2023 Rising Star: Josie Birch
Department of Transportation disaster recovery program manager, Minnesota IT Services
The Minnesota Department of Transportation was missing an IT disaster recovery program until Josie Birch came along. That meant the department wasn’t really prepared should it fall victim to a ransomware attack or if a server went down and one of the agency’s nearly 60 applications stopped working.
Before Birch, disaster recovery planning for the department’s essential IT systems was piecemeal, and approval time could drag on for weeks, said Joella Givens, application security manager at the state’s IT services agency. That’s because a single plan had to be reviewed by various transportation officials and committees, who were seldom at the same place at the same time.
A meeting of the change management team, however, was the rare occasion when all the stakeholders were in a central location, and Birch saw it as an opportunity to push for the agency’s first comprehensive IT disaster recovery program.
Birch took IT disaster recovery plans “that varied in age and accuracy and were handled individually on an as-needed basis” and created a departmentwide maintenance cycle that informs the agency when plan updates are needed and by priority order, said Bob Bennett, the transportation department’s chief business technology officer.
She developed tools and processes both for creating disaster recovery plans and for following that process to ensure accountability and consistency. The disaster recovery program helps make managing the development, testing and maintenance of the agency’s 57 applications more efficient and agile. Thanks to Birch, the department is more resilient to cyber threats or data loss.
Beyond managing the IT disaster recovery program, Birch is leading a monthly virtual meeting for IT services employees to foster collaboration and idea sharing for disaster recovery. That’s fitting, considering she’s a remarkably inquisitive and welcoming team member, Bennett said, and she never misses a chance to ask a question or praise a colleague.
“Disaster recovery is often seen as not so exciting, and it doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Givens said. “But now people across the organization are coming forward and engaging with the process.”