Mark Breunig is the Cybersecurity State Coordinator and Federal Cybersecurity Advisor in Alaska, representing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA serves as the nation’s risk advisor and collaborates with industry and government partners to strengthen the resilience of the nation’s critical infrastructure against cyber and physical risks. In this role, Mr. Breunig is a cybersecurity liaison between state and local government officials, critical infrastructure stakeholders, and the federal government and provides strategic planning, threat awareness, risk management advice, and incident response coordination. Prior to joining CISA, Mr. Breunig served as the Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Alaska for two and a half years. As the Chief Information Security Officer, Mr. Breunig was responsible for strategic planning and design of the State’s cyber defense posture and operational management of the State Security
Office. The State Security Office provided cyber security services for all departments within the State Executive branch. Prior to his role as the Alaska Chief Information Security Officer, Mr. Breunig was the IT Compliance Officer for the Municipality of Anchorage. He was responsible for the security of over 12,000 endpoints throughout the municipality and also oversaw the Records Management Office.
Overall, Mr. Breunig has more than two decades of professional experience in cybersecurity and information assurance in the government and private sectors.

Chief Information Security Officer and Deputy National Cyber Director
Federal Chief Information Security Officer, Office of Management and Budget
Deputy National Cyber Director, Office of the National Cyber Director

In January 2021, Chris DeRusha was appointed as the Federal Chief Information Security Officer in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO). Before coming back to federal government, DeRusha served as the Chief Information Security Officer for the Biden for President campaign. Prior to joining the campaign in June 2020, he served as the Chief Security Officer for the State of Michigan. DeRusha has extensive experience managing cybersecurity and critical infrastructure programs and operations both in the public and private sectors. DeRusha led Ford Motor Company's Enterprise Vulnerability Management program and has over eight years of Federal Government experience working both at the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He holds a Master’s in Security Studies from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from James Madison University.

Amy has been a part of the Northwest Arctic Borough Region and School District since 1997 as an educator, wife, mom, and grandma. She has been the NWABSD Director of Technology since 2016.
She was born and raised in upstate New York and moved to Alaska to attend college. Amy was originally recruited to teach MS/HS Math and Science for Noorvik Aqqaluk School. She and her husband, Rod, have lived primarily in Noorvik and Kotzebue, raising their children.
When Amy is not working with technology, she enjoys the outdoors and time with her grandchildren.

Mike Hussey is an industry executive director for state and local strategy for Oracle Government and Education. Mike has 25 years of senior leadership experience with the State of Utah where he most recently served as CIO for the State of Utah and the executive director for the Department of Technology Services. While serving in this cabinet-level position, Mike was known as a collaborative and transformative leader who enjoys applying technological advances available in the market. Among some of his accomplishments while the state CIO, Mike led the state’s cloud journey and digital transformation efforts, created the state’s first cyber center, and formed the state’s first innovation fund.
Mike has been recognized as a “Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver” in the public sector.

Chris started his career in public service in the late 90’s at the Department of Education & Early Development, followed by time at the Department of Health and Social Services, and the Department of Administration serving in numerous technical and management positions. Most recent as the State’s Chief Information Security Officer before pivoting professionally to serve as the Chief Information Officer for Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, Alaska.

Troy has worked in a variety of technical capacities from incident and alert response to forensics, and spent years developing and managing compliance assessment while working for the State of Alaska. This varied and aggregate experience provided a broad background that led to his current position as a Cybersecurity Advisor (CSA) for Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) where he is able to help organizations across the state of Alaska, Region 10, and the United States advance their cybersecurity posture.

Mark Merchant has been serving as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Municipality of Anchorage for the past 9 years. He has worked for a variety of state and local government agencies directly involved in cyber security, information technology and disaster recovery for over 28 years in Alaska.
He was recently nominated and selected to attend the prestigious FBI CISO Academy in Quantico, VA and holds multiple industry related certifications.
He is on the board of directors for the non-profit, Cybersecure Alaska and actively participates in many community organizations that specialize in cyber security and critical infrastructure protection.
He was born in Anchorage, is a veteran and non-commissioned officer of the U.S. Army and served in the first Gulf War with the 1st Infantry Division. Some of his hobbies include public speaking on a variety of risk management topics and assists Alaskan businesses and State agencies with digital forensics investigations.

Justin Michaud, PMP, is a seasoned IT leader with an notable professional record, currently serving as the Senior Program Manager, IT at the Mat-Su Borough School District for the past eight years. With over two decades of experience in the technology sector and a remarkable 21-year tenure in the K12 education sector, Justin has consistently demonstrated his leadership and effective management abilities. He boasts a strong academic foundation, including a Master of Business Administration in Technology Management, a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems, and two Associate degrees in Information Technology and Computer Information Systems.
Committed to professional growth and community involvement, Justin actively participates in various organizations, including Alaska Smart Communities (Advisory Group), InfraGard (Member), and INTERFACE Alaska (Advisory Council) and is continually participating in additional training. He's known for his unwavering support and willingness to collaborate with fellow K12 technology professionals, contributing to the advancement of education in Alaska.
Originally from Maine, Justin has made Alaska his home for the past 21 years. Alongside his wife, he is raising two teenagers while supporting his passion for motorcycling as a Certified Rider Coach (MSF) and Certified Harley-Davidson Riding Academy Rider Coach. Beyond the thrill of the open road, his hobbies include exploring the unique beauty of Alaska through hiking and fishing. Justin also cherishes quality time with his family, encapsulating his dedication to both his professional and personal pursuits.

Ty Nesheim is a Senior Security Analyst for the Municipality of Anchorage where he has worked for the last twenty six years. He has over three decades of experience in a wide range of information technology. From the days of mainframe computers, the emergence of personal computers , to the evolution of local networks and global cloud solutions. Ty has developed software, supported complex server and storage environments and was an architect of cloud migration projects for the Municipality of Anchorage. Ty was born in Alaska and raised in America's Western states. From California, Nevada, and Idaho he learned to love the outdoors and finds every opportunity to fish. After completing college at the University of Idaho he returned to Alaska with his wife and raised their two Sons who are now pursuing their own college adventures.

Myria Shakespeare, OIT- Department of Health Technology Officer 3. Myria has worked for the State of Alaska for 20 years. She has spent most of that time in DHSS\DOH, with two stints in DOA. She lives in Juneau Alaska. She came to work for the State of Alaska after working IT at a hospital in beautiful Sitka, Alaska. In her current role, she supports the Department of Health as the Department Technology Officer. She manages an excellent team of DOH IT staff that work to keep Alaskan’s data safe and compliant, and to improve health outcomes for all Alaskans.

Niel is the Deputy CIO at the State of Alaska since December 2019. He is the executive lead for the governor’s rapid cloud migration and Microsoft security projects and was born in western Alaska and has worked in IT for over 25 years in health care, for native corporations, and telecom provider industries.

Ryan Stanley is the IT Manager for the Alaska Department of Education, where he oversees department technology and statewide educational systems. Previously, as the Director of Technology at the Southeast Regional Resource Center (SERRC), Ryan built the "TechOps" program which provides managed IT services to Alaskan school districts and agencies. With degrees in Public Administration and Hybrid Media, Ryan is focused on the effects of technology in organizational change. He’s been an active participant in Alaska's educational technology landscape for over two decades and his work can be found statewide—in configurations, documentation, budgets, grants, job descriptions, policy, and countless recipes for educational and operational technology solutions.

Steve has been working in IT professionally for 20 years now. Currently working for the City of Wasilla as the IT Manager, doing everything from installing workstations, deploying firewalls, and managing an IT budget. Steve has worked in government his whole career, with one small stint with a private utility. He has worked for a school district, state government, borough, government utility, and now small local government. Steve has seen a lot of different government IT environments in Alaska.
He is Alaska born and raised, and plan on never leaving this great state.

I have spent 28 years working as an IT professional dealing with large-scale enterprise class computing technologies that has included hardware, software and facilities, For the first 6 years of my Information Technology career I worked as a Customer Service Engineer for a mainframe service provider(Amdahl) and for the last 22 years I have worked in enterprise IT services for the State of Alaska. During these years I have worked in or have been responsible for Data Center Operations, Mainframe services, State Security Office, Alaska Land Mobile Radio(ALMR), Enterprise Network/Telephone Systems, Server hosting(physical/virtual/cloud), Enterprise Applications (including Microsoft O365 Suite, myAlaska). The last 6 years I have served as a Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Information Technology (OIT).
Fun fact: Between my private and public sector career I spent 6 years running a fishing charter boat. I still hold a USCG 100 ton masters license.