Smart Cities and Smart Governance

Elsa Estevez is the chair holder of the UNESCO Chair on Knowledge Societies and Digital Governance at Universidad Nacional del Sur; an Independent Researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), and Full Professor at the National University of La Plata, all in Argentina. She is also a consultant for Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) on the matters of digital government, particularly in Latin America. Previously, she was a Senior Academic Program Officer and Academic Program Officer at the United Nations University (UNU) in Macao and Portugal; Visiting Professor at the National University of Rio Negro, Argentina; Gdansk University of Technology, Poland; University of Minho, Portugal; and head of Information Technology (IT) departments in large financial and pharmaceutical organizations in Argentina. During her decade-long career in UNU, she consulted for governments, taught to public managers and policy makers, and organized events about digital government in over 30, mostly developing countries. Her research interests cover the structuring of the information technology function in government, digital transformation of government-citizen relationships, and the impact of such transformation on nations' and cities' capacity to pursue sustainable development.
Theresa A. Pardo is Director of CTG UAlbany, formerly the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York. She is also a Full Research Professor of Public Administration and Policy. Under her leadership, CTG works closely with multi-sector and multi-disciplinary teams from around the world to carry out applied research and problem solving projects focused on transformation in the public sector through innovations in policy, management and technology. CTG work is supported by a wide variety of funders including the U.S. National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, U.S. Department of Justice, United Nations, World Bank, Library of Congress, SAP, Microsoft Corporation, and New York State, among others. Dr. Pardo serves as OpenNY Adviser to New York State's Governor Andrew Cuomo, Chair of the U.S. EPA's National Advisory Committee and on the User Working Group of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center. Dr Pardo is founder of the Smart Cities Smart Government Research Practice Consortium, is ranked among the top five digital government scholars in terms of citations to her published work, and in 2018 was named as one of the Top 100 Influencers in Digital Government globally.
Hans Jochen Scholl serves as a Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Albany, NY/SUNY and also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the GSBA Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests focus on understanding human-originated complex systems. He employs quantitative and qualitative approaches ranging from System Dynamics to Situational Action Analysis and Action Research among other methods. Areas of study include information management, Digital Government, disaster studies (Disaster Information Management), information artifact evaluation, and pro sports information management. Jochen is a past president of the Digital Government Society. He also serves as Past Chair of the IFIP WG 8.5 (IS and Public Administration) and as Board Member of the ISCRAM organization. Jochen's group also maintains and publishes the Digital Government Reference Library (DGRL) and the Disaster Information Reference Library (DIRL).