Government & AI Summit 2026

For two decades, Chad Bungard has been at the forefront of federal oversight. For the last several years, he’s been one of government’s leading voices on the interplay between artificial intelligence and fraud.  

Chad has served in the Senior Executive Service for nearly 20 years. Since 2020, he has been Chief Strategy Officer and Chief of Government Relations for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Social Security Administration (SSA), advising the Inspector General on mission-critical strategy, congressional relations, and media engagement.

A National Leader on AI and Fraud

Since 2018, Chad has co-chaired the SSA National Anti-Fraud Committee (NAFC), driving initiatives that put AI at the center of modern fraud prevention. His work caught the attention of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which invited him to speak at its 2023 Fraud and Payment Integrity Symposium — where OMB went on to encourage other agencies to adopt the NAFC model government-wide.

As Chair of the SSA OIG Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Chad has become a go-to voice on AI and fraud across the federal landscape:

• Featured speaker at two OMB Payment Integrity and Fraud Prevention CFO Symposiums (Dec. 2023, Feb. 2024).
• Panelist, U.S. CIO Council’s “AI v. Fraudsters: How Technologies Are Tilting the Battle” (March 2024).
• Co-organizer of OMB’s AI Community of Practice groups, including a kickoff presentation (Oct. 2024)
• 30-minute AI/fraud Q&A on Federal News Network (March 2024).
• Panelist, “Behavioral Clues & AI Cues: A New Era in Fraud Detection,” ACFE/AGA Conference, Washington, DC (Sept. 2025).
• Panelist, “Synthetic Identity: The Weaponization of Artificial Intelligence,” ACFE Global Fraud Conference, Boston, MA (July 2026).

Since 2021, Chad has also chaired the Inspector General community’s Leadership Innovation Subcommittee, building programs like the ECQ Review Board and leading leadership panels across the Inspector General community.

Previous Roles

Before his current position, Chad served as SSA’s Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Analytics, Review, and Oversight (2018–2020), overseeing more than 2,000 employees and regularly representing SSA before White House and congressional staff. Earlier in his career, he held senior legal roles across federal oversight: General Counsel for the Special Inspector General for TARP (2015–2018), Chief Counsel to the IG at SSA OIG (2010–2015), and General Counsel for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (2006–2010). He began his federal career in 2001 as Counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, later serving as Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for its Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization. He started out in private practice, litigating federal campaign finance and election law cases.

Education, Awards, and Publications

Chad holds a B.S. (cum laude), J.D., and LL.M. in Law and Economics from George Mason University School of Law. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, published widely in legal and peer-reviewed journals, including publications for the UCLA School of Law, the University of North Carolina School of Law, and Seton Hall University School of Law, among others, and contributed to the 9th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary. He was also a contributing author to the House Report 108-414, “Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI’s Use of Murderers as Informants.” Mr. Bungard holds leadership certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School, MIT, and the Federal Executive Institute, and in 2015 Harvard recognized his innovative leadership with its Innovations in American Government Top 25 Award. 

Darren Death serves as the Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, and Deputy Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In this role, he leads enterprise efforts to secure information systems, protect privacy, and govern the responsible use of AI in alignment with federal mandates and mission-driven priorities.

Dr. Death holds a Doctor of Information Technology (DIT) with a specialization in Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance. He remains actively engaged in the cybersecurity community through his leadership and advisory roles with the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), ACT-IAC’s Cybersecurity Community of Interest, and the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI).

Mr. George Nicol is the Deputy Program Director of Contract Holders and Industry Relations for the NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) Program Office. In this capacity, he oversees the CHRM Team, which responds to daily requests from SEWP Contract Holders, ensuring they meet their contractual obligations and monitor their day- to-day performance.

Mr. Nicol joined the SEWP Program in May 2007, serving initially as the SEWP Outreach coordinator, scheduling SEWP customer meetings, and assisting with the program’s marketing and outreach efforts. In 2009, he joined the CHRM team and took on the role of Deputy CHRM Manager where he began assisting with managing SEWP Contract Holders. In January 2013, he became the Manager, leading a team of four responsible for tracking Contract Holder Performance and coordinating Contract Holder and customer order issue resolution. During his time at SEWP, he also served as the COR for the 190+ SEWP contracts. He was also recognized as an FCW Rising Star in 2020.

Mr. Nicol became the Deputy Program Director in January 2023 and continues to lead Contract Holder and Industry engagement. Mr. Nicol holds a bachelor's degree from Temple University and is an ACT-IAC fellow and a member of NCMA.

Dr. P. Jonathon Phillips is an Electronic Engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Information Technology Laboratory. Jonathon is a leading researcher in the fields of computer vision, face recognition, biometrics, and forensics.    He has published over 100 peer reviewed papers in face recognition, computer vision, biometrics, psychology, forensics, statistics, and neuroscience. His papers have received over 41,000 Google citations.  He is an IEEE Fellow, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, and an International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR) Fellow.

Dr. Phillips pioneered competitions to improve technology in face recognition, computer vision, and biometrics. The programs and competitions that Jonathon managed were instrumental in advancing face recognition from its infancy in research labs to deployment in real-world applications. Progress was measured in a series of evaluations from the 1993 FERET competition through the FRVTongoing 2023. The competitions documented a Moore’s law improvement in face recognition accuracy—from 1993 to 2023, the error rate for the technology decreased by half every two years. For his work on competitions and its influences and adoption by computer vision and biometrics he won the IEEE inaugural Mark Everingham Prize, the NIST Distinguished Career Award, the IEEE Biometrics Council Leadership Award, FedID Career Achievement Award, two Dept. of Commerce Gold Medal (2003 and 2020), the Dept. of Commerce Bronze Medal, Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, and Federal Bureau of Investigation CJIS Assistant Director’s Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement. 

A hallmark of Jonathon’s research is collaboration with researchers from related fields. These collaborations have resulted in a better understanding of biometric algorithm performance and the relationship between human and algorithm face recognition accuracy. 

In law enforcement, border control, and security, humans perform face recognition. To assess the ability of technology to complement or perform face recognition tasks, it is necessary to know the relative accuracy of machines and humans.  Working with collaborators, Jonathon pioneered the development of methods to compare human and machine performance and systematically incorporated measuring human performance into face recognition competitions. This line of research showed that face recognition algorithms' accuracy can vary by race and led to calls to test face recognition systems for racial bias. In the wake of the National Academies report on Forensics Sciences, this work was adapted to measuring the accuracy of facial forensic examiners and people with superior face recognition ability—facial super-recognizers.  This research confirmed that facial forensic examiners and super-recognizers have superior face recognition ability.

To understand how lighting, camera, pose, environment, and other factors affect face recognition performance, Jonathon and his collaborators developed statistical methods to analyze face recognition and biometric performance. To assess the state-of-the-art across multiple studies, they applied and adapted meta-analysis for biometrics. Both these accomplishments laid the foundation for understanding where and how to apply biometric systems. This work resulted in a best paper and two best-reviewed paper awards.  

In addition to working for NIST since 1997, Dr. Phillips was assigned to the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) as a program manager, from 2000-2004. From 2002-2012, he served on the Executive Office of the President (White House) National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Biometrics.  His work has been reported in print media of record including the New York Times and the Economist. He has appeared on NPR’s ScienceFriday. Discover magazine stated, “P. Jonathon Phillips is considered the most influential scientist in facial recognition.”  He was an Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and guest editor of a special issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE on biometrics.

Kelvin Ruffin is a versatile and solutions-focused Information Technology professional with 14+ years of experience. They currently serve as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of Information Technology at the Pretrial Services Agency, where they are responsible for overseeing the agency's technology initiatives and ensuring the seamless delivery of IT services.Prior to their current role, Ruffin was a member of the Information Project Management Team Lead Technology Specialist at FEMA, where they were in charge of leading complex technology projects and ensuring the successful implementation of critical IT systems. Ruffin's expertise in information technology, project management, and strategic planning has been instrumental in driving organizational efficiency and innovation.Ruffin holds the ITIL Foundation Level certification, which demonstrates their commitment to IT service management best practices. They are known for their ability to translate technical concepts into actionable strategies and their dedication to delivering exceptional results for their organization.

Adam Starr is Chief Information Officer and Senior Advisor to the Director at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where he is transforming the digital infrastructure that supports the federal workforce from first job application through retirement. His mandate: modernize core HR systems to provide the best possible service to the American people.

Previously, he led AI at Proofpoint, where his models processed billions of emails daily to protect organizations around the world. His work sat at the intersection of machine learning, cybersecurity, and organizational transformation. 

Trained as a mathematician and business operator, Adam focuses on turning AI from research into real systems that work—securely, reliably, and at scale. He earned a B.A. in Pure Mathematics from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford University, where he served as Chair of Campus Life and a Friend of Arjay Miller. Outside of work, Adam is a competitive board gamer, an avid explorer of contemporary art, and a frequent instigator of late-night debates about technology and the future.

Dr. Justin Ubert is a multidisciplinary leader specializing in cybersecurity and IT operations, with over 20 years of experience spanning federal, academic, and military service. He currently serves as the Director of the Cyber Protection Division within the Office of the CISO at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). In this role, he leads enterprise-wide programs encompassing Zero Trust, Security Architecture and Engineering, and the deployment of advanced cybersecurity tools. Prior to this departmental role, he served as the Chief of Cybersecurity & Operations for the DOT’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA), where he oversaw the infrastructure and privacy programs for over 1,000 personnel and thousands of external users.

Dr. Ubert is recognized for driving transformative modernization—from implementing

DevSecOps and cloud migration to adopting Zero Trust and TIC 3.0 architectures. He is a prominent advocate for “Data Dominance,” a strategy that shifts the focus from mere

compliance to leveraging data as a proactive security advantage. He has specifically championed the implementation of OMB M-21-31 requirements to move beyond reactive logging toward high-fidelity investigative and remediation capabilities. He has also led initiatives for emerging technologies such as AI and robotic process automation (RPA), advocating for the fast adoption of these technologies through upskilling and technical literacy to increase operational agility and better mission outcomes.

Beyond government service, Dr. Ubert is an Adjunct Professor at Marymount University,

teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in information technology, corporate

cybersecurity, and research methodologies. Dr. Ubert also serves as the Government Programs Chair for the ACT-IAC Cybersecurity Community of Interest and is a Governing Body Member of the Gartner CISO Community (DC Chapter). He holds a Doctor of Science and Master’s in Cybersecurity from Marymount University, a dual Bachelor’s in Cybersecurity and Psychology, and industry certifications including CISSP and CISA.

A decorated U.S. Army veteran who led combat medical teams across three tours in Iraq, Dr. Ubert brings a mission-first mindset to the digital battlefield. His career is marked by a passion for breaking down organizational silos and partnering with executives and business owners to drive holistic outcomes. His leadership has earned him multiple FORUM IT100 and the DOT Secretary’s “Partnering for Excellence” Awards, the CIGIE IT Award for Excellence, and a recent nomination for the FedScoop50 Award for Federal Leadership.

CDR Jonathan White is the Cloud and Data Branch Chief within the Coast Guard’s C5ISC Infrastructure Services Division. He is leading the Coast Guard’s rapid transition into a multi-cloud environment to enable application modernization and zero trust architecture. Additionally, he has led the deployment of the enterprise data fabric to bring mission data from the edge to the cloud enabling real-time, informed decisions and artificial intelligence.

Kathleen is a leader focused on large-scale, responsible technology transformation for our clients’ most critical and sensitive mission areas. 

She led the development and now oversees the implementation of Maximus’ AI strategy. As the lead of the AI Accelerator within the Chief Technology Office, she helps deliver advanced solutions in client support, artificial intelligence, and data to improve decision-making and efficiency.

An expert in AI, data science, strategy, and change management, Kathleen has more than 20 years of experience working with clients across the Federal Government. She focuses on the convergence of mission and AI, with a special emphasis on the human elements of adoption. This includes working with organizations to responsibly view data as an asset, evolving technical architectures to eliminate continual redesign, redefining human roles to allow more time for critical thinking, and embedding ethical AI controls and measures into the fabric of an organization.

Prior to joining Maximus, Kathleen served as a Director at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she led highly technical cross-functional teams through transformation. She established and scaled Booz Allen’s AI strategy and training capabilities, empowering organizations to harness analytics for data-driven decision-making. She was a founding member of the team that developed Booz Allen’s award-winning Data Science 5K Challenge program, which focused on upskilling the firm’s data science workforce to help clients use data in innovative ways. Kathleen also led the development of Booz Allen’s AI governance and risk management procedures and operating practices as part of their Responsible AI efforts.

Kathleen holds an M.S. in intelligence analysis from Mercyhurst College and a B.S. in business administration from Georgetown University. She also has a Change Management Advanced Practitioner certification from Georgetown and a Psychology of Leadership graduate certificate from Cornell University.

Andrea Greenleaf has spent three decades working with public sector customers looking to leverage the latest technology in the financials, procurement, and human capital space. Her background includes implementations at federal agencies, states, and large cities. Today, Andrea works at the intersection of finance transformation and artificial intelligence, with a focus on applying Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and EPM capabilities to real financial workflows. Her work centers on using embedded AI to strengthen planning, decision-making, controls, and accountability. Andrea brings a practical perspective on helping federal agencies move from AI experimentation to trusted, mission-focused execution.

Jim Hoskins is the Intelligence Community (IC) Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). In this role, Jim provides technical guidance, business development acumen and intelligence community expertise to HPE’s Enterprise Account Managers, Leaders, and Executives supporting U.S. Intelligence Community customers. In his customer-facing role, Jim advises HPE’s customers on the technologies, techniques, and industry capabilities available to fulfill the missions of supported agencies. His past Government experience in multiple IC organizations is invaluable to supported and supporting entities.

Jim is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and brings a wealth of cyber security experience from his decades of experience as a Cyber Operations Officer in the U.S. Air Force.

Prior to his current position with HPE, Jim served with distinction in the U.S. Air Force for
more than three decades, retiring as a Colonel in 2018. His leadership positions included: command of the National Reconnaissance Office Network/Cyber Operations Group; Chief of Staff for the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate, and Division Chief for The Joint Staff's Directorate for Joint Force Development (J-7).

Jim previously commanded multiple Air Force squadrons, both in garrison and deployed in combat operations. Lastly, he has served in multiple positions in the Space Community, and proudly maintains this skillset at HPE.

Amy Johanek is Vice President of Okta’s Federal business. She has over 25 years experience working with US government agencies, in a variety of roles, at major software and services vendors, including IBM, Gartner and Splunk.

Salim Ruffin is a Senior Engineering Manager at Veeam with more than 15 years of tenure at the company. He has progressed through the ranks from Engineer to Senior Engineer to Manager, and today leads the Veeam Federal Engineering team. He brings over 30 years of experience as an engineer and systems administrator across virtual, physical, and cloud
environments.

Outside of work, Salim and his wife of 27 years are the proud parents of four sons. The family is deeply committed to community service, dedicating their time to local outreach programs and the Boy Scouts of America — where their two oldest sons have each earned the rank of Eagle
Scout.

Ryan Simpson is Chief Technologist for NVIDIA's public sector partner ecosystem, where he helps partners and government customers translate advances in accelerated computing, generative AI, computer vision, and data science into deployable solutions. Before joining NVIDIA, Ryan was an AI architect at the U.S. Postal Service, where he helped advance large-scale edge AI and image-analysis systems for postal operations. His patented work spans image compression, barcode and address recognition, parcel measurement, and machine-learning data workflows. Ryan is a named inventor on 32 issued U.S. patents from his USPS work and regularly speaks about practical AI adoption in government.

Patricia Titus, Field Chief Information Security Officer at Abnormal AI, possesses over 25 years of experience as a CISO. Her distinguished career includes executive security leadership roles at Booking Holdings, Markel Corporation, Freddie Mac, Symantec, Unisys, and the Transportation Security Administration. Throughout her career, she has directed the execution of comprehensive security strategies, ensuring alignment with strategic business imperatives and strict compliance with international regulatory standards.

Noted for her profound knowledge in risk management, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity operations, and crisis management, Titus has a demonstrated history of optimizing security architectures, enhancing organizational resilience, and integrating advanced technologies, specifically AI, into security programs. Currently, she extends her expertise through service on the boards of Black Kite, The Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Glasswing Ventures.

Katharyn M. White is a technology expert and marketing leader at Google Public Sector, focused on inspiring digital transformation and creating AI-inspired marketing organizations. She is a recognized expert in redefining marketing and the CMO role, positioning it as a driver of growth. At Google, Katharyn is focused on Google's differentiated approach at the intersection of Security and AI to serve mission. Katharyn also serves on the advisory board of Astroscale and several tech start-ups, as well as marketing associations including ITSMA and GAIN. Previously, she held positions at T-Systems, MITRE, IBM and other technology organizations.