Preparing to Welcome the 2022 U.S. Digital Corps

By Clare Martorana, Federal Chief Information Officer, The White House

Last year, the Biden-Harris Administration—in a collaboration between the General Services Administration (GSA), the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy—announced the launch of the U.S. Digital Corps, a new cross-government fellowship operated by the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services to recruit early-career technologists to serve in the Federal Government and help support and improve critical services for the American people. At the time, we planned to hire an initial class of 30 Fellows. After receiving more than 1,000 applications from candidates across the country in just one week, we’re excited to announce that later this month, GSA and Federal agencies will welcome more than 40 Fellows as part of the inaugural cohort of the U.S. Digital Corps.

The Fellows will be spread across 13 Federal agencies and help advance key Administration priorities—from helping make Federal services easier for the American people to access, to enhancing our Nation’s cybersecurity, to implementing the Federal IT operating plan, and much more.

Here’s a quick look at some of the projects they’ll support:

• Department of Veterans Affairs: Fellows will join VA’s digital experience product team, where they will help VA streamline and modernize the digital tools Veterans rely on to access the services they’ve earned.
  
  
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Too often, patients and their caregivers struggle to find timely and affordable treatment and support for behavioral health due to a lack of consolidated information on providers. U.S. Digital Corps Fellows at CMS will work to create a behavioral health treatment locator tool—making it easier for Americans to find and receive care, and protecting patients and families from unexpected medical bills.
  
  
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: CISA leads national efforts to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every day. Fellows will assist in the development of vulnerability, risk, and resilience assessments and provide key technical expertise in implementing the President’s cybersecurity executive order, zero trust strategy, and related guidance.

These Fellows will play a key role in delivering for the American people — and also reflect the diversity of our country. By reaching out to communities that are traditionally underrepresented in civic tech, we received applications from 47 states and territories and recruited a cohort that represents the people they will serve.

I am honored to support the U.S. Digital Corps in my role as Federal Chief Information Officer. Creating new ways to bring technology talent into the Federal Government is crucial to our efforts to protect, serve, and inspire the American people in today’s digital age.

We look forward to welcoming and sharing more information about the first cohort of U.S. Digital Corps Fellows when they start later this month. To learn more about the full list of agencies and projects the U.S. Digital Corps will support, visit digitalcorps.gsa.gov/projects/.