Bob Bennett is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Digital Government and the founder of B2 Civic Solutions, an international smart cities consultancy firm based in Parkville, Mo. From 2016 to 2019 he served in Mayor Sly James’ administration as the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Mo. During his tenure, he oversaw the city’s smart city initiatives including a 54-block total digitalization pilot, strategy development for the city and P3-based expansion plans. Kansas City’s initiatives earned the city an Edison Award (Gold) for “Collective Disruption” and civic innovation in 2017, and Bob was named one of GovTech’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in 2018. Before his role with the city, Bob completed a 25-year career in the U.S. Army which included service as a Strategist, a Battalion Commander and multiple combat tours.

Ashley Gordon is the Director of Operations for NIC KS. In her current role, she oversees project management, marketing, finance, and customer service for her organization. Through her strong desire to bring order to chaos, Ashley seeks out the “why” in every situation and believes that the most effective solution to any problem is rooted in simplicity. She makes exceptions to this rule when it comes to gardening, buying books, and rescuing small, yappy senior dogs. There, she abides by the motto “more is more.”

Adrian Guerrero, CPM is the Director of Operations of the Kansas State Board of Nursing. Adrian has worked for the board for over twenty years. He is responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of advanced technology and business solutions, and oversees the IT, Licensing, HR, and Procurement Departments, as well as the Financial Officer for the agency's operational budget.
Adrian was also elected to the Board of Directors as Treasurer of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). NCSBN is an independent, multi-million-dollar, not-for-profit organization through which nursing regulatory bodies act and counsel together on matters of common interest and concern affecting public health, safety and welfare, including the development of nursing licensure examinations.
Adrian has received various honors including the; Topeka’s Top 20 Under 40, NCSBN Meritorious Service Award, CPM-George C. Askew National Award and Bronze Government Sector Horizon Award for the Kansas Nursing Alexa Skill.

Kenny Holmes became the leader of go-to-market strategy for Public Sector at Fortinet in March 2019. He was selected due to extensive industry experience, expertise in a wide range of technologies, and his proven sales execution and analytics background. An advocate and speaker for the Public Sector, he has been in Information Technology for more than twenty years and held more than ten technology certifications and positions spanning from Engineering to Sales Executive. He is an expert in cybersecurity with a background in cryptography. He has worked in the Federal Government, State Governments, Research Institutions, and Universities on some of the largest security projects in the world. Kenny currently resides in the Chicagoland area with his amazing wife and ten-year old daughter. He spends as much time as possible with them including taking them along whenever possible on his business travels.

Greg Gann is a 22-year IT veteran at Sedgwick County, Wichita, KS. Greg currently serves as IT Business Solutions Group Director overseeing IT Development, Database Services, Web Development, Application Management, Project Management, and Geographical Information Services. He holds a BS in Computer Science & MS In Management Information Systems (MMIS) from Friends University and certificates in Project Management from PMI.org & Wichita State University. Greg also serves as Sedgwick County’s Payment Card Industry Digital Security Standards (PCI-DSS) Officer. He is a member of the Kansas Information Technology Executive Council (ITEC), serving as County representation for 105 Kansas counties. Greg is also a Kansas Notary Public.
In a previous life, Greg was a top-rated DJ on Wichita radio stations KLEO AM, KICT FM, & KXLK FM as well as KWXL FM Albuquerque and most recently mornings at KVWF FM. While working in radio he picked up the computer bug. Greg is active in the community with Wichita Habitat for Humanity and the Sedgwick County Zoo’s annual fundraising event, Zoobilee. He is married to Kathy (24 yrs.) and they share their home with Stella, an active 4-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever. Greg is a motorcycle enthusiast competing in & organizing Motorcycle Trials events with his home club, the Ark Valley Trials Association as well as long distance Dual Sport motorcycle events.

Kelly Johnson has recently transitioned to the Department of Administration as the IT Procurement Manager for the State of Kansas. In this role, Kelly is involved in identifying and evaluating the needs of agencies and stakeholders, as well as assisting with contract negotiations, researching vendors, and establishing standards for IT procurement. Prior to this transition, he held the position of Chief Information Office for both the Department of Labor and Kansas Highway Patrol. Recently Kelly was honored to win a “State IT Leadership of the Year” award from Statescoop.
While at the Kansas Department of Labor, Kelly and the IT team survived the COVID pandemic, myriad of unemployment claims, and numerous new Federal relief programs. Concurrent with this effort, the IT project management team developed the specifications for a modernized platform to replace a forty-year-old legacy mainframe platform, written primarily in COBOL. Working with the Department of Administration, the state has selected a vendor who has already started the process of replacing the legacy system.
Kelly and his wife Christina live in Topeka with their Golden Retriever Klara-Belle. They have 3 adult children, living in Kansas, Hawaii, and Alaska.

Shelia Johnson was appointed CXO for the State of Kansas in August of 2021. She has 20 + years of experience in the gaming and hospitality industry focused on information technology operations, leadership, team development and most importantly customer service. She holds professional certifications including Project Management Professional and Security Plus. She holds a Master of Science in Information Technology Management from University of Arkansas Grantham and a Bachelor of Business Administration from University of Mississippi.

Jason Koehn is the CIO for Kansas Department for Children and Families and Department for Aging and Disability Services. Jason has worked as the CIO for 4 years and has been with the State of Kansas for 7 years. Prior to working at the State of Kansas, Jason worked at Quest Diagnostics for 12 years finishing up as the Manager of the Regional Help Desk. During this time Jason also worked as a United States Marine for 8 years as an Intelligent Analyst. Jason has a B.S. in Business Management and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Baker University. Jason has been married for 17 years to his high school sweetheart and has three beautiful children (2 sons and 1 daughter), 2 dogs and 2 cats. His hobbies consist of chasing his children around at all of their school, sports and activity events.

Tawnya Lancaster has led cybersecurity research and thought leadership for 10 years. In her role at AT&T, she works with the AT&T Alien Labs™, the threat intelligence unit of AT&T Cybersecurity, and with the AT&T Chief Security Office, the business unit within AT&T that protects the AT&T global IP backbone, to identify trends in threat actor TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) and emerging security technologies and strategies. Ms. Lancaster’s recent research includes: the security implications of 5G, edge computing, and IoT; use of machine learning and analytics in threat intelligence; increasing importance of Zero Trust as a strategic approach for security; consolidation of security services in virtualized/cloud environments, including “SASE” and “XDR”; and the measurement of cybersecurity maturity across industries.

Justin Marlowe is a research professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. His research and teaching are focused on public finance, and he has published five books — including the first open-access textbook on public financial management — and more than 100 articles on public capital markets, infrastructure finance, financial disclosure, public financial technology, and public-private partnerships. He is an admitted expert witness in federal and state courts, and has served on technical advisory bodies for the state of Washington, the California State Auditor, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the National Academy of Sciences, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and many other public, private and nonprofit organizations. Prior to academia, he worked in local government in Michigan. He is a Certified Government Financial Manager and an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and he holds a Ph.D. in political science and public administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Jeff Maxon was appointed CISO in July of 2020 after serving the state for more than 10 years. He holds professional certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK). In addition Maxon serves as a Cyber Systems Operations Craftsman for the Kansas Air National Guard. He holds a Master of Science in Information Assurance and Cybersecurity from Capella University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science from Washburn University.

Lou is Multi-Domain Architect for Security on the Public Sector Team for Cisco Systems. He has been with Cisco since 1996, prior to that he worked in the university environment. Lou has been in the field building, designing, optimizing, and architecting network and security solutions for over 30 years. His design experience has been utilized in Fortune 500 companies, Universities, and large cities and school districts across the West. His current role is focused on information security design for government and education sector for both on-premises as well as cloud native solutions and providing secure connectivity across both. He holds both CCIE and CISSP certifications and is a member of the Arizona Cyber Threat Response Association. He lives in Tucson Arizona.

Marc is a lifelong Topekan. He has spent the past 23 years working at the Shawnee County Information Technology Department, most recently as IT Director.
Marc is a third generation graduate of Topeka High School and went on to receive his Bachelor of Business Administration from Washburn University. Marc currently serves on the board of TopCity Marathon and has serves on the board of TSC GetDigital!.
In his free time Marc enjoys boating and running, he has run multiple marathons and half marathons. Marc is married to Misty his wife of 22 years. Marc enjoys supporting his two daughters Kathryn and Abigail by working swim meets.

Morgan Reed spent nearly four years as CIO for the State of Arizona, where he led cloud transformations to consolidate 30 different email systems, modernize 15 citizen-facing applications, migrate critical agency workloads off the state-owned mainframe and shut down the state’s largest datacenter after migrating 80 percent to the cloud. He joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an Executive Government Advisor to coach State and Local Government executives through strategy, policy and governance challenges to help them accelerate their journey to the cloud and help governments innovate for their customers.

Ross Sorensen is a Distinguished Technologist | Chief Architect for in the HP Personal System Workplace Services group. Ross is a technical specialist covering many areas of technology as well as being viewed as a leader within the technical community. Ross works directly with Microsoft, Intel, and Citrix to name a few on the emerging technologies and providing strategic and future insights into HP services.
Previously Ross served as the Professional Services Worldwide Lead, developing the services and deployment strategies for the organization including Windows 10 migration services, application compatibility, the development of the Windows 10 Assessment Service. Other roles, which Ross has driven have included the lead for Private Cloud solutions, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, worldwide mobility lead, and Data Center Migration specialist.

Mary is the Chief Information Officer at The University of Kansas. Her responsibilities include strategic direction and leadership for the planning, budgeting, implementation and ongoing support for academic, research and administrative technology. Her focus is on building partnerships with campus customers and aligning technology resources to enhance world-class research, innovative pedagogy and student success.
Mary joined KU in July 2018 after serving in IT at Tulane University for the past 30 years—most recently as Assistant Vice President for Academic and Administrative Computing. Her experience there includes major improvements in technology to support Tulane’s academic and research missions, along with unexpected experiences such as Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent recovery effort. She now includes disaster recovery and business continuity as part of her portfolio.
Mary is committed to providing support and encouragement to all who are exploring the STEM fields. Her work in that area includes efforts at both the local and national levels. Mary has been a mentor and coach for the Posse Foundation, a college access and youth leadership development program. She is an active member of EDUCAUSE, and was the 2018 Chair of the Recognition Committee.

Mr. Weis has over 42 years of diverse experience in the Information Technology field and over 35 years of Information Technology Management Experience. Mr Weis has worked in both the private and public sectors including Transportation, Healthcare, Technology Economic Development, and State Government. Mr. Weis has been involved in Kansas State Government Information Technology for over 27 years and served on many boards, committees, and advisory groups to advance technology initiatives in the state of Kansas.
Mr. Weis holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics from Washburn University of Topeka and also holds a technical degree in electronics and wireless systems.