Avik Batra is a Managing Director within the Service Transformation practice at Accenture. He has more than 10+ years working with Public Sector clients to drive innovative service and digital transformations. He approaches all of his client's business challenges with diligence and commitment; looking to create practical solutions that produce a positive outcome.

Ira Baxter was born in Nashville, TN and spent his undergraduate years at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, he began his professional career in business development for Pfizer and Bristol Myers- Squibb in Chicago. He returned to Nashville to pursue his MBA at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. After completion, Ira put his management skills to work in the disease management arena before joining TennCare in 2013 as a project manager.
He was promoted to Director of the Project Management Office (PMO) in 2018. He leads a talented team of project managers and a project coordinator. The PMO supports a variety of projects initiated by TennCare departments, such as Member Services, Information Systems, Chief Medical Office, Long Term Service & Support (LTSS), Fiscal, and the Office of General Council (OGC).
Currently, the PMO is focusing on several large-scale Information Systems modernization projects that will improve the way TennCare does business and increase efficiencies for our members. The PMO is utilizing a new Project Portfolio Management (PPM) process that supports TennCare’s centralized management of all in-scope projects.
Ira is a proud father of two lovely girls and enjoys traveling with the family. He is an avid cyclist and runner. He holds a PMP along with other certifications and devotes part of his spare time volunteering to increase prostate cancer awareness as well as serving on multiple cancer advisory boards.

Lynne Diver is the Director of BSD Statewide Services & Project Delivery Center of Excellence with STS. Lynne began her career with the State of Tennessee as a systems analyst contractor in 1990; and was hired in 2003 as a software development manager for the Human Services. Lynne took a position in Strategic Technology Solutions, Business Solutions Delivery in 2012 as a business analyst lead. She became a project manager in 2013; earned her PMP in April 2016; was promoted to Project Director in 2017; and became an STS Director in 2019.
In 2019, Lynne was asked to create a Project Delivery Center of Excellence (PDCoE). The PDCoE is a collaboration of STS leadership, business domain directors, and enterprise project directors and manager who establish standards, guidelines, and best practices for project delivery.
Lynne is originally from Troy, Ohio and received a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Dayton in Dayton Ohio. She lives in Donelson with her husband of 30 years; and they have two adult sons who live in Nashville.

Andrei Dumitrescu is the Chief Data Officer and Deputy General Counsel at the State of Tennessee, Division of TennCare. In this role he acts as part data strategist and adviser, part advocate for improving data quality and sharing, part counsel to support regulatory compliance and contract negotiation, and part developer of new data products and efforts to maximize the quality and value derived from agency data assets. Prior to assuming this role in 2018, Andrei served as the Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer for the agency. In this role he was primarily responsible for providing legal advice and ensuring compliance with federal and state privacy and information security laws and regulations. TennCare is Tennessee's managed care Medicaid program that provides health insurance coverage to certain groups of Tennesseans, primarily low-income pregnant women, children and individuals who are elderly or have a disability. TennCare provides coverage for over 1.5 million Tennesseans and operates with an annual budget of approximately $13 billion. The program is run by the Division of TennCare with oversight and some funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Andrei received degrees in Computer Science and Modern European Studies in 2004 from Vanderbilt University, and received his Juris Doctor in 2006 from the University of Alabama School of Law. Andrei is a graduate of LEAD Tennessee, is an advisory board member for the Tennessee Sickle Disease Cell Surveillance Program and serves as an Executive Council member for the Tennessee Bar Association Law and Technology Section. Andrei is also a registered patent attorney and cyber security architect.
Andrei currently lives in Nashville with his wife and children.

Clarissa Elliott is Director of Project and Change Management at Metro Nashville Public Schools. The school district serves 80,000 students in the city of Nashville. The projects managed under her leadership cover a wide range, from hardware installations to software implementation starting with RFP development. She has rich project management experience in engineering, manufacturing, financial and now education in the pursuit of becoming a master project management professional.
Clarissa actively promotes the use of project management practices across the District to improve processes, efficiencies and enabling resource management. She has developed and led project and change management training workshops for the District.
She holds the PMP certification and has a Master’s Degree in Project Management. She is a PMI member, past Director of Membership, PMI Huntsville, AL. Most recently served as president of ACMP Nashville.

Kermit Graham leads System Engineering in State, Local Government, and Education for the Eastern United States. His organization is responsible for the design and deployment of Fortinet solutions built on integrated security architectures that help solve the business challenges of customers.
After serving 13 years in the United States Marine Corps., Kermit entered the private sector via the Arrowpoint startup. After being acquired by Cisco, Mr. Graham held various leadership roles across Federal and SLED businesses, both domestically and internationally. With over 30 years of IT experience, he brings extensive knowledge of the Public Sector business.
Kermit and his wife Deonna reside in Austin, TX and are the proud parents of two sons.

Hugh Hale currently serves as Chief Information Officer for the State of Tennessee, Division of TennCare. He has been in this position for the past six years. Prior to joining TennCare, he was with Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the largest not-for-profit home and community-based health care organization in the country, where he served as Chief Information Officer. Hugh has over 37 years of Healthcare Information Systems leadership experience. Hugh’s prior work also includes Executive roles with the IBM Corporation and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, including its subsidiary, Shared Health.

As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the State of Tennessee - Finance and Administration/Strategic Technology Solutions (STS), Jerry Jones is responsible for the operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the enterprise information technology infrastructure services which include the state data centers, state network, state cloud environments, and Enterprise Shared Solutions.
Before assuming his position as COO, Jerry held several pivotal roles, including STS Executive Director of Enterprise Shared Solutions, STS Chief Systems Architect, and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.
Jerry is a solutions-driven and versatile technology executive with 30+ years of proven experience in delivering measurable business results from technology investments and building top-tier technical teams in both public and private sectors.
Jerry retired with 20 years of service from the Ohio Army National Guard with the rank of Major.

Paul resides in the Dallas, Texas area and is the Managing Director, Cybersecurity Resilience and Compliance for CDW’s Cybersecurity Resilience & Compliance (CRC) – Cybersecurity and Data Privacy team, leading and supporting a team of consulting professionals. Additionally, he has extensive experience in conducting cybersecurity assessments using NIST-CSF and ISO 27001 frameworks, as well as establishing and growing cybersecurity programs and PMOs. Further, he has managed several successful multi-year cybersecurity programs in a variety of industries and contexts.
Paul holds a B.S. of Business Administration from Kansas State University and an M.B.A. from Texas Christian University. Paul brings over twenty-eight years of industry experience and holds seventeen active cybersecurity, service management, and project management credentials.

Michael G. Leahy is an experienced Senior Executive, Attorney and Regulator with extensive public and private sector contributions leading organizations, solving complex problems, and applying process management, technology and common sense successfully.
Most recently, Mr. Leahy served as the Secretary of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the State of Maryland. Recognition in that position included receiving a StateScoop Leadership Award, 2020 and a GovTech Doers, Dreamers and Drivers award, 2021.
Mr Leahy is also the immediate past President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (2021 -2022) where he also served as the Chairman of the Privacy Forum and the Enterprise Architecture Forum before becoming President. He also maintains a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) credential and serves on the Education Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Throughout his career, Mr. Leahy has served at the federal, state and local levels in roles as diverse as City Attorney for Annapolis, Maryland, Policy and Legal Advisor to Governors and Local Government Executives, School Board Member, Maryland Transportation Board Member and Director of the Medical Biotech Institute at the University of Maryland.
Mr Leahy’s professional interests presently center on organizational efficiency and governance, data management and advances in identity and access management controls.

A 16-year veteran of state government, Christin Lotz serves as the director of the Office of Evidence and Impact in the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration. Her previous state government roles include working as the Department of Revenue’s research director and in the Policy Office for former Governor Bill Haslam. Throughout her career, Christin has been heavily involved in public policy-making and implementation, legislative affairs, and analytical research.
In her current role, Christin is focused on using data to inform decision makers to ensure the state invests in programs that work for Tennesseans. She also serves as an appointee to the federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building.
Christin has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Nashville School of Law.

Mark Maitland is a partner in KPMG’s Advisory practice. Mark brings more than 30 years of experience leading complex transformation and technology implementations for numerous state government clients. Prior to joining KPMG, Mark held the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of Indiana’s largest agency, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). Mark holds three degrees, including an MBA from Purdue University. Mark enjoys the company of family, friends, church members, neighbors, on/off the golf course, and many state/national parks.

Milton Neuenschwander is the State of TN Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) Director of Enabling Technology as part of the Division of Program Innovation. He received his education at Wabash College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religion and Science. Milton has continued his education by studying topics in Person-Centered Practices, Staff Development, and Enabling Technology Integration. He has 18 plus years of experience in the areas of intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health services with a proven understanding of the concepts of Person-Centered Thinking, Employment First, and Technology. His expertise in organizational development, capacity building, and project management has allowed him to lead the development of an Enabling Technology program for the State of TN DIDD.

Dr. Kyle R. Overly is an accomplished emergency management practitioner and educator. He has held many roles throughout his career including serving as the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction with the Maryland Department of Emergency Management. Most recently, he joined Deloitte’s Crisis & Grants Management Practice. With more than 10 years of experience, he has responded to major disasters including Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy, the Baltimore City civil unrest, Ellicott City flash flooding (2016 & 2018), and the COVID-19 pandemic. With more than 10 years of experience, he is an educator and holds a Doctorate of Public Administration from West Chester University and a Masters of Science in Fire and Emergency Management Administration from Oklahoma State University. He is a graduate of the National Emergency Management Executive Academy and the Executive Leaders Program at the Center for Homeland Defense & Security – Naval Postgraduate School. Dr. Overly is a Certified Emergency Manager.

Christine is an Information Technology Director with the State HHS Business Solutions Domain supporting the Department of Human Services’ journey through IT Modernization and Business Transformation.
She holds a Masters in Management from Colorado Technical University (CTU), a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, also from CTU, and an Associate in Computer Science from Southwest Tennessee Community College. She achieved her Project Management Professional certification in 2007 and her Business Transformation Certification in 2021.
Christine brings more than 20 years of experience in leading complex transformation and technology implementations in both public and private sectors and is an active member of Nashville Project Management Institute (PMI) Chapter and the Technology Business Management Council.

Zach Patton is the chief editor of the Content Studio at e.Republic and Government Technology. He has been covering the public sector for nearly 20 years. Until 2019, he was the executive editor of Governing magazine, where he also had served as a staff writer for more than a decade.

Stacy Prowell is a distinguished researcher in the National Security Sciences Directorate of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tennessee Technological University (TTU). Stacy currently serves as the Associate Director of Research for the Cybersecurity Education, Research, & Outreach Center (CEROC) at TTU. Stacy is a Tennessee native and received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1996.

Patrick Sheehan serves as the Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA). Sheehan was formerly the operations administrator for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. During his time as administrator, Sheehan led Ohio’s Emergency Operations Center and the Radiological and Preparedness Branches, successfully managing the state’s response to several declared emergencies including the 2014 Ebola event, a 2014 drinking water crisis in Toledo, a statewide propane shortage in 2014, and a 2012 statewide long-term power outage and heat wave impacting 33 Ohio counties.
Sheehan joined the Ohio Emergency Management Agency in 2004 as part of the finance staff and was consistently promoted to various leadership roles in the agency. As operations administrator he spearheaded the formation of an emergency management watch office to provide constant monitoring of emergency situations and immediate response operations.
Sheehan is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and completed additional studies in business and public administration at Ohio State University and Capital University. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a chemical operational specialist.

Russell Thomas is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. He is a strong believer that good alcohol public policy can both promote public health and allow businesses to flourish. Prior to his appointment to the TABC, he practiced law in Nashville. He holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is an experienced litigator with over a decade of trial experience as both an assistant district attorney and in private practice. He is a member of the Tennessee, Nashville, and American Bar Associations. He formerly chaired the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Committee of the Nashville Bar Association. Russell is married to Mary Beth Thomas and they have three young children. He and his family are active in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, enjoy being outdoors on the weekends, and love to cheer on the Tennessee Vols.

Herb is a Senior State, Local and Education Strategist. Having history in various government CIO roles he is responsible for assisting customers achieve their strategic outcomes through understanding their business issues and how policy, process and technology can impact business outcomes. He has been sharing best practices learned from around the country on optimization, workforce modernization and leveraging the cloud. He also provides insight in practical implementations of shared services, engaging employees, smart communities, and executing a cloud strategy at many government conferences.
Prior to joining VMware in 2018, Herb served as the State of Wisconsin Deputy State CIO and CTO, CIO for Health and Family Services and CIO for Corrections.

Sarah VanWormer joined the City of Brentwood in January 2022 from the City of Battle Creek, Michigan where she spent more than 20 years in the Information Technology Department. She received three promotions while with the City of Battle Creek and supported 34 city departments for IT needs. She was responsible for developing a $2.3 million dollar charge back model for maintaining and replacing city-wide IT, GIS, and 311 information center infrastructure. City of Brentwood IT is responsible for GIS and supporting 15 departments and all critical infrastructure in Brentwood. Her background is data, developing custom solutions, and software applications.

Neil Watkins has over 25 years’ experience leading the strategic, operational, and budgetary aspects of data management and protection.
Neil’s broad experience includes leading security, technology, compliance, risk management, information governance, and privacy teams across insurance, healthcare, technology, and legal industries for over two decades. His role leading global security and risk management services provides practiced, real-world experience in addressing security challenges from technical, operational, and governance & reporting perspectives. This extensive experience provides proficient and knowledgeable insight across a broad variety of business challenges.
Previously, Neil has served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Risk Office (RO), Privacy Officer, HIPAA Privacy Officer, and Data Protection Officer (DPO), and technology leader for global service organizations. In these various roles he was responsible for the strategic alignment and tactical execution of each of these key functions.

Jason Wright is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with 20+ years of frontline experience helping government organizations respond to and defend against cybersecurity incidents. Mr. Wright leads the Global Government teams at Mandiant/Google Public Sector responsible for Incident Response and Proactive Services, as well as program development for clients across State, Local, and Education clients. Prior to Mandiant, he held lead roles in forensics and incident response at Parsons Corporations and Chiron Technology Services. He began his career working for the National Security Agency.