State Department’s Kelly Fletcher Wins
2026 Wash100 Award for Advancing Agency AI Capabilities
Executive Mosaic is excited to honor Dr. Kelly Fletcher, State Department chief information officer, as a second-time Wash100 Award winner for her work advancing the agency’s artificial intelligence capabilities and improving diplomat connectivity across the world.
Fletcher directs the State Department’s roughly $3 billion cyber and IT portfolio. She guides the delivery of advanced and secure technology to secure worldwide diplomacy for thousands of users in countries of extremely diverse technological capabilities. She has bolstered the State Department’s cybersecurity posture and led the successful identification, response and recovery of Chinese hacking.
The 2026 Wash100 Award popular vote competition is now open! Vote for Kelly Fletcher and other top GovCon leaders today at Wash100.com.
Why Is Kelly Fletcher Winning a 2026 Wash100 Award?
Expanding the State Department’s AI Chatbot
Fletcher is helping the State Department not only expand its StateChat debut generative AI chatbot to a mobile version but also have it query cables, or internal messages, FedScoop has reported. This effort will prioritize security while optimizing the user experience, allowing diplomats to use StateChat while taking meetings and working with individuals. StateChat can help with translations or answer questions from the department’s foreign affairs manual, according to Defense One.
Fletcher last year led a State Department initiative to better align its IT policy with the private sector. In a September interview with Metis Strategy, she said the agency had a big reorganization that moved over 90 percent of the State Department’s technologists and technology, including IT that supports passports and visas, under Fletcher’s diplomatic technology bureau. This reorganization is also making the State Department more responsive to its medical professionals.
“We’re honored to award Dr. Fletcher with her second consecutive Wash100 Award,” said Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic CEO and founder of the Wash100 Award. “She’s one of the most accomplished technology professionals in the government contracting sector, having served in executive roles at the Navy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of War, in addition to her State Department service.
“Her experience at DHS and DOW coordinating department-wide five-year budgets demonstrates her talent for balancing requirements with resources. Dr. Fletcher, as State Department CIO, is skillfully driving diplomacy by delivering technology to 100,000 users in 190 countries.
“Dr. Fletcher’s accomplishments in 2025 were remarkable, and we’re eager to see what’s next,” Garrettson continued.
Boosting Worldwide Connectivity
Fletcher also championed initiatives to improve diplomat connectivity as they travel the world. The agency changed its active directory structure, giving diplomats a 202 area code phone number that allows them to be reached no matter where they are in the world.
The State Department, with Fletcher’s help, is deploying low Earth orbit satellite communications capability to help diplomats communicate in nations that might turn off internet access, which she called a safety-of-life issue. This capability features an antenna the size of a dinner plate which can be powered through an automobile auxiliary power outlet. It provides a better user experience than previous satellite connectivity that had bulky antennas and required an IT professional.
Enhancing Trusted Federal Partner Collaboration
Fletcher is guiding an initiative to improve how the State Department uses technology to communicate with trusted federal partners. She said the agency previously would give State Department computers to staffers from other federal agencies, like the DOW, so they could collaborate on State Department work, necessitating the use of multiple devices.
Having already seen success with this capability at the DOW and DHS, called identity, Fletcher wants to expand this to the State Department and, perhaps, trusted vendors.
Who Is Kelly Fletcher?
Fletcher is a transformative technology professional with an extensive career of national security federal service. In addition to her State Department service, Fletcher has served in leadership positions at the DOW as principal deputy CIO, DHS as deputy director of program analysis and evaluation and the Navy as acting CIO and business system modernization lead.
She’s managed budgets as large as $50 billion for as many as 4 million end users. Fletcher has directed oversight, policy and governance of critical emerging technologies including cybersecurity, electromagnetic spectrum operations and positioning and navigation.
What Are Kelly Fletcher’s Recent Career Achievements?
Fletcher has led key State Department efforts to improve interagency technology collaboration within the federal government, improve the agency’s AI applications and strengthen diplomat connectivity.
The State Department, with Fletcher’s leadership, unveiled its 2026 Enterprise Data and AI Strategy in September of last year. The plan has two main goals: pioneering advanced diplomacy and speeding up AI adoption.
The initiative creates a framework to provide diplomats with AI tools, including AI.State and StateChat, for real-time insights and decision-making. AI.state is a centralized repository of AI capabilities.
StateChat has been a huge success under Fletcher. She has grown StateChat’s usage from 3,000 beta testers to use by 45,000 to 50,000 State Department employees.
Fletcher is bringing agentic AI to the State Department so agents can take action for diplomats. She wants to consolidate the department’s administrative tasks behind one chatbot and streamline other potential agents around specific missions.
AI agents could also prioritize State Department cybersecurity alerts and assist users with electronic health records.
“Looking forward, I think that AI is going to be embedded in just about everything,” said Fletcher.
What Does Kelly Fletcher’s Success Mean for GovCon?
The government contracting industry can expect Fletcher to reexamine the State Department’s cloud computing policies and whether it should put more emphasis on putting large files on agency-owned and local physical data centers.
Congratulations to Kelly Fletcher on her 2026 Wash100 Award!
Cast your vote for Fletcher in the 2026 Wash100 popular vote competition.