Tom DeLuca is CTO for Baltimore County government with a special interest in IT security, systems, and infrastructure to support the needs of County agencies and constituents. Tom has spent the last 6 years working in local government IT, prior to that Tom spent 18 years in healthcare IT at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore with a focus in Medical Imaging and enterprise medical image management. Tom has earned a Master’s of Science in Information Systems Management while working in roles that included enterprise application management, customer service management, interface design, database engineering, and systems engineering.

Justin is the founder and CEO of NuHarbor Security, where he continues to advance the state of the art in integrated cybersecurity services. He has over 20 years of cybersecurity experience, much of it earned while leading security efforts for multinational corporations, most recently serving as global CISO at Keurig Green Mountain Coffee. His technical skills span all levels of the cybersecurity stack and NuHarbor stands as one of the most rapidly growing managed cybersecurity firms in the U.S. Justin is also a managing partner at the newly formed Almanna Cyber Fund, an early-stage cybersecurity investment firm, and is fiercely competitive, both in his professional career and earlier as a semi-professional soccer player. Justin also serves multiple local organizations in the public interest, including his board membership at Champlain College.

Dr. Anthony Ferguson, Jr. serves in the inaugural role as Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for Prince George’s County. For over 15 years, he has served as a bridge-builder in professional and personal capacities, connecting people from various backgrounds and beliefs. Recruiting and retaining, providing equal access to education & employment, and creating structures of accountability are all areas where he has a proven track record of success. His research centers around anti-racism, anti-oppression, inclusivity, and mental health & wellness.
Dr. Ferguson fosters a culture of collaboration, data driven solutions, and a proactive approach that focuses on systemic equity, both locally and nationally. He is a proud alumnus of the Gilman School located in Baltimore, MD, and is a graduate of both the University of Iowa and Drake University. Dr. Ferguson is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and he is currently residing in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Julia Fischer is the Director of Data Services for the Maryland Department of Information Technology. A senior technology director with more than 20 years of experience dedicated to advancing the application, knowledge, and reliability of data-centric solutions throughout the government to solve complex issues and enhance services for the public. She is proud to have a foundation of education from the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Stefanos Ghebrehawariat currently serves as the Assistant Cabinet Secretary for Data and Application programs within the Maryland Department of Information Technology. Mr. Ghebrehawariat has over 19 years of experience leading operations teams in the delivery of Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, application, and client delivery services. Prior to joining the State of Maryland, he held various roles within multiple large IT Integrators supporting Federal Government agencies and private sector organizations in a prime contractor role. Most recently he led the transition and operations of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) OneNet Enterprise Operations Center. The DHS OneNet Program provides technical support to the mission critical OneNet network to enable information sharing between DHS Components, Trade Partners, and other government agencies to include shared internet, intranet, and extranet services. He holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, as well as PMP and ITIL certifications.

Wanda Gibson has enjoyed an accomplished career as a technology executive in both private and public sector organizations, joining Prince George’s County as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director for the Office of Information Technology on July 8, 2019. In her role, Wanda is responsible for technology policy, governance, strategy and innovation, and the enterprise-wide technology environment and infrastructure, applications, data, web, and cyber security. Prior to joining Prince George’s County, Wanda served Fairfax County, Virginia as the Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer and the Director of the Department of Information Technology for twenty years, responsible for technology policy, innovation and management of a comprehensive portfolio of IT investments, systems, and services in all IT disciplines for all agencies and on-line services for constituents. She developed a nationally recognized IT Security Office and Court Technology Office, and managed IT governance that included the citizen committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors, and the executive IT steering committee.
Wanda is a leader and advocate in regional collaboration, having served on many IT committees and professional groups including the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments CIO Committee (Chair 2006-present), National Capital Region Homeland Security Advisory Council, National Capital Region Interoperability Working Group, Virginia IT Leaders, Government Management Information Society, and National Association of Counties (NaCO) Tech Collaborative, and also served as a member of boards for the Commonwealth of Virginia IT Symposium (COVITS), Federal Office Systems Expo (FOSE), annual Federal Cyber Security Conference. Wanda is a Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) Fellow.

Senator Katie Fry Hester is serving her second term in the Maryland State Senate representing Maryland’s 9th district, which includes parts of Howard and Montgomery Counties. She serves as the Senate Deputy Majority Whip, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Biotechnology and a member on the Education, Energy and Environment Committee. During her first term, Senator Hester passed over 30 pieces of bipartisan legislation by bringing together diverse groups of experts, advocates, and legislators to collaborate on public policy with an emphasis on cybersecurity, renewable energy, mental and behavioral health, agriculture, and environmental resilience.
Before entering public service in 2018, Senator Hester spent 20 years working on sustainable development, Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning to solve large, complex problems. She has advised Fortune 500 companies, governments, communities, and non-profits on creating win-win partnerships.
Senator Hester graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and is a Professionally Accredited Partnership Broker. She lives in Howard County with her husband and two daughters.

Mr. Koshanam is an excellent Information Technology Leader with passion for bringing transformation and consumer engagement into Government and Public Service, led State IT organization to achieve national recognition for Digital Innovation and Enterprise Automation by CIO 100 in 2019 and 2020, with 25 years of diverse experience as a senior executive, program manager, technologist, and an entrepreneur, having wide experience in various functional domains such as the Healthcare, Finance, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Transportation, Security, Compliance and Government.
Mr. Koshanam has led largescale, multi-million-dollar technology programs in public and private sectors. As the CIO of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE), he is instrumental in establishing, developing and leading an agile IT organization that rapidly implements cost-efficient health exchange technology solutions to meet policy mandates, enhance consumer engagement and excel in operations. Mr. Koshanam developed and inculcated a high- performing and supporting team culture that led to the transformational technological journey from a barely functional exchange solution to a robust digital platform delivering high value and active engagement with consumers and partners.
Under Mr. Koshanam’s leadership, MHBE continues to innovate, evolve and extend its technology to provide best in class health exchange solution utilizing cloud infrastructure, open source technology, integrated web and mobile platforms, data driven operations, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence solutions.

Ashley Laymon serves as the Chief Experience Officer at The Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT). As the Chief Experience Officer, Ms. Laymon oversees the DoIT Customer Experience Office which includes the Portfolio Office, Project Management Office, and the Enterprise Program Management Office. These offices are the driving force behind DoIT’s goal of minimizing IT redundancy, reducing overall IT costs, driving business value for the customer agencies, promoting modernization, and ensuring compliance with state IT policies and standards.
Ms. Laymon was also one of the chief architects behind DoIT’s innovative intake process for non-routine service requests from partner agencies, which increased automation, and executive-level visibility into agency demand and created the ability to produce reporting on delivery metrics.
Ms. Laymon previously worked as a director at Conduent where she provided contract oversight and business development for multiple Maryland agencies including overseeing large contracts for the Maryland Department of Human Services. Ms. Laymon has her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Indiana University. She also has her Project Management Professional certification, Technology Business Management Certification, and an Information Technology Infrastructure Library, ITIL® Foundation Certification.

Michael G. Leahy is an experienced Senior Executive, Attorney and Regulator with extensive public and private sector contributions leading organizations, solving complex problems, and applying process management, technology and common sense successfully.
Most recently, Mr. Leahy served as the Secretary of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the State of Maryland. Recognition in that position included receiving a StateScoop Leadership Award, 2020 and a GovTech Doers, Dreamers and Drivers award, 2021.
Mr Leahy is also the immediate past President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (2021 -2022) where he also served as the Chairman of the Privacy Forum and the Enterprise Architecture Forum before becoming President. He also maintains a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) credential and serves on the Education Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Throughout his career, Mr. Leahy has served at the federal, state and local levels in roles as diverse as City Attorney for Annapolis, Maryland, Policy and Legal Advisor to Governors and Local Government Executives, School Board Member, Maryland Transportation Board Member and Director of the Medical Biotech Institute at the University of Maryland.
Mr Leahy’s professional interests presently center on organizational efficiency and governance, data management and advances in identity and access management controls.

Ms. Belkis “Bel” Leong-Hong serves on StellarIT's Advisory Board. She is also founder, President, and CEO of Knowledge Advantage,Inc. With over 30 years of service, Bel has held a number of high-level positions that include: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, where she managed a multi-billion dollar portfolio in C4I (Command/Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence), congressional relations, IT policies, and planning. She also served as CIO of the Defense Security Service, and Deputy Commander of the Joint Interoperability and Engineering Organization at the Defense Information Systems Agency. She sits on numerous boards and commissions; most recently, she was appointed to the University of Maryland Medical System Corporate Board; the Maryland Cybersecurity Council, where she chairs the economic development subcommittee. She chairs the cybersecurity workforce for the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board; the BOV of the Clark School of Engineering at Univ. of Maryland; the BOV of the National Defense University, and others.

Patrick McLoughlin, GISP, is the Chief Data Officer for the State of Maryland, where he is responsible for setting statewide data management and analytics practices. He has 17 years experience in both the public and private sectors with a Bachelor of Science from Salisbury University.

Christine Nizer was appointed Administrator of the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA) and Governor’s Highway Safety Representative in August 2015. Prior to that appointment, Ms. Nizer served as the MDOT MVA’s Chief Deputy Administrator and Deputy Administrator for Central Operations and Safety Programs for over eight years. She also held management positions at the Maryland Public Service Commission, the Maryland General Assembly and the Office of Homeland Security.
Ms. Nizer is Immediate Past Chair of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) International Board of Directors, AAMVA Region 1 Past President, a Member of the International Registration Plan, Inc. Board of Directors, and a Member of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety. She is a 2011 graduate of the Leadership Maryland Program and was named the Woman of the Year in 2014 by the Women in Transportation Seminar Baltimore Chapter. Chapter. In 2018, Ms. Nizer received the Chair’s Award of Excellence and Achievement by AAMVA.

Mr. Charles (Charlie) O’Shea is the Eastern Regional Executive for State Government Strategy at T-Mobile. Before joining T-Mobile, Mr. O’Shea had a long and distinguished career in public service, beginning as a New York State Assemblyman. While in the Assembly, Mr. O’Shea served on several powerful committees, none more important than the Committee on Ways and Means, which gave him deep insight into the financial operations of all state departments. After twelve years in the Assembly, Mr. O’Shea ran for and was elected as the Chairman of the Nassau County Board of Assessors and Nassau County Real Property Tax Director. In this capacity, Mr. O’Shea pushed for and secured a hard-fought modernization of the county’s tax assessment and collection system. After leaving elected office, Mr. O’Shea continued his public service career as the Director of Government Affairs & External Relations for the New York State Department of Transportation. His long and dedicated career in public service has earned Mr. O’Shea respect and accolades across the political spectrum in New York City and State Government Circles. After leaving government service, Mr. O’Shea joined the highly respected law and policy firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein as a government relations attorney. Mr. O’Shea was motivated to join the T-Mobile brand because of his longstanding efforts to improve and modernize government.
Mr. O’Shea, a graduate of Duke University and the Fordham University School of Law, resides on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Carole.

Kenyatta Powers-Rucker is the first African American female to hold the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS). She functions as a senior-level technology executive combining project management, technical expertise, and business proficiency to develop, execute, and manage strategic, statewide technology projects for the Department.
Kenyatta has served DHS for over 20 years as both a consultant and an employee, providing technical expertise to the Department. As CIO, Kenyatta manages the Office of Technology for Human Services (OTHS) and governs a 40-million-dollar budget in support of DHS Enterprise IT environment for the Department that includes over 200 IT staff, 30 applications, with 8500+ end users across 100 locations across the state.
Kenyatta serves as an essential component and advisor for the Maryland (MD)THINK initiative, the most ambitious technological project in the State’s history. MD THINK revolutionized how DHS engages with the citizens and served a crucial role in the ability of DHS to deliver services during the height of the pandemic. MD THINK is the realization of an incredible transformation resulting in the replacement of siloed applications and legacy products with scalable solutions, modern architecture, and data modeling platformed and hosted by Cloud Services.
Kenyatta fiercely believes that the world needs a diverse workforce and therefore, is an advocate for bringing awareness to women and the underrepresented to the Technology Industry. She aims to bridge the gender gap by sharing her journey and experiences to inspire women and the underrepresented on their career path. She is a motivational speaker and mentor and aims to increase the number of minorities in the digital space by empowering them to become innovators in Information Technology. Her goal is to pave the way by helping to break down barriers, open doors and uplift the next generation.
In addition, Kenyatta founded Taste of Technology, a program that is designed to expose and provide awareness to the underrepresented youth to the different careers, opportunities and role models in Information Technology. The Taste of Technology program provides information on trainings, conferences, available programs, jobs and other opportunities to expand knowledge and expertise in Information Technology. The goal is to provide an environment to inspire the underrepresented to become innovators and technology professionals through targeted exposure programs and mentoring collaboratives.
Kenyatta is a 3x best-selling contributing author, a member of several Executive Information Technology (IT) Advisory Boards, has received many awards and accolades including winning the 2021Technical.ly Baltimore CTO of the Year award in addition to being featured in several magazines.

Manish is the co-founder & COO of Rezolve.ai - a Generative AI-powered employee support platform that is used by many Local and State Governments. He has over two decades of experience in senior management roles at global organizations working on topics like Employee experience, Service delivery models, Learning and development and AI adoption.

Mike is a Customer Engineer specializing in Applied AI. He is focused on the application of Conversational AI and Generative AI / Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve public sector challenges. He has worked at Google Public Sector for four years and helped many agencies apply Google Cloud AI Services .

Netta Squires, JD, MSL, CEM, CCRP, was appointed as Maryland’s first Director of Local Cybersecurity, for the Department of Information Technology. In this role Netta is responsible for fostering a Whole of State approach to cybersecurity by coordinating and collaborating with Maryland’s counties, municipalities, public school systems, community colleges, and other localities, with the goal of attaining cybersecurity maturity and resiliency. Over the past several years Netta has worked on creating and implementing a wholistic approach to cybersecurity preparedness and response by integrating the technology and emergency management approaches and disciplines at the local, state, and regional levels. Prior to joining the state, Netta spent 6 years at the local level with Montgomery County, MD, in the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Netta is also an Adjunct Professor at Frederick Community College, Mid Atlantic Center for Emergency Management & Public Safety, and at the Graduate School in the University of Maryland Global Campus, where she teaches a variety of classes in cybersecurity, public safety, emergency management, and criminal justice.

Jon Stehle, serves as a Director at Tyler Technologies. He is serving fourth term on the Fairfax City Council and a former President of the Virginia Municipal League. As a senior analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), he received a GAO Meritorious Service Award in 2013. Stehle earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Washington & Jefferson College and a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He also completed a master's degree in national security and strategic studies with the U.S. Naval War College.

Carlos Rivero is a public sector data practice subject matter expert with over 27 years of experience in federal and state government and higher education. Carlos is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Executive Government Advisor focused on State and Local Government within the AWS Worldwide Public Sector.
Rivero was the first Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia leveraging data-driven intelligence products to inform actionable decisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He developed a statewide data trust as the legal framework to facilitate data sharing across public and private entities; a centralized entity resolution service mapping individuals across multiple data systems to support longitudinal studies; a secure cloud-based data sharing platform as the technical implementation of the data trust; an enterprise reporting system to facilitate the development and delivery of data-driven intelligence products; and a governance structure that engaged leaders from across the organization in the data conversation.

Teri Takai is Senior 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.

Renee Tarun is Deputy CISO at Fortinet. Renee has over 20 years' experience in the cybersecurity and information technology fields with leadership experience in development and engineering, operations, strategy, policy, and portfolio management, across the intelligence community, law enforcement, and private industry. She co-authored the children's book "Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security". She was also a contributor to the book, "The Digital Big Bang". Prior to joining Fortinet, she served as Special Assistant to the Director, National Security Agency (NSA), for Cyber and Director of NSA's Cyber Task Force, in which she advanced NSA's execution of its cybersecurity and cyber-related missions by overseeing resources; defining and integrating mission capabilities; and shaping agency strategy and national level policy at the White House. Renee is also a board member for the George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering, creating synergy between the school and the professional community by addressing workforce development demands, industry expectations, and employment trends.

Jackie has over 22 years’ experience in Organizational Performance Improvement and Technology Enablement and serves as the US Alliances & Ecosystems Leader Public Sector Leader for EY. She has partnered with large, complex organizations to ensure their workforce, operating/service delivery model and technology initiatives align with their organizational strategy.
Jackie has a sincere commitment to DEI and service in her community. She is a leader of the EY Entrepreneur Access Network and has mentored and coached hundreds of Black and Latinx business owners. She is also an executive mentor and member of Women In America, a professional development and mentoring program that enables promising female executives to fulfill their highest potential.
Jackie holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management and is certified through Harvard University’s Executive Leadership Program. She is also a Certified Senior Professional in HR (SPHR/SCP) and has been a featured speaker at many national conferences.

Joe is passionate about working alongside customer agencies to modernize and simplify state business processes by leveraging innovative solutions. He currently leads the Enterprise Program Management Office within DoIT – a group of experienced Senior Project and Program Managers responsible for providing oversight and guidance for Maryland’s major information technology projects. These projects are focused on modernizing some of the most critical IT systems in the State and Joe's work has been integral to ensuring that these modernization efforts are implemented efficiently and effectively. Joe’s career started as a Systems Engineer at EDS where he led a team of software developers building a revolutionary healthcare claims processing system. His branch into IT management and Project Management certifications took him to a specialty chemical company in Hunt Valley, MD where his accomplishments included employing rapid application development solutions to establish a B2B ecommerce platform. After moving on to institute a PMO at Advertising.com, a division of AOL, Joe partnered with Silicon Valley computer scientists and Baltimore based advertising experts to modernize the company's core advertising optimization and monetization engines. Joe’s last adventure in the commercial space was with a small Baltimore-based minority-owned telecommunications and technology contractor where he assembled and managed a PMO providing services under local and State government contracts. Joe, his wife, and five children are lifelong Baltimore County residents. He is most likely camping this weekend with one of his children in Scouts.