Cherokee Nation CIO Paula Starr receives 2026 Impact Award
Paula Starr, the Cherokee Nation’s chief information officer, received the 2026 Impact Award on Thursday, Oct. 22. The award recognizes her work at putting Cherokee values at the center of cutting-edge technology. Presented on the main stage of Arizona State University’s Agentic AI and the Student Experience summit, the award honors leadership, compassion, systems change and the principle that technology must always serve humans first.
As CIO of the Cherokee Nation, the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, Starr leads enterprise IT across a 7,000‑square‑mile reservation and a workforce of approximately 6,000 employees, while extending secure digital access for more than 480,000 Cherokee citizens globally. A Cherokee herself, Starr integrates her community values with IT best practices to modernize systems, strengthen cybersecurity and design resilient, empathetic experiences for citizens and staff.
“I hope this award encourages others to embed values and the heart of what this technology is about — serving people, not about the technology itself,” she said.
Lev Gonick, ASU Enterprise Technology chief information officer, said the award honors “doers, dreamers and drivers. People who think big, know how to execute and are driving change.”
Starr’s work has been prominently featured in Forbes, showcasing the Cherokee Nation’s approach to AI governance, which is deeply rooted in cultural values, sovereignty and community trust. Her numerous accolades include the AISES Professional of the Year Award, the CIO 100 Award, recognition as one of Technology Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Technology, and Constellation Research’s BT150 Award, which highlights executives driving digital transformation.
Technology that serves people
The Forbes coverage grew out of a governance effort Starr led. After Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. issued a 2024 executive order on data sovereignty, she chaired the AI, Data Sovereignty and Cybersecurity Task Force. Its roadmap recommended adopting the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, creating AI and data governance committees and vetting generative AI tools with a standardized questionnaire.
Starr believes AI must serve the collective good and uphold Cherokee values, and a tool that compromises them doesn’t belong in the Nation’s systems. In practice, that has meant a legal research agent, built with MIT interns, that consolidates treaty law, tribal codes and court rulings. It also meant starting with the problem to be solved, not the technology, a habit Starr calls avoiding “shiny object syndrome.”
Reaching every citizen
Before Starr’s team stepped in, the only ways to reach the Cherokee Nation government were to drive to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, or make a phone call. With no digital applications or forms, citizens living far from the reservation were often left behind.
When COVID-19 halted in-person services in 2020, her team automated citizenship authentication and built the Gadugi Portal on Salesforce, named for the Cherokee value of working together. The first assistance campaign launched in June 2021. Demand was immediate, with 500 citizens per minute trying to log in, and the team improvised with virtual waiting rooms and a temporary call center staffed by teachers on summer break.
The results show what systems change looks like in practice: more than $740 million in assistance distributed and about 900,000 electronic requests fulfilled without adding staff.
The project earned the Cherokee Nation a 2023 CIO 100 Award, and in 2024 the American Indian Science and Engineering Society named Starr its Professional of the Year.
On Thursday, she became the second person to receive ASU’s Impact Award, following the inaugural 2025 honoree, Angela Gunder, CEO and founder of Opened Culture, a consultancy dedicated to empowering educational institutions and communities through strategic insights, practical support and community engagement.
Starr’s impact is just beginning. “What I envision for myself and my department is that we work even more broadly with other tribal governments and within our own communities to bring in multiple perspectives. I’m seeing more people who want to be involved in a future that is built for us by us.”