Russ Anderson has over 14 years of technology experience and has served in several roles within Verizon. Russ currently leads the central market team that serves all state, local, and education agencies across 11 states. Russ and team, work day in and day out to provide advanced solutions and support to customers.

Wendy Barron is the Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, helping to build solid partnerships across the Department to deliver customer-centric motor vehicle services to the citizens of Texas.

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.

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).
Before transitioning to HHS, Mr. Blanco served at the Texas Department of State Health (DSHS) as the Acting Chief Information Security Officer, Director of IT Operations, and finally, as the Director of Infrastructure & Operations, where he was responsible for the daily IT operations of eleven state hospitals, ten regional headquarters, 113 field offices, and 588 WIC Field Sites supporting 13,000+ state employees.
In 2016, Mr. Blanco began serving at HHS as the Director for IT System Services, where he established and managed operational planning for the HHS IT System Services Division—delivering, leading, managing high-quality IT services and meeting Service Level Agreements.
Before Mr. Blanco moved to his current role, he served as HHS Chief Technology Officer, where he provided strategic direction of technology by identifying the role specific technologies play in the agency’s business improvement and future growth, established current and long-range direction of technology aimed at keeping the organization on the forefront of innovation, and provided architectural consultation and guidance in strategic operations and planning.
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.

Lauren Burnell is dedicated to helping public sector organizations securely embrace the cloud. Before joining industry as a security engineer, she served for six years as a Navy Cryptologic Warfare Officer. Lauren holds a BS from the US Naval Academy, Masters degree from University of Maryland and numerous industry certifications.

Kevin has been a leader in the CMS industry since its inception, leading marketing teams at Interwoven, Alfresco, Adobe, Bloomreach and most recently, SAP. He is excited to continue driving innovation in the digital experience space. Kevin studied international relations at Stanford University.

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.

DIR Executive Director, State of Texas Chief Information Officer
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.

Krishna Edathil is the Director of Enterprise Solution Services, including cloud and AI, for the State of Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). He is also the founding practice leader for the award winning Texas Artificial Intelligence and Robotics center of excellence. Krishna has more than two decades in technology start-up and leadership roles. He served as senior technology executive for Accenture’s Intelligent Software Engineering Services group, before assuming his current duties for the State of Texas. Krishna has an executive certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management in Leadership and Management including Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things. DIR plays a leadership role in affecting Texas IT policy, operating its two data centers and public cloud program besides facilitating multiple contract vehicle for state agencies to procure IT resources.

As Executive Government Advisor at Amazon Web Services Worldwide Public Sector, Deborah Giles helps governments innovate for their customers. Prior to AWS, Deborah served as a consultant to Fortune 500 technology companies; CEO, Center for Technology; National Government Affairs Director, SHI International; and COO, Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She led enterprise-wide digital transformations, managed workflow modernization projects, directed policy and legislative funding advocacy for large technology projects, and oversaw organizational change projects.

Ken is the Chief Revenue Officer at Taos, an IBM Company. He has a demonstrated history of success in State and Local Government in the applications, security & workflow verticals.
Ken rapidly grew workflow supplier SignNow to win a top ranking in the 2018 Gartner Peer Review and the 2016-2017 Top Enterprise Software by NetSuite. This recognition was from work done with marque accounts such as: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MetLife, Rackspace, Shell, Exxon/Mobil, USAA, Apple, Amazon, TechData, Zoom, Department of Defense, NSA, National Institute of Health, CDC, Republic Services, & State of California. In addition, he pivoted Barracuda from hardware appliances to SaaS award-winning Essentials for Office365. Ken was employee #110 at EMC leading disruption strategies and go to market plans around Cloud, Flash and Partners.
Ken has also authored a best selling book "Leveraging NetSuite & Your Mobile Device".

Morey J. Haber is the Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored three books: Privileged Attack Vectors, Asset Attack Vectors, and Identity Attack Vectors. He is a founding member of the industry group Transparency in Cyber, and in 2020 was elected to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Executive Advisory Board. Morey currently oversees BeyondTrust security and governance for corporate and cloud based solutions and regularly consults for global periodicals and media. He originally joined BeyondTrust in 2012 as a part of the eEye Digital Security acquisition where he served as a Product Owner and Solutions Engineer since 2004. Prior to eEye, he was Beta Development Manager for Computer Associates, Inc. He began his career as Reliability and Maintainability Engineer for a government contractor building flight and training simulators. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Heather serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Texas Workforce Commission. Her 20-year state career includes serving as the Director for Strategic Decision Support at the Health and Human Services Commission; the Project Management Office Director, Deputy CIO and CIO at the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS); Project Manager at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts; and other roles within DADS, Department of Human Services and Office of the Attorney General.
Throughout her career, Heather has volunteered her time and professional skills to several professional organizations including Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC), Project Management Institute (PMI), Executive Women in Texas Government, and State Agency Coordinating Committee IT Subcommittee.
Heather is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional and holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Baylor University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Information Science from The University North Texas.

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.

Steven is an experienced executive, proven consultant, and successful coach, with more than 30 years’ experience supporting and guiding world-class organizations. He is a recognized leader in large and small, public and private organizations, aligning technology innovation with operational improvements. He has managed high-growth and fast-paced environments and achieved success in multi-billion-dollar companies.

John serves as the field CISO for Fortinet. He is a self-published author and continues to be an avid consumer and participant in multiple technical blogs, podcasts and public speaking engagements. He recently completed his Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance and is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification.

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.

Rheda Moseley serves as TABC’s Chief Information Officer and was recently named the 2021 TASSCC Trailblazer for a Public Agency. Currently, she is responsible for a major technology revamp at TABC that includes the development of a cradle-to-grave system for licensing, audit, enforcement, legal, and excise tax reporting and payments replacing 18 systems. Previous state experience includes work at the Texas General Land Office, Texas Office of the Attorney General, and Texas Senate. In addition to her experience in state government, Rheda also has experience in lobbying, transformational technology projects, and private business.

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.

Jason Rader joined in 2015 to define and build out Insight’s National Security Practice. He is charged with managing the security portfolio including strategic consulting offerings and technology focused solutions. Jason has over 25 years experience and a deep understanding of the skills, tools, and methodologies required to deliver true solutions related to today’s security challenges. He likes to be known as a “business consultant who happens to be a security expert” and not the other way around. This approach requires vision beyond individual security projects and focuses on business outcomes and an organization’s overall security program. Jason is known for his expertise in operationalizing security and being a thought leader and sought-after speaker in the threat intelligence and security operations spaces.
Prior to joining Insight, Rader was the Chief Security Strategist and Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence for EMC’s Security Division, RSA, where he was focused on developing enterprise security management strategies in the areas of health care, government, and the financial sector. He also led the RSA Research group in the collection and publication of cyberthreat intelligence related to the latest cyberattacks and advanced threat groups.

Patrick is part of AT&T's Cybersecurity solutions organization. He leads our national practice for state and local government. He works with governmental organizations to help develop meaningful and impactful solutions to their security challenges. He draws on modern solution and 20+ years’ experience in helping design meaningful solutions for governments.

After an initial career as a member of a flight crew in the International Airline industry, Sam Segran joined the Information Technology field in 1985 and has been active in this field for over 30 years.
After three years as Deputy Chief Information Officer, he was promoted to the current position of Chief Information Officer for Texas Tech University in April 2003. In this role, he is responsible for all information technology operations and management for Texas Tech University. He is trained in a number of fields, and holds current certifications in IT Service Delivery, Security Leadership, and Legal Issues in Information Technology.
He serves on various national and regional advisory boards, councils and groups, including the Texas Cybersecurity Council, and he is a current Director on the Texas Lonestar Education and Research Network Board (non-profit corp.)
He was also recognized as the 2012 Texas CIO of the Year for the public sector by the Texas CIO Academy and Government Technology.

Deborah is an accomplished C-level influencer, with a broad range of experience in government, policy, cybersecurity, privacy and information technology. She is an experienced and highly respected thought leader who has held executive roles for over two decades. She recently retired from her position as New York state’s chief information security officer (CISO) after over 35 years of public service.
In that role, as part of New York state’s information technology transformation and consolidation initiative, she helped redesign how the state protects its data. As state CISO, she directed the state’s comprehensive cybersecurity governance, risk management and compliance program, providing strategic leadership and vision and assuring business-aligned, risk-based investments that maximized business opportunity and minimized cybersecurity risk. She also directed the NYS Cyber Command Center, hotline, procedures for reporting and response to cyberthreats and digital forensics.
She holds multiple industry certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP); Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC); SANS Strategic Planning, Policy and Leadership (GSTRT) Global Information Assurance Certification; and Project Management Institute certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

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.

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.

As Executive Editor at e.Republic, Steve is responsible for the coordination of editorial strategies and standards across all the firm’s media platforms. He directs the editorial teams that produce Government Technology, Emergency Management and Digital Communities and their respective Websites, in addition to developing and maintaining corporate policies and standards for editorial. Steve has over 20 years of writing and editing experience including more than 17 years covering technology in the state and local government market.
Steve joined e.Republic in 1996. During his tenure, e.Republic’s print and electronic media have received many awards for editorial excellence, including “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Emergency Management in 2013, “Best New Web Site” from ASBPE for emergencymgmt.com in 2009, ”Best Overall Publication” at the Maggie awards for Government Technology in 2008 and “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Public CIO in 2007.

Brady Vaughn is a government affairs professional with more than a decade of work experience in Texas’ state budget process, government, and political campaigns. He currently serves as the director of budget and public affairs for the Texas Department of Information Resources. In this role, he oversees budget and legislative affairs for the state’s technology agency.
Prior to joining DIR, Brady worked in the Office of the Attorney General’s Government Relations Division and spent five sessions in the Texas Legislature, with the majority of that time in the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees.
Brady graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - International Business.

Mark Weatherford is a globally recognized information security professional with experience at some of the world’s largest public- and private-sector organizations. He was appointed as the first deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity at DHS in the Obama administration and was chief information security officer for the state of Colorado and for the state of California under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the energy industry, he was VP and chief security officer at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, where he worked daily with Congress and electric utilities across North America on cybersecurity standards, regulations, and policy issues. He also served as a principal at The Chertoff Group and was VP and chief cybersecurity strategist at vArmour. Most recently, he was the VP and global information security strategist at Booking Holdings, the world’s largest online travel business with offices and employees in almost every country in the world and whose major companies include Booking, Priceline, Kayak, OpenTable and Agoda.