Tony leads a department of 90 full-time staff and a $45 million annual budget. He oversees technology strategy, IT infrastructure & cloud solutions, cybersecurity, enterprise business systems, and innovation initiatives, including AI and data governance. 
Tony brings extensive experience in public sector technology leadership, with a focus on building resilient systems, modernizing technology, and developing and driving strategic direction. He holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jonathan Behnke is the Chief Information Officer for the City of San Diego and is responsible for the technology strategy and operations for America's eighth largest city in support of IT services for almost 13,000 users and 1.4 million residents.
He has over 20 years of IT experience managing and implementing technology for a broad range of industries including public sector, contract services, energy, automotive, distribution, consulting, construction, and manufacturing.
Jonathan serves on the board of the Gov AI Coalition of over 900 state and local government organizations united to promote responsible and purposeful AI in the public sector through resource sharing, standards, and advocacy.
Jonathan is also a member of the Municipal Information Systems Association of California, San Diego Infragard, SIM San Diego, and Metropolitan Information Exchange representing a group of CIOs from many of the largest cities and counties in the USA.

Before entering public service Anne spent many years as an educator, administrator, and leader in the education and non-profit sectors.
Under her leadership, CalAcademy was founded in January 2024 and has trained over 5,000 state employees in innovation skills—such as plain language, human-centered design and product mindset—over the past two years. She is also the Efficiencies Program Director at ODI and leads the California's Governor's Innovation Fellows program which recently graduated 21 highly skilled fellows who have built skills in changemaking within government.
Anne has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s College of California and a Master’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Nancy serves as Director of the California Employment Development Department leading nearly 10,000 employees and overseeing a $24 billion public benefit system—one of the largest in the nation. During a historic surge in unemployment and unprecedented fraud attempts, she guided California through crisis stabilization while launching EDDNext, a multi-year modernization initiative transforming how government delivers unemployment, disability, and workforce services. Under her leadership, EDD is advancing secure, integrated, and customer-centered systems that are shaping the future of public benefit administration nationwide.
With experience spanning state government, labor, and the private sector, Nancy is a recognized advocate for modernizing public institutions to better serve working families. She has held leadership roles in government relations in California and Massachusetts and brings a strong legal foundation to her work, earning her Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School. She is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Steve joined the Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget in 2024, with nearly 15 years in various senior communications, operational excellence, administrative services, and advisory roles with the Utah Department of Corrections. He particularly enjoyed engineering a collaborative approach to Corrections by chairing a coalition of advocacy groups, formerly incarcerated people, local and state governmental agencies, volunteers, and non-profit organizations.
As Director of Operational Efficiencies, he and GOPB’s Results Management team work with state agencies to drive continual improvements and strive to serve Utahns better. This includes improving systems and processes, establishing performance metrics and outcome measures, and sharing success stories about the real-world impacts of efficiency work.
Steve is also a former newspaper journalist. He covered government and criminal justice with The Salt Lake Tribune, interned as a D.C. correspondent with the London Daily Telegraph, and was editor-in-chief of the student-run Daily Utah Chronicle at the University of Utah. While at the U, Steve earned bachelor’s degrees in communication and political science. He minored in international studies and middle east studies. He later returned to the U and completed a Master’s of Public Administration degree. In his free time, Steve enjoys spending time with his sons, writing, exercising, and coaching various sports.

Jed served as a senior advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget where he worked on the effective implementation of trillions of dollars in federal programs. Before joining the White House, he spent three years at the U.S. Treasury Department where focused on the administration of approximately $600 billion in economic recovery programs from the American Rescue Plan. Previously, Jed was Vice President for State and Federal Policy Implementation at Results for America where he led the state government practice and worked with governors across the country to improve the results of their economic mobility programs. He also served at the Corporation for National and Community Service in the Obama Administration and was Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Bloomberg.

Jeffery was appointed to his role in January 2024. He began his state service in April 2020, working as a volunteer on the COVID-19 Data Insights Working Group, playing a pivotal role in developing a digital engagement program that increased the equitable delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine to underserved communities. He was hired as ODI’s Deputy Director for Service Innovation, leading the UX Design and Engineering practice, and was most recently Deputy Director of Strategy, overseeing government and legislative affairs teams, as well as communications and ODI’s training division, CalAcademy.
Jeffery’s team at ODI is focused on enabling statewide innovation through human-centered design, driving data-driven decision making, and upskilling the state workforce in the skills they need to provide equitable and exceptional services to all Californians.
ODI’s portfolio of work includes partnering on dozens of projects to create machine learning tools and AI-enabled workflows that improve efficiencies, while empowering state teams to use data and analytics to create better outcomes.
During his leadership, ODI has played a pivotal role in the Governor’s priorities including the Executive Order on Generative AI at the state, supporting survivors of the LA Wildfires through user research and responsive UX design, and the launch of the ODI’s first-in-the-nation deliberative democracy program, “Engaged California.”
Prior to answering the call to public service, Jeffery built data communications and thought leadership programs at Redfin and ZipRecruiter. He is a seasoned data journalist, known for his coverage of the housing affordability crisis and the Great Recession.
A proud graduate of two California state universities, Jeffery has a Master’s degree in critical theory and comparative literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Sacramento with his wife and son.

Fifteenth & Field is a practice that helps governments, civic institutions, and their partners strengthen budgeting, performance, and implementation by embedding evidence and outcomes into public decision-making. Previously, he spent more than a decade at Results for America, most recently as Vice President and Local Practice Lead, where he helped launch and scale national initiatives—including What Works Cities—and led the organization’s work with cities and counties to shift public dollars toward programs that work. Before joining Results for America, Zach did leading work on state and local policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where he focused on election administration reform and led both the elections performance portfolio and the Voting Information Project, a major civic open-data effort.

Melissa oversees Pew’s Fiscal 50 interactive platform. The resource helps policymakers understand fiscal, economic, and demographic trends affecting their states by tracking tax revenue, reserves, employment rates, Medicaid spending, and other issues important to long-term fiscal health. Maynard previously contributed to Pew’s research and technical assistance across a wide range of state issues, including economic development, broadband, and election administration, and served as a staff writer at Stateline, a Pew initiative that provided daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.
Before joining Pew, Maynard covered state and local government for Governing magazine.
Maynard holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree in government analytics from Johns Hopkins University.

Bobby oversees SHARE MO, Missouri’s Customer Experience Program. Bobby has been with the State of Missouri since 2016 and the Director of Citizen Engagement since May of 2023. He is passionate about making the voice of Missouri citizens heard and front and center in decision making.

Teri Takai is the Chief Programs Officer for the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Teri worked for Ford Motor Company for 30 years in global application development and information technology strategic planning. From Ford, she moved to EDS in support of General Motors. A long-time interest in public service led her to the government sector, first as CIO of the State of Michigan, then as CIO of the State of California and, subsequently, the CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense, the first woman appointed to this role. She then served as the CIO for Meridian Health Plan. .
Teri is a member of several industry advisory boards. She has won numerous awards including Governing magazine’s Public Official of the Year, CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame, Government Technology magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers, the Women in Defense Excellence in Leadership Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Originally appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2016 as the California State Chief Information Officer, Amy continued with Governor Gavin Newsom administration in 2018. She served as the CA State CIO & Director of Technology, Director of the Office of Data and Innovation, and later elevated to cabinet level as the Secretary of Government Operations, wrapping up her tenure as the Senior Counselor to Governor Newsom in the Governor’s Office in 2026.
As a member of Governor Newsom’s cabinet, she oversaw an agency with more than 22,000 employees and an annual budget of $67 billion. Along with a team of colleagues from public, private, and community sectors, she led the CA Breakthrough effort, striving to achieve a more efficient, effective, and engaged government for all Californians. Amy was not only instrumental in implementing AI in the state, but also made transformative changes in procurement, project delivery, workforce development, cybersecurity, and rapid crisis response; backed by an agile and human-centered approach, with tech and innovation, and an entrepreneurial mindset in the large bureaucracy.
As a nationally recognized leader in public service, Amy’s three-decade career in state service began when she started as an entry-level programmer at the State Water Resources Control Board. From there, she rose to positions of greater responsibility in ten state agencies covering environmental protection, public pension, state revenue, health and human services, tech, innovation, and procurement. Furthermore, she enhanced statewide operations, supporting 250,000 state workforces, spanning over 150 state entities delivering public services nearly 40 million Californians.
Amy’s commitment to public service is rooted in her experience as a first-generation immigrant, now naturalized citizen, who relied on public services to acclimate after arriving in the United States with her family in 1986. In addition to her leadership roles in state government, she gives back to the community: serving as a member of the California Northstate University Board of Trustees; volunteering at the NAACP, the Asian Pacific State Employee Association, and currently as the National Senior Advisor for the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA). She holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Management Information Systems and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from California State University, Sacramento. 

Kristin Walker is the State Budget Director of North Carolina and leads the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM). In this role she provides management oversight for statewide budget issues, demographic and economic analysis, preparation of budget recommendations, agency strategic planning, internal audit, and encouraging evidence-based policymaking.
She also serves on the state’s Committee on Actuarial Valuation of Retired Employees' Health Benefits, Council of Internal Auditing, Economic Investment Committee, NC Federal Tax Reform Allocation Committee, Governor’s Advisory Committee on Performance Management, and as secretary to the Council of State. She is an ex officio member of the Debt Affordability Advisory Committee and the State Health Plan Board. Kristin also serves on the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Prior to her 2022 appointment as State Budget Director by Governor Roy Cooper, Kristin served as Chief Deputy Budget Director for OSBM. She joined the agency in 2017. Before joining the state budget office, Kristin was a Fiscal Analyst for the North Carolina General Assembly for more than 10 years. Before joining the state of North Carolina, she worked for the federal government at the National Science Foundation, managing multi-million-dollar grant programs in the social and behavioral sciences.
Kristin graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and obtained her Master of Public Policy degree from the Sanford School at Duke University. She currently serves on the Sanford MPP Alumni Board. Kristin has also served on various nonprofit boards and committees and is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Raleigh.

Rami Zakaria is the Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for Sacramento County. Rami leads the County Centralized Information Technology Operation in delivering modern, cost-effective business solutions and a secure Information Technology platform across all County departments.