Page 19 of 50
![]() |
Emma Garrison-Alexander, CIO, Transportation Security Administration
Emma Garrison-Alexander took the helm as the Transportation Security Administration's Assistant Administrator and CIO in June. In recent years, the agency, which has a $400 million annual IT budget, has received more than $1 billion to fund the implementation of advanced technology, such as x-rays able to detect liquids and do body scanning.
Among its more innovative initiatives, the TSA in 2007 launched Idea Factory, a crowdsourcing forum that lets its 43,000 frontline employees post suggestions on how to improve day-to-day processes. Employees comment on one another's postings and vote on ones they like. To date over 20 of those ideas have been adopted. More recently, the TSA announced plans to expand its CrewPASS program to include biometric identification of airline crew members, taking them out of the regular airport security lines and letting them move faster through security checkpoints. Garrison-Alexander spent 20 years with the National Security Agency prior to joining the TSA, most recently holding the position of deputy for counterterrorism for signals intelligence. |

















































