NYC DOE Shows Support to MWBEs at MGC GovTek Webinar

Last week, QED National President Colleen Molter led a MGC GovTek webinar for minority and women-owned business enterprise (“MWBE”) firms in the information technology industry interested in learning about the IT needs at the NYC Department of Education (“DOE”). As the largest public school system in the country, with over 1.1 million students and 1,800 schools, this was an exceptional opportunity to hear from leaders at the DOE including Chief Information Officer Anuraag Sharma, Chief MWBE Officer Nicholas Mendoza, and Deputy CIO Scott Strickland. Topics from the webinar included fostering MWBE partnerships, DOE technology initiatives, long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on DOE’s IT environment and much more.

As the lead executive for DOE focused on successful partnerships with MWBE firms, Nicholas Mendoza outlined DOE’s commitment to support MWBE firms. Through many new initiatives, the DOE intends to help level the playing field for MWBE vendors.

Potential opportunities such as mobile device management, which has played an integral role in keeping students on track during the COVID-19 pandemic, were also discussed. As explained by Scott Strickland, over 500,000 devices were delivered to student homes between April – May 2020, to enable remote learning as needed.  Remote and hybrid learning models have introduced flexibility into how students are taught, keeping them on track and engaged regardless of their physical locations.

“MGC GovTek is thankful that leaders at the DOE were able to provide MWBEs with valuable insight,” Colleen Molter said, “To understand the current state of their organization and how IT plays an integral role is essential for firms in learning how to best service the DOE.”