Emanavin has served as deputy CTO for more than two years, returning to state service after a stint as a senior adviser at Johns Hopkins University. Before that, he served as director of the California Health and Human Services Agency’s (CalHHS) Office of Innovation.“I'm looking forward to using this role to help erode silos and support these experts. ODS and OTECH strives to continually improve how CDT supports statewide technology. I'm proud to be part of this team!” he wrote in the post.
The pivot won’t mean a separation from Poppy, the state’s tailored internal virtual assistant, which will still be on his priority roster along with other developing products. Emanavin noted that he is looking forward to working on California's Identity Gateway and Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP).
“I have a new working title — state chief digital products officer. This means returning to my product management roots in more user-facing projects,” he wrote in the post.
Those product management roots extend beyond the halls of state IT and into the federal government, where he served as director of product at the U.S. Digital Service, digital program manager for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and as an IT specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Emanavin holds a Master of Arts in communication, culture and technology from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Science in symbolic systems from Stanford University.
