An official in the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's educational policy office is the state's new chief data officer, who will lead the state Division of Information Systems' efforts to improve data structure, security and data use, as well as focus on policy.
Joshua McGee is the associate director of the Office for Education Policy in the College of Education and Health Professions at UA, where he has worked since 2019.
"We are excited to have Dr. McGee serve as the state's chief data officer in a collaborative effort with the University of Arkansas," said Amy Fecher, secretary of state Department of Transformation and Shared Services, which includes the Division of Information Systems.
"His unique experience brings a fresh perspective to state government," Fecher said in a news release issued by the department. "This innovative, data-driven and action-oriented approach aligns perfectly with transformation's core mission."
The Department of Transformation and Shared Services is one of state government's 15 executive-branch departments that resulted from the consolidation of 42 state agencies under Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's reorganization that became effective in July. The governor has said he expects the reorganization to save at least $15 million in fiscal 2021, which starts July 1.
As executive vice president with the Arnold Foundation in Houston, McGee led a team that invested $50 million in data-driven efforts to improve public policy in six states and Washington, D.C, according to the transformation department.
The strategy paired state governments with dedicated university partners who integrated administrative data and deployed research to help policymakers resolve persistent challenges, and these "policy labs" redirected more than $150 million in taxpayer resources toward more effective uses, the transformation department said.
McGee served as executive vice president of the Arnold Foundation from 2017-18 and as the foundation's vice president from 2011-17, said Alex Johnson, a spokesman for the transformation department.
The designation of McGee as chief data officer aligns with the Office of Education Policy's mission to assist state leaders on current policy issues, Johnson said. The chief data officer position had been vacant for a year and a half, she said.
"This partnership will enable McGee to spend a portion of his time as chief data officer with no salary reimbursement from [the Department of Transformation and Shared Services]," Johnston said in a written statement.
She said the department will pay for travel reimbursements, including mileage and conference fee expenses, directly to McGee, as allowable by state policy.
The appropriated chief data officer position with a salary range of $111,504-161,691 a year will not be filled; this will reflect salary savings for the department, Johnston said.
McGee's salary at the university is $110,000 a year, said Mark Rushing, a university spokesman. He has a bachelor's degree and master's degree in industrial engineering and a doctoral degree in economics from UA, according to the transformation department.
The former chief data officer is Richard Wang, Johnston said.
Starting in July 2017, the then-Department of Information Systems contracted with the University of Arkansas Institute for Chief Data Officers -- led by its executive director, Wang, and its graduate students -- to perform the function of the state's chief data officer and conduct other tasks. The contract, signed by the department and University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was for up to $106,863.20 in fiscal 2018.
The state's chief data officer position was created by Act 912 of 2017, sponsored by Rep. Austin McCollum, R-Bentonville.
A growing trend among companies and governments in the past several years is to create positions of chief data officers to manage an organization's information and oversee the use of it.
Metro on 02/21/2020