Jenny Birkestad is appointed honorary doctor at the IT Faculty

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Motivation:

"Jenny Birkestad, researcher in media, communication, and informatics, has for many years been a national leader in the digitalization of the public sector. Her previous roles include being a director at the Swedish Agency for Public Management with a special responsibility for modernization and chairing the state's e-forum, responsible for digitalization in the City of Solna, head of digitalization at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), as well as an expert in the Government's Digitalization Commission and a member of the government's digitalization council. Now, Jenny is the head of business area at Adda – a company within SALAR where she, among other things, is responsible for learning and competence development within the digitalization of welfare. Since the 1990s, she has continuously worked to strengthen the knowledge base and speed of digital transformation within the public sector.

Jenny Birkestad has significantly contributed to the emergence of digitalization as a strong research environment at the Department of Applied Information Technology. She has added networks, thereby enabling the department to establish a channel to important forums for active collaboration between the department's research and the practices of municipalities and regions. Jenny's active involvement has, among other things, contributed to the establishment of the Research Consortium for Digital Governance; a research school for public digitalization as well as commissioned research and methods for measuring maturity in the public sector; collaboration activities, guest lectures, and other activities.

Jenny will continue to be an important collaboration partner for the Department of Applied IT and further contribute to the department's development in the field of digitalization and the public sector.”

Host for the honorary doctor: Professor Johan Magnusson
Promotor: Professor Alexandra Weilenmann