GAIN 2026

Cierra C. Boyer is a Senior Marketing Manager at Carahsoft, where she leads channel
marketing and partner enablement initiatives that help technology vendors and reseller
partners accelerate growth across the public sector market. With more than seven years
of experience in channel marketing, Cierra specializes in developing go-to-market
strategies, partner engagement programs, demand generation campaigns, and
enablement initiatives that strengthen partner ecosystems and drive business
outcomes.
 
In her role, Cierra works closely with technology manufacturers, reseller partners, and
internal stakeholders to maximize the value of strategic partnerships through joint
marketing programs, partner education, and collaborative growth initiatives. She has
played a key role in expanding partner participation in Carahsoft's enablement
programs, increasing awareness of marketing resources available to channel partners,
and creating opportunities for vendors and resellers to connect with customers through
innovative marketing campaigns and industry events.
 
Cierra also leads marketing efforts for several cloud computing, AI, DevSecOps,
virtualization, and end-user computing vendors across the Carahsoft portfolio. She is
also an active contributor to Carahsoft's corporate marketing initiatives, helping to
strengthen channel engagement through flagship industry programs and partner-
focused events.
 
A passionate advocate for collaboration and community within the channel, Cierra is
dedicated to helping partners build stronger relationships, expand their reach, and
maximize the impact of their marketing investments.

 Brian Chidester is the Global Head of Industry Strategy for the Public Sector at Adobe and the host of The Government Huddle Podcast from GovExec. Previously, he has held global leadership roles with OpenText, Arrow ECS, and S&P Global. Mr. Chidester holds a B.S. in Communications Studies from Liberty University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Future Government Institute, an advisor to the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance at the World Economic Forum, and a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

Rachel Del Vecchio is Mission Engagement Lead at Rise8, where she builds the company's relationships across the federal community: program leaders, acquisition professionals, software directors, and the mission-focused people in industry who want government operating in outcome-oriented ways. Rachel joined Rise8 as their second marketing hire and spent three years building the brand, owned and field events, ABM, and lead generation programs that have helped propel Rise8 to where they are today. She came to government tech after getting her start in advertising and B2B SaaS consulting, and plans to spend the rest of her career in the public sector. 

Dana Dobson is a strategic marketing leader with more than a decade of experience reaching public-sector audiences and supporting government-focused sales teams. As a Partner Marketing Manager at Splunk, a Cisco Company, she develops joint marketing programs with public sector partners to generate demand, strengthen market awareness, and accelerate pipeline growth. Before joining Splunk, Dana led public sector field marketing at Cisco AppDynamics, managed digital campaigns, account-based marketing, and events at ScienceLogic, and built her technology marketing foundation at Nuix. Dana earned her bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and holds the Certified Meeting Professional designation.

Martha is a customer experience (CX) evangelist who believes that using the principles and practices in CX can transform the way that the government delivers services to its customers, including employees, external customers, other agencies and suppliers. To continue driving improvements to government customer experience, Martha founded Dorris Consulting International (DCI) to support federal agencies and private sector companies in supporting agencies' service delivery. Martha currently hosts “The CX Tipping Point Podcast” and releases a monthly Citizen Services Newsletter to share the successes in the US and around the world.

Martha founded the Service to the Citizen Awards Program to recognize Champions of Change in government and industry that change the lives of Americans. In six years, the STTC Awards Program has recognized over 700 govt and industry champions of change that have significantly improved citizen services.

As a CX professional, Martha supports companies applying CX principles and practices to the way they serve their government customers. Using her 34-year government career and customer and digital experience, she developed an understanding of the way the federal government is implementing CX and DX, its unique challenges that the government faces, and opportunities for improvements within the federal government. Using this knowledge, Martha helps companies navigate the complexities of the federal government in this space. CX is the delivery of the mission and touches all aspects of the agency's operations.

To build a customer-focused culture and train government executives on CX principles and practices, she designed a one-day CX program for government executives through OPM's FEI. In addition, she co-designed a CX leadership program through the University of Virginia|Northern Virginia's Customer Experience Leadership Institute. Martha speaks and presents on CX in the government on a regular basis.

Martha supports the US Cyber Challenge, a program supported by the Center for Internet Security to create cybersecurity leaders and reduce the shortage in the cyber workforce.

Prior to retiring, Martha spent almost 34 years at the General Services Administration where she gained experience in acquisition, technical and program management, digital government and customer or citizen experience.  Martha led the Office of Citizen Services for over 12 years where she oversaw the delivery of information and services to the public and the creation of shared products and services provided to other agencies to support their efforts to improve the service and experience provided to their customers.    

Martha has been active in the information technology community for over 40 years. She has served as the Chair of the American Council for Technology (ACT) and numerous positions with the International Council for IT in Government Administration (ICA). Martha’s efforts have been
recognized through:

• Federal 100 awards in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2023
• Government Computer News Civilian Executive of the Year 2009
• Presidential Rank Award 2009
• ICA Distinguished Service Award
• Presidential Award for Management Excellence for USA Services
• Sammie Finalist for Citizen Services 2012
• Administrator’s Meritorious Service Award 2015
• Franke Award from ACT-IAC 2015

Michael Dumlao is an award-winning marketing and creative executive with more than 25 years directing omnichannel brand strategy, creative, and marketing operations across federal defense, intelligence, homeland security, public health, and technology. As Vice President of Customer Experience at BLN24, he leads client delivery and growth in communications, go-to-market, user experience, and AI integration for organizations including Health and Human Services, the Defense Health Agency, and Amazon. Today he also leads communications and brand for clients working at the frontier of agentic AI, cybersecurity, and quantum, and his teams run influencer-driven public sector campaigns that range from trusted community public health storytellers to executive subject-matter voices in deep tech.

Earlier, as Vice President of Global Marketing at Abt Global, he led the firm's worldwide marketing and communications operations, directing a multinational rebrand across 20-plus countries in service of global health and international development. As the first Director of Brand at Booz Allen Hamilton, he led the rebrand of the century-old firm and delivered brand, digital, and creative programs for Defense, Intelligence, and Homeland Security clients, including the Department of War, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. His work has earned the Gartner award for Corporate Brand and PRSA's Silver and Bronze Anvils. He is the author of the Amazon best-selling "The Wisdom of Guncles" and a frequent speaker on audacious authenticity in personal branding.

Lauren Franco is a recognized leader in the public sector ecosystem with over 15 years of experience driving growth across cybersecurity, SaaS, and IaaS markets. Currently serving as the Director of US Public Sector Field Marketing at Nutanix, Lauren leads a high-performing team dedicated to bridging the gap between innovative technology and the public sector mission.

A builder at heart, Lauren is known for her ability to architect federal marketing programs from the ground up and scale them for maximum impact. Her strategic insights are captured in the 2021 book, The ScaleUp Guide to Federal Government Marketing (published by Insight Partners), which she co-authored to help tech companies navigate the complexities of the federal landscape. Lauren holds a Graduate Certificate from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Management from Florida Atlantic University.

Tim Hall is the Director of Alliances at Blackwood, where he leads alliances strategy across Federal, SLED, and Enterprise markets. He joined Blackwood over 14 years ago, starting in DoD sales before building and leading the Alliances practice as the company grew. Outside of work, Tim is a CrossFit trainer, an avid traveler, and always looking for the next place to explore.

Samantha Hermes is a Marketing Director at Carahsoft Technology Corp. with more than 14 years of experience developing strategic marketing programs for leading technology providers serving the public sector. She oversees marketing initiatives across multiple business units and solution portfolios, including customer experience & engagement.

In her role, Samantha partners with technology vendors to create integrated marketing strategies that drive brand awareness, demand generation, and customer engagement across federal, state, local government, and education markets. She has led numerous high-profile initiatives, including large-scale industry summits, multi-vendor campaigns, and innovative marketing partnerships with public sector media organizations.

Beyond her external marketing leadership, Samantha has helped drive organizational growth at Carahsoft by establishing the company's Continuing Professional Education (CPE) program and leading professional development initiatives for its 350+ member marketing team.

Samantha was recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel List in both 2025 and 2026. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from James Madison University, with a concentration in Organizational Communication and a minor in Environmental Studies.

Margee Higgins is a marketing and communications leader with decades of experience building brands, driving visibility, and generating millions of media impressions for corporations, government contractors, and small businesses.

As Director of Marketing at Command Holdings, a federal government contracting firm serving the Department of War and federal agencies across the country and around the world, Margee leads the company’s marketing, public relations, social media, graphic design, brand strategy, and corporate communications. She plays a key role in strengthening the company’s brand, elevating its visibility, and communicating its mission, capabilities, and impact to customers, partners, employees, and the broader marketplace.

Throughout her career, Margee has secured national and regional media coverage in some of the country’s most prominent outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Post, and The Chicago Tribune, as well as San Diego Union Tribune, Jacksonville Magazine, and NBC’s Today Show.

Her extensive experience spans in-house, agency, and freelance marketing, giving her a unique perspective on both strategic leadership and hands on execution. She has supported organizations ranging from Fortune 500 and publicly traded corporations to emerging businesses and nonprofit organizations, including Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s, Sanofi US, Roche, Munchkin Corp., Oceanside Glasstile, and the New Jersey Lottery, among others.

Prior to joining Command Holdings’ operations team, Margee supported the U.S. Department of War in Naples, Italy, further expanding her experience working within the federal environment and supporting complex government missions.

Margee earned her degree in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame.

As SVP of Innovation at Yes&, Chrissie helps organizations be more innovative, data-driven, engaged, and profitable, as well as stay relevant. She leverages her Master's degree in statistics and public policy to her 20-year career helping organizations think strategically about all aspects of their business and guiding them through organizational change. As an innovation leader, she is both artist and scientist; translating business and customer needs, as well as data insights, into strategies that deliver results. She is also a published author, accomplished speaker and trainer, and analytics guru/geek, and has worked with leading trade associations, such as ASAE, the American Forest and Paper Association, the Aluminum Association, and the Credit Union Executives Society, as well as higher education institutions like Kansas State University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the Federal government (FDA and FEMA), and several small to large sized businesses throughout the U.S.

Geoff Livingston helps organizations cut through AI hype and build systems that actually work. As founder of Generative Buzz, he has guided Fortune 500 marketing departments, major trade associations, and government agencies through AI transformation, from strategy and workforce development to measurable adoption. His clients typically see 10 or more hours of weekly productivity gains within 30 days.

Geoff brings 30 years of technology, marketing, and crisis communications experience to this work, with clients including AT&T, Google, PayPal, Ford, and Verizon. He holds a master's degree from Georgetown University and is the author of Now Is Gone: Think Liquid to Navigate Neverending Change and three social media books.

He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his family of humans and fur babies, where he writes The Buzz on Substack, takes pics, runs trails, and practices Buddhism (not in that order).

Micah Markman is the VP of Marketing at Air, where he directs strategy and digital execution for the leader in Enterprise Readiness. A Stanford CS alumnus, he has built a 25-year career spanning early dotcom startups, enterprise software at Trilogy and Dell, and, for the last 15 years, empowering mission-driven brands through data-driven campaigns designed to drive individual and organizational change. Beyond marketing, Micah coaches youth soccer, advocates for addiction treatment access and stigma reduction, and recently survived an 11-day backpacking trek at Philmont, NM with his son.

Lori Marracino is Vice President of Proposal Development and Strategic Communications at DCS Corporation. She has nearly three decades of Government contracting experience with expertise in the full business development lifecycle. Since joining DCS in 2010, Lori has played a central role in shaping how the company communicates its value and mission to Government customers, leading efforts to strengthen brand identity and strategic messaging. Lori earned a BA in Professional Writing and Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University; a Master of Journalism from Temple University; and a graduate certificate in Strategic Communications Management from Purdue University.

Josh Martin is the Chief Marketing Officer of Gauntlet AI, and he's done the CMO-CSO-CMO tour — which shapes how he works. He markets to three audiences at once: engineers (B2C), hiring partners and enterprise programs (B2B), and government (B2G), holding one narrative across very different buyers. He has been part of three successful exits with increasing responsibility, with a background spanning strategy, research, product marketing, analyst relations, demand generation, positioning, and a lot of AI experimentation. His approach: see through the fog, find the signal, and turn messy ideas into things people can rally around — sometimes a category, sometimes a system, sometimes a campaign, sometimes an event. At Gauntlet he runs marketing like an engineering discipline: building systems, testing relentlessly, and shipping his own internal tools despite not being an engineer. Not a thought leader. Just a leader with thoughts.

Kara Mauceri has more than 25 years of experience developing marketing strategies for technology companies serving the public sector. As Public Sector Marketing Lead at F5, she drives field marketing, demand generation, customer engagement, technical enablement, partner marketing, and thought leadership initiatives supporting federal, state, local government, and education organizations. Previously, she led public sector marketing at Appian. Kara is passionate about helping organizations create customer experiences that deliver measurable business value. She played a key role in evolving the AppWorld Public Sector Symposium into a technical enablement experience featuring certifications, hands-on labs, and interactive learning opportunities that deepen customer engagement, support workforce development, and build long-term customer loyalty.

Julie Mullen works on the Public Sector Go-to-Market Team at Anthropic, partnering with defense, intelligence, and GovTech customers to bring frontier AI to national security missions. She brings 15 years of federal go-to-market experience across cybersecurity, SaaS, and AI, including leadership roles at Halcyon AI, Shift5, and Recorded Future, where she built the company's U.S. Public Sector organization and architected its first $50M OTA with U.S. Cyber Command. That effort was recognized as the Defense Innovation Unit's Cyber Spotlight Project of the Year.

Julie is known for building small teams into organizations that deliver measurable mission outcomes. She holds a B.S. from Clemson University and is a 2022 MeriTalk Cyber Defender Award recipient.

Karen Newnam is Principal, Head of Partner Growth at Government Business Results,
where she helps technology companies strengthen partner performance and accelerate
growth across the public sector ecosystem. A senior B2B marketing leader with more
than 20 years of experience, Karen has built global partner marketing programs at
Mastercard and Liferay and led channel marketing growth across the Americas at
Nutanix. Her expertise spans partner strategy, joint go-to-market, enablement,
investment, marketing operations and measurement. She is passionate about helping
companies get more from their partner relationships by turning strategy into focused
action and measurable growth.

Gloria Schultz leads marketing at Entarian, shaping the company’s market positioning, brand strategy, and communications in support of its growth priorities. She played a central role in the company’s brand transformation to Entarian, helping translate an expanded mission and capabilities into a new identity and bringing that brand to life across customers, partners, employees, and the broader market. An award-winning filmmaker with a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award and a Telly Award, Gloria brings a storyteller’s perspective to marketing, drawing on experience spanning government, international development, and nonprofit organizations. She holds a Master’s in International Affairs from American University and a Bachelor’s in Film and Video from Drexel University.

Robin Vaitonis is Chief Operating Officer at Grafik, a B2B branding and marketing agency, where she leads the firm's defense tech practice. With more than 25 years of experience on both the client and agency side, Robin helps global technology companies and mission-driven startups translate complex, mission-critical offerings into brand platforms and marketing strategies that resonate across government, commercial, and dual-use audiences. She has partnered with organizations including HII Mission Technologies, Capella Space, Maxar, and Shift5, guiding rebrands, product launches, and go-to-market strategy for B2G marketers navigating the balance between mission and market impact. Robin holds a BS in Marketing and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, and now part doctoral student, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. A sought-after speaker and consultant, she’s spent more than 25 years developing the field and practice of persuasive message design, with a particular focus on the principles and processes that build buy-in that lasts.

In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Databox, she built and delivers the message design curriculum for Elemental Impact, a leading investor in impact startups. She’s a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs and a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She’s also spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022. She's the author of two best-selling books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible, and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change which was named one of the top 10 management books of the year by Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper and one of 6 Books to Transform How You Lead and Communicate by Forbes.

Tamsen was a reluctant marathoner… twice; is a champion ballroom dancer (in her mind); and learned everything she knows about messages, people, and change as a Weight Watchers leader. True story.

She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and her two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.

Suzanne Zurn is an award-winning strategic communications and content marketing executive with more than 30 years of experience creating integrated campaigns that build trust, engage audiences and extend the reach and influence of organizations and their missions.

As Strategic Communications Lead (CTR) for the Department of War’s Office of Industrial Base Growth, Suzanne leads external communications, executive speechwriting, integrated campaigns and digital platforms that engage businesses across the defense marketplace. She also serves as a strategic advisor to senior government leaders on B2G initiatives that expand the defense industrial base and strengthen marketplace readiness.

Previously, Suzanne held public sector communications leadership roles with the National Security Innovation Network and The MITRE Corporation, where she led a 55-person digital, content and creative team. Her career background also includes senior roles in the private sector, higher education and political campaigns, with work featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and major broadcast networks.

Suzanne’s work has earned multiple PRSA Silver Anvil Awards as well as Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts Communicator Awards for government annual reporting and strategic storytelling two years in a row. She has taught graduate-level digital strategy at The George Washington University and authored the chapter “The Digital Battle” in Campaigning for President 2016.

She holds an M.A. in Political Management from The George Washington University and certificates in Executive Leadership and Performance Management from Cornell University and Kellogg on Branding from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.