Brian Benn is Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of the Atlanta Housing Authority. Brian is responsible for the development and implementation of technology strategies that are aligned with and anchored by the overarching strategy of the agency. Consequently, he ensures the progression and timely completion of all technical projects as well as the agency's security program and is ultimately responsible for the function and successful execution of the following departments:
- Business Solutions
- Governance, Risk, and Compliance
- Records and Information Management
- Technical Operations
Brian studied Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and possesses a Master of Business Administration degree from Belhaven University. Brian volunteers as an Executive Ambassador for TechBridge, Incorporated, serves on the Executive Advisory Board for Atlanta Technology Professionals, and serves as Board Chair for the Technology Association of Georgia's Southeastern Software Association.

Yvonne Carney is the Director of Strategic Performance at WSSC Water, a public utility in Maryland that provides water and wastewater services to 1.8 million residents of Montgomery and Prince Georges counties. She is responsible for facilitating the development of WSSC Water’s Strategic Plan and champions the use of data and risk analysis to drive decision-making across the utility. Prior to WSSC Water, she was Director of Performance Improvement at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C.
Yvonne has a B.A. in English from the University of Houston and a M.S. in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. She holds certifications in Enterprise Risk Management (COSO) and Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM).

John M. Daane started his Information Technology career when he was a member of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, with his final duty station being a NATO Posting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. After immigrating to the United States in 2001, he held various IT positions in State government, City Government, and the private sector, before landing in Pensacola, Florida. He has always been on the Operations side of IT and started as a Technician working on servers and networks and eventually becoming the Director of Information Technology at ECUA – Emerald Coast Utilities Authority in 2015. He has 2 Bachelor of Science degrees and an MBA, and various industry certifications. His mantra is: If it is not “Better, Faster, AND Cheaper” than what we are doing today, I am not interested.

Gina Ellis-Strother became the Chief Administrative Officer of Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission after serving as their Director of Marketing. She continues to oversee the marketing responsibilities for the Commission in addition to the Human Resources division and the Charleston County Parks Foundation. She has more than 20 years of experience marketing travel and technology at several companies including American Airlines, SABRE, Worldspan and Verizon Wireless. She graduated Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree at Hunter College of The City University of New York and a Master of Business Administration at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina. In 2015, the American Marketing Association of Charleston awarded Ms. Ellis-Strother the Spark! Award for the Marketer of the Year for her innovative rebranding and advertising work for Charleston County Parks. That same year, she was presented with the Gold Stevie Award for Marketer of the Year at the American Business Awards in Chicago. She is a member of the American Marketing Association and the Society for Human Resource Management. She presently lives in Charleston, SC with her husband Troy and daughter Gabrielle.</p

Dustin Haisler is the Chief Innovation Officer for e.Republic. As Chief Innovation Officer, he has a strategic role to help shape the company’s products, services, and future direction. Primarily, he leads e.Republic Labs, a market connector created as an ecosystem to educate, accelerate, and ultimately scale technology innovation within the public sector. Dustin began he career at a very young age as the finance director and later CIO for Manor, TX, a small city outside Austin. He quickly built a track record and national reputation as an early innovator in civic tech, for which he was named a Government Technology Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver in 2009. A member of Code for America’s original steering committee, Dustin pioneered government use of commercial technologies not before used in the public sector – including Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing, and gamification. Dustin went on to the private sector to help broaden the adoption of these and other civic innovations. His work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc., and the Today Show on NBC. An in-demand speaker, he has given two TEDx speeches – one on Disrupting Government (TEDxAustin) and the other on Disrupting Education (TEDxLivermore).

Michael Harrod is a Principal Architect with AT&T’s Global Public Sector- State and Local Government & Education Solutions organization. Michael has over 15 years of experience with AT&T in a variety of positions supporting public-sector in the New England, Eastern and Mid-Atlantic regions with clients in their efforts to deliver next-generational services in voice, data and collaboration, and moving to the world of IoT and next generational SD-WAN services. In his years supporting this market, Michael has shared industry trends, critical analysis and strategic insights in presentations for multiple state and local government conferences.

Robert Hicks is the Chief Operating Officer for the Delaware River Port Authority. He is an internationally recognized expert on transportation, technology, infrastructure, urban policy and planning issues having spoken and moderated sessions at the American Public Transit Association, National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, Mayors’ Asia Pacific Environmental Summit and United Nations and World Bank conferences just to name a few.
He was the former Managing Director, Research & Strategic Initiatives and Director, Transportation Programs at Public Technology Institute (PTI) and advisor to the international transportation exchange organization for world class cities, IMPACTS. He was also a founding advisor for NACTO which is a partnership of the transportation departments of the largest cities in the United States. Mr. Hicks was also the former Associate Director/Chief Information Officer for the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT) and former Chief, Transportation Policy and Planning for the District of Columbia Department of Public Works.
He is a former German Marshall Fund of the United States environmental fellow with over 35 years of experience working in the private, non-profit and government sectors. Mr. Hicks’ perspective and expertise on urban transportation and technology issues have been profiled in media including Government Technology, Washington Technology and Traffic Technology International magazines.
Mr. Hicks has written or published over twenty white papers, guidebooks or best practice documents that have been disseminated to hundreds of thousands of local elected and appointed officials within the United States and abroad during his tenure at Public Technology Institute (PTI) working through its Urban Consortium (representing the 50 largest cities and counties within the U.S.). He recently consulted as a Sr. Policy Advisor on international transportation and trade matters for the Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation.
Mr. Hicks earned a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from Howard University and Masters in Engineering Administration from The George Washington University. Mr. Hicks is a native of Philadelphia.

Bruce J. Moeller, PhD. has a diverse public-sector background spanning over 30 years, retiring as Chief of Staff and Assistant County Administrator in Pinellas County, Florida. Previously Moeller served as fire chief and then city manager for Sunrise, Florida. He also served as Director and Chief of Department for Broward County Fire-Rescue in Florida. Currently, Moeller assists local governments and others to assess and enhance public safety services – focusing on fire-rescue, EMS and 911 operations.
Chief Moeller has been a certified paramedic for over 20 years and has commanded various incidents of significance including Hurricane Andrew (1991), Value Jet #592 crash in the Florida Everglades (1996), South Florida Anthrax Panic (2001) and Hurricane Wilma (2006). Moeller is active in a variety of national associations and has served on numerous boards and committees.
Dr. Moeller has a bachelor’s from Western Illinois University; Master’s in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University; and received his Doctor of Philosophy from Florida Atlantic University. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration, management, labor relations, fire & emergency services, and organizational theory and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Florida. Dr. Moeller is a frequent speaker at national conferences and is an author in public administration and fire rescue fields – having contributed to Disaster Management Handbook published in 2008 by Taylor & Francis and the 4th Edition (2012) of ICMA’s Managing Fire Rescue Services.

Chief Kingman Schuldt has been active in fire rescue services since 1978, working with a number of volunteer and career fire rescue agencies over his 41-year fire service career.
Kingman currently serves as Fire Chief and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District (GNFD) in Collier County, Florida. GNFD is the result of the merger of five independent fire districts since November, 2014. Together these mergers created the formation of the largest independent special fire district in the state of Florida. GNFD responds to more than 22,000 emergency incidents and performs over 6,000 life safety inspections annually. The District is comprised of 230 fire, rescue and life safety professionals operating from 20 facilities, serving more than 160,000 residents and seasonal visitors within the District’s 1,512 square miles. GNFD also serves as fire marshal to Collier County and Everglades City providing oversite to the life safety plan review processes, and manages an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation to operate a Public Safety Center serving 55 miles of interstate highway through the Florida Everglades.
Kingman holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Barry University and Associate of Science degree in Fire Science Technology from Broward College. He is a graduate of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Services LEAD program at the University of Virginia and the Florida Fire and Emergency Services Foundation Emergency Services Leadership Institute. In 2005, Chief Schuldt received designated as Chief Fire Officer from the Center of Public Safety Excellence.
Kingman currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and International Director for the Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs. Kingman additionally serves on a number of professional boards and councils including the Knox® Rapid Access Advisory Council, Special Districts National Advisory Board, and “A Safe Havens for Newborns” Advisory Board. His civic contributions include serving on boards of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and Golden Gate Civic Association.
In July of 2013 Kingman was recognized by his colleagues as the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association Fire Chief of the Year, and in 2014 as the Florida State Fire Chief of the Year.

Steve Towns is the former editor of Government Technology, and former executive editor for e.Republic Inc., publisher of GOVERNING, Government Technology, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines. He has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at newspapers and magazines, including more than 15 years of covering technology in the state and local government market. Steve now serves as the Deputy Chief Content Officer for e.Republic.