The 2018 winners of the StateScoop 50 awards — which annually highlight the best and brightest in the state IT community — were announced Sunday, April 22 in Baltimore at the beginning of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers' midyear conference.

The awards, which were presented for their fifth consecutive year, honor state government information technology and cybersecurity executives, industry influencers, up-and-comers and innovative projects.

Members of the state and local IT community nominated thousands of government leaders in February and March 2018. From there, StateScoop narrowed the list to the top 200 with the most nominations. StateScoop readers then cast more than 500,000 votes nationally in March and April to select the 2018 StateScoop 50 winners.

"We are extremely vested in the state and local IT community and work with these leaders every single day. For the fifth year in a row, we are thrilled to again highlight the top IT leaders from the state government and tech industry for their contributions to the government IT community," said Goldy Kamali, founder and CEO of Scoop News Group, StateScoop's parent company. "We engage top leaders from this community, online and in-person each day and we are delighted to honor them and their accomplishments."

"StateScoop is all about community," Jake Williams, StateScoop's associate publisher and director of strategic initiatives, said. "These leaders inspire me every day, and encourage leaders across state and local government to work hard and continue to serve their workforces and their citizens with the best services. We're thankful for what they do, and can't wait to see what they do next."

The 2018 StateScoop 50 winners are:

GoldenGov: State Executive of the Year

• Stu Davis, CIO, Ohio
• John Dunlap, CTO, West Virginia
• Michael Hussey, CIO, Utah
• Marcie Kahbody, Agency Information Officer, California State Transportation Agency
• Eric Larson, CIO, Florida
• David McCurdy, CTO, Colorado
• James "Bo" Reese, CIO, Oklahoma
• Bob Samson, CIO, New York
• Ed Toner, CIO, Nebraska

State Leadership of the Year

• Tyler Clark, Chief of Staff, Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology
• Nikhil Deshpande, Chief Digital Officer, Georgia
• Tracy Doaks, Chief Services Officer, North Carolina
• Tiziana Galeazzi, General Manager, Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget
• Richard "Dickie" Howze, CIO, Louisiana
• Leon Jones, Director, Arkansas Department of Labor
• Barney Krucoff, Interim CTO & Chief Data Officer, Washington, D.C.
• Jayne Scofield, IT Administrator, State of Nebraska

State IT Innovation of the Year

• Alexa Louisiana Driving Test, Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles
• Michigan CISO as a Service, Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget
• Colorado DRIVES, Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology
• Gov2Go National Rollout, NIC Inc.
• Georgia Gateway, Georgia Department of Human Services
• Hawaii Annual Code Challenge Program, Hawaii Office of Enterprise Technology Services
• Maryland Business Express Portal, Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation
• MISSI — Official Chatbot for the State of Mississippi
• Nebraska State Patrol, State of Nebraska
• NJ Outdoors — Campground Reservations, New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry
• Oregon Government Ethics Commission, State of Oregon
• Utah Practice Driver License Platform, Department of Technology Services

State Up & Comers

• Aaron Call, Chief Information Security Officer, Minnesota
• Graig Lubsen, Communications & Marketing Director, Indiana Office of Technology
• Jon Minshew, Chief Customer Officer, North Carolina
• Jerrod Roth, Program Manager, Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology
• Deanna Towne, IT Director, Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology
• Corbett Webb, Chief of Staff, Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation

State Cybersecurity Leader

• Alfritch Anderson, Senior Manager - Security Operations, Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology
• Erik Avakian, CISO, Pennsylvania
• Dustin Glover, CISO, Louisiana
• Chris Hill, CISO, Illinois
• Mike Lettman, CISO, Arizona
• Maria Thompson, Chief Information Risk Officer, North Carolina
• Walter Tong, Director - Cyber Intelligence, Georgia Technology Authority

Industry Leadership of the Year

• Jennifer Axt, General Manager - North America State & Local Government and Education, Dell EMC
• Dwight Chamberlain, Senior Director - SLED, Red Hat
• Harry Herington, CEO & Chairman, NIC Inc.
• Thomas MacLellan, Director of Policy & Government Affairs Symantec
• Kim Nelson, Executive Director - State & Local, Microsoft
• John Pellettiere, National Sales Director - SLED, Nutanix
• Bethann Pepoli, Director - SLED Business Development, Splunk
• Kenneth Smith, Principal, Deloitte

StateScoop is a leading media company in the state and local government information technology market with 100,000 unique monthly visitors and 125,000 daily newsletter subscribers, reporting on technology developments for state and local IT leaders across the U.S.