Biography

Whitney Soenksen (pronounced “Sank-sen”) currently serves as Deputy Chief Information Officer for the City of New Orleans’ Office of Information Technology and Innovation. She specializes in leading the development of sustainable, inclusive and equitable IT solutions.

As a City leader for over 8 years, Whitney has served in multiple capacities: as a cross-departmental Project Manager in the Mayor’s Office, as a Program Design and Development Specialist within the Chief Administrative Office, as the Open Data Innovation Manager and since August 2019 as Deputy CIO.

Originally from Iowa, Whitney graduated from the University of Iowa with degrees in American Studies and Journalism and started her career working as a broadcast journalist. She then served as an AmeriCorps member with the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship and completed her M.S. in Leadership at Northeastern University in Boston. In 2012, Whitney was chosen as one of five professionals for the Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Fellowship, a Mayoral initiative focused on tackling the most pressing challenges in the City of New Orleans.

While focusing on open data innovation and information transparency, Whitney was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2019 and traveled throughout China studying Smart City technologies and adoption strategies as a part of the Zhi-Xing cross-cultural program. She has been a committed public sector professional, in both nonprofit and government, for fifteen years. Her passion lies in using data to make decisions, government transparency, and innovations that provide equitable solutions for New Orleans residents.