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 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.” 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.