About Jeff Wolkove

Jeff served the State of Arizona as its State Data Management Architect from 2012 to 2024 and built the statewide Enterprise Data Management Program from scratch. When the program began, the state had no plan, no framework, no data management policies, just an idea that data management needed work.

Building capabilities across more than 100 state agencies is a culture shift, and the program approached it the way durable programs are built: Jeff adopted the policies first, backed by a widely recognized framework, then the training that teaches every employee what those policies expect of them.

By 2024, more than 20,000 state employees had completed the program's data stewardship training. Formal data management capability assessments were conducted at 8 of Arizona's largest agencies, each producing a scored baseline and a sequenced roadmap. The program was initially grounded in the CMMI Data Management Maturity model, and later adopted the EDM Association's DCAM framework, an approach Government Technology called first-in-the-nation. Arizona became a founding participating member of the EDM Council's Data Excellence Program.

In the Center for Digital Government's Digital States Survey, Arizona earned an A- grade and 1st place nationally for Data Enablement in 2022, and an A- grade with 1st place nationally for Resilience in 2024.

Jeff personally led data management capability assessments at the Department of Health Services, the Department of Revenue, and the Arizona Lottery, and assisted assessments at the Department of Transportation, AHCCCS, the Department of Water Resources, the Department of Corrections, and the Department of Economic Security. Workshop groups ran 20 to 50 participants, and the assessments were designed to leave something behind: participants come away understanding the model well enough to keep using it long after the workshops were over.

EDM Resource Group is an EDM Association Authorized Partner. Jeff holds the DCAM v3.0, CDMC, and Data Ethics and Responsible AI certifications from the EDM Association. His technology leadership experience spans more than 30 years, and his career began in Canada as a Chartered Accountant - a business grounding that still shapes how he approaches data management: as a business discipline first, a technology discipline second.

He has served on the Beeck Center's State Chief Data Officers Network, where state data leaders compare practice across governments.

The company brings that operating record to organizations that need what Arizona needed: an honest measurement of where their data management capabilities stand, policies that turn a framework into an organizational commitment, and training that teaches people what the policies expect of them day to day.

Budget constraints, regulations, and the politics of getting things done are commonplace in this work. The Arizona program was built and recognized on a public-sector budget, and that discipline carries into every engagement.