At the end of 2024, Thomas Blackwell, then a Director of Engineering, won Coforma’s internal Lift All Folx leadership award for empowering and uplifting others. In a nomination for the award, one of his co-workers wrote, “We succeed because of Thomas’ approach to coaching, mentorship, and relationship building. This impact is seen on our staff, our partners, and our clients.”
Both empathetic and excellent at his craft, Thomas exemplifies our leadership ideal at Coforma. It is our great pleasure to share that he will continue to grow his leadership legacy as our new VP of Engineering.
“Thomas has really stepped into leadership during his time at Coforma,” says Jamie Newberry, Senior VP of Delivery. “This promotion is a reflection of the steady, thoughtful way he’s taken on more responsibility and the trust we have in him to keep guiding and evolving our engineering team as we take on complex, impactful work.”
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Thomas and chat about everything from pottery to helping public sector teams deliver superior digital services.
Q: What first drew you to civic tech, and how did that path eventually lead you to Coforma?
My career began with the development of voice and chat automation solutions. For several years, I focused on optimizing customer service operations within the finance and retail sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic presented me with the opportunity to apply my expertise to a critical public need: unemployment assistance. Supporting an assistance hotline with unprecedented demand and extensive wait times, my team and I developed solutions that significantly improved the experience for individuals in need.
This experience underscored for me the potential of technology to enhance government services. Driven by a desire to continue contributing to impactful projects, I joined Coforma. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work with agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, developing solutions that benefit people in my own community.
I’m thrilled to take the next step in leading the engineering department as we continue to partner with multiple agencies, delivering thoughtful, scalable solutions that put people’s needs first.
Q: What does a thriving technical team look like to you?
Within the engineering team, I am striving to cultivate a culture of collaboration, learning, and mutual respect. I feel a thriving technical team is one in which individuals feel empowered to voice their ideas and challenge assumptions. It's an environment where knowledge sharing is encouraged, mentorship flourishes naturally, and team members are given opportunities to expand their skill sets. I want each member of my team to feel valued, supported, and intrinsically motivated to contribute to our shared goals.
Q: What excites you about helping our partners deliver superior digital services?
Working in civic tech excites me because our projects put people front and center. We take specific problems impacting people all over the country and develop solutions that improve their experience working with various federal agencies. We get to improve Veterans’ ability to obtain benefits, and create a transformative taxpayer experience for the IRS. It’s hard not to be excited about creating tools that help so many people.
Additionally, I’m thrilled that we practice human-centered design to create these solutions. Concepts like accessibility and usability are often sacrificed in software development to ensure deadlines are met. In our work, for example, accessibility is a requirement that my product teams and our clients all agree on and strive to meet.
Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I like to make things! I’m regularly at my local pottery studio working on one project or another. Lately, I’ve been making table lamps and experimenting with new decoration techniques. I also enjoy baking cakes, pies, and pastries. But my favorite weekend activity is going camping with my family. We enjoy exploring state and national parks, and then getting lazy and spending time around a campfire.