Gary Washington, the longtime chief information officer (CIO) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has been reassigned to a newly created role as the department’s chief innovation officer, according to his LinkedIn.
Washington served as the USDA CIO for over seven years. He also held a brief stint as acting USDA secretary at the beginning of the second Trump administration.
Sam Berry, who started at USDA earlier this year as a special advisor from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is taking over the CIO role from Washington, according to reporting from NextGov. Berry was sworn in as a senior advisor on government efficiency within USDA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer in May.
USDA did not respond to a request for comment about the CIO change.
Last year, Gary Washington took home a FITARA Award from MeriTalk in the “Most Improved” category for the 17th edition of the scorecard.
“This shows that we’re managing IT at a high level. We need to strive to do better in other areas, but this is a very prestigious award. It shows that we’re making a lot of progress at USDA,” Washington told MeriTalk at the award ceremony.
“I want to shout out my team. My team that does FITARA and my governance team and the leadership at USDA for supporting us to make the changes necessary to achieve this award,” Washington added.