Government information technology veteran Deborah Diaz has joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as acting deputy chief information officer. Diaz was CIO at the Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate from October 2003 until recently. She also worked in the CIO’s office developing Web sites. Prior to her DHS work, Diaz was associate administrator at the General Services Administration’s e-government solutions support office. She also helped develop the popular information Web portal FirstGov.gov in 2000, eventually serving as the site’s associate administrator and spearheading a redesign and upgrade.