A Discussion with Hawai‘i’s First State Chief Data Officer
In 2022, Hawaiʻi joined the growing list of states with a Chief Data Officer (CDO) role, when Governor Ige signed Act 167 into law. Housed within the State of Hawaiʻi Office of Enterprise Technology Services, the CDO role “supports the state’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) in overseeing a comprehensive state strategy to govern data capture, storage, maintenance, visualization, analysis, sharing, integration, and access that will drive transparency and customer satisfaction for the public.”[1] Now six months in, we invited Hawaiʻi’s inaugural CDO, Rebecca Cai, to share insights about the role, the approach she envisions, and her experiences thus far.
Photo credit: State of Hawai‘i Office of Enterprise Technology Services
Rebecca Cai: The State of Hawai‘i’s First CDO
In opening our discussion, Cai said she is “excited” to serve as the first CDO for the State of Hawai‘i. With an extensive background as a data and business intelligence consultant in the private sector and, most recently, serving as the CDO for the State of New York, Cai brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the state. Using data to create a positive impact has always been central to Cai’s professional goals. Whether as a consultant working with private and public sector clients or as a state CDO, Cai has seen data as a driving force for understanding operational needs and opportunities, as well as for developing roadmaps toward evidence-based impacts and outcomes. “I’ve always wanted to create positive impacts for society and for people. The public sector has the potential to make the greatest impact, and so I am looking to apply my experience in the private sector to directly create a positive impact for the people of Hawaiʻi. I enjoy living in Hawaiʻi – the culture, people, food, history, nature…and I want to do what I can to make people’s lives better here,” says Cai.
Building on Existing Capacity: Data to Support Good Governance
The existing and potential applications of data to improve governance are significant. Cai acknowledges that before the Hawaiʻi CDO position existed, many individual state agencies took it upon themselves to leverage data to improve services. Cai is interested in exploring the work that agencies have done and to build on their successes. She strives to learn what works, elevate demonstrated best practices, and encourage cross-agency collaboration and interoperability. From increasing trust and privacy, to providing evidence-based policymaking and improving services for residents, Cai believes that data plays as much a role in ensuring equity and fairness in government as it does in increasing efficiency and competence. Cai believes “data can serve as the glue that connects all services together.”
Within the tapestry of the state’s existing data systems, Cai believes one of the key charges of the CDO is to clearly define roles, responsibilities, standards, and guidelines. With each agency/department potentially operating under different data systems and compliance requirements, over the long run, improving coordination to ensure all data is classified according to a common standard will be critical. “We want to respect data set owners within each department, as they are the people who actually know the information, how to access it, and are the front line when we talk about data equity and privacy” says Cai.
Addressing the Challenges of Breaking New Ground
Recognizing that a significant amount of collaboration and knowledge sharing is required to fulfill the CDO role well, Cai is continuously connecting with various state agencies as well as outside vendors and stakeholders, including Hawaiʻi Data Collaborative. Identifying all potential data use cases is essential for understanding future impacts of enhanced data capabilities, as is developing a clear roadmap of how issues, stakeholders and current and future data sets will need to intersect. This represents a considerable amount of work, and as Cai herself orients to the Hawaiʻi ecosystem, she is doing her best to pull together a team to support the full scope of this work. Cai explains, “Putting together a new team in the middle of the budget cycle is a challenge, as is change management. It's always a challenge to try something new, but it’s less of a challenge when there is a common vision and goal, and a shared plan and approach.”
Five months in, Cai’s current focus is on the three core areas laid out by Act 167:
Data policy and standards: Developing and applying policies and standards across state agencies to facilitate data sharing, consistency, and privacy;
Data roadmap development: Identifying data use cases and develop a plan to improve state operations and services to citizens; and
Data research and tools: Researching and providing recommendations on data and AI tools.
Along with these three core areas, Cai is also looking to create a data and AI glossary and literacy training to be published on data.hawaii.gov. In speaking to the importance of providing data education and transparency, Cai says, “What is data classification? Why should I care about data privacy? Why is data quality important? What does it mean [with respect to] AI? These questions are important to answer because we have people coming from different backgrounds, and we want everyone to be on the same page so we can all move in one direction to make a greater impact.”
[1] https://ets.hawaii.gov/ets-names-rebecca-cai-hawaiis-first-chief-data-officer/
