Laura K. Furgione

Laura K. Furgione is the chief administrative officer (CAO) at the U.S. Census Bureau.

As CAO, Furgione provides leadership to a diverse group of offices and divisions—the Administrative and Customer Services Division, Census Investigative Services Division, Human Resources Division, and the Office of Employee Engagement. Previously, she served as chief of the Office of Program, Performance, and Stakeholder Integration, where she worked to improve strategic management, requirements engineering, program/project management, cost estimation, quality assurance and evaluation, and external stakeholder integration.

Furgione joined the Census Bureau in December 2016, after serving as deputy assistant administrator for weather services and as deputy director of the National Weather Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She was responsible for the day-to-day civilian weather operations for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters, and ocean areas. Prior to that, she was the assistant administrator for the NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration. In that role, she was responsible for annual planning as well as long-term strategic planning, performance evaluation, and program integration through matrix management. She has used her extensive data, field operation, and organizational transformation experience to help the Census Bureau translate its vision into action.

Furgione holds a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a master of public administration from the University of Alaska–Southeast.