White House Chief Information Officer Steve Van Roeckel is now using his tech background to lead the United States’ fight against Ebola. 

Van Roeckel will serve as a senior advisor to Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, where he will focus on coordinating and creating an efficient response to the deadly virus. 

Van Roeckel’s focus on emerging technologies, open data and former work as an executive at Microsoft are expected to play a major role in USAID’s response. Obama has called on USAID to deliver prevention and treatment kits to 400,000 households in Liberia. 

“Technology is not the solution to this extremely difficult task but it will be a part of the solution and I look forward to partnering with our Federal agencies, non-profit organizations and private sector tech communities to help accelerate this effort,” said Shah. 

During the 2011 Horn of Africa Drought, Van Roeckel helped coordinate USAID’s digital communications efforts when it responded to the crisis. 

As of Sept. 18th, Ebola has claimed over 2,600 lives in West Africa.  

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