Presently, Portland State University is one of a handful of universities in North America with formal electronic government course offerings. The electronic government curriculum is evolving based on our research and needs of our clients.

Director
George Beard is a Hatfield Scholar and the director of the PSU GovernmentWise program. He is also founder of GovernmentWise Inc., a management consultancy that helps elected officials and executive managers institutionalize electronic government in the organizations they lead.

He has over 20 years of experience in enterprise planning, acquisition, and deployment of information technology. His professional interests center on organizational effectiveness and the adoption of technology-driven change, particularly as affected by the Internet and network models.

Mr. Beard’s federal, state, and local government experience spans 13 years and includes stints with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bonneville Power Administration, State of Oregon, Multnomah County, and Santa Barbara County. During the last 10 years, George has worked for several technology and software firms in sales, marketing, alliance management and consulting roles. In addition, he has served as an adjunct faculty member at Willamette University, the University of Oregon, Portland State University, Lewis & Clark, and Marylhurst University, teaching graduate level courses on management uses of the computer, innovation, decision-making, data management, and, currently, electronic government.

George holds degrees from Michigan State University, the State University of New York at Albany, and Portland State University.

Curriculum Coordinator
Edward L. Prichard, Ph.D., is responsible for curriculum design and delivery. He is an adjunct assistant professor who introduced Management Uses of the Computer to the Portland State University public administration program over 25 years ago.

In addition, Dr. Prichard is the President of Information Technology Management Incorporated (ITEM Inc.), a consultancy focused on helping organizations leverage their technology assets.

Ed has over 30 years experience in developing, designing, and implementing information technology projects and systems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, and has done extensive post-graduate work at Harvard School of Business Administration, The Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

He has published over 40 papers on I.T. management, and taught his own management seminars internationally. Since 1990, he has been President of his own consulting firm, Information Technology Management Inc., serving an international roster of clients including The Mayo Clinic, The Teradata Corporation, Amdahl Corporation, AT&T, Sanwa Bank of Tokyo, Sony, Kaiser-Permanente, and VLSI Technology Corporation.