When Elyse Rosenberg transitioned from interim to permanent CIO of Portland, Ore., nearly three months ago, that formalized a leadership role she had already been shaping from within.
A third-generation public servant with nearly 30 years in government -- including nine in Portland's IT department -- Rosenberg has risen through the city's tech ranks, from deputy chief technology officer to interim CIO to, now, taking the lead in shaping its technology vision.
Her previous experience, Rosenberg said, has given her a broader view of what digital priorities look like in the context of overall service delivery.
"I really believe that there's no such thing as just a technology project," she said. "We're all doing projects in service to our communities. There has to be a people component, a process component -- it all connects to community outcomes."
Rosenberg's transition to permanent CIO comes as Portland administration undergoes extensive changes. The city has overhauled its century-old form of government, moving to an executive mayor model with a city administrator, and the CIO's office is helping to lay the groundwork for that transition from a technology perspective.
With the new structure comes a renewed focus on technology governance, and Rosenberg explained her first year is centered on "fundamentals" -- aligning digital strategy with the city's broader operational reform. That shift in focus is also reflected in Portland's decision to change the title of its top technology role from chief technology officer (CTO) to CIO, which Rosenberg said signals a more strategic, outward-looking approach.
"CIO has become more of the industry standard for the executive role," she said. "My role as CIO is more strategic -- I'm a strategic enabler of service and government."
While the CTO role still exists -- reporting to her -- Rosenberg said it focuses more on the city's core tech stack and infrastructure. A newly created deputy CIO position, for which recruitment recently closed, will focus on translating strategy into service delivery. "There's a CTO that's more vertically aligned, a CIO that's a little more up and out, and then a deputy CIO that connects the two," the new CIO said.
To support the new governance structure, Portland has established a "Top 10" list of technology priorities ratified by city leadership. These include modernizing the city's enterprise resource planning system and upgrading asset management systems across major utilities like water, sewer and transportation -- which collectively manage billions in public assets. Other key areas include cybersecurity and emergency management resilience projects to protect data and ensure continuity of service.
Her team created a three-year road map outlining what success looks like and how the city can measure whether it is doing the right thing at the right time -- not only from a tech viewpoint, but securely, efficiently and with measurable community outcomes. That road map cascades down into an annual work plan and even individual employee goals.
"I'm really trying to set up a foundation of clarity," she said, "so that every employee in our technology space sees themselves represented in that road map and connected to what we're doing on behalf of Portlanders."
Her focus on alignment and clarity goes beyond internal planning because, for Rosenberg, digital transformation is about making services accessible and earning the community's trust. Her team oversees Portland.gov, the city's "digital front door," which attracts more than 20 million page views each year -- a reflection of what Rosenberg described as clear community expectations: Residents "want more access, more easily, all the time."
That mission extends to accessibility initiatives and partnerships with the city's communications and 311 teams. And her approach to service design is a personal one.
"I think about my grandmother who had polio, and my mother-in-law who never had a smartphone," Rosenberg said. "All of those folks deserve service. So how are we designing our tools so we're not shutting them out?"
That focus on practical, community-centered solutions extends to emerging technologies, including AI. Over the past year, Rosenberg's team has been laying out governance policies and ethical guidelines for AI across departments.
"The first question we ask is, what problem are we trying to solve?" she said. "Maybe AI isn't the answer -- maybe it's communication or process."
Current pilots are exploring how AI could simplify public language, summarize meetings for transparency or strengthen cybersecurity through improved threat detection and data analysis. The city has even partnered with a local university to see whether AI projects actually make government services easier to use.
Cybersecurity and responsible data use are a natural extension of Rosenberg's approach, with her office building security into every system from the start, enforcing strict vendor requirements and conducting regular penetration testing with law enforcement partners. The best defense, the CIO said, "is our employees and community members, so we're doing a lot of education and training."
Even with these systems and training in place, Rosenberg said she knows the work is never done. "There's an ever-expanding desire for technology services," she said, and meeting it requires what she called a careful "dance between really good services and really conscious stewardship of information."
For her, the ultimate measure of success isn't flashy rollouts or the latest tools, but trust -- inside City Hall and in the community.
"Success for me is being a trusted partner that's invited to the table to talk about community outcomes," she said. "And for residents, it's when they can quickly and easily access their city -- in a reliable and trusted way."