Colorado Digital Service Director to Head to USDS

Kelly Taylor, who founded Colorado Digital Service two years ago to provide state agencies with digital services, turns down the position.

Taylor, who has led the Colorado Digital Service since its creation in late 2019, told StateScoop he is taking a position with the US Digital Service. The USDS assists federal agencies in application development.

Taylor pitched the idea of a state-level USDS to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in 2019. It was established after the initial, bungled rollout of HealthCare.gov. Since then, it has been used by over 150 governments across 50 states to improve digital services for their constituents.

While the Colorado Digital Service originally had plans to focus on Enterprise Resource Planning and digital identification, they ended up working on many different projects. They are making an impact within the state government.

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Despite this setback, they have been able to continue working on other projects including one that is meant for helping people in Colorado find coronavirus testing, contact tracing, and vaccine information. The agency contributed to research that led to the procurement of a new software platform. The platform was then used by the Colorado Department of Public Safety to distribute $60 million in juvenile justice grants.

Taylor told StateScoop on Tuesday that he always intended his run atop the Colorado Digital Service to be a two-year “tour of duty.” It’s just crazy the amount of time that has already passed. He did not mention what his role will be with USDS – their parent White House Office of Management and Budget just did not respond to inquires.

Taylor will be stepping away from Colorado Digital Service (CDS), to be led by Matthew McAllister. McAllister was, previously, an advisor to the US chief technology officer and a co-founder of the Presidential Innovation Fellows program.