Transformation in Action

Vinay Singh

Chief AI Officer, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Mr. Vinay V. Singh is passionate about process and project management. He has held numerous leadership roles in the private sector for over 25 years, spanning accounting, finance, technology, and operations management spheres. He is a Certified Public Accountant. He joined the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as Chief Financial Officer in July 2022 from the Small Business Administration where he helped implement a new mission for the Office of Disaster Assistance. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also selected Mr. Singh as the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer in November 2023. Prior to this he was a Partner and Chief Operating Officer for KPMG in India where he led many teams all aligned to achieving operational excellence.

Hon. Shana Broussard

Commissioner, Federal Election Commission

Commissioner Broussard of Louisiana joined the Commission in 2008 as an attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Office of General Counsel. Following her nomination on October 28, 2020, the U.S. Senate confirmed by a vote of 92-4 on December 9, 2020. She immediately assumed the position of Chair and led the agency’s effort to reduce an historic backlog of enforcement matters. She has also spearheaded rulemaking efforts on internet communication disclaimers, technological modernizations, and to expand eligibility for candidate salaries to increase opportunities for individuals from underrepresented communities to run for federal office. In addition to her official duties, Commissioner Broussard often speaks before industry groups, members of the Bar, and students about her work on the Commission.

Prior to her confirmation, Commissioner Broussard was Counsel for FEC Commissioner Steven T. Walther. Before joining the agency, she was Attorney Advisor at the Internal Revenue Service, Office of Professional Responsibility, and Deputy Disciplinary Counsel at the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. She began her legal career as a New Orleans Assistant District Attorney and was appointed in that role to the Violent Offenders Strike Force.

Commissioner Broussard is a proud alumna of two historically black universities (HBCUs), earning her B.A. from Dillard University and her J.D. cum laude from Southern University Law Center. She is the recipient of the NAACP 2015 Juneteenth Celebration Trailblazer Award for Terrebonne Parish in recognition of her achievement as the first African American attorney from Gibson, LA.

Chris Kraft (Invited)

Deputy CTO, AI/Emerging Tech, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Chris Kraft is the Deputy Executive Director for Chief Technology Officer Directorate, in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS Headquarters, Management Directorate, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Mr. Kraft Leads a wide range of complex architecture activities and provides vision, leadership, and advice in developing information technology (IT) strategies and approaches for the CTO. Mr. Kraft’s work efforts directly affect the formulation and execution of the strategic plans and best practices for AI and ML integration. Mr. Kraft serves as the OCIO representative for AI and Emerging Technology councils and/or boards to maintain Department-wide collaboration and
consensus on strategic direction.

Chris Kraft most recently served as the Assistant Administrator for Financial Systems in FEMA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). In this role, Mr. Kraft serves as the principal advisor to the CFO regarding the consolidation and integration of integrated mission-essential financial, acquisition, and asset management systems. The financial systems modernization initiative is a key strategy to achieve compliant financial management (FM) services and optimize FM operations across the diverse DHS systems. The OCFO ensures the funds necessary to carry out the Department’s mission are obtained, allocated, and spent in support of the Department’s priorities and in accordance with law and policies.

Togai Andrews

CISO, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Chief Information Security Officer with proven history of building and advancing Cyber Security programs. He utilizes his experience in achieving risk reduction and minimizing the cyber threat landscape to ensure that people, processes and technologies are working together to enable the business/mission.

Diane Staheli

Director, Emerging Technology, Cyber, National Security Council

Bio to come.

Karim Said

CISO, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

Karim Said is a member of the cybersecurity community at NASA with an academic and professional background in software development and human-centered computing. Karim’s current interests include breaking and building code (and teaching others to do the same), the open-source community (and the lessons we can learn from it), and communicating effectively about cybersecurity risk.

Jennifer Franks

Director, Center for Advanced Cybersecurity, Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Jennifer R. Franks directs the Center for Enhanced Cybersecurity within GAO’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity team. She oversees reviews that primarily focus on emerging cybersecurity issues and assessing an agency’s ability to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its sensitive data and computing infrastructure. Her multi-disciplinary teams actively review agencies’ computer security vulnerabilities across their enterprise-wide computing environment by assessing program management compliance and technical controls recommended for the agencies to follow in accordance with federal guidance and leading practices. In addition, Ms. Franks leads reviews in the areas of IT management and operations, financial management, data protection, privacy, and cybersecurity issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, she is a certified facilitator of agency new hire and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) courses. Ms. Franks earned a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University in information security policy and management, and a bachelor’s degree
from Hampton University in computer information systems.

Natalie Buda Smith

Director of Digital Strategy, Library of Congress

Natalie Buda Smith is the Director of Digital Strategy at the Library of Congress. She is a leader in digital transformation through data, emerging technologies, and human-centered design practices with over 30 years of experience in IT. She has built large teams at NavigationArts, IBM, and now the Library of Congress, and has worked for clients in the U.S., Europe, and India. She is strongly committed to ethical, human-centered products and services that adhere to best practices in inclusion, diversity, and accessibility.

Amy Henninger

Sr. Advisor for Advanced Computing, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Dr. Amy Henninger serves as Senior Advisor for Advanced Computing (AC) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) S&T Technology Centers, providing strategic vision and leadership to programs and policy makers in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Modeling and Simulation (M&S), and Quantum Information Science. 

Prior to joining DHS, Dr. Henninger’s work traversed the private/public defense sector space.  In the public sector, she has served in several special term appointment technology leadership positions in the DoD and IC that, cumulatively, span the RDT&E space.

Dr. Henninger earned a PhD in Computer Engineering with emphasis and dissertation work in AI.  She has taught undergraduate classes in computer science and graduate classes in AI, authored over 80 publications, and received multiple awards for her work.

Jason DeWitt

Operations Research Analyst, Social Security Administration

Jason DeWitt is Deputy Director of the Division of the Analytics Center of Excellence at the Social Security Administration. In this role, he leads a team providing innovative analytical, modeling, and reporting solutions to various components across SSA. Increasingly, this involves exploring use cases for newer AI technologies in addition to the improvement of various legacy models involving machine learning and predictive analytics. He is also playing a role in AI Governance and in adopting SSA’s AI Framework to existing models.

With over 20 years of experience in data analytics and business intelligence, Jason has seen the field of data science and related technologies evolve at an increasingly rapid pace. Through these changes he has maintained a human-centered approach, ensuring that technology is being utilized in support of claimants, staff, and adjudicators. Most recently, his team has been leveraging large language modeling to help provide insights and improve service related to the approximately 80 million calls that SSA receives annually on its national 800 number.

Prior to coming to SSA, Jason worked in higher education enrollment reporting as Research Manager with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and as a Senior Data and Reporting Analyst in Harvard University’s Office of the President and Provost. Jason has a Master’s Degree in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh and received his Bachelor’s from Cornell University.

Nichole Hyter

NGRMS Program Manager, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense

Ms. Nichole Hyter is an Army veteran and graduate of the Army’s Management Analyst Intern Program.  She has worked as a Budget Analyst at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management & Comptroller, Headquarters Department of the Army - Budget Formulation Division and as the Lead Financial Systems Analyst at Washington Headquarters Service – Accounting Division, where she championed and implemented the use of Robotics Process Automation across the Defense Agencies Initiatives (DAI) execution and formulation systems.  Nichole also led the DLA efforts to implement DAI Hyperion (the budget formulation tool for Defense Wide agencies).  She currently works as a Program Manager at the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) – Program & Financial Control Division and is the lead for the Next Generation Resource Management System (NGRMS) efforts, which is now the Department’s solution for the congressional mandate to modernize systems used to submit data to the Office of Management and Budget and to the Congress.

Lucy Hyde

Data Scientist, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Lucy Hyde serves as a data scientist in the Office of Information and Technology, Chief Technology Office at Customs and Border Protection. She previously worked as the Senior Program Manager for open source projects, including PyTorch, LF AI&Data, and SONiC at the Linux Foundation. Ms. Hyde began her career within the Department of Defense as an active-duty service member and later as a government civilian working in multiple agencies. She led the mobile device exploitation team at the National Media Exploitation Center and served as the Chief Data Scientist at the Joint Inter Agency Task Force, Joint Special Operations Command.

Ms. Hyde graduated with undergraduate degrees in Psychology, the Arabic Language, and Intelligence Operations from multiple universities; a Master of Science Degree (MS) in Analytics from American University; and is pursuing dual postgraduate degrees in Computational Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Reva Schwartz

Research Scientist, NIST

Reva Schwartz is a research scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL). She serves as Principal Investigator on Bias in Artificial Intelligence and leads the NIST ARIA Program which seeks to improve the practices of AI risk and impact assessments.

A socio-technical researcher, her research focuses on real world testing methodologies and people-centered approaches for AI measurement. She has advised federal agencies about how experts interact with automation to make sense of information in high-stakes settings.

Her background includes a forensic science posting for almost 15 years at the United States Secret Service and adjunct researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Human Language Technology Center of Excellence. She has advised federal agencies about how experts interact with automation to make sense of information in high-stakes settings.

Mark Wheeler

Director of Data & Analytics, Centers for Excellence at the Technology Transformation Services, General Services Administration

Mark Wheeler is a director of Data & Analytics at the Centers for Excellence at the Technology Transformation Services where he leads data transformation & governance projects for federal agencies. He also serves as liaison to local and state governments for the federal AI Community of Practice. Mark has over 20 years in IT leadership for the public sector. He served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Philadelphia where he set the strategy and execution of citywide IT operations including cybersecurity, software engineering, networking, data engineering, and digital services for a city of 1.56 million residents. During his tenure, he strengthened the city’s cybersecurity posture, launched Smart City PHL and the Office of Digital Equity, and oversaw the successful modernization of tax collection, licensing and code enforcement, voting machine and e-poll book, property appraisal, and financial/procurement ERP systems and the construction of $32M state-of-the-art public safety & E-911 operations center. He has served as a Chief Geographic Information Officer (GIO) where he stood up data governance and centralized data engineering & analytics programs. Prior to city leadership, Mark spent fifteen years working as a GIS consultant leading Dev/Ops teams to build geocentric web applications and as an urban planner focused on spatial data modeling and strategic plans. Mark has a master’s in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts and was a fellow at Drexel University’s Leading for Change program.

Alex Hagen

Senior Data Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Alex is a senior data scientist and team leader in the Applied Artificial Intelligence Systems group at PNNL.  He serves as the Advisor on AI to PNNL’s DHS portfolio, and is a member of PNNL’s Center for AI. He specializes in applying and operationalizing computer vision for several different national security missions, including for the DHS S&T Emergency Management of Tomorrow project. In addition, he has received PNNL AI and Data Analytics’ division top award, and a DOE Innovations in Nuclear Technology Research and Development award. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University in 2018.

Brittany Bernard

Educational Technology Lead, DC Public Schools

Brittany Bernard, a dedicated Educational Technology Manager based in the District of Columbia, brings a dynamic spirit and passion for education to her role. Originating from Harrisburg, PA, she is committed to supporting educators and students in leveraging technology for enhanced learning experiences. She is an accomplished professional in the field of education, with a diverse background that includes media and technology. She graduated with a B.A. in Radio, Television, & Film, focusing on Telecommunications Management from Howard University. After starting her career in media as a Talk Programming Assistant at SiriusXM Satellite Radio and Producer/Board Operator for the Behind The Mind Radio Show on 1480AM, Brittany transitioned to education.

She served as a preschool Lead Teacher at AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. for five years. Eager to enhance her impact in education, Brittany pursued and earned her M.Ed in Instructional Technology from the University of Maryland Global Campus. This led her to become the Standards Coordinator at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), where she furthered her expertise in instructional technology. Currently, Brittany serves as an Educational Technology Manager for the District of Columbia, based at Central Office, where she supports educators by providing strategies on seamlessly integrating district-licensed apps and programs into instruction with fidelity. Brittany resides in Bowie, MD, with her husband Rejinal, sons Elijah and Xavier, and daughters Kerlande and Harper.

Amber Young

Physical Scientist, U.S. Department of Energy

Amber Young is the PARS System Owner at the Department of Energy's Office of Project Management, Project Controls and Policy (PM-30). An EVMS professional with extensive experience with both DOE and DOD data structures, she has been pivotal in leading review efforts using new tools like the IP2M METRR and is a pioneer in integrating detailed AI analysis into the Environment and Maturity Assessment process. Ms Young's background in physics and mathematics has allowed her to apply a spirit of scientific inquiry to understanding, analyzing, and teaching complex data structures in project management and Earned Value. Ms Young leads the DOE Office of Project Management AI Governance board and works closely with the other board members to review and approve PM's implementation of AI technologies.

Tina Donbeck

CIO, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation

Ms. Donbeck joined the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in January 2020 as the Deputy Chief Information Officer, and has served as Chief Information Officer since August 2021. She has been an IT strategist and innovator for more than 20 years in both the private and public sectors. Additionally, she spent six years on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Ms. Donbeck was instrumental in bringing DevOps and Agile methodologies to her former agency, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), where she successfully led a team that launched one of the first automated development pipelines in the federal government. Additionally, she participated in numerous grassroots efforts with other federal agencies, such as NASA and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as industry partners to promote the benefits of DevOps and Continuous Delivery methodologies.

As the Deputy Director of Trademark Acquisitions, Program & Planning at the USPTO, she led the establishment of a customer requirements gathering organization and instituted governance processes to promote improved long-term IT system delivery. Additionally, at USPTO, she served as the Director of the System Configuration & Automated Delivery Division, which focused on providing Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration (CI/CD) development practices. Before coming to USPTO, Ms. Donbeck served as the Branch Head for the Enterprise Transformation Branch for the Department of the Navy CIO (N6). Her efforts there focused on public outreach with academia and the private sector to garner IT best practices for implementation within the Navy.

Bill Jewell

CIO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Bill Jewell, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief information officer, leads the organization’s technology and information security programs. In this role, Jewell focuses on building, securing, and maintaining technology platforms and services that enable the Chamber to thrive.

Previously, Jewell served as chief information security officer and vice president of technology at the College Board. There he built and led an information security program designed to protect the data of over 100 million students, parents, and educators. Jewell oversaw security engineering and operations, architecture and policy, vulnerability management, application security, and cyber defense. He was also responsible for infrastructure engineering, workforce technologies, and corporate systems, including financial, customer relations, and human resources management applications. Earlier, he led the College Board’s data management and governance teams.

Jewell earned his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Arts with distinction from Georgetown University, and a CISO Certificate from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon. He graduated magna cum laude with a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Kathy Gilsinan

Journalist and Contributing Writer, The Atlantic

Kathy Gilsinan is a journalist and author based in St. Louis. She previously spent six years at the Atlantic covering foreign policy and national security. She now covers the Midwest for POLITICO and other publications. She is the author of The Helpers: Profiles From the Front Lines of the Pandemic.