The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) Board has appointed two new members and one additional alternate who will bring “fresh perspectives” in how the Federal government funds IT projects, GSA said in an Oct. 29 blog post.
The seven-member board – chaired by Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Clare Martorana – evaluates the project proposals that Federal agencies submit, determines funding allocations, and provides strategic guidance throughout an agency’s modernization journey.
The two new members are:
- CIO and Executive VP of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Pritha Mehra, who brings expertise in large-scale digital transformations and innovative solutions for complex logistical challenges – demonstrated through the USPS’s rapid COVID test delivery program; and
- Federal Reserve Board Monetary Affairs Division Associate Director for Technology Strategy and Delivery Katherine Sickbert, who offers valuable insights into how operations and technology teams intersect – with extensive experience in cloud transformation and AI enablement across multiple agencies.
Matt Montaño, the associate CIO of the National Park Service (NPS), was added to the list of six alternate TMF Board members, who provide added insight and stand in as voting members when needed. Montaño is currently leading a major website overhaul for the NPS and brings knowledge in understanding the intersection between strong customer experience and cybersecurity.
“These new people complement our existing members’ skills, creating a diverse governance team. Together, they ensure TMF investments deliver maximum value to government agencies and the American public,” GSA said in a statement.
In addition to Martorana, Mehra, and Sickbert, the TMF Board includes GSA CIO Dave Shive; National Archives and Records Administration CIO Sheena Burrell; Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Senior Technical Director for the Cybersecurity Division Chris Butera; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Acquisition Innovation Advocate Harrison Smith.
“As the President stated in his budget, ‘Technology serves as the foundation of the federal government’s ability to deliver on its mission.’ We have critical missions across government and we must move faster to accelerate digital transformation. The TMF has demonstrated its value as a funding model of choice – one that should only get stronger,” Martorana said in a statement.
“TMF investments are enabling agencies to deploy technology that is secure by design and secure by default, eliminate paper processes, and reduce burden for customers and the federal workforce,” she said. “Agencies receiving TMF investments are demonstrating that they can deliver exceptional government experiences for the public.”
TMF, created in 2017 under the Modernizing Government Technology Act, provides funding for Federal civilian agencies’ tech modernization projects.
Most recently, TMF issued investments for the Department of Energy, the Federal Election Commission, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Education, and the Department of Commerce’s AI Safety Institute.
GSA has been fighting to maintain the program’s funding, with the agency saying earlier this summer that TMF is “on track to soon” exhaust the $1 billion one-time funding boost it received from Congress under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.
