President, e.Republic

Dustin Haisler is the President of e.Republic - the nation's leading state and local government data, media, and events company - and the parent company of Government Technology, Governing, and the Center for Digital Government. He is also active in the academic and research community, serving as co-lead of the Center for Public Sector AI, an Eisenhower Fellow (2019 Zhi-Xing Program), board member of the Good Governance Worldwide Academic Journal, and Program Faculty for the Certified Public Management Program (CPM) at Texas State University.
As the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Assistant City Manager for the City of Manor, Texas, Dustin quickly built a reputation as an early innovator in civic tech. He pioneered government use of commercial technologies not previously used in the public sector, including open innovation, Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing, and gamification. Recognized as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers for government technology, he was also named a Business Transformation 150 Leader by Constellation Research. His work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, the Today Show on NBC, The Economist, CNN, Fortune, and Citizenville by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Most recently, Dustin has led initiatives to help public sector agencies safely adopt and integrate artificial intelligence technologies through public speaking, research, training, expert testimonies, and the development of AI tools.
Dustin graduated Magna Cum Laude from LeTourneau University with a Bachelor of Business Administration and has conducted research with universities around the globe on incubating next-generation technologies in government, including the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University and the University of Trento, Italy. He is a frequent speaker and expert advisor who collaborates with Fortune 500 companies, investors, government agencies, academia, startups, and non-profits worldwide on the global govtech market, public sector technology trends, and artificial intelligence development.

Cathilea is Chief Executive Officer of e.Republic, where she oversees operations for the company’s award-winning media platforms: Governing, Government Technology and Emergency Management. Cathilea also oversees e.Republic’s websites, conferences and events, and its national research and advisory groups: the Center for Digital Government, the Center for Digital Education and the Governing Institute.
In 2014 Cathilea directed the launch of the Governing Institute’s Women in Government Leadership Program, an innovative initiative that encourages future generations of women to participate in public service.
Cathilea is a frequent speaker for government and education organizations worldwide, including the United Nations, Harvard University, the State Legislative Leaders' Foundation, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, and the World Congress on Information Technology. She has been quoted frequently in publications including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Forbes and others.
Cathilea is a recipient of NASCIO’s National Technology Champion Award for her outstanding contributions to advance public sector information technology innovation. She is also the winner of an Outstanding Women Leadership Award from the Sacramento Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and is a Greater Sacramento Business Hall of Fame Laureate.

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.

Giovanni was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2012 and is serving his sixth term representing District 98, which encompasses all or part of Grapevine, Colleyville, Southlake, Keller, Westlake, and Euless. Giovanni currently serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Pensions, Investments & Financial Services, the House Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technologies, and the Innovation & Technology Caucus. He is also Co-Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council. As a leader in technology policy that comes before the legislature, Giovanni is looked to for guidance on a multitude of different important topics. He has passed several key pieces of legislation such as the Texas Cybercrime Act, the Texas Cybersecurity Act, and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act. He has also passed legislation creating an Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, created harsher punishments for doxing, addressed IT workforce shortages, and thoughtfully regulated digital asset service providers. He has previously chaired several technology-focused committees, such as the Texas Data Privacy Advisory Council, the House Select Committee on Cybersecurity, the Joint Oversight Committee on Investment in IT Improvement and Modernization Projects, and the Appropriations Subcommittee on State Infrastructure, Resiliency, and Investment. In recognition of his work, Giovanni was awarded the 2024 Bob Bullock Award for Outstanding Public Stewardship, 2023 Texas Association of Business Technology Policy & Innovation Award, the 2023 Technology Champion Award from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, and the 2022 Champion of Innovation Award from TechNet. Giovanni has been married to his wife Elisa for 24 years and has three children. After receiving his BS in Physics, he pursued his MBA in Finance from Santa Clara University. After school, Giovanni embarked on a semiconductor design career in Silicon Valley before going on to work for a DFW-based venture capital/private equity firm.

Chelse focuses on the intersection of emerging technologies and urban co-creation and is pursuing a doctoral degree at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. She also serves as a research assistant for Good Systems, an interdisciplinary program on ethical AI, and an NSF NRT Fellow on Ethical AI. Chelsea completed The Simon Industrial and Professional (SIP) Fellowship at the University of Manchester in 2019. She is also a Marshall Memorial Fellow (2018) and an Eisenhower Fellow (2016). She authored the Smart Cities Playbook, Smart(er) Cities Toolkit and her work has been featured in Inc.com, Venture Beat, Governing Magazine, etc. Her experience in government, economic development, social enterprise and tech entrepreneurship informs her cross sector approach.

Nikhil J. Deshpande is Chief Digital Officer for the state of Georgia. He heads the Office of Digital Services (DSGa) under the Georgia Technology Authority.
Nikhil envisioned and led Georgia’s user-centric digital transition to an enterprise open-source web publishing system, GovHub. Under his direction, Georgia became the first state in the United States to use enterprise Drupal and meet special needs of constituents with a range of disabilities affecting vision, hearing, motion, and cognition, making GovHub Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.
Nikhil strongly advocated and set the framework for the use of social media for Georgia, back when using social media for government was not common. He established a presence for the state on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to quickly address citizens’ questions and concerns.
Prior to his career in digital government, Nikhil worked in advertising and digital media.
Nikhil has two master’s degrees in visual communications and Interaction Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He served as adjunct faculty at the Atlanta campus of SCAD for 10 years, where he taught graduate classes in Interaction Design and User Experience.
Nikhil has won several national and international awards and recognition for his work in digital government. He was recently honored with Atlanta’s 40 under 40, an award recognizing 40 accomplished individuals under the age of 40.
Connect with Nikhil on Twitter or LinkedIn @nikofthehill

Kerrica has over 30 years of local government experience and for over twenty years she has successfully engaged leadership teams, stakeholders, customers, staff, and vendors to create innovative, customer driven, community focused technology solutions for the Austin community.
As the Chief Information Officer for the City of Austin, she focuses on digital transformation efforts that will help the city modernize its technology portfolio and improve the digital experience for employees, the community and business operations. Additionally, her teams provide the core IT services that the City depends on daily.
Kerrica is a University of Texas alumna and she’s active in the Austin technology community serving as an advisor to the SIM (Society for Information Management) Austin Board of Directors and sits on the ACC Continuing Education IT Advisory Board.  She was awarded the Statescoop Local IT Leader of the Year Award in 2023. 

Senator Maroney currently serves as the Co-Chair of the General Law Committee.  In his time as co-chair of the committee, he has passed comprehensive consumer data privacy laws, children and consumer health data privacy laws, a law governing state government use of AI, laws modernizing and expanding the practice of pharmacy in Connecticut, among others.
Recently Senator Maroney was named to the inaugural Leadership Council of the Future of Privacy Forum Center for Artificial Intelligence. Senator Maroney’s work on tech legislation has been recognized nationally.
Prior to politics, Sen. Maroney founded and ran an educational consulting business in Milford.  In addition, he was a past president and founding member of the Milford Education Foundation and served on the Milford Board of Education. A proud and active participant in the community, he is a member and past president of the Devon Rotary, where he chaired the scholarship committee for years.
Prior to a successful career in public service, State Senator Maroney attended Yale (Class of 96), where he was a 3-time varsity letter winner in both track and field and cross-country. In his senior year, he was elected captain of the track and field team and was awarded the Yale Men’s Cross-Country Award for Performance and Dedication. He graduated from Jonathan Law High School of Milford in 1992.

Dr. Orgeron has extensive information technology experience in the private, federal, and state levels of the public sector. Currently, Dr. Orgeron serves as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) and Chief Information Officer for the State of Mississippi, a role he held previously for nearly a decade. Dr. Orgeron began his career as a communications-computer systems officer in the United States Air Force. He has served as an Executive Government Advisor with Amazon Web Services (AWS), President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), and on the Executive Committee of the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). Dr. Orgeron holds a bachelor’s degree in MIS, a master’s degree, and a doctorate in public policy and administration from Mississippi State University and is a graduate of the Harvard University Business Analytics Program (HBAP).

Rose serves as the Associate Director for Ethics and Compliance within the Office of Internal Audit, Ethics & Compliance at the University System of Georgia (USG) and Executive Director of the TRUIST Center for Ethical Leadership (TRUIST CEL) within the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia (UNG). Rose leads the TRUIST CEL K-12, University and Community programs. Rose’s leadership is instrumental in the Building Ethical Leaders (BEL) Leadership Development Program, the Ethical Culture Indicator (ECI) organizational culture assessment and several other leadership programs at UNG. In 2023, Rose moderated the USG panel on “Ethical Considerations for a Data-Driven Landscape” for Chancellor Sonny Perdue. She has served in higher education for over 23 years, formerly serving at Kennesaw State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia (MIZZOU).

Shannon was first elected to office in 2016, and reelected in 2018, 2020 & 2022. He has served on the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, Assembly Committee on Education, Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy and Assembly Committee on Tourism. This session Shannon will once again serve on the powerful Joint Committee on Finance.  Shannon's top priorities in the Assembly are to provide common sense solutions to strengthen educational institutions, remedy the workforce challenges facing the state, and protect the hard-working taxpayers of Wisconsin. He also serves on the Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology.
Shannon Zimmerman was raised in rural western Wisconsin and graduated from Augusta High School in 1990. He attended Chippewa Valley Technical College and then went on to attend UW-Milwaukee before founding Sajan, Inc., where he served as the CEO. Sajan was recognized by INC Magazine as both an INC 500 and INC 5000 Fastest Growing Company in multiple years.  Shannon has more than 20 years of experience in information technology and localization. Shannon’s leadership, knowledge, and mentorship have resulted in providing complete localization solutions to many of the world’s largest brands. With international offices in six countries, this business employed hundreds in the St Croix Valley and was recognized as Large Business of the Year in 2011 by the St Croix Economic Development Council.