Stacie Boyd: Bringing business rigor to NSF's IT
By
Frank Konkel
Stacie Boyd, branch chief for security, architecture, policy and plans at the NSF's Office of Information and Resource Management's Division of Information Systems, has 'risen at every job she's done,' says Dan Chenok.
Stacie Boyd, branch chief for security, architecture, policy and plans at the NSF's Office of Information and Resource Management's Division of Information Systems, has 'risen at every job she's done,' says Dan Chenok.
Stacie Boyd is not one to shy away from challenges. If she were, she'd never have risen through the ranks at the National Science Foundation, where she's currently branch chief for security, architecture, policy and plans at the Office of Information and Resource Management's Division of Information Systems.
And like many feds who play integral roles behind the scenes, one of the few things longer than her official title is her list of official duties: She is the lead for the agency's IT management and IT program management activities, which encompass policy, governance, strategy, and budget formulation and execution, along with nearly every other cross-cutting business function found in an IT shop.
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Boyd and her staff of 12 helped NSF CIO Amy Northcutt trim 10 percent from the agency's IT budget and reinvested that money in innovation. And Boyd's proactive, collaborative approach has helped position the agency to deal with the fiscal challenges that are sure to continue in the coming years.
"What's most important to me is how I work, the impact that I can make," Boyd told FCW. "I like to identify problems and come up with resolutions. I really like being a change agent."
Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, said Boyd, now barely a decade into her career, is destined for big things. "Stacie is a rising star," Chenok said. "She's risen at every job she's done, and she's gotten promotions because of the fine work she does. She's highly respected and gets along with people, but she definitely goes right for the issue at hand."
At NSF, Boyd said she has seen her work in the business aspects of IT make a difference, not only in the agency's mission to promote science but also in freeing up IT project teams and engineers to focus less on business and more on what they're best at: IT solutions.
"To me, it's important to support such an important mission, and I've been fortunate everywhere I've worked in government to continue to succeed and develop," Boyd said.