Director of IT Acquisition and Policy Office of the CIO, Department of Homeland Security
Gabrielle Gallegos is transforming the Department of Homeland Security’s IT Acquisition Review (ITAR) process into an innovative acquisition tool that supports the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act’s requirement that agency CIOs review all IT contracts.
She has been expanding the process from primarily a security, privacy and Section 508 disability compliance review into a substantive evaluation of acquisition plans and statements of work to ensure that projects align with DHS’ strategic IT goals and investment management priorities. She also led the redesign of an automated online tool to perform that work.
Such innovative acquisition efforts that also strive to meet new efficiency regulations are the kind of double-barreled approach coveted by federal acquisition and administrative managers.
According to her supervisors, Gallegos’ work on ITAR will help the DHS CIO get early visibility into acquisition planning and open up the opportunity to steer appropriate acquisitions to agile development methods, strategic sourcing and cloud-based services. It will also bolster the department’s investment management strategy, which seeks to decrease duplicative IT systems and boost the creation and reuse of departmentwide services.
Gallegos’ knowledge of the complexities of ITAR and FITARA and her willingness to try new approaches have allowed the CIO’s office to quickly and efficiently implement core FITARA requirements.
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