CDTO Campus Students Join the Intensive Workshop in Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington, D.C.

Studying has been part of a “Shaping the Digital Future” leadership program, designed for top experts, who facilitate the digital transformation of Ukraine.

Supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine CDTO Campus established a partnership with Georgetown University to prepare future digital leaders for public service.

Business meetings and study sessions were held in Washington within “Shaping the Digital Future” leadership program. The program provides professional growth, helps achieve new skills and inspires professional networking between leading experts, who had joined the digitalization processes in Ukraine.

“It is crucial for us to have strong digital teams able to support digital transformation locally and build the most comfortable digital state in the world. To strengthen the expertise of the existing teams and attract new digital managers we initiate a series of educational programs. Partnership between CDTO Campus and McCourt School of Public Policy is a new opportunity, allowing us not only to incorporate global experience, but to share our own innovational solutions with the world”, noted Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

The event will also be attended by experienced CDTOs of public digitalization, as well as private and public representatives – the experts, involved into the country’s biggest digital initiatives, recommended by their managers as the top talents in digitalization.

“The power of digital transformation has been vividly manifested in course of Ukrainian struggle for freedom. Digital technologies were implemented and adjusted in the public sector with an unseen speed, thus reinventing the service provision and creating a government focused on people’s needs. It enabled the government to remain efficient for citizens in these hard times. McCourt School of Public Policy and Tech & Public Policy program are honored to partner with CDTO Campus in order to strengthen digital political capacity of the senior government executives. This international partnership, along with others of the kind, creates opportunities to create innovative and inspirational digital future, leading to more integrated and democratic world”, said Michelle de Mooy, Director of the Tech & Public Policy program in McCourt School of Public Policy.

The US workshop offered the packed training program with case studies, drills, networking, and lectures delivered by the globally renowned digitalization leaders, including:

– Colonel William J. Walsh, Professor in the Department of Government in the College of Arts & Sciences and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University;

– Renee Wynn, former CIO of NASA;

– Nick Nigro, CEO of Atlas Public Policy;

– Anastasia Gnatenko, External Affairs Manager at Quantum AI, Google;

– John Grant, Founder of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineering Team at Palantir Technologies, and others.

“The USAID-supported training program, aimed to enhance the skills and competencies of digital transformation experts, is one of those assistance areas focused on improving Ukraine’s cyber resilience. The program participants deepened their digital knowledge, explored the challenges and opportunities of a digital government that is able to integrate digital ethics, privacy, and cybersecurity into its operations, and learned how to make data-driven decisions, develop product thinking, and digital transformation strategies. Strong digital leaders in the public sector are the key for Ukraine’s successful countering Russia’s attacks in cyberspace and facilitating the protection of its information systems and resources,” said Karl Wurster, Chief of Party for Digitalization at USAID Mission to Ukraine.

The study trip to Washington, D.C., let the program participants gain knowledge on:

– planning and creation of digital strategie when digital capacity is not only about technology, but also about leadership in institutional, organizational, legal and cultural spheres;

– data-driven political decision-making and development of open and personal data infrastructure;

– creating a digital government that is able to integrate digital ethics, privacy, and cybersecurity into its activities;

– trendwatching to stay in tune of the latest updates in GovTech and implement them in their projects.

“One of the priorities of Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund is to support a new generation of digital leaders capable of developing innovative approaches and implementing advanced technologies in the public sector. Cooperation with Georgetown University and participation in such intensive workshops provides unique opportunities for Ukrainian experts to grow professionally and share their experience at the international level. This is not a mere training, but also a significant step towards strengthening the digital potential of our country,” said Anton Waschuk, Director of Innovation, Education and Entrepreneurship Program at UMAEF.

The workshop itself was packed with events, networking, and new international partnerships. In particular, there was a noteworthy meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States Oksana Markarova, as well as a roundtable discussion with experts from the U.S. Center for Security and Emerging Technology, etc.

“With almost 10 years of supporting Ukraine in implementing digital transformations, East Europe Foundation has always seen great importance in training of public employees. We need a real army of digital leaders at all levels to broaden the scale of positive change and bridge the digital gap between urban and rural areas faster. This training program is another step towards this goal,” said Viktor Liakh, President of Eastern Europe Foundation.

At the final stage of the program to be held in Kyiv, the participants will join a foresight on digital era strategic forecasting.

Follow the CDTO Campus news on the project official web-pages.

The CDTO Campus Leadership Program “Shaping the Digital Future” is implemented along with the Tech & Public Policy program of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with the support of Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund and the USAID project “Cybersecurity of Ukraine’s Critical Infrastructure”.

The CDTO Campus Leadership Program is implemented by East Europe Foundation. The program and CDTO Campus are supported by Visa Foundation, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, jointly with the Digitality GovTech Center of Excellence, under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.