Raleigh’s Gail Roper Named to Tech Team Assembled by White House

Jayne Kirkpatrick, Director, Public Affairs
Prepared by: Audrey M. Robinson, Communications Administrator, Information Technology Department

For more information: Gail M. Roper, City Manager’s Office, 919-996-4645

Nov. 14, 2013

Raleigh’s Gail Roper Named to Tech Team Assembled by White House

The City of Raleigh’s chief information and community relations officer, Gail M. Roper, traveled to Detroit this week as a member of a municipal team led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The team of top municipal government technology officials is in Detroit for two days of meetings with city officials and local technologists and innovators to identify ways that technology can be leveraged to support Detroit’s revitalization efforts.

“It is an honor to be included on this team. Municipal leaders have a long history of collaboration and sharing lessons learned,” Ms. Roper said. “This is a great opportunity to leverage our collective experience and knowledge to help reinvent local government processes.”

The municipal technology team will develop recommendations about how Detroit can use technology to help boost the economy, stimulate innovation, streamline government processes, cut costs, and benefit citizens. In conjunction with efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to support Detroit’s revitalization, an important commitment from foundations and other private-sector partners will provide funding to support local technology training and mentoring. The funding also will be used to bring in innovation fellows to help carry out recommendations by the technology team.

In addition to Ms. Roper, members of the municipal technology team include:

• Allen Square Jr., chief information officer, City of New Orleans;
• Beth Niblock, chief information officer, Louisville-Metro Government, Ky.;
• Nigel Jacob, co-founder of the City Hall Office of New Urban Mechanics, Boston; and,
• John Tolva, former chief technology officer, City of Chicago

To learn more, visit www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/11/12/building-21st-century-detroit.