Chantrice Banks is the Web Team Manager for the City of New Orleans. She specializes in creating communications strategies to meet user needs via City websites, email and text communications.
She is a proud New Orleans native with over 10 years of web communications experience and a passion for serving the people in her community. Before joining the City’s web team in 2014, Chantrice developed web strategies for Loyola University, Delgado Community College and Louisiana Entertainment.
Chantrice earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mass Communication and Journalism from Tulane University and a Master of Science degree in Public Relations from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Phil Bertolini is vice president of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Previously, he served as deputy county executive and CIO for Oakland County, Michigan. During his 31-year tenure, Phil built a world-class IT organization in the second-largest county in Michigan, just north of Detroit. As Oakland County CIO, he oversaw more than 150 employees serving over 1.2 million residents. In 2005, he was also promoted to deputy county executive, holding dual positions until his retirement. Phil’s efforts earned the county national attention, winning numerous awards for technology innovation and excellence. He was named Governing Magazine’s Public Official of the Year and Government Technology Magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers. He was also honored by the President Obama White House as a Champion of Change.

William Chumley, who joined OIT in 2011, is a veteran of technology team management with numerous customer relationship accomplishments in both public and private sectors. His 23 years prior to OIT service included work in small and large profit and not-for-profit organizations, and corporate and personal business environments. In his initial role at OIT as the Deputy IT Director supporting the Department of Revenue, he helped improve overall service delivery to the department while implementing project management and intake processes in collaboration with agency partners. In a subsequent appointment as Deputy Director of Enterprise Applications, William established an entirely new organizational structure and process flow for that team while emphasizing improved customer delivery on application support and enhancement. He also served as the business portfolio director within the OIT Customer Office before becoming Chief Customer Officer (CCO) in September 2014.
Having started his career as an assembly language programmer for United Airlines, William quickly became an influential leader and moved to Sabre/Travelocity. At Sabre, William established application development centers in a variety of international locations while supervising and leading a matrixed team of developers, business analysts, infrastructure teams, architects, and managers. William is adept at transitioning teams from current state into innovative and successful new approaches.
As CCO at OIT, William has transformed the role of the IT director into a true strategic partnership with our customer agencies to advance strategy through collaboration, balance business priorities and enterprise technology goals, secure funding, and ensure operational consistency. William and his team leverage resources and equip OIT to extend values, vision, and mission throughout the organization. They respond in real time to fast-changing customer preferences and ever-changing IT alternatives, expedite strategy, system and process modernization to improve process efficiency, and boost operational performance.
William’s passion is analyzing the goals and objectives of an organization, determining reality, and then establishing a plan to connect reality to the ultimate vision. One of his core strengths is discovering the key talents of individuals and teams and leveraging those strengths to meet business objectives, while also managing personal growth and development of every employee and each team.
William brings a calm, centered, clear, collaborative, and comfortable approach to his job. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems and a master’s degree in Business Administration. William balances his work life with significant participation with local marching bands, color guards, and dance teams, serving as a consultant and judge for numerous events. William loves living in Colorado and shares his life with his wife, Lisa.

Alan is Executive Vice President of e.Republic and Publisher of Government Technology magazine and Techwire. In this role, Alan is involved in the annual production of dozens of events as well as the strategic direction for Governing, Government Technology, Emergency Management, the Center for Digital Government and the Center for Digital Education. Alan is also the senior executive that has overall charge of e.Republic’s research organization which includes, custom research, the Digital Government and Digital Education Navigator tool and the Content Studio (webinars and custom content).
Alan has been a guest lecturer at universities and a frequent speaker for key government and industry organizations. For over 35 years, Alan has worked with industry, education and government officials to help them better understand the importance and use of information technology. Alan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento.

Brenda Decker most recently spent five years with IBM as a Director for Global Government Industry services. Prior to IBM, Brenda served in Nebraska state government for 37 years, 10+ years as the state's chief information officer with responsibility for state government computing, telecommunications, public safety radio, and video conferencing. Her expertise leading, transforming and managing large IT organizations has created high-performing teams and partnered cross functional public and private organizations. Her work has garnered both local and national recognition for her contributions to government technology.

Building on his former role as enterprise architect for the state of Iowa, Chris Dilley serves as a trusted advisor to state leaders. He has helped numerous states modernize systems, migrate to the cloud, automate workflows and deliver impactful services. Chris is a proud native Iowan, actively involved in the Boys & Girls Club and coaches youth judo.

Fadi is an effective technology executive with a 20-year track record of digital transformation, leadership, and partnership building in the public sector both government and education. Fadi served as the CIO for Minneapolis Public Schools as well as CIO for the City of Minneapolis. Fadi also served as a technology liaison between the US Army and the new Iraqi government during Operation Iraqi Freedom II.

Shailesh Gupta is the Managing Partner, Founder and thought leader for CoreSphere, a successful IT and Management Consulting firm. Under Gupta’s leadership, CoreSphere provides customer-focused solutions to enable both the Federal Government and Private Sector marketplaces reach their IT modernization objectives and transition into the Cloud.

Veneeth Iyengar is the First Executive Director for Broadband Development & Connectivity for the State of the Louisiana. He is responsible for coordinating efforts between Federal, State and local leaders to eliminating the digital divide in Louisiana by 2029.
Previously, Veneeth was Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Baton Rouge/East Baton Rouge Parish and was the lead City/Parish executive from the Mayor’s Office focused on Economic Development. During his time, 2019 & 2020 resulted in the best year in history for Economic Development projects in the parish in terms of Capex, projects secured and diversity of projects – his role included outreach to CEO’s and executives from leading tech, pharma and healthcare companies throughout the country and was involved intimately in the investment cycle of economic development deals including leading the Mayor’s Office in the recent Amazon acquisition of Cortana Mall and the redevelopment of a 76,000 sq foot hospital building that had largely sat idle for over 15 years.
He was asked by Governor John Bel Edwards to Co-Chair his Resilient La. Healthcare Task Force which included the CEO’s of Ochsner, BCBS La, Franciscan Health System and Executives from the leading healthcare providers in the state. Through this task force, he led the creation of a report that provider recommendations that were focused on how to create an innovative healthcare economy given the challenges faced during the pandemic.
Previous to his time as a public servant, Veneeth helped build the Venture Capital/Private Equity healthcare practice for Sage Growth Partners and worked in the Office of the Honorable Robert Mosbacher Jr, Former CEO of OPIC under President George W. Bush a US Federal Agency.
Veneeth was named a 2018 40 under 40 in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Business Report, named a 2020 Leadership Louisiana Recipient by the Council for Better Louisiana, elected on the Board of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation in 2019 was named Chairman for Innovation Catalyst, an evergreen investment fund in 2019.
He received his Master’s in Science -Finance from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelors in Science in Economics from Purdue University. Veneeth grew up in Baton Rouge and is a proud Louisianan.

Katherine Jones is a Design Researcher and Strategist within Deloitte’s Government and Public Services practice. She has over five years of human-centered design experience with ten years of public policy and grassroots organizing across all levels of government. At Deloitte, Katherine leads digital and human-service transformation efforts across the state and local market to improve the delivery of public benefits programs. With a passion for civic engagement and design, she works alongside government leaders to ensure employees and the public can access equitable and accessible government services. Service areas include child support, Medicaid/SNAP, public health and healthcare delivery, adolescent health, and workforce experience. Katherine holds an MPP from University of Maryland Baltimore County and an MDes from the University of Michigan. She is based in Austin, Texas.

Kimberly Walker LaGrue is the Chief Information Officer of the City of New Orleans, and head of the Office of Information Technology & Innovation. She and her team deliver stable, IT services to city government and strategies for equitable growth and expansion of technology services throughout New Orleans. As co-lead of the City’s digital equity strategy, she has a responsibility to improve New Orleans’ positioning as a tech-savvy, smart city, able to address challenges with 21st-century technology.
A New Orleans native with 25+ years of experience in IT operations, telecommunications and data management, she’s spent most of her career modernizing and advancing technology in local government.
Kimberly is the North American President of the Cities Today Leadership Institute, and an advisory board member of the Internet of Things Consortium. A fierce advocate for citywide broadband, she is personally committed to digital equity, digital literacy and technology opportunities for all New Orleanians.

Michael has been with AT&T for 12 years, evangelizing needs for better Cybersecurity. He also had nearly a decade of service with IBM, 15 years as President of Carolina Business Systems, 5 years as President of CallWare Technologies, and 3 years as President of AlianzaSur, Inc., working in Central America and Northern South America.
Michael is a Vietnam combat veteran. He graduated from The Citadel and resides in Charleston, SC with his wife Yalani.

Bert started his Information Technology career in 1996 after graduating from St Stanislaus High School and opening a mobile residential computer training and repair firm, Computer Tutor. In 2002 he transformed Computer Tutor into Mid City Computer Services, a retail computer repair and sales business offering computer repair and sales to the public and commercial IT consulting and service contracts. In 2005 he joined the McNamara Technology Solutions team as an IT Consultant for their commercial clients, including the Baton Rouge Business Report. In 2007 Bert joined Wampold Companies, a commercial and residential development company, as their corporate Network Administrator, responsible for information technology operations at their corporate office and their residential properties. Bert accepted his current position as Director of Information Technology at the Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit in 2009. Bert has a BS in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix and is currently pursuing a Masters of Business Administration, with a concentration in Human Resources Management, from Louisiana State University Shreveport. Bert serves on the advisory board of the Louisiana Digital Government Summit, the Louisiana IT Symposium, the St. Aloysius Parish Church Technology Committee, as well as the IT Consultant for St. Aloysius Parish Church and the St. Aloysius Parish Child Care Center in Baton Rouge. Bert started a technology donation program Mid-City Computers for Kids, during the operation of Mid-City Computers Services. The program accepted retired computer equipment from local businesses, refurbished them, and donated them to the public schools in the Mid-City area of Baton Rouge. Bert has also served in several roles within his family’s companies over the years and currently serves as a Trustee of the trust within which those companies reside.
Bert is an accomplished Senior IT Leader with Architecture, Solution Delivery, Incident Management, and Team Development expertise. He is a results-driven leader and visionary with excellent business acumen, communication, and interpersonal skills. He has broad experience working with all levels of IT Professionals and organizational management. Bert places a strong emphasis on teamwork, and developing technology solutions to best serve his internal and external clients.
Bert currently resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife Amy Champagne Lousteau and their two children Addison and Andrew Lousteau.
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kevin takes pride in partnering with government agencies to improve the digital experience for citizens and businesses. He is Louisiana’s biggest fan and enjoys seeing NIC Louisiana’s hard work pay off when his home is state recognized as a digital leader

Joseph Morris is the deputy chief innovation officer for the Center for Digital Government and a national keynote speaker on issues, trends and drivers impacting state and local government and education. He has authored publications and reports on funding streams, technology investment areas and public-sector priorities, and has led roundtables, projects and initiatives focused on issues within the public sector. Joe has conducted state and local government research with e.Republic since 2007 and knows the ins and outs of government on all levels. He received his Bachelor of Arts in government and international relations from the California State University, Sacramento.

Whitney Soenksen (pronounced “Sank-sen”) currently serves as Deputy Chief Information Officer for the City of New Orleans’ Office of Information Technology and Innovation. She specializes in leading the development of sustainable, inclusive and equitable IT solutions.
As a City leader for over 8 years, Whitney has served in multiple capacities: as a cross-departmental Project Manager in the Mayor’s Office, as a Program Design and Development Specialist within the Chief Administrative Office, as the Open Data Innovation Manager and since August 2019 as Deputy CIO.
Originally from Iowa, Whitney graduated from the University of Iowa with degrees in American Studies and Journalism and started her career working as a broadcast journalist. She then served as an AmeriCorps member with the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship and completed her M.S. in Leadership at Northeastern University in Boston. In 2012, Whitney was chosen as one of five professionals for the Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Fellowship, a Mayoral initiative focused on tackling the most pressing challenges in the City of New Orleans.
While focusing on open data innovation and information transparency, Whitney was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2019 and traveled throughout China studying Smart City technologies and adoption strategies as a part of the Zhi-Xing cross-cultural program. She has been a committed public sector professional, in both nonprofit and government, for fifteen years. Her passion lies in using data to make decisions, government transparency, and innovations that provide equitable solutions for New Orleans residents.

Teri Takai is vice president of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. She 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.