The National Institutes of Health has separated the roles of the chief information officer and director of the Center for Information Technology following Andrea Norris’ retirement in December. She served for more than a decade in the dual-hatted role, Federal News Network reported Thursday.
Ivor D’Souza, director of information systems at the National Library of Medicine, serves as acting CIT director. Dennis Papula, deputy CIO at the NIH, serves as CIO on an interim basis.
“With Ms. Norris’ departure, we have the opportunity to reevaluate the technology leadership needs of the NIH. We view the roles of the CIT director and OCIO director as distinct,” a spokesperson for NIH told FNN in an email.
“The director of CIT needs to focus on the unique needs of NIH’s research and clinical enterprise. And we hope to find an individual who can help the NIH institutes and centers advance their scientific goals,” the spokesperson added.
NIH has begun accepting applications for the CIT director position and the job opening will close on March 7. The agency has not yet published a job vacancy for the CIO role.
The spokesperson noted that the CIO post will focus more on security standards and compliance and that the NIH is looking for a leader with experience managing IT functions.
