Best of New York Awards 2015

September 2, 2015 - This year's Best of New York Awards include honors for the New York City Police Department  for providing emergency service units with the ability to self-dispatch to the scene in near real-time, for the New York State Department of Health for a health-alert mobile app for all New York public health professionals and facilities to get infectious disease notices instantly, and for transparency dashboards tracking public health prevention measures.


Presented by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government, the Best of New York Awards  recognize state and local government organizations for their standout contributions, best practices and works of distinction in information technology that improve citizen services.


Steven Damsky, Deputy CIO and Chief Project Officer at the NYC Department of Education, was awarded this year’s Best of New York Excellence in Project Management Award for his successful delivery of enterprise solutions that align technology with business goals, including the annual Professional Performance Review system and the Universal Pre-Kindergarten Initiative which provided student registration and parent request information for public schools and community-based early childhood centers' pre-kindergarten services for more than 53,000 children.

"New York government departments are creatively utilizing amazing new technologies that are making a huge difference in the communities they serve and the departments they manage," said Todd Sander, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. "We are all very excited to present this year's Best of New York winners and acknowledge the work they have done."

Winner selections were made based on criteria that included collaboration between agencies, innovative use of technology and the improvement of services to citizens or state and local government employees.

Congratulations to the 2015 Best of New York Award Winners:

Demonstrated Excellence in Project Management

Steven Damsky, Deputy CIO and Chief Project Officer
NYC Department of Education 

Best IT Collaboration Among Organizations

Universal Pre-Kindergarten Citywide Adoption in NYC
NYC Department of Education

Best Application Serving an Agency’s Business Needs

Revolutionizing New York State Back-Office Operations
NYS Office of Information Technology Services

Best Application Serving the Public

Emergency Service Unit - Mobile CAD (Computer Assisted Dispatch)
New York City Police Department 

Best IT Collaboration Among Organizations

National Instant Criminal Background Check Application
NYS Office of Mental Health, Department of Health and Office of Information Technology Services

Best In-House Developed Application

New Student START Appointment Self-Scheduling System
Tompkins Cortland Community College 

Most Innovative Use of Social Media/Citizen Engagement

Crowdsourcing the Quality of Life Agenda
New York City Police Department

Most Innovative Use of Social Media/Citizen Engagement

TreesCount! 2015 – New York City Street Tree Census
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Best Mobile/Wireless Project

New York State Department of Health Alert Mobile Application
NYS Department of Health and Office of Information Technology Services

Best Data Analytics/ Business Intelligence Project

New York State Prevention Agenda Dashboard
NYS Department of Health and Office of Information Technology Services 

For the story on the winners, click here: http://www.govtech.com/state/Best-of-New-York-2015.html.

 

Additionally, 34 Outstanding IT Service and Support Awards were presented to those dedicated to New York public service: 

• Adam Agnew, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS
• William Brooks, Manager of Information Technology Services 1, NYS ITS, Health Cluster
• Shelly Brosen, Manager Information Technology Services 1, NYS ITS
• Kevin Buettner, Manager of Information Technology Services, Health Research, Inc., Health Cluster
• Grace Dillon, Customer Relations Manager, NYS ITS, Human Services Cluster
• William Fletcher, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Disabilities & Aging Cluster
• Mario Garzia, Information Technology Specialist 4, New York State Education Department
• Laura Hallett, Applications Developer, NYS ITS, Environment & Energy Cluster
• Mary Hayden-Cook, Director Project Management, NYS Office of the Attorney General
• Daniel Healy, Deputy Director of Administration, NYS ITS
• Timothy Horn, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Disabilities & Aging Cluster
• Cathy Jones, Business Systems Analyst, NYS ITS, Environment & Energy Cluster
• George Kipp, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS
• Gary Kuchark Jr., Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS
• Ron Lammardo, Manager, NYS ITS, Platforms & Enterprise Applications
• Vijay Madala, Manager, NYS ITS, Enterprise Network Consolidation
• Ed McCue, Technical Lead, NYS ITS, Enterprise Network Consolidation
• Maggie McNally, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Enterprise Architecture Operations
• Stuart Patterson, Manager, NYS ITS, Enterprise Unix Systems
• John Rotondaro, Manager, NYS ITS,Telecommunications
• John Savastio, Manager, Application Migrations, NYS ITS, Data Center Consolidation Project
• Joe Schanz, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Public Safety Cluster
• Joe Scott, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Public Safety Cluster
• Vamshi Siddi, Manager of Information Technology Services 1, NYS ITS, Health Cluster
• Vidya Svankumar, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Disabilities & Aging Cluster
• Clark Smith, Information Technology Specialist 2, NYS ITS, CNSE Data Center
• Jennifer Strand, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Finance Regulation and Gaming Cluster
• Alan Thompson, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Internet and Peering Implementation
• Paul Tigg, Information Technology Specialist 1, NYS ITS, Public Safety Cluster
• Richard Tubbs, Information Technology Specialist 3, NYS Office of the State Comptroller, Division of the Chief Information Officer
• Jimel Williams, Information Technology Specialist 4, NYS ITS, Public Safety Cluster
• Dan Zobre, Assistant Director, IT Technical Services, NYS ITS
• Steve Zwickel, Information Technology Specialist 2, NYS ITS, Network Core Support

 

About the Center for Digital Government

The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.




The Center is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education. www.erepublic.com 

For questions, please contact Janet Grenslitt, Director of surveys and Awards, at jgrenslitt@centerdigitalgov.com.