Rosita Parkes

Energy
Rosita Parkes
Chief Information Officer

Coming from the turmoil of the newly formed Homeland Security Department in October 2003, Rosita Parkes found solid ground in the technology operations of the Energy Department. "The first descriptor is 'stable,' " she says. "The second is 'well-planned.' " But while the Energy Department was created nearly three decades ago, it shares with Homeland Security the challenge of integrating formerly distinct agencies, some of which have disparate missions. "The greatest challenge I have is getting buy-in for corporate solutions," such as standardizing the technology infrastructure across the department's agencies, Parkes says. "There's always that issue of turf."

The department also has struggled with its enterprise architecture. An audit from the inspector general published in April found that Energy had not completed a plan for the project, and said the lack of an enterprise architecture caused it to miss out on $155 million in savings since 1998. Parkes' office disagreed with some of the findings, and pointed to steps taken toward completing the plan.

Before her Energy appointment, Parkes served as CIO of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She helped provide computer and telecommunications support for Sept. 11 cleanup and recovery-and-response teams in New York. "With the infrastructure completely down, we had to go in and use mobile capability and wireless technology," she says. "We were innovative, and we looked at different ways to solve problems."

Parkes was one of only a handful of women in government technology when she joined the civil service in 1970, and often the only woman in executive meetings until the mid-1980s. Then, she says, "It was like the floodgates opened. It was just beautiful." Parkes encourages people to consider working in government technology. "There's no limit to what you can do if you aspire to a federal career," she says. "It's certainly been good to me."