In the State of Nebraska, data talent isn’t just an HR pipeline topic; it is the strategic lever that State CIO Matthew McCarville believes will change government delivery. In conversation with Dr. Adita Karkera, Chief Data Officer, Government & Public Services, Deloitte, in the final part of this three-part series, McCarville frames talent not as a resourcing problem, but as an innovation engine.

The first part of this interview focused on the strategic interplay between data and technology and the vital role of clean, actionable data in driving the public sector. The second part of the discussion highlighted how centralized IT leadership, shared data infrastructure, and a whole-of-state cybersecurity framework are helping the state not only modernize operations but also safeguard its digital future.

Creating a full “Shared Data Ecosystem”

McCarville explains that his passion for early-career development is grounded in his years as a professor and the longitudinal outcomes he witnessed. Many of his former students have interned for him multiple times over multiple organizations; that lived experience confirmed that early exposure, when done right, rewires ambition.

As he puts it, nurturing an early-career technologist is like plant science. Interns grow when given structure, purpose, and fuel.

He now applies that learning statewide — architecting an ecosystem where K-12, community colleges, state universities, doctoral programs, faculty researchers, and the state all act as a single, linked workforce experiment.

“What we’re doing here is a shared ecosystem with the counties K through 12, all the higher ed that we have, community college, all the way through state university, where we are bringing in interns; we are also doing split intern models.”

The model is designed to flex by capability. He notes that some “can do dashboards, but maybe they’re not the ones doing machine learning, and maybe that’s doctoral students.”

Academic research demand is also being plugged into this architecture. Nebraska is granting academic researchers access to data that the state simply does not have the operational capacity to mine. In return, the state gains whitepapers, applied frameworks, and evaluations of actual constituent outcomes. The outcome is a three-sided ROI — for the researcher, for the government, and for the public.

Changing the state’s relationship with vendors and the federal government

When asked to reflect on accomplishments in his first 18 months in the role, McCarville underscores that each state must be understood on its own terms. Nebraska cannot be copy-pasted from Florida or Colorado.

His modernization focus has been surgical by breaking things deliberately where the impact is positive and the organizational resistance is low. Internally, modernization desire existed but was suppressed for years by procurement time cycles and risk aversion, says McCarville.

He adds that how Nebraska deals with vendors is changing, from transactional supplier to long-term co-creator. “This is a long-term relationship.”

The state is also building strategic bridges with federal agencies, including Air Force assets, to create security-cleared, cyber+AI workforce pathways originating inside Nebraska’s higher-ed-state intern ecosystem.

“We’re trying to figure out that branch between Fed-State and State-Fed. Where can we help them? Where can they help us?”

Why public sector is a better first job than private

McCarville’s advice to young talent is to join the government. He frames Nebraska’s modernization as a government startup — where the impact is direct, civic, measurable, and immediate. He adds, “You get to jump in the deep end quickly and have that huge impact right from the get-go.”

Furthermore, McCarville is explicit about ethics and governance, stating that AI enablement is useless without legal alignment: “Not every amazing use case for AI is legally able to be implemented in the public sector, especially in entitlement programs.”

Wrapping up, McCarville shares how interns are advancing UI modernization, constituent forums, applied AI, and governance evaluation. He affirms that they are ensuring that data is being used in the most legal and ethical ways, and government systems are modernized.

 “We have three interns looking at doctorate programs and applying computer intelligence systems to modernize government ecosystems as their projects.”

Concluding, McCarville reiterates, “There’s a lot to think about when you’re looking at workforce options, especially right out of college. I’m definitely an advocate of coming to work in the government sector, even if it’s just for a few years.”

CDO Magazine appreciates Matthew McCarville for sharing his insights with our global community.