Speakers

Kim Brandt is CMS’ Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer. Previously, she was a Partner at the Washington, D.C.-based policy firm Tarplin, Downs & Young, LLC, where she provided strategic advice on a broad array of healthcare regulatory, enforcement, and policy matters. She also served as an Advisor to the private equity firm Enhanced Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused on healthcare, and held board positions at two of its portfolio companies.

Kim has held multiple senior executive positions in government, including serving as Principal Deputy Administrator for Policy and Operations during the first Trump Administration. In that role she oversaw all activities necessary for the operation and management of CMS’ $1.4T budget in addition to leading efforts to reform the Physician Self-referral regulations and develop the first CMS interoperability rule. Kim previously served as Chief Oversight Counsel and General Counsel on the staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee where she led multiple healthcare investigations, the investigation into IRS political targeting and oversaw the political nominations process. Before joining the Finance Committee staff, Kim was a Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C. Her previous government service includes serving as the CMS Director of the Medicare Program Integrity Group and working at the HHS Office of Inspector General as a Senior Counsel and Director of External Affairs. Kim has a JD with a concentration in health law and an MA in legislative affairs.

James C. Bridgers, Jr., Ph.D., has more than 25 years of experience in program administration, development, and implementation in various public health, social science, compliance measures, and fiscal arenas. Dr. Bridgers currently serves as the Director for the Department of Health and Human Services and previously served as the Acting Health Officer and Chief of Public Health Services. Dr. Bridgers managed projects for each of SAMSHA’s three centers – Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and Center for Mental Health Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation Directorate (PAED).

Dr. Bridgers is also a service-disabled retired Command Sergeant Major (CSM) in the United States Army Reserve (USAR) and has 30 years of combined USAR and Active Duty service member experience. In his role as a CSM, he served as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Commander regarding all non-commissioned officer (NCO) duties and responsibilities. He also possesses a Top-secret security clearance with military occupational specialties in the following areas: 1) Military Police (MP) Operations; 2) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Operations; 3) Health and Behavioral Health Operations; 4) Logistics; and 5) Information Operations (IO). In his role as a CSM, Dr. Bridgers has managed unit-level pre- and post-mobilization program activities, provided healthcare education to military personnel and their families in the Military Health Care System, and served as the Casualty Assistance Officer/Notification Officer who provided information and assistance to casualty-affected Army families.

Dr. Bridgers earned his B.S. degree in Psychology and M.S. degree in Health Education from Howard University in Washington, D.C., his MBA and MA in Theology from Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Florida, and his Ph.D. in Family Science from the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health. He is trained in Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) requirements, Project Management Principles, and is a Certified Knowledge Manager.

Ms. Andrea J. Bright serves as the Assistant Commissioner, Office of Human Resources Management, Enterprise Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In this role, her priority is to provide a premiere employee experience from recruiting through retirement. She is responsible for all aspects of human resources services, including recruitment and hiring, benefits, survivor advocacy, workplace safety, personnel research, executive services, human resources business systems, labor and employee relations, and employee engagement. Ms. Bright is accountable for directing the quality and delivery of these services to more than 60,000 nationally and internationally dispersed, uniformed, and non-uniformed employees who comprise the largest law enforcement agency in the United States.

Prior to serving as Assistant Commissioner, Ms. Bright served as the Chief Human Capital Officer and Chief Learning Officer at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), where she was responsible for overseeing all human resources functions and services for the agency. Ms. Bright also served in a variety of key leadership positions at OPM, including Deputy Associate Director for Human Resources Management/Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, Deputy Human Resources Director, and Manager of Classification and Assessment Policy.

Ms. Bright completed graduate coursework in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at George Washington University, where she was a Presidential Merit Fellow.  She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with a minor in English, from the University of Houston.

Stephen Ehikian currently serves as Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator of the General Services Administration. Stephen is a serial entrepreneur in the software industry who has successfully built and sold two companies focused on sales and customer service to Salesforce (Airkit.ai in 2023 and RelateIQ in 2014). He most recently served as Vice President of AI Products and has a strong record of identifying next-generation technology. He is committed to accelerating the adoption of technology throughout government, driving maximum efficiency in government procurement for the benefit of all taxpayers. Stephen graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics and earned an MBA from Stanford University.

Mr. Pete Guinto is the Senior Technical Advisor for Contract Pricing, within Price, Cost and Finance (PCF) at Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy (DPCAP) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD (A&S)). He is responsible forcontract pricing matters throughout Department of Defense (DoD) enterprise, in support of the Department’s 30,000 contracting professionals who spend over $300 Billion annually to bring world-class capability to the warfighter. Mr. Guinto formulates and oversees complex, DoD-wide pricing, profit, and contract financing policies and strategies supporting major defense acquisitions for the Department. As DoD’s senior advisor for acquisition and procurement negotiation strategies on major defense acquisition programs, he provides business advice and negotiation expertise, partners with the Components to pilot Defense-wide improvements and leverage best practices in pricing and contracting, and fosters opportunities for the DoD workforce to continuously grow its pricing skills.

Prior to assuming his current position as a Highly Qualified Expert in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he served in a senior executive leadership position in private industry providing commercial clients with advice around regulatory and statutory compliance with ever changing supply chain regulations. Earlier, he held various positions within the U.S. Air Force, serving as a Contracting Officer, Price Analyst, and Program Manager with DoD assignments at Wright-Patterson (twice), the Pentagon, and Randolph Air Force Base. He served as a negotiator or clearance official of ~$14B in Government Contracts spanning systems such as the F-15, F-22, F-16, MQ-9, RQ-4, C-17, C-130, KC-46 and several classified systems, smaller systems and subsystems. Mr. Guinto also served as the Chief of Market Intelligence for the COVID Acquisition task forces for the Air Force, DoD (Joint Acquisition Taskforce) and part of the national supply chain task force led by FEMA.

Mr. Guinto is a Government Acquisition Leader with professional experience in Law, Respiratory Therapy and Firefighting. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Juris Doctor degree from University of Akron in Ohio.

Dr. Rich McCormick is a decorated veteran and Emergency Room physician who proudly serves Georgia’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. 

Pavan Pidugu was sworn in as Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Department of Transportation on February 18, 2025. Pavan is a visionary and results-driven leader with over a decade of experience in carrying out technological innovations in the retail industry for global players such as Target, NCR, and Walmart, prior to joining the federal Government in 2020. Pavan is a transformational leader who believes technology alone will not solve anything, but instituting People and Processes with Technology does its wonders, and he is an expert in integrating all three facets of transformation. Pavan has led the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an agency within the Department of Transportation, as the Chief Technology Officer, where he radically transformed how technology is developed and delivered in a federal institution. Pavan has built a strong reputation in innovation and leadership in technology and received many awards, including the World 100 Technology Leaders 2024 award for his contributions to the technology landscape.

With more than 20 years of experience technology and leadership, Pavan pioneered innovative tech solutions for large retailers and achieved millions of dollars in revenue and cost savings for businesses. A few of his accomplishments include:

• Defining an outcome-oriented digital strategy and roadmap for FMCSA to serve carriers, commercial vehicle drivers, and law enforcement agencies to enforce safety in CMV transportation.
• Led transformation of Walmart's digital customer and omnichannel experience in the stores internationally and championed transforming "Ways of Working" by instituting design thinking and product management principles in technology development.
• Driving change with a comprehensive thought process and fact-based decision-making while managing the delivery of new capabilities for a global point-of-Sale system at Walmart.
• Launching an offshore IT development center in India that grew from 5 to 500 employees in two years at Target.
• Developing omnichannel product roadmaps and implementing strategic solutions for NCR's retail customers.

Pavan constantly seeks to add technology-driven business value and guide companies to be future-proof with people and processes. Pavan strongly believes in aligning technology strategy with business priorities and growing the next generation of leaders.

Shafiq Rahman, MSc, MS, MBA is the Chief Information Officer at the Maryland Department of Transportation, with over 25 years of leadership in IT strategy, innovation, and project delivery. His work spans cloud modernization, AI integration, and large-scale infrastructure improvements. Shafiq’s cross-sector experience—spanning government and academia—reflects his commitment to technology-driven public service. He holds advanced degrees in business, management, and computer science and is a recognized leader in digital transformation.

Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi is Head of U.S. Federal Civilian Policy at Google, focused on bringing innovative technologies into the government. Prior to Google, he worked for the U.S. government and was a litigator.

Omid received his B.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Miami and will receive his LL.M. in Government Procurement from the George Washington University Law School. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife.

Mia is a solutions driven IT executive, joining Salesforce in 2021 after 11 years as a public servant. She was inducted into the Senior Executive Service (SES) in 2017 and served as a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at USDA/Rural Development and Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the Department of Education responsible for securing a loan portfolio of over $1.7 trillion. Most notably, Mia was a part of the Inaugural Class of the Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Award in 2019, specifically, the “Pathfinder” winner for her leadership in bringing advances and innovation in information technology to government for her vision and leadership in developing the OneRD Portal- focused on improving the employee experience. Also in 2019, Mia was awarded the USDA Secretary Honors award for her leadership in delivering the "ReConnect" system processing over $1B in rural broadband loans.

Mia graduated from the University of Maryland University College with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science with a focus on cybersecurity in 2007 and is the current Industry Chair for ACT-IAC IT Management and Modernization Community of Interest (COI).

Barry Mainz brings more than 25+ years of experience in executive leadership, global sales, marketing, product led growth, and product development to Forescout. In addition to being an Operating Partner at Crosspoint Capital Partners, Barry most recently served as COO of Malwarebytes responsible for development and execution of the go to market strategy. Prior to joining Malwarebytes, Mainz was CEO and member of the Board of Directors for MobileIron. Before MobileIron, Mainz served as President of Wind River Systems (an Intel subsidiary). Additionally, Mainz has held leadership roles, as well as advisory and board positions at private and public companies such as Mercury Interactive, Makara (acquired by Red Hat, Inc.), and Sun Microsystems. Barry holds a BA in Communications from San Francisco State University.

Mike Raker is the Chief Technology Officer at Maximus, where he leads the company’s Technology and Innovation organization. In this role, he is responsible for setting the strategic technology direction, aligning innovative technical solutions with enterprise goals, driving research and development investments, and advancing next-generation capabilities across all business segments. Under his leadership, Maximus has launched two key capability accelerators in artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and customer experience (CX) and helped establish the company’s Global Capability Center (GCC) to enhance global growth and operational excellence.

With a deep background in delivering differentiated technology solutions at scale, Raker brings decades of experience supporting government clients worldwide. Before joining Maximus, he served in multiple leadership roles, including Vice President and Director of Mission Software, where he developed and led global software factory operations and drove innovation for mission-critical systems. His experience also includes CTO roles at venture-backed product and services scaleups, spanning product development, strategy, and operational scaling across domestic and international markets.

As a leading strategic partner to governments around the world, Maximus supports the transformation and delivery of public services in response to today’s most complex challenges across health, civilian, and defense markets.

Edward Graham is a technology reporter for Nextgov/FCW, where he reports on national security technologies and policies, the Department of Veterans Affairs and election security issues. He received his master’s degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University in 2016.
 

Chris Teale is the managing editor for Route Fifty, where he covers state and local government technology.