Speakers

Alana M. Burman serves as the Director of Policy, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Mediation (PIM) for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Burman comes to this role with a wealth of social justice and social equity experience centered around mediation, community relations, and policymaking. She is new to PHRC.

Burman's educational accomplishments include a Bachelors of the Arts in Printmaking and Drawing, summa cum laude, obtained from Rutgers University – Mason Gross School of the Arts. She also holds a Masters in Developmental and Abnormal Psychology from Rutgers University – New Brunswick, magna cum laude. Additionally, Burman holds a Certificate in State and Local Government from the Eagleton Institute of Government and Politics. She is a member of several academic honor societies and an alumni of multiple educational equity focused fellowships.

Prior to the PHRC, Burman started her career as a public-school English and Art teacher stationed in the Mississippi Delta with Teach for America. After leaving K-12 teaching, she transitioned first to Government, then Public Advocacy and Government Affairs roles with nonprofits. Burman has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children and on the Essex County LGBQTIA+ Advisory Board, both in New Jersey. She enjoys public speaking and volunteering with Seniors and within her Jewish community.

Much of Burman's professional career has been in roles that include advocating for groups who have difficulty being heard in Government and bringing diverse groups of people together to advance common policy goals. She finds fulfillment in her passions at the PHRC with the ability to assist Pennsylvanians and actively work to build policy that advances eradicating discrimination both inside and outside of the Commonwealth. 

Marcy Katz Jacobs is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in digital transformation and user experience. Currently serving as the Chief Digital Experience Officer and Deputy Secretary for IT at the State of Maryland since September 2023, Marcy has previously held the position of Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company from October 2019 to September 2023 and served as Executive Director at the Digital Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs from May 2017 to October 2019. Marcy's earlier roles include Digital Service Expert at the United States Digital Service and Principal at SRA International, where Marcy directed the User Experience Practice. The career began as a Web Designer at Digital Focus and included freelance consulting for Eli Lilly. Marcy holds a Master of Arts in Psychology from Drexel University and a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from The George Washington University.
 

Barbara C. Morton assumed her current duties in July 2016 as Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer, Veterans Experience Office (VEO), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In this role Barbara co-leads VEO, the Secretary’s customer experience (CX) insight engine supporting and enabling the Department in providing the highest quality experiences in the delivery of care, benefits and memorial services to Service members, Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. Barbara is responsible for building a lasting CX capability at VA and sharing best practices across sister Federal Agencies, including The Customer Experience Cookbook, which serves as a CX practitioner’s guide to stand up and mature customer experience capabilities in government. She is a recipient of the 2022 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Award for Management Excellence, 2021 Service to the Citizen Award for Government Executive of the Year, 2019 Service to the Citizen Award and the 2019 Gears of Government President’s Award for her role in transforming VA’s capabilities to provide Veterans with an excellent customer experience.

Barbara joined VA in 2006 as a Staff Attorney at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board). She served the Board in a variety of other capacities to include Special Counsel to the Appellate Group, Special Assistant to the Vice Chairman, Executive Assistant to the Chairman, and Executive Director for the Office of Management, Planning and Analysis. While at the Board, Barbara stood up and led the Board’s Appeals Modernization OIT efforts, which included securing industry technologists from United States Digital Service to develop and launch new appeals platforms.

A native of Massachusetts, Barbara attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, earning a degree in psychology and philosophy. After receiving her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, Barbara completed two clerkships in the New England area and thereafter pursued an LL.M. in constitutional law at Georgetown Law. She has published a variety of law review articles, including two pieces relating to posttraumatic stress disorder.

Webster Mulbah is a seasoned professional in data engineering, management and analysis, currently serving as the Chief Data Officer and Data Team Lead at the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. Previous experience includes a role as a Data Fellow at the Mayor’s Office of Performance & Innovation and a Business Intelligence Analyst/Data Analyst at Money Map Press, where responsibilities involved building data architecture, managing reporting projects, creating real-time dashboards, and ensuring data integrity. 

Ms. Jessica S. Palatka is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration (DASA) (Acting) for the Department of Commerce (DOC). Formally, Ms. Palatka is the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) and Director of Human Resource Management and a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), responsible for providing leadership, developing policies, and directing programs in all aspects of human resources and human capital management and administration for all bureaus of the DOC, covering nearly 58,000 employees located in all 50 states, every U.S. territory, and more than 88 countries. Ms. Palatka is a member of the Office of Personnel Management Chief Human Capital Officer Council Executive Steering Committee.

Additionally, Ms. Palatka is an Adjunct Associate Professor for the University of Maryland, Global Campus, where she teaches undergraduate courses in Human Resources and Business. 

Ms. Palatka earned a Bachelor of Science cum laude in Management Science and Statistics, Decision and Information Technology in 2000 and a Master of Science in Human Resources Management in 2006 from the University of Maryland. Additionally, she earned a post graduate certificate from Cornell University in Human Resources in 2007. 

Previously, Ms. Palatka served as the Chief of the Human Resources Operations Center (HROC) for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Ms. Palatka also served as a Senior Leader (SL) while working as the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) and Director, Human Resources Directorate (HRD) for the National Defense University (NDU). She also served as the Director of Human Capital Strategy for Sustainment for the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). 

Ms. Palatka holds the Human Resources Certification Institutes’ (HRCI) certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) license. Ms. Palatka also holds a Level III certification in Life Cycle Logistics, a Level II certification in Program Management, a Level I certification in International Acquisition, and a Green Belt Lean Six Sigma Certification. 

Simchah Suveyke-Bogin joined USDA in May of 2020 as Chief Customer Experience Officer for the Office of Customer Experience.

Armed with experience leading the Customer Experience Center of Excellence of the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services, Ms. Suveyke-Bogin previously helped implement user-centered practices and innovative solutions across the Government. More importantly, she helped spearhead changes that are still in place across USDA today.

Prior to leading the Customer Experience Center of Excellence, Ms. Suveyke-Bogin served as the customer experience specialist and program manager for USAgov's contact center services.

Before joining GSA, she worked in contact center optimization and supported the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Communications.

Steven Boberski is a Genesys Public Sector CTO.  He brings over two decades of experience designing, delivering, and selling large enterprise VoIP, unified communications, and contact center solutions to help government agencies create superior engagement with constituents and employees. Steve has provided leadership, strategy and systems engineering expertise to help multiple organizations obtain, maintain, and enhance compliance with mandated IT policies, including FedRAMP.

As a Sr. Account Executive at Liferay, Eric Kirby has assisted numerous enterprise organizations in determining how to best reach their customer experience goals through modern platform adoption. From strategic ideation to implementation and delivery, Eric's goal is to help businesses determine how technology can best drive customer engagement and satisfaction.

James Kohler is Director of Figma's Federal business unit. Under his leadership, Figma is helping public sector teams brainstorm, design, and build digital experiences that better serve citizens and support agency employees. With over 20 years of experience driving growth and innovation in Federal and Public Sector markets, James has held leadership roles at leading technology companies including Zscaler, Datadog, GreyNoise Intelligence and Hewlett-Packard.

As Head of U.S. Public Sector, Matt leads Zoom’s U.S. Federal, State and Local governments and Education business segments. He has led Zoom for Government during a period of historic growth from launch to ubiquity. Matt’s leadership has allowed Zoom to provide frictionless communication and collaboration capabilities and continuity of operations during a time unprecedented impact to the Federal and Public Sector mission. Matt has over two decades of experience leading Federal and Public Sector units at Extreme Networks, Check Point Software Technologies, and Cisco.

Angy Peterson is the Vice President for Experience Services at Granicus, leading experience strategy, data analytics, content creation, and platform activation to help government agencies better connect communications and CX to reach more people and deliver vital services in a digital-first world.

Angy is an executive and change agent who is passionate about transformation journeys of all types and sizes, with more than 25 years of experience in content, design, and multichannel delivery. She's led design teams in newsrooms, built digital capabilities for communications agencies, and now leads human-centered, data-driven CX solutions for Granicus’ government customers, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Social Security Administration