Governor James E. (Jim) Geringer : TMA Director – Governor Geringer is a native of Wheatland , Wyoming . Geringer received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University . He served in the United States Air Force in both active and reserve capacities. During his time on active duty, he worked with the unmanned space programs integrating space boosters and satellites for both the Air Force and NASA, including the Global Positioning Satellite System, early detection/warning systems, the Interim Upper Stage for the Space Shuttle and the Mars Viking Lander. His reserve assignments included activation of the Peacekeeper missile system and planning for incidents that dealt with nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.
From 1983 to 1994, Geringer served in the Wyoming Legislature, including six years each in the House and the Senate. His committee chairmanships included Appropriations, Judiciary and Management Audit. He was contract administrator for the construction of a large coal-fired power plant then went into full-time farming.
Jim was first elected as Wyoming 's 30 th governor in 1994 and reelected in 1998. He completed his second term in January 2003. During his time in office Geringer focused on improving education through standards, accountability and technology, partnered with the State Supt to implement No Child Left Behind, implemented integrated education planning from pre-K through college, modernized economic planning to extensively include technology, changed how natural resource agencies among state, federal and local governments worked together, implemented strategic planning tied to performance based budgeting and when he left office, provided Wyoming state government with a budget surplus, one of very few states to make that claim early in 2003. He emphasized community based solutions particularly for health and social services and promoted the use of consensus building to resolve difficult issues.
Governor Geringer is a past chair of the Western Governors' Association. He has participated extensively in policy development for technology in government, was lead governor for energy issues and was involved in policy development for all levels of education. He served as chairman of the Education Commission of the States, was appointed to Senator John Glenn's National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, the National Commission on Service-Learning, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future and continues as charter member and now President of the Board of Trustees of the Western Governors University, the first of its kind to certify competency based education. He currently serves on the Association of Governing Boards for higher education and Operation Public Education initiative that advocates a value-added system to measure student learning.
His interests in information technology issues include chair of the National Governors Association Technology Task Force, appointment to the GeoSpatial One Stop Board of Directors, the Mapping Sciences Committee under the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, presidential appointee to the Western Interstate Energy Board, the Board of Governors of the Oquirrh Institute and co-chairs the Policy Consensus Initiative with former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber.
He has delivered several recent keynote presentations both national and international on education policy, distance learning, workforce development, health care, health data standards, energy, natural resources, homeland security, the importance of government services enabled through internet portals, and web-based infrastructure.
Geringer's advocacy for technology has centered on the end result of how technology enhances services, emphasizing the benefits of integrated service delivery and enterprise-wide solutions. That advocacy led Jim to join Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) in the summer of 2003 as Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies. ESRI, the world leader in location based software and applications, is headquartered in Redlands , California .
Governor Geringer and his wife Sherri have five children and nine grandchildren. They reside in Wheatland , Wyoming .
