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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday appointed Andrea Fletcher, an Alexandria resident, to direct the Virginia Digital Service, a newly created state team assigned to modernize government technology and scrutinize state IT contracts.
The office will bring together engineers, designers and technical staff to improve state websites and systems. Spanberger proposed it in an amendment to the state's bipartisan budget after her administration found that Virginia had lost $52 million on a failed IT project under the previous administration.
"Virginians should have an expectation that government services be intuitive and easy to use," Fletcher said in the announcement.
Spanberger said the team would work to speed up delivery of services families rely on and to make sure state technology spending is efficient. Chief Transformation Officer David Wilkinson described Fletcher as a nationally respected digital leader.
Fletcher previously served as the first chief digital strategy officer at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she led the agency's digital service team and started the first open source program office in the federal government. She joined government through the U.S. Digital Service in 2021, and her earlier work spans federal health IT policy, artificial intelligence governance and health systems work in more than 20 countries, including digital health responses to COVID-19, Ebola and HIV.
She holds a bachelor's degree from Washington & Jefferson College and a master of public health from Emory University, and lives in Alexandria with her husband, daughter and dog.
The administration said the new team will also support its response to federal changes to health coverage and SNAP under H.R. 1, the budget law President Donald Trump signed. Spanberger established a policy last month directing executive agencies on how to implement the law.
The announcement points to similar teams in other states, including a Maryland effort that built a single application covering Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, WIC and energy assistance, and a Colorado team that helped negotiate a grant management system covering 17 programs before money was spent.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
