Speakers

Donna Bennett was recently named Enterprise Chief Information Security Officer for the U.S. Department of State. She is the former Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the U.S. Department of Commerce and former CISO at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), responsible for the unprecedented Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) integration of Personal Identity Verification smart cards for the Single Sign-On (SSO) access of all assets include derive credential within the FEMA Enterprise Network (FEN).

As a security industry veteran, Ms. Bennett brings over 25 years of experience leading large enterprise information security architecture, policy, operations, and modernization. Prior to 2014, Ms. Bennett served in various cyber security leadership positions throughout the Department of Defense, to include the Department of Navy. Following her distinguished U.S. Naval service, she worked in industry as an Enterprise Network Architect, refurbishing networks while ships were awaiting their next deployment cycle.

Ms. Bennett holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems from Saint Leo University and Master of Science Degree in Information Assurance from Norwich University (NSA Center of Excellence). She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Fellows, Executive Service Development Seminar, and holds various Technical and Cyber Security certifications. Her awards include the National Security Agency's Frank B. Rowlett Award, Joint Civilian Service Commendation, Civilian of the Year, the Federal 100 (2017), Fed Scoop Top 50 Women in IT (2016 and 2017), and GCN DIG IT Award for Cyber Security (2016 and 2017).

Sean Connelly serves as the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Manager and Senior Cybersecurity Architect, Cybersecurity Division at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The TIC initiative is the federal government’s strategy to securely protect government networks that connect to the Internet and cloud providers. CISA’s TIC Program Office works with a wide-spectrum of partners across government and industry and leads the way at enhancing network security across the federal enterprise horizon. Additionally Mr. Connelly was a co-author of the Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture (CSTRA) designed to guide agencies’ secure migration to the cloud by explaining considerations for shared services, cloud migration, and cloud security posture management; the Zero Trust Maturity Model which assists agencies in the development of their zero trust strategies and implementation plans, and presents ways in which various CISA services can support zero trust solutions across agencies; and finally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture, which discusses the core logical components that make up a zero trust architecture.

Steven Hernandez is an information assurance executive serving the past twenty years in a variety of contexts and missions. His rich background includes law enforcement, financial, education, healthcare, credentialing, heavy manufacturing, non-profits, and governments at the federal, state, and local levels.  Steven’s experience ranges from the board room to leading tactical, day-to-day security operations as well as guiding and leading broad security initiatives such as the US government's Zero Trust Architecture approach across large and complex organizations. Presently he is the Chief Information Security Officer and Director of Information Assurance Services at the U.S. Department of Education.  Steven also serves as the co-chair of the US Government Federal CISO Council and Government Chair of the ACT-IAC Cybersecurity Community of Interest. Prior to his position at Education, he held a variety of roles at the Office of Inspector General, US Department of Health and Human Services including CTO, CIO, CISO, Senior Official for Privacy and Chief Services Engineering Officer.  He is an inaugural member of the United States Scholarship of Service Hall of Fame and an ardent supporter of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals through his teaching work as an Honorary Professor, Affiliate Faculty and guest lecturer at over a dozen Institutions of higher education.

Bruce Brody is a CISO Advisor with Cisco. He was previously 4-time CISO, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, DRS Leonardo, and Cubic Global Defense.

Marcus (Marc) Moffett is the CTO and Senior Director of Engineering and Architecture for the U.S. Public Sector Organization. He and his team are responsible for the discovery of business and mission requirements, and the design of a secure, intelligent platform to support the digital business journey of Cisco’s Public Sector customers—both directly and through partners.