Grace Simrall was named Chief of Civic Innovation and Technology for Louisville Metro Government in August 2016. She is responsible for advising the Mayor and leading the city’s Smart City initiative, transforming the resident experience of digital government, and facilitating co-creation of breakthrough civic innovations. Under her leadership, the city has received national recognition for their innovation work including 2017 Center for Digital Government - Most Innovative City, 2018 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge Champion City, 2018 Smart Cities Council Readiness Challenge awardee, and 2020 What Works Cities Platinum certification status. Most recently, the city was named a Champion City in the 2021 Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Mayors Challenge. Over 630 cities across 99 countries applied and only the top 50 cities were selected for this phase of the ideas competition. Louisville is among a handful of returning Champion Cities. Prior to this role, Simrall served as Executive Director of Innovation at Care Innovations, a joint venture between Intel and GE Healthcare, where she was responsible for the company’s innovation and analytics initiatives. In 2010, she founded iGlass Analytics, a startup focused on delivering data management and analytics solutions in the healthcare technology space. Simrall earned a bachelor’s degree in the geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering.