Majida has over 20 years of robust experience in Information Technology, out of which 14 years in the public sector and currently serving as an IT Division Manager in Los Angeles County Internal Services Department. She is responsible for managing County’s critical Enterprise Applications and partners with county departments to provide modern technology solutions to accelerate transformation, automation, and information sharing. She’s an active member of LA County’s WiT (Women In Tech) program and Program Advisory of the ‘Women In Leadership’ program of University of Riverside Extension.

Mohammed Al Rawi is the Public Defender’s first appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO). Mr. Al Rawi oversees the strategic planning and modernization initiatives of information technology, information security and data management for the Office. Mr. Al Rawi also provides vision and leadership in the development and implementation of technology applications and infrastructure supporting the department’s more than 1,100-employee workforce including the development and implementation of the Client Case Management System (CCMS) — the largest digital transformation project in the history of the Office of the Public Defender.
Prior to joining the Public Defender, Mr. Al Rawi served as the CIO for Parks and Recreation, and prior to that he served at the Board of Supervisors, Second District, as Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’s Deputy for Technology and Innovation. Before joining the County of Los Angeles, he was the Technical Director for the Los Angeles Times' news bureau in Baghdad covering Iraq’s war and its aftermath. Mr. Al Rawi brought many innovative solutions to the County of Los Angeles digitizing and automating business processes and solving complex, life-saving, business challenges. Initiatives include the use of advanced video analytics to prevent drowning at County pools, the establishment of a countywide plan to modernize over 100 mission-critical application systems, as well as leading the effort to establish the County’s first consolidated, robust and cost-efficient data center. His leadership and advocacy for innovation was recognized by Government Technology; Mr. Al Rawi was named one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers. Mohammed Al Rawi brings more than 16 years of experience in managing complex information technology operations in both the public and private sectors. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science summa cum laude from California State University – Los Angeles.

Jonathan Behnke is the CIO for the City of San Diego and is responsible for the technology strategy and operations for America's eighth largest City managing data center, networks, wireless communications, web services, enterprise applications, IT governance, cybersecurity, and GIS in support of over 11,000 users and 1.4 million residents.

Shannon is the Director for AT&T’s Cybersecurity Consulting delivery organization. His responsibilities include organizational leadership, oversight of successful client-services delivery and end-to-end operations management. He is focused on leveraging AT&T’s deep cyber expertise to assist enterprises in the realization of information assurance objectives and implementation of risk mitigation strategies. His team works with a wide variety of companies and governments across the world to evolve security program maturity with technical and administrative controls. Shannon is a CISSP and holds a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Master of Business Administration from Champlain College in Burlington, VT.

Dawn M. Comer enjoys working at the intersection of technology, data and civic engagement. She is the Director of Technology Inclusion for the City of Los Angeles, serving in the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Innovation. She works with public-private partners to address issues of digital equity and literacy, broadband adoption, the banking divide and the information divide. She began working at the City of L.A. as a FUSE Corps Executive Fellow, focused on Smart Cities, after spending 20+ years as a management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting and IBM Global Business Services. As a management consultant, she led transformational projects, driving strategic value for a wide range of clients across Consumer Products, Technology, and Media & Entertainment clients. In the public sector, she continues to use technology and data for change, with an eye on equity. Dawn holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NCA&T) and an MBA from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

John D. Conley is the Regional Vice President for State and Local government at Salesforce.com. In this role, he works with public sector enterprises on their business transformation projects and cloud adoption strategies. John serves as a trusted advisor to various business and technology divisions involved with Salesforce implementations. He has worked on over 100 Salesforce implementations in the past 7 years. He is certified as an Advanced Administrator, Service and Sales Cloud Consultant, and a Marketing Cloud Email Specialist.
Prior to his role with Salesforce, John was the Executive Director of the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority (SIPA) where he focused on bringing cloud technologies to state and local government agencies. During his time with SIPA, he followed two basic beliefs. One, governments need to modernize the way they operate and two, cloud technologies allow the best possible path forward for modernization. With these beliefs in mind, John negotiated contracts with Salesforce, Google, NIC, Inc, Verizon, Genesys, and others to bring cloud technologies to Colorado.
John served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Colorado Governor’s Office before joining SIPA. As Deputy CIO, he was responsible for large infrastructure projects, operations and policy, statewide broadband efforts, and the centralization of over 900 IT staff into one organization.
With over a decade of experience in both state and local government John understands the unique position of public sector organizations and the challenges they face. John has a Master of Public Policy from Denver University and completed his undergraduate work at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Mike Driessen joined Government Technology in 2021 as the VP of Subscription Services, where he is responsible for managing execution, strategy and operations for all recurring revenue services. He also oversees Navigator, a market and sales intelligence tool for private-sector SLED teams, and Techwire and Industry Insider – Texas Edition, each of which provide daily news and insights into the California and Texas GovTech markets.
Mike brings over 25 years of experience in the IT consulting and systems integration industry with firms like Accenture, Grant Thornton and Hitachi Consulting. His experience covers Sales and Marketing leadership, advising on Digital Strategies, and managing Enterprise Application alliances and implementations. He has managed large global teams and led start-ups. Mike lives in Los Angeles, although he grew up in the Midwest, and graduated from Marquette University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Business Administration.

Shonte Eldridge serves as DocuSign‘s first Senior Director of State and Local Government Strategy and Solutions. In this role, she is responsible for identifying industry trends and creating strategies that help government leaders simplify how they do business and serve constituents. Before joining DocuSign, Shonte held several state and local government executive positions and was known for using technology to improve the constituent experience and solve complex operational challenges. She has received numerous awards for her work in the industry and was named one of the 25 women to watch by the Baltimore Sun newspaper and magazine in 2020.

In this role, Evans engages with clients on strategy, innovation, and transformation to develop and deliver solutions that are tailor-made for government. He is highly consultative and knowledgeable and focuses on tangible operational and business outcomes at enterprise scale.
Prior to joining WWT, Evans served as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the State of Maryland, where he helped lead statewide technology and security initiatives. Evans brings 20 years of technology expertise with extensive experience in security, cloud, and mission critical applications.
Prior to his role within the State of Maryland, Evans worked in various executive-level positions and is an Adjunct Professor – Graduate School, Cybersecurity for University of Maryland.

Lisa Fitting is a Human-Centered Design and Strategy leader with CGI, one of the world’s largest business and technology consultancies. Lisa has over 35 years of combined professional experience in Product Strategy, Design Thinking, User Experience Design, and Process and Organizational Change Consulting. She has extensive experience in User Research and currently serves as the Practice Competency Lead for User Experience Research in CGI’s US Human-Centered Design (HCx) practice. Over the years, Lisa has become a thought leader and mentor on Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design methods and is known for expert facilitation in helping teams channel their knowledge and energy to uncover and clarify problems, generate solutions, and make collective decisions to drive change. She is passionate and confident with a proven record of success in the design, development and implementation of solutions that rely on critical business involvement and customer adoption.

In October 2018, Ricardo Daniel García was sworn in as Los Angeles County Public Defender. He is Los Angeles County’s first Latino public defender. Mr. García received his Juris Doctorate in 1995 from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, and his Bachelor’s of Art in Politics in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Mr. García started his legal career in 1995 with the San Diego Public Defender’s Office. In 1998, he was recruited to the Alternate Public Defender’s Office as the youngest attorney in that office.
In 2004, Mr. García was named Director of Criminal Justice for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. There, he worked on public policy issues in conjunction with city, county and state agencies.
From 2007 to 2009, Mr. García supervised the South Bay Branch of the Alternate Public Defender’s Office. In 2008, he was awarded the Dale Melvin Ray Memorial Award for excellence in the representation of the indigent.
In February 2009, Mr. García accepted a position with the Multiple Conflicts Office – Major Cases, a unit of highly regarded attorneys, specifically created to handle complex homicide cases and Capital case defendants for the Public Defender. Mr. García was a supervisor in that office until 2017.
In 2013, Mr. García represented Jorge Rojas, aka El Palillo, in San Diego’s longest and most complicated death penalty trial. After a 15-month trial, the prosecution was unable to secure guilty verdicts on five of nine homicides and the defense team secured a life verdict for Mr. Rojas. In 2015, Mr. García was awarded Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Criminal Defense Association of San Diego.
Mr. García has significant expertise and experience with criminal street gang cases throughout San Diego County, and he lectures regularly on the subject. He is a guest lecturer and adjunct professor at California Western School of Law in its Criminal Justice LLM and Acceso programs — work which takes him to Mexico, Chile and Peru to educate and train judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Mr. García is also a faculty member at the Bryan R. Shechmeister Death Penalty College at Santa Clara University’s School of Law.
Born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Mexico, Mr. García is the oldest of seven children. The first-generation college graduate in his family, Mr. García maintains strong ties to his Mexican culture and the Latino community and brings that diversity of experience to both his personal and professional life. Mr. García is a strong and zealous advocate and a great ambassador for the criminal justice system.

HP Le currently supports the Verizon Frontline (Public Safety) "above the network" portfolio including Intelligent Video, Automated License Plate Recognition, BriefCam Video Analytics, and Real Time Response System (RTRS). He is also involved in projects related to Smart/Safe Campuses/Communities and Physical Security where real-time communications and data can enhance situational awareness and serve as a true force multiplier. HP is passionate about technology and can help navigate the complex dependencies required for successful smart/safe city/campus deployments. HP Le has 20+ years of experience in the IT/Telecommunications space, and held technology certifications (MCSE, Cisco, Oracle) in the past. He welcomes the opportunity to contribute to thought leadership and engage visionaries who understand the benefits of people-centered design and open standards for interoperability, scalability, and resiliency. Whether it is Cloud Native, AV/CV, AR/VR/XR, 5G Edge/MEC, Drone as a First Responder and/or other IOT sensor technology use cases leveraging the infrastructure investments in sensors, power sources, or network modernization, the future is full of opportunities and challenges for us humans to get excited about.

Phillip is an award winning CIO leading the City of Pasadena’s technology strategy, IT operations and customer service. His initiatives include improving service delivery through embracing effective use of technology; creating business models for delivering new services; promoting online development opportunities to increase self-service capabilities; and leading strategic initiatives to transform and innovate.

Lloyd Levine is a former member of the California State Legislature where he served as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce. Currently, Mr. Levine serves as T-Mobile for Government’s National Senior Executive for State Government Strategy and is a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Riverside School of Public Policy. A nationally recognized leader in government technology and policy, Mr. Levine was recently named “one of the 40 most thought-provoking innovators in New York city and state”. His book on the subject, “Technology vs. Government: The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object” will be out next year.

Jeffery is currently serving as the Deputy Director of Service Innovation at the California Office of Data and Innovation where he leads the UX Design and Engineering teams. He was appointed by Governor Newsom to this role in April, 2022 after first leading the Governor’s Data Insights Working Group as part of the administration’s COVID response team and then as the Insights Program Manager for ODI.
Jeffery’s work at ODI is focused on helping state departments develop innovative ways to engage with underserved communities and to improve the customer experience for all Californians when interacting with their government. He played a pivotal role in developing a direct engagement and digital analytics model that increased the equitable delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine and his team has shipped many examples of user-centered government services, including most recently with the launch of abortion.ca.gov.
Prior to answering the call to public service, Jeffery was a deputy to two chief economists, leading data communications and thought leadership programs at Redfin and ZipRecruiter. In addition to his leadership roles in recruitment-tech and prop-tech, Jeffery is also a seasoned data journalist, known for his coverage of the housing affordability crisis and the lasting socio-economic legacy of the Great Recession. His work has appeared in the LA Times, Business Insider, and FastCompany among other notable publications.
A proud graduate of two California state universities, Jeffery has a Master’s degree in critical theory and comparative literature from University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his young son.

Leif is a proud 8 year Veteran of the United States Navy and an HP Distinguished Technologist in Client Technologies, Lifecycle Management, Endpoint Security and Systems Management. His experience includes over 25 years in the industry and spans Architecture, Design, Engineering, Software Integration, Hardware Imaging, and Implementation of Client Technologies including mobile devices as well as fixed assets. Leif’s role also includes the Modern Workplace strategy with HP Inc. to assist companies in reaching their strategic technology goals as well as enhancing the user experience through innovative solutions and strategy discussions. Prior to his current role at HP, Leif worked at Intel as an Enterprise Technology Specialist for Client and Server Architecture including Storage.

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.

Jim Richberg’s role as a Fortinet CISO leverages his 30+ years of experience driving innovation in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, and cyber strategy and policy. He is currently focused on cyber risk management, election security and helping organizations maximize their IT efficiency and security post-COVID.
Prior to joining Fortinet, Jim served as the National Intelligence Manager for Cyber, the senior federal executive focused on cyber intelligence within the $80B+/100,000 employee U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He led cyber strategy for the 17 departments and agencies of the IC, set integrated priorities on cyber threats and served as Senior Advisor to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on cyber issues.
Jim’s broad operational experience – including his 20 years at CIA – gives him practical insight into difficult cyber challenges. He brings a strong focus on strategic problem solving and on framing complex issues in comprehensible terms that facilitate analysis and formulation of solutions.

Ms. Santoro is proud to be a part of the leadership team for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, which spans 4083 square miles and is the most populous County in the nation with more than 10 million residents.
As the Deputy Director (East Agency), she is responsible for administering innovative and quality park services, amenities, projects, and recreational opportunities available across Los Angeles County.
Ms. Santoro, as a young girl, discovered the power of parks as a place to thrive when that is absent at home. Her personal story with parks continues to inspire her professional contributions, research interests and scholarly pursuits
Starting her career as a recreation services leader, Ms. Santoro values the contributions of frontline staff, and embraces the Disney principle that “the frontline is the bottom-line.”
Ms. Santoro served as the Associate Superintendent for the Pasadena Unified School District and previously led the Human Services Departments for the cities of Pasadena and Claremont.
Ms. Santoro holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Cal State University San Bernardino, a master’s degree in Child Development from the University of La Verne. She completed post-master’s studies in anti-bias work at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena. She earned her Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership at the University of La Verne.
Ms. Santoro has led several initiatives focused on innovation and inclusion on behalf of the government entities she has served, including developing and reforming out-of-school-time programs serving children and youth, business and operations planning drawing from an anti-racist equity framework, and facilitating city/school/county partnerships in the form of strategic planning, collective impact initiatives to designing human service and recreation program delivery models.

Tom Schenk Jr. is a researcher and author on applying technology, data, and analytics to make better decisions. He’s currently the director of analytics at KPMG where he leads the smart city and government analytics practice. He’s authored several publications, including a book on data visualization, book chapters on education research, and academic articles on a variety of subjects. Tom has previously served as Chief Data Officer for the City of Chicago, led education research for the State of Iowa, and has held a variety of positions within academia. Tom is the co-founder of the Civic Analytics Network at Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. He is also the current co-organizer of the Chicago Data Visualization Group. His work has been featured in The Economist and Wall Street Journal while he’s been featured in television programs on PBS NewsHour and National Geographic Channel.

Rob Silverberg is the chief strategy and innovation officer for Dell Technologies and leads the Smart Cities focus for Dell Technologies’ state and local government team. In his role, Rob works with SLG customers across the nation to help these agencies understand how Dell’s broad portfolio of technologies and solutions can help them achieve their goals.

Steve Towns is director of content strategy for the Center for Digital Government. He is the former editor of Government Technology and has spent more than 25 years covering technology in the state and local government market.
Steve joined e.Republic in 1996. During his tenure, e.Republic’s print and electronic media have received many awards for editorial excellence, including “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Emergency Management in 2013, “Best New Web Site” from ASBPE for emergencymgmt.com in 2009, ”Best Overall Publication” at the Maggie awards for Government Technology in 2008 and “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Public CIO in 2007.

James Young is a Senior Partner in IBM Consulting responsible for the State and Local Data and Technology Transformation practice. He is an experienced services solution implementer with over 24 years of experience implementing Data Platform Solutions, Cognitive and Analytic Solutions, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Case Management and Enterprise Content Management solutions (ECM) with a focus on process re-engineering and Business Process Automation. James prides himself on defining and implementing enterprise solutions that enable government clients to better serve their constituents/end customers - while reducing complexity and cost.

Roozan has over 35 years of Information Technology (IT) experience. She currently serves as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for County of Los Angeles, Department of Human Resources (DHR). In this position she is responsible for DHR’s strategic IT plan and ensuring technology solutions lead to outcomes in line with business and County initiatives and goals.
As the CIO, Roozan is also responsible for improving and transforming service delivery, information sharing, and collaboration.