Brenda directs DFA’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Mississippi Management Reporting Systems (MMRS). OIT provides IT support for DFA and the Governor’s Office. MMRS is responsible for the maintenance and development of the statewide financial and human resources & payroll systems. Prior to becoming Deputy Executive Director, Brenda was the Director for MMRS. She also was a Team Lead for the statewide ERP implementation. Brenda has over 30 years working for the State of Mississippi of which over twenty five years has been at DFA implementing and supporting statewide systems.

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.

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.

Dr. Dent is the Chief Information Officer at Jackson State University. In this position, she oversees the management of the university’s network and communications infrastructure, enterprise resource planning system and other information technology (IT) services that support all levels of research, learning, and teaching.
Information Technology consists of three units: Academic IT, Computing and Communications, and IT Managed Services, all staffed to deliver customer friendly support to all JSU campuses.
Dr. Dent joined Jackson State in August 2012 after a 37 year career with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Prior to joining Jackson State, Dr. Dent served as the Deputy Director of the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS. She holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS in Computer Science from Jackson State University and PhD in Scientific Computing from the University of Southern Mississippi.

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

Joe has modernized all systems through multiple tech refresh cycles at the City of Ridgeland and achieved Google eCity status in 2013. As part of the design team, Joe planned and moved operations to a newly constructed City Hall in February 2021 and acted as the on-site Project Manager of the construction beginning in early 2020.

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.

Logan has worked in IT for state government for over 16 years. For the last 13 years, he has participated on a project to consolidate disparate, statewide applications into a highly integrated enterprise resource planning system. During this time, he has led implementations of statewide solutions for Fleet Management and Reverse Auctions. He is now the Project Director and is overseeing the replacement of the Statewide Payroll and Human Resource System (SPAHRS).

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.

Renée has been with the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) for 23 years starting in the Strategic Services Division as an Agency Planner. E-Government was the first project Renée was assigned at ITS when she was tasked with encouraging agencies to move services online. Through stints as a project manager, business analyst, and procurement manager, oversight of the E-Government Program has remained a constant focus. Mississippi’s program launches well over 20 services each year and serves nearly 100 government entities in the state.

Dr. Orgeron has extensive experience in both the private and public sector. Currently, he serves as an Executive Government Advisor with AWS coaching Government Executives to accelerate their journey to the cloud. Prior to joining AWS, he served as the CIO for the State of Mississippi, and President of NASCIO.

Tony currently serves as a government technology strategist for state and local governments in the south-central region of the U.S for Dell Technologies. Previously, Tony served as a technology leader with the state of Florida with more than 28 years. In the past 15 years, Tony has held the roles of Executive Director of the Southwood Shared Resource Center, Chief Information Officer in both the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Revenue. During Tony’s distinguished career he led large, complex strategic enterprise transformational initiatives to include datacenter consolidation of state IT resources within three state datacenters, $120 million-dollar Child Support Management System, $110 million-dollar Tax and Revenue Management system (SUNTAX) as well as lead the largest Cloud migration initiatives to date in Florida State Government. Tony earned his bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Maryland (European Division). He served honorably in the United States Air Force and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War. Tony is married to his high school sweetheart Candace and they have two children, Nicola and Quinton. For more detail see: linkedin.com/in/tonypowelltally

Nishanth has more than 27 years of diverse IT experience in academia, manufacturing (automotive and pharmaceutical) and professional health care organizations. In his current role, Nishanth leads university-wide IT services for UM and assists the institution achieve its objectives using innovative technology approaches. He provides leadership for the continued development of an innovative, robust, and secure information technology environment throughout the University. His prior role was the Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Michigan State University. Nishanth led a team responsible for all aspects related to Infrastructure, Data Center, Electronic Medical Record, Service Management and Operations for the approximately 65,000 member campus spanning over 10,000 acres. Before that, Nishanth was Director of IT Technology/InterOperability at Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For his service, he was awarded the Bronson President's Leadership Award and earned the highest employee opinion survey results in 2013. Other positions Nishanth has held include Global Systems Engineering Manager at Perrigo Inc. in Allegan, Michigan, and Director of Operations and Infrastructure/Site Service Delivery Director and Clinical Systems Team Manager at Borgess Health/Ascension Health in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Nishanth earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Michigan State University. His professional memberships include the Intel Corp. Mobility Advisory Board, Michigan Healthcare Cybersecurity Council, Big Ten Academic Alliance and several committees at other national organizations.

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.

Jay White is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the Director of Data Services for the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS). ITS's CISO provides oversight of the cybersecurity efforts across all state agencies, including cybersecurity systems, services and development of policies, standards and guidelines. The Data Services Division of ITS is responsible for management and oversight of the state government data centers, and numerous compute, storage, co-location services and systems.
Jay has worked as a technology consultant with ITS for over 20 years. Jay has been the ITS CISO since in 2011 and became the Director of Data Services in early 2021. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.

Dana Wilson is the Senior General Manager for Mississippi NIC Division of Tyler Technologies. With more than eleven years of eGovernment experience, Dana leads the team that has helped the State of Mississippi deliver over 250 online, mobile, and IoT solutions, providing citizens an efficient and secure way to engage agencies, departments, local, and state government. Under her leadership, Mississippi’s self-funded eGovernment program has resulted in an over $11 million cost avoidance for the state since its 2010 inception. (@msdotgov)

Dr. Young is responsible for data, information technology, research, non-communicable epidemiology, data and technology security, revenue cycle, electronic health record, database, and vital statistics functions of the agency.
Dr. Young is a graduate of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and holds a Master of Health Services Administration degree from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Health Sciences from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. In addition to her role with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, Dr. Young is an adjunct faculty member for the School of Health Related Professions at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She has experience in hospital administration, health information and informatics, life sciences research, healthcare reimbursement, analytics and policy development.
Before joining the Mississippi State Department of Health, Dr. Young served as the Deputy of Health Services, the Director of Innovation Initiatives, and the Medical Services Director in the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. She has also been a Director in University of Mississippi Medical Center Hospital Administration and for UMMC University Heart.