Among them was Michelle Taylor, who has long championed innovation as the chief information officer of Leon County.
Here’s a quick look at this year’s honoree:
Michelle Taylor has been a mainstay in Leon County’s Office of Information and Technology since 1997, first as director of IT operations, then as CIO starting in 2020.
In that time, she rallied her team to respond to the pandemic, helped construct a high-tech public safety complex together with the city of Tallahassee, and collaborated with state agencies on various large-scale IT projects.
Home to Florida’s capital of Tallahassee, Leon County is uniquely positioned to work with the state, such as with the Florida Digital Service’s Local Government Cybersecurity Grant program.
“We were able to really enhance some of our cyber,” Taylor said of the program, emphasizing that it “definitely was able to help take us to the next level.”
Outside of working with state agencies, Taylor primarily focuses on her team, acting as their “head cheerleader” by supporting them as much as possible.
“They’re the ones that make the technology seem like magic,” Taylor said. “My job is to support them so they have the tools they need to make things happen and support all of our customers.”
And those customers — from the sheriff’s office and public works to libraries and elections — have varying needs.
“It’s like we support 50 different businesses,” she said.
That means IT has been able to work on a variety of projects, including running flyover data through AI tools to create a new layer in the county’s GIS system and implementing a printing solution for the county’s libraries to allow “pay for prints.” Before that, users could print whatever they wanted without limit, causing excess waste in paper, printer ink and toner.
What impacted Taylor the most about the project was that although it was small compared to other county IT endeavors, the response she and her team received was so heartfelt: a parody song the librarians wrote about the payment solution.
“Having a customer sing to you as an IT provider is unheard of, and so that will always be a highlight of my career.”
*Government Technology magazine is a publication of e.Republic, which also produces Industry Insider — Florida.
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
