The chief of civic innovation and technology for Louisville Metro Government is getting national recognition with a recent award.
Grace Simrall, who has led in the C-suite position since 2016, has been named "GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year" by StateScoop's LocalSmart Awards. The awards program honors the visionaries who transform local government to make a difference in citizens' lives, according to StateScoop, celebrating the achievements of those who work to make a lasting impact in the government IT community.
Starting in August, members of the state and local government technology community nominated more than 150 leaders and projects for the awards. From there, the StateScoop team narrowed the list to 80 finalists. Readers cast more than 750,000 votes between Sept. 23 and Nov. 11.
The 40 winners — Simrall included — received the most community votes in their categories.
"When great work occurs at local government, it goes largely unseen," Simrall said in a statement to Business First. "Winning StateScoop's City Executive of the Year is particularly meaningful because it represents the culmination of that work — the Office of Civic Innovation and Technology (CIT) is No. 1 in the country in the Center for Digital Government's annual Government Experience Awards and received the National Digital Inclusion Alliance Digital Trailblazer Award for the third time in a row; the Office of Performance Improvement (OPI) and CIT helped the city become only one of two cities to ever achieve What Works Cities platinum certification, the highest level possible.
"This award belongs to my team as much as it does to me and I am grateful every day for their public service."
In her role, Simrall is responsible for advising the mayor and leading the city’s smart city, broadband and digital inclusion initiatives, transforming the resident experience of digital government and facilitating co-creation of breakthrough civic innovations.
As I reported earlier this year, Simrall and two other Kentucky leaders, Ian McClure and Brit Fitzpatrick, were named to National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. They will serve two-year terms on the council charged with creating a national entrepreneurship strategy.
