Michael has focused his career on spotlighting disruptive shifts across the IT landscape and projecting how those shifts will impact industries and customers in future years. As a Director and national leader in KPMG’s CIO Advisory practice, Michael draws from both public and private sector client experience to help organizations navigate external and internal forces that shape the 21st century CIO. Most recently, Michael has been an integral contributor to research focused on defining what it takes to become a ‘Next Gen CIO;’ understanding that for IT leaders to create a future-ready IT function, this will require digital transformation and practical tools for implementing the operating model of the future.

PJ Bajwa is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and oversees Information Technology (IT) and project activities of the department. He is responsible for IT strategic plans to meet DFEH’s mission critical goals and programs and efficient execution of IT operations and processes to improve technology and business alignment.Prior to joining DFEH, PJ was responsible for overseeing State departments’ Information Technology (IT) projects at Department of Technology. He provided direct oversight to ensure effective and efficient management of State IT projects and guided departments to develop IT Strategy, Business Case, Procurement and Governance activities as related to project lifecycle. Prior to that PJ led a team of developers and consultants on software development initiatives at CalPERS.PJ has over 20 years’ experience in IT in the private and public sectors. He possesses a Master’s degree in Software Systems Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from California State University, San Jose. He also holds a Project Management Professional certification.

Tom Boehmer has been serving the government, education and medical industries throughout his 27-year career in information technology. As an IT enabler, he collaborates to align technology with the imperatives within these vertical industries to generate strategic outcomes. In his current role at Juniper Networks, he is a Sr. business development director where he serves as a strategic client advisor to state, local government and education customers across the US. Tom earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Management of Information Systems emphasis from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

Gary Buonacorsi has nearly two decades of experience in the IT industry as a transformational leader for Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. As the Dell EMC state and local government national chief technology officer, Gary is responsible for thought leadership in the public sector, state and local government business strategy, solution development and guiding customer IT transformation.
Gary came to Dell EMC in 2013 with a wide range of experience including serving as the chief information officer at the Office of the Attorney General in the State of Texas. He was responsible for a state-wide modernization and consolidation project that reduced 32 divisions into one central IT organization along with a complete re-architecting and upgrade to a standardized infrastructure and application development environment. Additionally, Gary’s career includes positions as CTO and CIO within departments at the State of Nevada, and managerial and director roles at EMC, Oracle and Merck-Medco.
Gary holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Jennifer Chan is the Chief over the Technology Governance Division at the California Employment Development Department (EDD). The areas Jennifer oversees include project management, IT project oversight, IT consulting and analysis, enterprise architecture, business intelligence, IT procurement, IT policies and audits, legislative analysis, IT asset management, cost and resource management, human resource functions for the IT Branch, and mainframe database (DB2) services.
Prior to EDD, Jennifer worked at the California Department of Technology, the Board of Equalization, and as an IT consultant in the private sector. Her background includes strategic planning, project/portfolio management, IT governance, Independent Project Oversight Consulting (IPOC) services, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services, IT procurement, and enterprise architecture. Jennifer has a Master’s in Business Administration, a Bachelor of Arts in English, and a minor in Psychology.
In her free time, Jennifer is an equestrian rider and competes at the World and National levels with her American Paint Horse Association (APHA) and American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) horses. She is a multiple World Champion and has earned numerous National and State titles.

Kim is the national managing director of The Deloitte Greenhouse™ Experience team. In this role, she is focused on understanding and fostering the conditions necessary to spark innovation, spur alignment, and create lasting impact for clients. Deloitte Greenhouses are permanent immersive spaces where Kim and her team design experiences called "labs" that help accelerate breakthroughs for business people. Kim’s team helps companies address a wide range of business challenges, including prioritizing business goals and discovering what organizational changes are needed to achieve those goals as well as identifying new frameworks and platforms for productive communication.
Prior to this role, Kim led Deloitte Client Experience Design and Innovation, and spent twelve years in Deloitte Consulting specializing in customer and market strategy, and customer experience for some of the world’s best-­-known brands. Her clients included Adobe, Agilent, Chevron, HP, and The Coca Cola Company.
She has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA in Science, Technology and Society from Pomona College. She’s also an enthusiast of STEM initiatives, is a mother of twins and practices the art of horse whispering in her spare time.
Specialties: Design Thinking, Executive Facilitation, Executive and Peer Coaching, Leadership and Management/Leadership Styles, Adaptive Problem Solving, Customer and Market Strategy, Customer Experience, Innovation, Science of Engagement, Women in Leadership, Communications and Marketing.

Adam serves as the Agency Information Officer for the Health and Human Services Agency. He brings with him a passion for government, service, and a focus on the end user. Prior to this role Adam spent 4 years as the Assistant Director of Horizontal Integration at the Department of Social Services. His efforts were focused on integrating all Health and Human Service programs to provide the best overall experience for the client.
Previously Adam worked for the California Technology Agency, where he handled Legislation, Communication and External Affairs regarding the state’s IT infrastructure, programs and projects. Adam began his career working for the California State Assembly, working both as a policy consultant, as well as a consultant on the Assembly Budget Committee.

Christian Farland was named CalPERS' chief information officer in February 2018.
He manages the administration and direction of CalPERS' information technology (IT) services, strategy, and security, and provides leadership and counsel to the board and executive team.
Christian's duties include overseeing the 600-member information technology team, as well as the technology portfolio that makes up CalPERS' $100 million IT budget.
He previously served in a number of leadership capacities at CalPERS, including chief technology business officer; interim chief for the Technology & Strategic Services Division; chief of IT Performance and Accountability; and enterprise transition management project manager for CalPERS' transformation initiative for five years.

Tim Garza is the IT Director for the California Natural Resources Agency, which consists of thirty-three California departments, conservancies, commissions and boards, who missions are to restore, protect and manage the state's natural, historical and cultural resources for current and future generations using creative approaches and solutions based on innovative science, engineering, and technology.
Mr. Garza also is the Chief Information Officer for the California Department of Water Resources, one of the largest departments within the Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Water Resources supplies and manages the water delivery systems for California, provides flood protection through improvement of California’s levees, inspects 1,200 dams and helps coordinate the State’s integrated water management strategies.
Mr. Garza has over 30 years of Information Technology experience providing a full range of technology and business engineering leadership, management, and services to both public sector organizations and private sectors companies.

Rita Gass is the Chief Information Officer for the California Secretary of State (SOS). As the CIO for SOS, she advises the California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla on emerging technologies to improve government services and leads a multi-functional high performing IT organization. She has vast experience in strategic methodologies, policy and implementing Statewide IT initiatives to enhance business functions and is known as an energetic leader that delivers IT services at an accelerated rate. As the SOS CIO, she has shown exemplary leadership in delivering online election-related applications, providing tools for voters to assist in decision making and optimized cyber security programs by elevating critical security controls. Under Rita’s leadership, SOS released the first chatbot delivered by a State of California Agency. The Eureka Chatbot, developed in partnership with Microsoft, answers frequently asked business entity and trademark questions. The Center for Digital Government presented the California Secretary of State with the Best of California Award for its Business Programs Division’s Eureka Chatbot for Best Application Serving the Public.

Sarah Gessler has worked in the human resources field in both the public and private sectors for 18 years. She is the Chief of the Workforce Development Programs and Special Projects Division at the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) which supports state departments with their workforce and succession planning, recruitment, and employee development and retention efforts so they can attract, advance, and retain a talented and diverse workforce. In addition to her previous role as the Statewide Workforce Planning and Recruitment Manager at CalHR, she has eleven years of experience in various human resources capacities including recruitment, examinations, classification, performance management, and training with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Sarah is a University of California at Davis graduate and her work experience prior to starting her human resources career includes wildlife education.

Currently serves as the Chief of the IT Consulting Unit for the Department of Finance. She manages a team responsible for providing fiscal oversight on the state’s IT project portfolio in addition to performing fiscal analysis of proposed statewide IT policies and initiatives. Prior to joining the Department of Finance, Erica held various IT management and analyst positions with the Department of Technology, Department of Motor Vehicles and the Franchise Tax Board. She has worked for the state for 26 years with most of those years in IT with a focus on project and program management, oversight and project approval. She is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.

Scott Gregory is the Chief Innovation Officer for the State of California. In his role, he provides executive management and strategic direction for innovation initiatives as part of the larger IT portfolio of the state. Scott Gregory is a seasoned IT professional with over 20 years of experience in developing and managing complex IT implementations across local, state and federal government, as well as the private sector and academia. Gregory’s focus is on providing innovative solutions to solve some of government’s most pressing needs and issues. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Geography from Sacramento State University, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Regis University.

You've heard all this before - “We must transform and be digital”. “We must provide a delightful and humanized experience”. “We need to be agile!” But what does this really mean in practice? How do you execute this particularly in organizations that didn’t grow up in the digital age?
For the past several years Jen has been helping clients and Accenture colleagues define digital transformation in practice. She has designed and created tools and techniques to introduce and teach effective innovation, brainstorming and collaboration to Fortune 500 clients ranging from aerospace and defense companies, to global telecommunications, to digital advertising companies.
Jen’s focus area is on showing-rather than telling-co-creation and other "new" methodologies to meet client expectations for technology companies. She excels in leveraging design thinking and other techniques to create and articulate a the joint vision for success.
Currently, Jen is focused on driving ideation and creativity across Accenture’s State and Local Government practice as the Innovation Lead for their State of California Account. She brings new ways of "working and doing" to our citizens and seeks to find where Accenture can enable government to positively affect every day life.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Jen resides in Sacramento with her three children. In her free time she enjoys skiing, boating and volunteering with the Women’s Empowerment organization.

Payson Hall, PMP® is a consulting project manager for Catalysis Group, Inc. in Sacramento. Formally trained as a software engineer, Payson’s early career included commercial software development and system integration. As his career progressed, his role shifted to include increasing project management responsibilities. Today he coaches project managers, teaches project management skills, consults and performs project reviews on large Information Technology projects.
Payson has performed and consulted on a variety of hardware and software systems integration projects in both the public and private sectors throughout North America and Europe during his 35-year professional career. He has published over 100 project management articles, developed numerous project management and problem-solving classes, written a book on project sponsorship, and is sought after as a conference speaker who specializes in demystifying project management topics and communicating important ideas while entertaining audiences.

Dr. Scott Howland is a 28-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and is the CHP’s Chief Information Officer and Chief of Information Management Division. Chief Howland provides oversight for the CHP’s information technology and telecommunications environments and is responsible for implementing and maintaining a durable technology infrastructure to support the CHP’s 24/7 operations statewide. He is also responsible for providing reliable communications to meet the needs of all CHP commands, the CHP’s mobile fleet, and 25 communications centers statewide. Additionally, he oversees the CHP’s Computer Crimes Investigations Unit that investigates computer crimes involving state information technology resources. His prior assignments have included overseeing statewide community outreach and media relations, serving as the CHP's legislative liaison, as well as multiple field assignments.
Chief Howland is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association. He holds Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of La Verne.

Dale Jablonsky has worked 30 years as a State of California Government IT Professional including 10 years as a C-Level IT Executive for the California Employment Development Department, California Labor & Workforce Development Agency and the California Public Employees Retirement System. During his public sector leadership, Dale was able to create significant new transformative investments in State IT systems including Government Digital Services, Citizen Engagement, Legacy Modernization, Advanced Data & Analytics, and Cyber Security. Dale also spearheaded statewide IT Enterprise Architecture, as well as IT Governance, and IT Portfolio Management within his organizations. Recognized for his IT Leadership, Dale been heavily involved in all facets of State sponsored leadership development, include the California CIO Academy, the IT Leadership Academy and many other similar venues for the past 20 years. In early 2013, Dale retired from the State and is now consulting with KPMG within their CIO Advisory Practice, specializing in IT Transformation, new and innovative Executive Strategies, and Enterprise IT Reinvestment.

Karen Johnson was appointed Chief Deputy Executive Director, Operations for the Covered California in January 2017 where she serves as a member of the executive leadership team. She is responsible for the strategic direction, leadership and oversight of the following divisions: Administrative Services, Financial Management, Information Management and Communications and Public Relations Division. Her primary responsibility is to ensure organizational effectiveness through the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the policies and procedures pertaining to operational process, coordinating daily tasks, developing project plans crossing divisions and resolving issues impacting operations and finances.
Prior to that, she was the Chief Deputy Director with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) from 2007 to 2017 where she served as one of the highest ranking members managing and directing the day to day operations as well as being responsible for implementing the department’s policies and assisting in the formulation of policy to achieve the department’s mission. Prior to her appointment with DHCS, Ms. Johnson served for two years as the Deputy Director of Administration for the California State Board of Equalization and worked for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) from 1989 to 2005, where she held several positions including Director of Administration, Audit Director and Auditor. Prior to joining CDFA, she was an auditor for the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Contract Audit Agency.
Ms. Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting and she is also a licensed California Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Dan Kalamaras was appointed Director of the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) of the California Health and Human Services Agency on April 9, 2018.
Before joining the OSI, Dan was Interim Executive Director of Welfare Client Data Systems (WCDS), also known as CalWIN, on behalf of 18 California Counties that comprise the WCDS Consortium. Dan also worked for the WCDS from 2003 to 2005 as Deputy Director for Implementation, Conversion and Training in support of CalWIN’s rollout to 18 counties. In 2013, Dan served as Transition Manager for the WCDS, where he led the effort to implement a $250M maintenance and operations contract in support of the WCDS Consortium. Dan was an Executive Steering Committee member on behalf of the counties during CalWIN’s re-procurement, and was a lead Subject Matter Expert during the State of California’s initial Electronic Benefit Transfer procurement.
Between 2015 and 2018, Dan was Chief Information Officer and Director of Information Technology at the San Francisco Human Services Agency. For the preceding decade, Dan was an Information Technology Manager for the Departments of Human Assistance and Technology for Sacramento County. Dan held various senior and staff level information technology (IT) positions with Sacramento County from 1998 through 2005. Dan also worked as an Eligibility Supervisor, Social Services Worker and Eligibility Worker for Sacramento County before moving into IT. Between assignments with the Department of Human Assistance, Dan worked for County of Sacramento Supervisor Dave Cox as an Administrative Aide supporting the 4th District.

Sogol carries a passion for navigating transformational change and enabling innovation in organizations. She has spent the last decade advising companies across industries through transition and growth—both organic and inorganic (M&A). Sogol’s experience emphasizes the enablement of teams and the integration of people, process and technology—driving strategic alignment and operational effectiveness across functional areas, at all levels of an organization. Her efforts encourage collaborative thinking beyond “this is how we’ve always done it”—to seek diverse perspectives in finding and solving the right problems in the right way. Sogol is an alumnus of the University of California, Davis.

In July 2018, Peter joined CGI as a Director focused on government innovation. In this role he continues work he began in the government: promoting user-centered design, agile software development, open-source software, and procurement modernization. He previously served for four years within California’s Health and Human Services Agency on the CA-MMIS project, as co-founder of the Child Welfare Digital Services, and as Chief Deputy Director and Chief Information Officer of the Office of Systems Integration.

Mitch currently serves as the U.S. leader for KPMG’s Service Management practice and is the executive sponsor of the ServiceNow/KPMG alliance. He is responsible for leading consulting practices in areas such as IT strategy and governance, digital transformation, cloud computing and enterprise service management. His specialty includes helping large organizations transform their services in order to deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences.
Mitch has over 20 years of experience working in business consulting and he proudly served in the U.S. Air Force as a Communications Officer assigned to the Defense Information Systems Agency in Washington, D.C. for over four years.

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Red River, Paul Krein provides leadership for driving the strategy and growth of Red River’s solutions portfolio. His overall focus is to identify and develop new solutions to meet the rapidly changing needs of our customers – and helping reimagine the possibilities of technology.
Paul, who most recently served Red River as Vice President of Digital & Cloud Solutions, has a breadth of cross-industry experience ranging from high-tech and telecom to Public Sector, Financial Services, and Manufacturing. During his more than eight-year run at Deloitte Consulting, LLC, serving Federal, Technology, and Defense industrial base clients, Krein built and led their Federal Cloud team, the Federal Office of the CTO and the CIO Advisory Council. Paul also managed Deloitte’s Federal Cloud Strategy, marketing, cross-organizational alignment and readiness for Cloud Services.
Mr. Krein holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Economics Management and a Master’s in Business Administration, both from the University of Rochester.

Moè Moè is the bureau director in charge of Franchise Tax Board Enterprise Data and Testing Bureau. Her bureau is responsible for administering the tax returns data for individuals, corporations as well as the income and demographic data from external sources to promote consumption. Her team works closely with external agencies such as EDD, CDTFA, IRS and other states in data exchanges and data sharing efforts. She started at FTB as a student assistant (UC Davis Grad) and worked in numerous business disciplines, including non-tax debt collections, and participated in implementation of a few IT modernization projects. While half of her bureau deals with administering and curating the data to increase consumption, the other half is responsible for system testing functionality in the SDLC for the enterprise applications.

As a former State CIO of Vermont, Ryan brings his IT leadership experience and history of innovative solutions as a manager of strategic partnerships for NIC Inc. Ryan focuses on the Western United States, which includes sharing modern digital government solutions that could benefit California. In addition to his experience in the public sector, Ryan has worked with venture funded early and mid-stage SaaS companies on the East Coast and Europe, focusing on collaboration software in the consumer research and consumer packaged goods industries. Founded in 1992, NIC delivers innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing to more than 6,000 federal, state, and local government agencies.

Dr. Christine E. Miller serves California State University, Sacramento, as Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. Prior to joining Sac State, Dr. Miller filled both hands-on and technology leadership roles at the University of Georgia. Dr. Miller has 25 years of experience working in information technology, academic technology, and higher education.
Dr. Miller holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, a Master’s in Instructional Technology, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education, all from the University of Georgia. Dr. Miller’s doctoral studies were completed in concert with the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, where she honed her passion for using data and technology intentionally and collaboratively to achieve campus goals. In her current role, she serves as a Cabinet member and executive sponsor for multiple strategic projects.

Dr. Jeffrey Mrizek, EdD is a passionate educational leader focused on developing all student’s competency to both teach and learn for success in the 21st Century workforce providing for greater social mobility. His unique experiences as an entrepreneur, business professor and civil service manager supports his leadership calling to act as a systems integrator. As Dean of Career Technical Education for the California Community College Chancellor's Office, he supports the Workforce Economic Development Division's internal operations through development of effective practices and prudent fiscal management of the $900 million budget of State and Federal local assistance funds. Recent areas of program focus include the development of: Civil Service Career Pathways, California Healthcare Workforce Academy, Public-Private Partnerships, and Gig based entrepreneurship.

Subbarao Mupparaju is the Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director of the Information Technology Division at the Department of Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal). Subbarao has over 26 years of IT experience with increasing responsibilities for leading and supporting a broad range of information systems, IT and business transformation projects, IT operations, and enterprise architecture programs in government, retail, finance, and insurance industries. Subbarao has a Master's Degree in Engineering, Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, and various technical certifications. He is a recipient of the California CIO of the Year award, HP Most Valuable People (MVP) award, and IBM Hundred Percent Club award for his leadership and team building skills.

Cruz Nieto is the Chief Technology Officer for the CA Secretary of State. She has more than 20 years experience in the public sector including multiple state departments. Her IT experience includes various managerial positions and leading enterprise-wide projects from strategy development through implementation. Cruz also specializes in organizational change management with experience in communications, marketing and event planning. She graduated from Golden Gate University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, is a native of Sacramento and also the Board Chair of the Latinas in Tech Sacramento Valley Chapter.

Josh is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s Government and Public Services practice, with several national industry roles including leading his firm’s work with the state and local governments of California and Arizona. He also represents Deloitte in various national government industry organizations such as CompTIA, ITAPS, NASCIO, NGA, and others. With 20 years of experience in government industry, Josh’s focus has been on enhancing states’ abilities to engage with citizens and improving business processes across a wide spectrum of state programs. Prior to joining Deloitte in 2014, Josh spent the balance of his career serving in similar roles at IBM and CGI.

Gail Overhouse was appointed Deputy Director/Chief Information Officer of EDD’s Information Technology Branch in August 2012. Ms. Overhouse’s career spans over 30 years in state information technology in various executive positions. Prior to joining EDD, Gail served as the Project Director of the California Child Support Automation System (CCSAS) for the Department of Child Support Services implementing a single statewide child support system.
Gail spent several years as Deputy Director of Statewide Telecommunications at the Office of Technology Services where she was responsible for implementing the state’s telecommunication strategy and vision. Gail also spent 13 years as Bureau Chief for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Hawkins Data Center where she managed network services, system infrastructure and communication applications such as the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) which provides tactical criminal justice information to all California Law Enforcement Agencies. At DOJ, she worked extensively with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to provide automated solutions to meet the critical needs of the criminal justice community.

Scott has been with the State of California for over 32 years within various departments which include; the California Department of Corrections, Health Care Services and the Department of Public Health prior to joining the Office of the State Chief Information Officer (OCIO) in 2008, now the Department of Technology (CDT). During his career Scott has been responsible for statewide enterprise initiatives related to mobile and website development, human resources, transparency, marketing, communications, and outreach to the IT community. Scott has held many positions since joining CDT including Deputy Director of Operations within the Office of Information Security, Senior Advisor to the Directorate charged with coordinating the IT Workgroup efforts for the statewide cannabis efforts and as well as acting Communications Deputy Director for the department.

Nathan Pickard is the Practice Manager for IoT and is focused on driving growth in the company’s portfolio of IoT services and solutions. As an industry thought leader in IoT, Nathan leads the Dimension Data Americas teams in IoT design, development and go to market efforts across multi-disciplinary teams.
Nathan joined Dimension Data in 2009 and has held key roles in IoT and pre-sales engineering. Prior to joining Dimension, Nathan has held leadership roles in engineering and IoT. Nathan’s currently leads the NTT Smart World architecture teams and is building applications to help build a better world.

In 2016, Carlos completed a 27-year career in California Government where he was a key technology leader and innovator directly involved in California’s technology initiatives. During his tenure in the public sector, Carlos served as CIO for the State of California, served as Director of the California Office of Systems Integration and held the position of Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services. Previously, Carlos served as Director of the then Teale Data Center (now called Office of Technology Services) and served as CIO for the California Department of Social Services. Carlos has also held many technology leadership commissions.

Brian has been involved with the California fire service and the firefighter labor movement for more than three decades. Brian spent more than a quarter century with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department, rising to the position of Deputy Chief. Brian was also twice chosen as president of Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522, serving a total of 12 years in the position. In 2018, Brian was elected president of California Professional Firefighters, representing 30,000 front line firefighters and paramedics around the state. He also serves as co-chair of the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee and chair of the non-profit California Fire Foundation.

Eliset Rodriquez joined CalPERS in 2013, where she serves as a subject matter expert in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) and leads a wide range of projects in business planning, outreach, and training. She also oversees two employee resource groups (ERG), the CalPERS Diversity & Inclusion Group (CDIG) & CalPERS Disability Advisory Committee (CDAC), leading the establishment of strong boards and community. As a result, the groups have been honored with the 2016 Top 25 ERG & Council Honors Award, as well as the 2017 Spotlight Award for implementing D&I best practices.

Ms. Ruiz currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for Covered California. Covered California provides affordable insurance for over nearly 1.5 million Californians, supporting consumers with a network of over 10,000 private insurance agents, and an over 1,000 seat contact center.
Ms. Ruiz previously served as the Project Director for the CalHEERS system project which is a joint venture between Covered California and the Department of Health Care Services. The system will be used by consumers to apply and enroll in new Covered California plans beginning October 1, 2013, and as the Project Director for CalPERS $500 million pension and health system consolidation and modernization project. The system, launched in September, 2011, replaced over 49 legacy systems and serves as the single solution managing pension and health benefits for over a million public employees.
Prior to her appointment at CalPERS, Ms. Ruiz served as the Deputy Director and Chief Information Officer for the Department of Social Services and also served as part of the IT executive management team at the Employment Development Department, overseeing IT Governance, project management, and enterprise architecture.

Joel Russell spent over 15 years in the software industry as a developer and architect spanning the education, mortgage finance, health care, and California human resource business fields. Joel has a PMP and an MBA with a focus in IT Leadership. He started working at CalHR over 5 years ago, initially as a software architect consultant on CalHR’s largest custom software solution, the Examination and Certification Online System (ECOS / CalCareers). Joel joined CalHR as a State employee a little over 2 years ago after his son was born.

Matt Schueller is the Chief Deputy Director for the California Health and Human Services Agency, Office of Systems Integration. Matt has 13 years of experience working for the State of California and had previously been the Deputy Director of Administration for the OSI. Matt has been responsible for providing leadership and direction in support of OSI’s complex Information Technology projects. Matt has extensive experience representing the OSI and has established collaborative working relationships within the OSI, the CHHS Agency, and with stakeholders.

Carla Simmons is the Chief Information Officer for the CA Governor's Office of Emergency Services. Prior to Cal OES, she worked for the California Highway Patrol as the Application Services Manager, and for the Department of Fish and Wildlife as a programmer and project manager. Before joining state service Carla worked as an independent consultant in private industry as a project manager, application developer and training provider.

Ms. Smith has over 25 years of progressively responsible roles in IT and allied areas. Rising from an engineer through multiple roles on her path to becoming the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Child Support Services, she understands the importance of each team member’s contribution to supporting the government mission.
She attributes her own success to collaboration with the great people around her and her openness to being student of government.
Her philosophy on change is simple: start by listening, watching, and understanding – and then being willing to move strategically to help her organization make the necessary shifts.
Data is her passion. She strongly believes it is the #1 asset that every agency has and that the vast majority of what a CIO should be doing is empowering his or her organization – from the front line to the executive offices – with secure, accurate, and timely data.
Ms. Smith holds a B.S. in Engineering from CalPoly, and is a certified PMP. She is a speaker and author for organizations such as Women in Technology International (WITI), Project Management Institute (PMI) - Sacramento Valley Chapter, CIO Academy.

Luc Sou is the Chief over the Project and Business Management Division at the Department of Transportation. As the Division Chief, she oversees an IT budget and portfolio valued over $125 million. Trained as a Project Management Practitioner, she has a unique 15 year background in leadership, project management in multimillion dollar IT projects, policy analysis and development, strategic planning and control agency engagement which provides her customers with unique advantages.

Kelvin Womack is a Principal in Deloitte’s Human Capital practice with responsibility for growing Deloitte’s
Leadership Services in the Government market. He has over 28 years of technology, strategy and operations, and human capital experience engaging clients at the Department of Defense, Federal Health and Human Services, Military Health and commercial providers on systems implementation, program management and leading individuals and teams. Externally Mr. Womack serves on The Board of Directors for the Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Womack has a Bachelor of Science degree from the US Naval Academy and a Master of Arts in Management and Human Relations from Webster University.

Brian Wong is the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Social Services. Previously, Brian spent ten years at DMV in multiple IT leadership roles, including Section Chief of Network and Communications. As a Technical Project Manager, he successfully delivered multiple large-scale, multi-million dollar IT projects, including the CDT-hosted Website Infrastructure (WSI) Re-Architecture project to quickly scale and modernize DMV online services for an additional 1.4 million customers. Brian has a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Cal State Long Beach.

Ben currently serves as the State Chief Enterprise Architect and has been with the department for 3 years. Prior to joining CDT, Ben served as the Chief Enterprise Architect for the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Ben also served as the Security Operations Manager for DHCS and a Network Engineer for the Department of Technology Services and the Department of Justice. Ben has 26 years of government service.