A Closer Look at Navy CIO IT Workforce Team

Christopher Kelsall supports the Department of the Navy CIO IT Workforce Team. More specifically, he is the Director of the DON CIO Cyber/IT Workforce Team and serves as the principle expert on the workforce policy, planning, systems, credentialing and development requirements for the workforce.

Currently, Kelsall is working on the federal government OPM initiative to build cyber workforce competencies. “We are involved in that effort as both in our role as part of the federal CIO council workforce committee and in our Department of the Navy role and we bring Department of Navy and Marine Corps folks together for those sessions in developing that work,” says Kelsall.

Some other priorities for Kelsall right now include working with the DoD on the information assurance workforce improvement program as that program evolves, and working with the DoD with the community management effort and human capital planning.

Kelsall finds that the biggest challenge right now is the future requirements that need to be addressed. He and his team need to continually take a look at the needs regarding the current systems, networks, telecommunications, but most importantly how they are going to continue doing work in this world that is defined by cyber security.

The high-level new social media policy also has some implications for the Department. The tools are very helpful to the Department as they move forward with the new workforce and strive to achieve their mission. Social media tools are used as communication and collaboration tools on a daily basis where they make sense for the CIO workforce.

However, as the Department of Defense employees are encouraged to use the new tools, using them safely cannot be stressed enough. “Everyone has the responsibility to protect themselves and their personal information line and the information of others and the exciting regulations on ethics, operational security and privacy still apply even with the new social media,” says Kelsall.

Kelsall said he is constantly impressed by the commitment and passion of the people his job brings him into contact with, not only in just the Department of Navy, but across the entire federal government. This is in fact his favorite part of his job. And when he is not working on integrating new workforce development programs, you may be able to find him on at a local theme park. “There is not a roller coaster in this world that I wouldn’t get on twice,” says Kelsall.

Posted by Ellen Scott on Friday, May 14th, 2010. Filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry