In Case of Disaster, Communication Is King in Maryland
States are navigating an ever-growing number of emergencies, including unprecedented weather events, infrastructure failures and cybersecurity incidents. Response plans must stay agile.
Melissa Leaman wears several hats at the Maryland Department of Information Technology. As deputy secretary and chief operating officer, she oversees multiple teams, including financial operations, budget administration, procurement contract administration and the office of technology business and management.
“We support everything from cradle to grave for all the agencies, all the divisions within the department to make sure that they are able to deliver services to our customers,” she explained earlier this month at the NASCIO conference in New Orleans.
Leaman also plays a role in making sure agencies are as prepared as possible to respond to any emergency that could come their way. Catastrophic weather like Hurricanes Helene and Milton, cybersecurity incidents that take resident services offline and infrastructure failures like the bridge collapse in Baltimore serve as cautionary tales for other agencies that can use the events to build response plans for real-world scenarios.
A key element of those plans is resilient and interoperable communications. Here, Leaman offers more specifics on the state’s approach.
Maryland requires that agencies update their business continuity and disaster recovery plans annually, but Leaman concedes that even more frequent updates could be necessary.
“As new things come up, as emergencies continue to evolve, as technology continues to evolve, cybersecurity incidents, obviously, can change the way an agency is going to operate in the future,” she said.
Noelle Knell is the executive editor for e.Republic, responsible for setting the overall direction for e.Republic’s editorial platforms, including Government Technology, Governing, Industry Insider, Emergency Management and the Center for Digital Education. She has been with e.Republic since 2011, and has decades of writing, editing and leadership experience. A California native, Noelle has worked in both state and local government, and is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with majors in political science and American history.
Jule Pattison-Gordon is a senior staff writer for <i>Governing </i> and former senior staff writer for <i>Government Technology, </i>where she'd specialized in cybersecurity.<i> </i>Jule also previously wrote for PYMNTS and <i>The Bay State Banner</i> and holds a B.A. in creative writing from Carnegie Mellon. She’s based outside Boston.
