Speakers

As FEMA’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Mr. Ted Okada is responsible for leading the technology strategy and direction for a variety of mission, business, and enterprise systems, providing guidance, advisory services, and investment and change management planning. Under his leadership as FEMA’s first CTO, Mr. Okada drives FEMA Technology towards a culture of exploration, curiosity, and innovation by leveraging continuous improvement initiatives involving open data, geospatial technologies, cybersecurity, and a “whole community” approach to interoperable communications during disaster operations. Mr. Okada is the creator and executive sponsor of OpenFEMA—a public-facing data repository that provides timely, usable, and accurate information to partners and stakeholders, further enhancing and promoting FEMA’s transparent and collaborative culture. This growing open source, digital information-sharing and communication resource launched after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and has further enabled disaster survivor support in numerous disasters since. OpenFEMA has also led to a unified strategy to reduce complexity in FEMA systems designed around simplified web services and built on the same OpenFEMA foundation. Mr. Okada holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences and Economics from Northwestern University. His experience includes over 30 years in international relief and development, a decade in internet services architecture, and two technology start-ups. Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Okada served as the Director of U.S. Global Public Private Partnerships and Director of the Humanitarian Systems Group at Microsoft, developing solutions to underserved humanitarian problems.

A national leader in personalized medicine and in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Marsh has concentrated his efforts in determining how to help individuals stay healthy and how to create ecosystems to make this easy. Marsh is a two-time graduate of West Virginia University, earning an undergraduate degree in biology in 1981 and a medical degree in 1985. From 1985 to 2015 he was at The Ohio State University. He served a residency in internal medicine; a research fellowship in pulmonary and critical care, a chief residency in internal medicine; a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine; and an extension research fellowship in pulmonary and critical care. As a faculty member, he held a wide range of teaching, clinical, research, and administrative roles at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, including as vice dean for research and, most recently, vice dean for innovation in the College of Medicine. In this position, he established OSU’s IDEA Studio in Healthcare and Design. Marsh’s research has focused on defining the underlying mechanisms that determine health and disease. His research interests include the molecular regulation of longevity and epigenetic controls of aging. He holds more than 20 patents or patent disclosures. He has mentored more than 50 MD, MD/PhD and PhD doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty, and won a number of Ohio State teaching awards. He has been responsible for more than $20 million in National Institutes of Health funding as principal investigator, co-PI, co-investigator, and mentor, and has published more than 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He serves on national scientific advisory committees for organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the American Thoracic Society, the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline and Caris Life Sciences. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. In response to the challenges of the new coronavirus COVID-19, Marsh was appointed as “COVID-19 czar” by Gov. Jim Justice. In his role, Marsh coordinates the state’s response to the challenges of the new coronavirus, collaborating with federal, state and local agencies, health officials, researchers and other agencies helping with the effort. In addition, Marsh also advocates for the personal responsibilities of West Virginia’s citizens to help lower the spread of infection of COVID-19 across the state.

CIO, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

NELP is led by Executive Director Rebecca Dixon. Rebecca is a respected national leader in federal workers’ rights advocacy and in great demand for her thought leadership at the intersection of labor and racial equity. Prior to taking the helm in early 2020, Rebecca served on NELP’s Executive Management team as Chief of Programs. Rebecca’s motivation for advancing workers’ rights and commitment to economic justice are deeply rooted in her lived experience growing up in rural Mississippi at the intersection of race, class, and gender—characteristics that have long defined our ability to participate in our democracy and economy. As the descendant of enslaved people and daughter of sharecroppers and domestic workers, Rebecca knows firsthand what is lost when workers of color are relegated to the lowest rungs of our labor market, without respect, rights, and protections. In 2012, Rebecca was selected by the State of New York for its Empire State Leadership Fellows program and served in the Office of the Governor in its Labor and Civil Rights Division. She is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association; a board member at Americans for Financial Reform, the Coalition on Human Needs, and The American Prospect; and a member of the Economic Analysis and Research Network in the South, the 2020 Aspen Institute SOAR Leadership Fellowship, and the 2021 National Academy of Social Insurance’s Unemployment Insurance Reform Working Group and COVID-19 Task Force. Rebecca holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from Duke, and a JD from Duke University School of Law.

In September 2021 joined Oracle as the Industry Executive Director, US Federal Government, Executive PMO. From September 2020 through May 2021, Perryn Ashmore was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As HHS CIO, Perryn provided leadership and oversight of the information technology (IT) systems and security activities for a workforce of over 83,000. As the head of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), he led the Department’s efforts in developing and implementing IT policies, managing high priority projects, and planning strategic IT investments. As the CIO, Perryn also provided leadership and oversight of the Department’s $6.3B IT portfolio in support of its expansive mission to enhance the health and well-being of Americans. Perryn’s experience in hands-on IT management spans over 30 years of Federal service, in addition to being a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. Perryn came to HHS in July 2014 and has worked in multiple capacities. Immediately prior to becoming the CIO, Perryn served as the Principal Deputy CIO and Customer Experience Executive, as well as Executive Director of OCIO’s Office of Operations. Prior to that and most notably, he served in the Office of Human Resources and was responsible for the successful implementation of Enterprise Human Capital Management, the major upgrade of the HHS human resources management system. Before HHS, Perryn worked for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in their tailored platforms and data area. Perryn also worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs and at the General Services Administration (GSA), serving GSA as the Deputy Federal Acquisition Service CIO and Chief Technology Officer.

David Knox is a world-renowned technologist with patents and multiple book publications with a specialty in computer security, data management and data analytics. Mr. Knox is considered a top innovator in leadership, critical thinking and organizational execution. Mr. Knox has worked in R&D Advanced Technology Labs and run world-wide organizations. 

Mr. Knox has spent over 20 years at Oracle Corporation. In that tenure, Mr. Knox was VP of National Security Solutions, built and ran Oracle’s first Solution Engineering organization, was Senior Technical Director of the Oracle Protected Enterprise & Security Business, and was Chief Engineer for Oracle's pioneering Information Assurance Center.

David has published several books on Oracle Security. David has a BS in Computer Science from University of Maryland and a MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

 

Bob Nevins is the Director of Health and Human Services (HHS) Strategy and Business Development for Oracle Public Sector, where he analyzes, defines and manages the execution of comprehensive, integrated Health and Human Services (HHS) market and sales strategies. His domain expertise includes major HHS programs such as Medicaid, Child Welfare, Child Support Enforcement, Integrated Eligibility and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Prevention. He develops messaging and content to help Oracle teams educate and inform system integrator partners, advisory firms, and state and local government clients. Before joining Oracle, Bob spent over 20 years in a variety of senior leadership roles in Massachusetts state government. He was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Health Connector pursuant to the Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform Law. Other senior roles in Massachusetts government have included Director of Mass.gov, Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Revenue and Associate Deputy Commissioner for Child Support Enforcement. Bob’s roles have often involved the intersection of program needs and IT capabilities. . Bob graduated from Stonehill College with a degree in Economics, and resides with his family in Hingham, MA.

Celeste O’Dea is the Managing Director of Strategy and Business Development for Oracle Government and Education Technology. In this role, she is responsible for defining the identification and execution of comprehensive strategies related to growth across Oracle’s four Government & Education markets: Federal, State and Local government, Education, and Canada. Celeste has 30 years of experience in driving technology solutions for the Government & Education industries from concept to market, with leadership roles spanning across Sales Strategy, Service Delivery, and Operations. She has been serving Oracle since 2010 in a series of progressively responsible roles beginning with business development for the public pension market. Previously, she served as the director of Public Sector delivery at Sierra-Cedar and a manager of application support for Xerox. Celeste holds a B.A. in mathematics and secondary education from Syracuse University and an MBA in management from the University of Phoenix. Her certifications include project management professional (PMP) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations. Celeste resides in the Finger Lakes region of New York State with her chef husband, three adult children, and three dogs.

Director of Events, GovExec Media

Senior VP, Events, GovExec Media

Vice President and Group Publisher, SLED, Route Fifty