November 2005, and continues to run CGCIO
<br />Certification programs for local arrd state government IT professionals. She created a National
<br />Certified Goner-nment Chief Information Officer program in conjunction with GMIS that
<br />launched in 2007, in order to serve the growing needs of public sector IT professionals across the
<br />nation. Over the past six years, the CGCIO programs have successfully graduated over 600
<br />public sector IT professionals. In addition, Dr. Tufts has taught hundreds of courses on public
<br />and private sector information systems across the US, including iT investment strategies,
<br />embracing technology; project management, and stakeholder engagement in_technology-enabled
<br />government, to a variety of audiences ranging from elected officials to IT staff members.
<br />Additionally, she works with private- sector companies on using social media to increase their
<br />presence with current and potential customers.
<br />Dr. Tufts series as the faculty liaison to the North Carolina Local- Governmen~ Information
<br />Systems Association (NCLGISA). NCLGISA is composed of local government, state agency,
<br />and K-12 school technology professionals, with a membership of over 1300 people. In this
<br />capacity, she provides advising services to local governments and state agencies on a variety of
<br />topics, including strategic information technology planning, telecommunications planning,
<br />security planning, management and technical audits, grantsmanship, RFP/RFI development,
<br />software alternatives analysis, in~astructure assessments, human resources, organizational
<br />development, procurement and project management, and, policy guid-once and articulation. In
<br />the past ten years, Shannon has worked with more than 40 municipalities, counties, and state
<br />agencies to develop Strategic IT Plans, IT Management Audits, Full Cost Accounting studies,
<br />and a variety of other jurisdictional-specif c reports based on governmental needs.
<br />Dr. Tufts is intricately involved in a variety of telecommunications efforts across the state of
<br />North Carolina. Dr. Tufts assisted on two major proposals for the NTIA Broadband Technology
<br />Opportunities Program (a program within ARRt3), with the first proposal being awarded $28
<br />million dollars; and the second proposal currently under consideration. Furthermore, she was a
<br />collaborator on a federal grant that successfully funded acounty-wide telecommunications
<br />project in Greene County, North Carolina. The grant funded a wireless connectivity. effort for
<br />citizen access, aswell ascreated awide-spread educational platform to engage the community
<br />and involve the citizens in the empowering nature of broadband connectivity. Dr. Tufts also
<br />served as the federal evaluator for this project, creating and implementing qualitative and
<br />quantitative surveys, interview protocols, and pre- and post-deployment metrics to .assess the
<br />success of the broadband connectivity effort. Furthermore, she works with a variety of local
<br />governments to improve governmental efficiency and effectiveness through the strategic use of
<br />connectivity, including licensed and unlicensed wireless platforms, as well as fiber deployment.
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