Molly O'Neill has both a technology role and a policy role at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.  As an assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Environmental Information, she oversees the life cycle of information to support the agency's mission of protecting health and the environment. O'Neill's role as CIO includes overseeing the agency's strategic information planning, investment and information policies, enterprise architecture, and information security program.

In both of her roles, O'Neill is working toward the same goal - helping the EPA to use technology to collaborate and exchange information with the widest possible network of bright minds around the world. The EPA employs about five percent of the U.S. environmental workforce.  The majority of this workforce consists of people who work in state government, in consulting firms, in private industry, and in academic institutions.  She says, "Environmental issues are huge. People work at the EPA because they believe in its mission. We want to reach everyone who has a thirst for knowledge about environmental issues."

In this podcast, O'Neill talks about the EPA's Web 2.0 initiatives, as she puts it, "to reach out and grab the world globally, as well as locally." She also explains how the EPA's formal process for making IT investment decisions works, and how the EPA has been at the forefront of the green data center movement.

Bio
In December 2006, the U.S. Senate appointed Molly O'Neill as chief information officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection agency and as assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Environmental Information. She is a member of the Federal CIO Council, where she serves as the co-chair of the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee. Before going to work at the EPA, O'Neill was state director for the National Environmental Information Exchange at the Environmental Council of the States. In recognition for her leadership as the executive coordinator of the Exchange Network, she received a 2004 Federal 100 award as one of the top executives influencing government technology. She graduated from Virginia Tech.

Resources
Government Computer News - The  EPA the Web 2.0 Way
FedTech - Interview  with Molly O'Neill, CIO of EPA
CIOToday  - CIOs Tout Collaboration Tools as the Font of Today

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive  Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio  Producer
AlarmMusic.com Production Music  Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production