Phil Bertolini is the 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.

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.

Shonte Eldridge currently serves as an Executive Government Advisor with Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this role she is responsible for engaging State and Local Government leaders to build cloud frameworks that reduce cost, improve service delivery, change customer experience and transform the enterprise into a modern, inclusive, equitable and innovative enterprise. Prior to joining AWS, Ms. Eldridge worked in the public sector for over 20 years and held various C-suite positions including the Deputy Chief of Operations for the City of Baltimore, Chief of Policy, Planning and External Affairs for the Office of the States Attorney for Baltimore City and Chief of Policy for Maryland’s Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention. During her time in government she was known for using technology to solve some of the largest operational and social challenges her state and local governments faced, as well as changing the culture to more readily accept and try new technologies. Ms. Eldridge’s work in the industry has appeared in numerous national publications and is often called upon to speak and conduct workshops on the importance of creating holistic digital transformation strategies and how to implement technology that improves operations and delivers a better customer experience.

AJ Ford was born and raised in Northern New York, and after graduating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he began his career at Oracle while living in Nashua, NH and working out of Burlington, MA. Now working at Tricentis, the leader in Scriptless Test Automation, he's enjoyed 8 years in the software space. While he focuses his efforts on federal clients like the DoD and NASA, AJ has helped clients like Bank of America, Fannie Mae, and PPG transform their business with best-in-class software testing technology.

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, serving 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, the Commonwealth of Virginia Interoperability Advisory Group, Virginia IT Leaders, Metropolitan Information Exchange, Government Management Information Society, and National Association of Counties (NaCO) Tech Collaborative, She 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, and she is a Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) Fellow.
Notably, Wanda was honored as 2003 Public Official of the Year, a prestigious award given annually to governors, mayors, legislators and other elected officials and government officials by Governing Magazine (an e-Republic publication). In 2007, she was named as one of the Top Five Women CIOs nationally by Government Technology magazine covering Federal, State and Municipal CIOs across the U.S., and in 2010, Wanda was named Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers by Government Technology magazine. Her work has also been featured in Public CIO, Government Technology, State Tech, and Federal Computer Week Daily magazines. She is a sought-after speaker and participant in both public and private sector venues an innovation and governance.
During her career, she earned numerous state and national awards and recognition for IT and e-government programs, including one of only two governmental entities to be named in the 2006 Top Best IT Places to Work. In her inaugural year at Prince Georges County, the County was ranked #2 in the national Digital Counties Survey, named 2020 IT Executive of the Year, and honored with an Executive Choice Award by the Prince Georges County Executive. Over her career she was awarded for Best of the WEB by Digital Counties; ranked in the top five Digital Counties award by the Center for Digital Government for 18 years including ranked #1 three of those years; National Association of Counties (NACo) 2010 for WEB and Public Safety Interoperability, Public Technology (PTI) Solutions Awards including 2011 PTI Award for Mobil Applications, and 2018 for WEB-site, GIS and Cyber Security, Fairfax Bar Association for Courtroom Technology, the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, and Commonwealth of Virginia Technology Awards for Interoperability, ‘Government in the Palm of Your Hands’, Regional Identity and Access Management, EDGR, Tax System modernization, and Private Cloud, 2011 Green IT Awards by InfoTech magazine, 2012 NACo Award for ‘Government in the Palm of Your Hands’, Federal IT Security conference, several years recognition for her Cyber Security programs - Next Generation Security, Federated Identity Access Management, Data Analytics, Courtroom technology conferences. She is featured in industry articles, notably Public Technology Magazine ‘Cutting the Jargon’. and sought after regularly about public sector IT practices and innovation strategy.

Noel Hara is an experienced strategist that infuses technology solutions across the public sector to help solve the most challenging problems. As Chief Technology Officer with NTT DATA’s public sector, he blends over two decades of experience in the public and private sector with an insatiable curiosity for technology and applications. Since the start of the global pandemic, Noel has been responsible for adapting the company’s offering portfolio to support clients in their shift to remote working and learning while continuing to support constituents through the expansion of digital government.

Josh Jordan leads Communication Engagement Services Consulting for Xerox in the US. With 20+ years of marketing, communications, and technology experience across multiple industries, his unique perspective and background provides a holistic view of the Hybrid work environment. He brings firsthand knowledge of solutions that deliver employee and constituent engagement.

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.

Daniele Loffreda is marketing lead for Ciena’s Virtualized Edge Solution State/Local Government and Education (SLED) and Healthcare in Ciena’s Solutions Development organization. In this role, he leads Ciena’s initiatives applying next-generation networking technologies to help these sectors deliver higher quality experiences to their constituents through disruptive technologies, optimized cloud strategies, virtualized infrastructure and improved data security.
Daniele has more than 25 years of experience helping customers leverage information, communications and technology solutions to provide greater value, streamline their operations and generate higher returns on network investments. In addition to his role at Ciena, Daniele has worked in pioneering roles at AT&T, Sprint and Fujitsu. He has presented at numerous industry conferences and published articles and posts on next-generation network connectivity as a critical foundation of enterprise transformation.

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.

With over 25 years of IT experience, Rob is responsible for the strategic management and daily operations of Baltimore County’s award-winning technology department. Rob oversees the Information Technology department for the County and sets IT direction. He is responsible for all aspects including infrastructure, application development, service delivery and security. His role involves supporting initiatives of all County agencies while aligning to the objectives and strategies of the Executive and seven-member County Council. Rob is currently leading major initiatives to implement platform-based solutions to improve productivity, workforce empowerment and create an improved and more responsive constituent service experience. Rob’s goal is to bring digital equality across the entire County to eliminate barriers to reliable broadband due to affordability or availability of service. Rob applies a passion and a vision for using technology to serve Baltimore’s agencies and constituents.

Matthew Otwell has been an IT and Information Security professional working with multiple global organizations over a 25-year span. Recently Mr. Otwell has focused to specialize in security program governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) across various organizational business units including Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT)/Industrial Control Systems (ICS).
Beginning his career as a Network Engineer for a global insurance company Mr. Otwell then grew into a Management role with Arbitron, a leader in radio ratings measurement. When Arbitron was acquired by Nielsen, a global leader in measurement and data analytics, he then utilized his technical and managerial experience to focus on reducing the overall risk to the organization from a cyber security perspective. Mr. Otwell then served as the Chief Cyber Architect for the IT/OT Cyber Lab with Jacobs, a world leader in design, engineering, construction and technical services delivering end-to-end innovative solutions.
Currently Mr. Otwell serves as the CISO for the MD Department of Health overseeing the implementation of a new information security program. Mr. Otwell has a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology from Capitol University and holds multiple certifications such as CISM (Certified Information Security Manager), CCSK (Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge), and ITIL v.3 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Foundation.
In his personal life Mr. Otwell spends time with his Wife and 2 Children doing a variety of outdoor activities and organized sports. Additionally, he volunteers for various organizations such as Special Olympics Maryland and the National Federation of the Blind.
His professional goal is to help guide organizations in the implementation of a sustainable security program by incorporating a solid governance, risk, and compliance life-cycle that enables corporate business objectives by utilizing industry standard frameworks.

Destah is a technology and innovation enthusiast with a career built around driving business disruption, customer advocacy and connecting good ideas and good people. A veteran of several of the smallest Silicon Valley Startups as well as some of the biggest behemoths, he has picked up enough knowledge and information to be relatively dangerous. From his humble beginnings as an Electrical Engineer he has touched the data networking, wireless data, and machine learning technologies as a customer facing evangelist and problem solver.
When using his powers for good, he is identifying emerging technologies and finding synergistic solutions for customers and professional colleagues. The latest shiny objects to have caught his fancy are XR (mixed reality), Cybersecurity, and IoT/Smart City technologies.

Zach Patton is the chief editor of the Content Studio at e.Republic and Government Technology. He has been covering the public sector for nearly 20 years. Until 2019, he was the executive editor of Governing magazine, where he also had served as a staff writer for more than a decade.

Rahul Puri, Chief Product Officer, has worked with organizations around the globe to lead innovations in technology strategy, digital transformation, and product management. He has more than 20 years’ experience spanning the public sector, health care, and media. As the former Chief Software Architect for the City of New York’s Health and Human Services, Puri architected and implemented systems that helped redefine the use of technology and data in health and human services agencies in New York City. During his time in Northrop Grumman as a lead architect, Puri led the effort to build a Fraud Waste and Abuse platform and team to win the FPS 2.0 contract at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. More recently, Puri was responsible for the architecture, buildout, and operations of Magine’s global platform while he was CTO. As Chief Product Officer, Puri is responsible for ensuring that GCOM's product portfolio meets customer and market demands.

Anne Roest has more than 35 years of experience in technology, starting as a programmer for Fidelity Investments in Boston. From there Anne moved to Albany where she worked for a bank before moving to New York State Government. Anne rose through several State positions including Director of Technology for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and the CIO for New York State Public Safety. She moved to New York City Government in 2004 as Commissioner for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) and CIO for the City of New York. Upon retirement from the City in 2008 she accepted a position back in New York State to oversee the restructuring of the State’s massive IES program. Anne established a reputation for successfully managing large technology modernization projects, creating a more transparent and open government, and fostering partnerships to improve government efficiency and service delivery. Now fully retired from government she acts as an Advisor to GCOM Software.

Gail M. Roper is the current Chief Information Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland. Roper came to Montgomery County from The Knight Foundation where she served as the Director of National Initiatives.
Roper has built her entire career around her belief that technology can be a tool for individual and community enablement.  She believes that the ability to use technology effectively can bring communities together, empower individuals, and provide economic development opportunities. Roper has a national reputation for contributing to the technology community with a major emphasis on addressing social and academic issues associated with the digital divide. Roper has over 30 years of experience in the technology industry in the public and private sectors. She has participated in national and international speaking engagements and conferences on technology strategy and innovative solutions. Her perspective was sought for the World Summit on the Information Society and the role of Local Authorities in Bilbao, Spain, and as a panel member at the UK’s first conference on government reform in London, England.  Roper led the forum on Augmented Reality in Oakland, California in partnership with Niantic, Inc. and the Next Library Conference in Aarhus, Denmark. Roper served as Chief Information Officer for the City of Raleigh, Kansas City, Missouri, and Austin, Texas, and has been a C-level executive for over 25 years. 

Sarah Samis has a track record of successful leadership in US local government and large healthcare organizations. At GCOM, Sarah is leading the development of SAS products bridging public health, healthcare services and government services addressing the social determinants of health.
For most of 2020, Sarah was a Senior Advisor to the Mayor of New York City leading COVID response for the private hospital and healthcare providers across the City. Prior to COVID, Sarah was Vice President of Care Delivery and Payment Transformation at Geisinger Health System and before that she was Chief of Staff at New York City Health & Hospitals, the nation’s largest public hospital system. In a previous stint at the New York City Mayor’s Office, as a senior policy advisor to the First Deputy Mayor, Sarah developed innovative cross-agency programs to improve health access for the uninsured. Early in her career, at the United Hospital Fund, Sarah lead analysis of new and proposed government healthcare program policies, focusing on New York State.

Nancy Schmid is the General Manager of NIC Maryland, the State’s partner for digital government services. She leads NIC’s 22-person Annapolis office that manages the State’s official website, Maryland.gov, and the delivery of digital services on behalf of the State. As an experienced eGovernment services professional, Nancy is a strategic and passionate executive with a blend of private and public-sector experience. She possesses over thirty years of success in leading, managing, executing, and launching strategic, innovative, award-winning digital products and services. Before becoming the NIC Maryland General Manager, Nancy served as the Director of Operations and Marketing for NIC’s Maryland division in support of Maryland’s statewide eGov services master contract. Before that, Nancy was Director of Project Management for the NIC South Carolina office. In addition to her work with NIC, Nancy possesses over 20 years of government experience working in the municipal, county, and federal arenas.

Mr. Sandeep Sinha is part of Insight’s Digital Innovation National Sales Team and leads Insight’s Smart City and IoT initiatives. He is responsible for driving strategy and execution of Genetec partnership along with other ecosystem partners to deliver business outcomes for our customers. Mr. Sinha has worked with both large companies and startups such as Microsoft, Motorola and Trustonic. He has a Masters in Computer Science and an MBA from University of Chicago.

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. She is a member of several industry advisory boards. Teri 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.

Vallimanalan Thirugnanam is a leader in the Health and Human Services (HHS) industry with focus on IT modernization and program delivery. Over the course of 25 years, Vallimanalan has gained a reputation of increasing efficiency and effectiveness across State and local IT organizations.
Currently, as Director of Applications and Deputy CTO for Maryland Total Human-services Integrated NetworK (MD THINK) at State of Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS), he is managing procurement and program delivery of 20+ contracts valued over $400m with 350+ IT resources to build modern automated IT systems in cloud environment. MD THINK supports State and Federal Welfare programs such as Medicaid, Cash and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP), Child Welfare, Adult/aged, Juvenile Services and Child Support enforcement and collection programs helping about two million Marylanders.
Vallimanalan is passionate in helping clients with planning, design, development, change management and implementation of IT solutions using cloud technologies. He has strong IT experience and vendor management skills to successfully guide the joint efforts of public and private institutions in many complex IT implementations.

Herb is a State, Local and Education Strategist. Having history in various government CIO roles he is responsible for assisting customers achieve their strategic outcomes through understanding their business issues and how policy can impact business outcomes. He has been sharing best practices learned from around the country on optimization, workforce modernization and hybrid cloud. He also is providing insight in practical implementations of AI, Smart Communities and blockchain at many government conferences. Prior to joining in 2018, VMware Herb served as the State of Wisconsin Deputy State CIO and CTO, CIO for Health and Family Services and Corrections.

Chris Usserman is a Director of Security Architecture and subject matter expert with Infoblox. Chris brings over 30 years’ experience in the U.S. intelligence community, and applies that experience by helping clients understand and incorporate cyber business intelligence to mature client cyber security programs. Chris’ focus is on the U.S. Government, and extends that public/private partnership to enhance the security posture of multiple sectors and communities of interest. Chris has been invited to speak on the subject of DNS and cyber security at global conferences. Prior to Infoblox, Chris was Senior Director, Applied Intelligence as well as Director, Government Programs at iSIGHT Partners (FireEye) for over three years. Chris was also a Lead Research Scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories and served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force.

Ryan Willett has been supporting State & Local Government across Maryland for over 4 years, and specifically doing so with DocuSign since April of 2020.