Selissen has received numerous awards and recognitions during her time as CIO. Selissen received the Trailblazer Award from the CIO Roundtable in 2022, she was named one of the 2021 Boss Ladies by Austin Women in Technology, she received the 2021 IT Executive of the Year Award, sponsored by the Society of Information Management (SIM) Austin, and the Austin Women in Technology — Women in Tech Excellence Award, also sponsored by SIM, in 2019. In 2020, TxDOT’s Information Technology Division was awarded the TxDOT Grit Award for exemplary performance during the agency’s ransomware event under Selissen’s leadership.
Selissen joined TxDOT as CIO in September 2019 after nearly eight years at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPA) and more than 13 years in the private sector.
As TxDOT CIO, she spearheads the department’s initiatives to revolutionize TxDOT through the implementation of intelligent technology solutions, particularly artificial intelligence, and enhancing TxDOT cybersecurity measures.
In 2022, Selissen led two significant initiatives aimed at shifting the responsibility of application support and maintenance, as well as business and traffic network support, to new vendors. Her objectives for these fresh contracts encompassed implementing more robust performance metrics to establish clearer accountability and elevate customer service standards. The goals also included enhancing application support, bolstering the stability of the TxDOT network and expediting project delivery. Throughout this undertaking, Selissen and her leadership team effectively communicated with transparency to address agency concerns, mitigate disruptions and facilitate a seamless transition for both her team and the agency.
Selissen also instituted the CIO Advisory Board, a governing body comprised of executives across the organization, tasked with approving and prioritizing business-facing project requests. In a bid to involve business stakeholders and enhance transparency, she established multiple steering committees to offer support, guidance and oversight for enterprise technology initiatives.
As an illustration of her commitment, she initiated an Employee Engagement (EE) initiative within the Information Technology Division at TxDOT in response to feedback from employee surveys. This involved the formation of an EE committee responsible for analyzing survey data and implementing solutions in the form of cultural or operational changes, resulting in the implementation of five people-centric changes since the committee’s deployment.
Among several professional affiliations, Selissen is on the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Transportation Technology Committee. She served two years as president of the Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications and IT chair of the State Agency Coordinating Council.
Fuat Aki, associate commissioner of technology for the Texas Education Agency (TEA), was named CTO of the Year.
Aki has been with TEA for 10 years, first serving as a director of IT services. In his two years as TEA’s CTO, Aki has demonstrated his commitment to his team through his actions, having rolled up his sleeves numerous times to lend a hand in addressing concerns and finding solutions to complicated issues.
The full list of awardees recognized are as follows:
- Aaron Madeley, manager, help desk for Travis County
- Chris Sturm, technical support services manager for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles
- Deborah Moore, IT manager — software services for the city of Arlington
- Diana Sawyers, ITD project management office lead for the Texas Department of Transportation
- George Mallick, network services manager for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles
- Madhavi Koganti, public health portfolio project manager for the Health & Human Services Information Technology Department
- Mark Stehouwer, senior manager of support for the Texas Education Agency
- Omesh Pertob, server operations manager for the Texas Workforce Commission
- Payal Shroff, PC support manager for the Texas Education Agency
- Richard Yashewski, director of applications solutions maintenance and operations for the Texas Workforce Commission
- Rishi Seedan, information security officer for the Texas Department of Information Resources
- Robert Martin, director — data center operations for the Health and Human Services Information Technology Department
- Stacey Wuest, manager, digital and web services for Travis County
- Suresh Sundararajan, data management officer for the Texas Department of Transportation
- Terese Shade, director of customer engagement for the Texas Department of Information Resources
