Speakers

Ms. Jane Datta is NASA’s Chief Human Capital Officer and lead people champion. She wholly
embraces that “we are people leaders in the people business” which guides her oversight of NASA’s human capital policies, practices, and operations. Ms. Datta is responsible for building the quality and depth of talent necessary for supporting the agency’s mission, improving capabilities for delivering out-of-this-world human resources services, and positively shaping NASA’s culture to maintain high levels of employee engagement and commitment.

From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Datta served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) where she successfully managed a robust portfolio of services and complex change initiatives, including workforce planning and analytics, learning and development, talent acquisition, and policy and accountability. One of her most notable and rewarding professional achievements has been overseeing OCHCO’s transformation from providing decentralized human capital services across ten centers to a centralized, functionally unified, line of business.

Ms. Datta joined NASA in 2007 as the Director of NASA’s Workforce Policy, Planning and Analysis Division in the Office of Human Capital Management. Here she played an important role in coordinating activities to increase efficiency across the agency’s ten centers, such as the agency-level integration of workforce planning with budgeting and strategic planning. Ms. Datta also oversaw agency-level human capital policy, accountability, recruiting, hiring, and student programs.

Ms. Datta is known at NASA and across the Federal government for her work and often shares her human capital perspectives and expertise with leaders and aspiring human capital professionals across industry and Federal agencies. She serves as a member of the Office of Personnel Management’s Chief Human Capital Officers Council.

Prior to joining NASA, Ms. Datta worked in London, UK as an associate director of a classical music agency. After earning her graduate degree, she spent ten years at United Technologies Corporation in various human resources disciplines. In 2001 she moved to the Washington DC area and joined Booz Allen Hamilton as an associate, focusing on building their workforce planning practice, methodologies, andservice offerings.

Ms. Datta holds an M.M. (MBA) from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Yale University. She enjoys playing and performing classical piano and spending time with her family.

John serves as the NASA MSFC Chief Technologist and agency In-Space Transportation Capability Lead.  His role is to foster relationships and guide investments for technology development for NASA's future mission needs.  He is a conduit for the aerospace/technology community and general public for engagement opportunities supporting NASA's missions, technology development, innovation and outreach.

Instagram: @TheJohnDankanich

Twitter: @NASATechChief

As Special Advisor to President Barack Obama, Mr. DeSeve oversaw the successful implementation of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  

He is currently the Coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and a Visiting Fellow of the IBM Center for the Business of Government. 

His career has included work in finance, academia and government.  Mr. DeSeve was the founder and president of Public Financial Management- the United States’ largest independent financial advisor to governments.  At Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, he was a managing director in charge of public finance in a 20 state region. 

Additional government service at the federal level included being Controller and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was the Director of Finance for the City of Philadelphia and served as a Special Assistant to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

He held a tenured professorship of Public Management and Finance at the University of Maryland and was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.  For Brookings Executive Education, DeSeve served as Executive in Residence. He was Executive Director of the State Budget Crisis Task Force, founded by Richard Ravitch and Paul Volcker, to examine the financial condition of states following the global financial crisis.

At each level of government, Mr. DeSeve oversaw complex fiscal affairs. He was instrumental in balancing Philadelphia’s budget during two fiscal crises. At OMB, he helped balance the federal budget for the first time in more than a generation.  While at OMB, he oversaw the fiscal reforms of the District of Columbia that led to its return to investment grade ratings with strong budget and cash surpluses.

He is the author of numerous publications including, The Presidential Appointees’ Handbook (Second Edition Brookings 2017).  At the National Academy of Public Administration, he served as Vice Chair and co-authored its first Fiscal Future Report in 2005 warning of the coming federal deficits.  He was awarded the Kenneth Howard award for career public service in financial management by the American Society of Public Administration. He serves as a member of the selection committee of the Harvard University Ash Center Innovations in American Government Award. 

He is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and has a Master’s in Public Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Robin Carnahan is the Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). As Administrator, she is working to build on GSA’s progress and continue this agency’s efforts to deliver the best value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and American people. 

Prior to leading GSA, Carnahan served as the former Secretary of State of Missouri and, from 2016-20, led the State and Local Government Practice at 18F, a tech consultancy inside the US government General Services Administration that she founded. Carnahan is a nationally recognized government technology leader and in 2017 was named one of the federal government’s “Top Women in Tech.” Carnahan is currently a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center where she co-founded the State Software Collaborative.

During her previous tenure at GSA, Carnahan helped federal, state and local government agencies improve customer facing digital services and cut costs. In particular, she taught and empowered non-technical executives about how to reduce risk and deliver better results for the public by more effectively budgeting, procuring, implementing and overseeing digital modernization projects. As Secretary of State, Carnahan served as the state’s Chief Election Official and State Securities Regulator and was responsible for providing in-person and on-line services to hundreds of thousands of customers. An essential part of her job was leading the office’s technology modernization efforts and managing a large service delivery team of 250 employees and 7 operating divisions. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from William Jewell College and J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Robin frequently speaks, writes and testifies about government innovation through smarter use of technology.

Traci DiMartini is the Chief Human Capital Officer for this U.S. General Services Administration.    

In her role leading the Office of Human Resources Management, DiMartini leads HR support activities for the agency’s 12,000 employees. She is responsible for GSA-wide policy and oversight of all aspects of Human Capital Management including: talent acquisition, development and sustainment, labor and employee relations, performance management, compensation, strategic workforce and succession planning, executive resources, diversity management and data analytics.

Traci has extensive experience in federal human capital programs. She previously served as the Chief Human Capital Officer for the Peace Corps, where she oversaw all human capital services for Peace Corps employees including staffing, classification, benefits, payroll, employee and labor relations, data analytics, workforce planning and employee engagement initiatives. 

Before that, she served as Chief Human Capital Officer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the Director for Human Resources Enterprise Management Systems at the Department of Agriculture; and as the first ever career Deputy Director for the Chief Human Capital Officers Council at the Office of Personnel Management.  

Traci is a member of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council representing over 100 small agencies and also chairs the Small Agency Human Resources’ Committee. She is a career member of the Senior Executive Service, graduating from American University’s Key Executive Program in 2013 as part of USDA’s Senior Executive Candidate Development Program.    

Traci holds a Master’s degree in Labor Policy and Workforce Development from Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Public Policy and undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Communications from Miami University of Ohio. 

Alissa Czyz is an Acting Director in GAO’s Strategic Issues team. She leads portfolios of work on federal performance management and human capital issues including federal government recruitment, retention, workforce diversity, strategic planning, interagency collaboration, and evidence-based policymaking. Prior to joining the Strategic Issues team in 2020, Ms. Czyz spent 17 years in GAO's Defense Capabilities and Management team. During that time, she managed reviews on a variety of topics involving the Department of Defense. Before joining GAO in 2004, Ms. Czyz worked at the National Institute of Mental Health and in the nonprofit sector. She holds a BA from Knox College, Galesburg, IL, and an MA from American University.

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Donald F. Kettl is professor emeritus and former dean at the University of Maryland and, until his
retirement, was the Sid Richardson Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a senior adviser at the Volcker Alliance and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as well as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Kettl is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Divided States of America (2020); Can Governments Earn Our Trust? (2017); Little Bites of Big Data for Public Policy (2017); The Politics of the Administrative Process (8th edition, 2020), Escaping Jurassic Government: Restoring America’s Lost Commitment to Competence (2016), System under Stress: The Challenge to 21 st Century American Democracy Homeland Security and American Politics (2014), The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them (2008), and The Global Public Management Revolution (2005).

He has received three lifetime achievement awards, and three of his books have received national best-book awards. Kettl holds a PhD in political science from Yale University. He consults broadly for government organizations at all levels and has appeared frequently in national and international media.He is also a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers.

Michael Peckham is the CFO of the HHS Program Support Center. Previously he led the ReInvent Grants Management transformation initiative under the HHS ReImagine program. Mike also led the HHS DATA Act initiatives in successfully meeting the implementation goals as well as the grants pilot required under section 5 of the statute.  He brings over 30 years’ of broad experience leading PSC in meeting its administrative modernization and shared services goals. He is a champion for positive change, creating new approaches to old problems through Human Center Design, Agile methodologies, microservices architecture, and applying emerging technology to promote data driven business decisions.

Jack Maykoski holds the position of President and CEO at Graduate School USA. With more than thirty years in the fields of professional development and training, and international development, Mr. Maykoski has extensive experience leading results-oriented capacity-building programs and providing technical assistance in many regions of the world.

Prior to his career with Graduate School USA, Mr. Maykoski worked for the U.S. Peace Corps in several capacities: as Country Director for three countries; as Chief of Operations in Washington, DC; and as a training director supporting Peace Corps volunteers throughout the world.

Mr. Maykoski holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota.

Courtney Bublé is a staff correspondent who covers federal management. Before joining Government Executive, she worked for NBC News. Courtney graduated from The George Washington University in 2018.

Eric Katz writes about federal agency operations and management. His deep coverage of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Postal Service has earned him frequent guest spots on national radio and television news programs. Eric joined Government Executive in the summer of 2012 and previously worked for The Financial Times. He is a graduate of The George Washington University.

Erich Wagner is a staff correspondent covering pay, benefits and other federal workforce issues. He joined Government Executive in the spring of 2017 after extensive experience writing about state and local issues in Maryland and Virginia, most recently as editor-in-chief of the Alexandria Times. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.