Amanda Crawford is the Executive Director of DIR and serves as the Chief Information Officer for the State of Texas. In this role, she is responsible for the overall leadership, direction, and daily operations of DIR, an agency with an annual fiscal profile of more than $4 billion per year. DIR's responsibilities include protecting the state's data and critical technology infrastructure, managing a multi-billion dollar cooperative contracts program, and providing strategic technology leadership, solutions, and innovation to all levels of Texas government. Under Mandy’s leadership, DIR led the state’s successful response to the 2019 ransomware attack that affected over 20 local government entities in Texas and secured the transition to the next-generation suite of managed IT services offered through DIR’s Shared Technology Services program.
Prior to leading the team at DIR, Mandy served at the Office of the Attorney General of Texas (OAG) for more than 17 years. She held various positions at the OAG, including ultimately serving for two and a half years as the Deputy Attorney General for Administration and General Counsel. Mandy also served as a faculty member for the National Attorneys General Training Research Institute’s Center for Leadership Development, teaching managerial leadership across the country.
Mandy earned her B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and her law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. She is a graduate of the Governor’s Center for Executive Development through the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.

Giovanni Capriglione was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2012 and is serving his fifth term representing District 98 which encompasses all or part of Grapevine, Colleyville, Euless, Southlake, Keller, and Westlake. He currently serves on the House Committee on Pension, Investments & Financial Services and the House Committee on Appropriations. He is the chairman of the Innovation & Technology Caucus and a member of the following House caucuses: Manufacturers Caucus, Rural Caucus, Sportsman's Caucus, Veteran's Caucus, Farm to Table Caucus, and the Fine Arts Education Caucus. Giovanni also chairs the Tarrant County Delegation.
Giovanni lives in Southlake along with his wife of 20 years, Elisa and their three daughters. After receiving his BS in Physics, he pursued his MBA in Finance from Santa Clara University. After school, Giovanni went on to work for a DFW based venture capital/private equity firm. Giovanni is now the owner and president of his own small business, Texas Adventure Capital LLC, which provides business services to various investment fund managers and business owners. His focus is investing in Texas-based small businesses. Previously, Giovanni held various positions at computer engineering companies specializing in semiconductor design and Internet products, and was senior vice president at an investment firm where he managed the loan and equity portfolios of various American businesses.

Tanya Acevedo is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Capital Metro in Austin, Texas, with three decades of technology experience, Tanya Acevedo has a proven track record of establishing the technology vision and leading innovative strategies that add value, increase revenue opportunities, and ultimately decrease costs of service, for large organizations. Her prior roles included the CIO for Miami Dade College, Houston Airports and Travis County, Texas.
Tanya holds a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems and in 2021 Tanya was recognized as a Public Sector finalist by the Houston CIO of the Year ORIBE awards, in 2017 she was listed in Government Technology magazine as a Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Driver, and in 2016 she received the Texas Public Sector, Chief Information Officer of the Year.

Wendy Barron serves as the Chief Information Officer of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV), a customer focused agency that provides motor vehicle services, including registration and titling, to the citizens of Texas. As the Department’s technology leader, Wendy is helping to build strategic partnerships across and outside the organization to deliver customer-centric motor vehicle services to the TxDMV constituents.
Wendy has managed information technology projects and operations at Texas government organizations for over 20 years. Her prior leadership roles include serving as the Deputy CIO of the TxDMV and leading the Information Technology Divisions of the State Office of Administrative Hearings and the Texas Water Development Board. In the early days of her career, Wendy served in various information technology roles including as a data analyst, systems analyst, and project manager.
Wendy has a BBA in Computer Information Systems and a Master of Public Administration, both from Texas State University. She is also a certified Project Management Professional.
In her off time, Wendy enjoys spending time with her husband and being a mom to her elementary-aged son. She also enjoys the outdoors and helping her family run their cattle ranch in the Texas Hill Country.

Mr. Blanco is responsible for overseeing the Health and Human Services (HHS) Information Technology (IT) division; directing innovation efforts; determining IT needs; and developing standards and methodologies for the overall strategy of system development and integration of client/server applications.
Utilizing his depth of IT knowledge, an innovative mindset, and the ability to create high-performing teams, Mr. Blanco has delivered key departmental accomplishments since being promoted to the role of Chief Information Officer in August 2019, including consolidation of almost 900 servers into the State’s Data Center Services (DCS) program, standardization of business processes, agency-wide operating system upgrades to Windows 10, transition of all in-scope IT contracts, and development of a 10-Year Modernization Plan.
During COVID, Mr. Blanco’s utilized his experience in emergency response and disaster recovery to define risks, assess priorities, and strategically and efficiently deliver remote working technology solutions to over 40,000+ HHS and DSHS staff, thus enabling the agency to continue their mission of improving the health, safety, and well-being of Texans. This included imaging and distributing over 15k laptops, deploying Microsoft Teams ahead of schedule, and expanding network perimeters and applying more effective security protocols to serve an almost fully remote workforce; cloud-based capabilities to legacy systems for improved data reporting and sharing; implement COVID-critical applications, including Texas Health Trace (THT), Vaccine & Allocation & Ordering System, Client Encounter System (CES), and Infectious Diseases Data Integration (IDDI).
Mr. Blanco practices value-based leadership. His supportive, transparent, and honest approach cultivates an environment of shared goals, while encouraging innovation and allowing room for staff growth and development.

As the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Assistant City Manager for the City of Manor, Texas, a city outside Austin, Dustin quickly built a track record and reputation as an early innovator in civic tech. Dustin pioneered government use of commercial technologies not before used in the public sector – including Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing, and gamification. Dustin was named as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for government technology, was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2019, and most recently, a 2021 Business Transformation 150 Leader by Constellation Research. Dustin’s work over the years has been featured numerous publications and books including Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, the Today Show on NBC, and Citizenville by California Governor, Gavin Newsom.
Dustin graduated Magna Cum Laude from LeTourneau University with a Bachelor of Business Administration and has worked 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. Dustin continues to work with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, academia, gov tech startups, and non-profits across the globe on innovation, go-to-market, and citizen engagement strategies.

John Hoffman serves as the Deputy State Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer for the Texas Department of Information Resources. John joined the DIR team in 2010 and has held various roles within the agency in network and security. He is responsible for providing comprehensive strategic planning for the state's technology efforts as well as the agency. John oversees DIR's reporting such as the State Strategic Plan for Information Managers, the Biennial Performance Review. John and the CTO team also ensures strategic development of contracts and services which DIR offers including shared technology services, data center services, enterprise architecture, application management, innovation, and technology implementation.
John brings over 30 years of experience in the technology sector. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Anh Selissen serves as Chief Information Officer (CIO) forTxDOT, overseeing information security, infrastructure, strategic direction, and the personnel and vendor activities of the Information Management Division.
Selissen has led enterprise IT systems and staff in both the public and private sectors, having previously held positions as CIO at NuStats Inc. and director of enterprise systems at the University of Texas at Austin. Most recently Selissen served as deputy CIO at the Texas Comptroller’s Office. Among several professional affiliations, Selissen is president elect of the Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications, and IT chair of the State Agency Coordinating Council.

Jennifer Sims is the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). She rejoined DFPS in this role in January 2023, reprising a role she held at DFPS from 2011-2016. Sims has served in state government for 25 years and has held multiple leadership positions.
Prior to her recent appointment to Deputy Commissioner, Sims served as the Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) for seven years leading up to her state retirement in August of 2021. As DSHS Deputy, she was responsible for program oversight and agency operations, including financial services, external relations, strategic planning, public health data, and policy oversight.
Sims helped lead DSHS through the COVID-19 public health crisis and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, just two of the highest profile events under her watch. She has also served as Associate Commissioner of the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) and, in a prior engagement with DFPS, she was the Director of External Relations and Executive Operations. Sims also has experience as both a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and a foster parent.
Sims holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Bachelor’s in Psychology. She also holds professional certifications in change management, mediation, and dispute resolution.