Interview: “Pamela Wright on Leading Digital Innovation at the National Archives”

From Government Executive:

Pamela Wright was installed as the first chief innovation officer at the National Archives and Records Administration in 2012 and has been leading the agency’s digital transformation effort since.

“People may think that when you work at an agency, you have the same job for all those years. That has not been the case for me,” said Wright, who started at NARA in 2001 as an archives specialist. “I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects—from processing textual records in the stacks to launching collaborative projects with emerging technologies”

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What accomplishments are you most proud of since becoming NARA’s first chief innovation officer?

The accomplishments I am most proud of are due to collaborating with many employees across our agency. The open government concepts of transparency, collaboration and participation, and the support of our visionary archivist of the United States, have driven much of the best work of my career.

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I am proud of working with other agencies like the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress on digital projects like History Hub, a digital consultation platform, as well as working together to sponsor DPLAfest. I have developed an enduring relationship with our colleagues at the Library and Archives of Canada, who have modeled their crowdsourcing work on our groundbreaking citizen archivist and Innovation Hub programs.

Learn More, Read the Complete Interview

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