The City of Reidsville’s Information Technology Director has successfully graduated from the 2016-2017 Certified Government Chief Information Officers Program (CGCIO) conducted by the UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government.
Rhonda S. Wheeler, who has worked for the City since September of 1997, is one of 48 who successfully completed the course this year. The program is geared to IT leaders in local governments, state agencies, community colleges and K-12 across the state. This program, which began in 2005, is the first local government specific program for CIOs in the nation.
The CGCIO program is designed for local government Information Technology Directors and Chief Information Officers whose challenging responsibilities require a broad understanding of management, leadership, legal, regulatory and enterprise topics, according to a School of Government press release. The course is approximately 240 hours in length and covers strategic technology planning, communication, project management, emerging trends, risk assessment and management, acquisition management, change management, leadership, security, legal issues and financial trends.
Wheeler, who first came to work for the City as an IT Support Technician, was promoted to the City’s Director of Information Technology in 2008. She has seen and helped implement a wide array of technology over her 20 years in local government.
“When I was first hired, the City had two servers and one reel-to-reel magnetic tape data backup system,” Wheeler said. “Now we have a storage area network that contains 16 virtual servers and 19 physical servers. It just goes to show how much technology has expanded and become an ever increasing part of our lives.”
Wheeler explained that she wanted to take the course so that she could focus on the needs of the City as a whole and not just IT. The broad outlook taught in this class will help her as she plans and develops the City’s technology based on a conservative budget while looking for innovative ways to fulfill the future needs of Reidsville and its residents.
“We commend Rhonda for taking part in this extensive course and for seeing the value of taking a ‘big picture’ approach to technology and how it affects City government, our citizens and the overall growth of the City,” said Assistant City Manager Chris Phillips. “The decisions the City makes now with its technology will affect future generations.”
