North Carolina’s new CIO says she runs ‘at the speed of business’
“I run at the speed of business, not at the speed of government,” Teena Piccione, North Carolina’s newly confirmed chief information officer, told StateScoop in a recent interview.
Piccione stepped into the role in January, after Jim Weaver stepped down after four years to pursue opportunities in the private sector, and was confirmed last May. She said she learned a lot during her first six months heading the Department of Information Technology, like how the department can be a better partner to state agencies.
“I have to make sure I can understand Department of Transportation, all of our environmental quality issues, the prisons, our Veterans Affairs, because in order to serve them well, I have to understand what they do,” she said.
One of her first projects involved using Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to strengthen communications networks for disaster response. She said the project seemed especially important after Hurricane Helene. Though North Carolina’s next-generation 911 system remained operational through the storm, Piccione said she wanted to provide “a commercial grade response.”
“God forbid, if we have another hurricane that hits the mountains or snow that hits our great coast, that we are ready, and we’re able to provide technology that can enable that connection back for all of the great people across our state. Access to technology that will work in the event of any type of hurricane, weather related, or any disaster or trauma that comes,” she said.
She said she also searched for areas of IT governance and digital services that could be improved and looked to introduce tools like generative artificial intelligence to help maximize the state’s resources.
“There is always going to be a gap between how many people we have and how many people we need,” Piccione said. “So how do we utilize AI to help be that gap filler and to be able to ensure that we are able to still meet the needs while we are hiring people into the state? Using technology to our advantage.”
Piccione said she expects Gov. Josh Stein to issue an executive order in the coming weeks establishing an AI council, tasked with exploring the state’s best uses of generative AI, such as shortening the procurement process, strengthening cybersecurity and creating a services portal.
Public trust is also a key priority for Piccione, who acknowledged that faith in government is eroding. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, only 22% of Americans say they trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.”
For Piccione, that means focusing on the next generation, creating apprenticeship programs through state and community colleges that help cultivate the next wave of public servants.
“We’re not doing our responsibility when we have an aging workforce in the government,” she said. “We need to make sure that we have a plan, just like we do for next-gen 911, we have that next-gen plan for how we’re going to ensure our agency last survives and thrives.”
