Brian Ibbison: On the IT beat for community policing program

Name: Brian Ibbison

Age: 33

Organization: Turner Consulting Group

Title: Project Manager/Tech Lead

Nominated for: Spearheading work on key systems for the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), including a new grant application receipt system.

First IT mentor: Dave Celecki of Excent. He taught me how to make work items as simple as possible.

Latest accomplishment on the job: TCG has been working on several websites that have helped the Justice Department enhance COPS. For example, we built a system that allows grantees to report on what they are doing with their grant money. The system provides Justice with information on how well they are doing in the field of community-oriented policing and what they need to improve on.

Career highlight: Developing the 2009 COPS program for receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant applications. The system was built in one month and allowed grantees to apply for more than $8 billion in grants.

Your advice for a government IT wannabe: Work to find ways to enhance your communication skills every day. Communication is the most important aspect of the job.

What you enjoy most about working in government IT: The ability to work with people whose skills go beyond IT. In the private sector, some companies are strictly IT-focused.

Three favorite job-related bookmarks: Google.com, AskTom.Oracle.com, StackOverflow.com

Dream non-IT-related job: Professional golfer

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