Shannon Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton’s civil work spans the full breadth of civil government — and “there’s a lot to be proud of,” said Shannon Fitzgerald, who leads the firm’s work to modernize citizen services. “It’s work I’m truly passionate about, because we are helping people connect to the resources and the help they need.”
One project with major impact Fitzgerald worked on was with the Internal Revenue Service to reinvent the taxpayer experience — moving from call centers with long wait times to on-demand and seamless interactions.
“Our team has developed and improved more than 25 digital products, including IRS.gov and the IRS2Go app,” Fitzgerald said. “With a digital-first strategy, we’ve helped the IRS boost yearly revenue from electronic payments by $62 billion in four years while putting digital government into the hands of taxpayers.”
She is also proud of Booz Allen’s work with the Labor Department as it leveraged artificial intelligence to improve websites, apps and call centers, including Benefits.gov. And in 2018, the company relaunched Recreation.gov with human-centered design, agile development, secure DevOps and cloud technologies.
What sets Booz Allen apart is its problem-solving, according to Fitzgerald.
“We design solutions that lead with the client’s mission, which we know so well, and then apply our knowledge of emerging technologies and innovations to get to the art of the possible: future mission delivery, versus just a series of incremental modifications but not true transformation,” she added.
It’s also the company’s real passion for service and making a difference. She encourages her team members to always seek out work they’re passionate about and tries to do the same herself. Fitzgerald believes by challenging boundaries, the government can catch up to the private sector, allowing citizens to access information, apply for services and get the help they need when they need it.
Why Watch:
Fitzgerald’s focus for 2019 is the future.
“Envisioning how innovation and technology modernization can bring better mission delivery to our clients, and what’s next,” she said. Booz Allen will be focused on partnering with its clients to give them even more actionable insights, better security and improved flexibility through their intelligence, cloud and mobile tools.
“And we’ll be focused on the citizen,” Fitzgerald added. In 2018, she published “The Citizen’s Digital Bill of Rights,” which outlines the five expectations she believes citizens have the right to require from their digital government tools.