GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts

Natalie Vanatta, a national cyber protection team leader, explains the methods behind "threatcasting," a tactic used to stay at the forefront of the nation's cybersecurity threats. She also goes into how various technologies like AI could help the future of managing cyber risk.

Andrea Norris discusses the technology efforts at play in managing the National Institutes of Health's mass amount of data across its research community. With extensive backgrounds at NASA and NSF, Norris also advocates for more women in government leadership.

Renee Wynn has an astronomical responsibility in managing a mix of new and legacy systems to manage NASA's vast amount of data across its programs that include missions back to the Moon and to Mars.

Terry Gerton, a 20-year Army veteran and career member of the Senior Executive Service, discusses the importance of Congressionally chartered NAPA's mission to the advancement of public service initiatives.

Zachary Goldstein's responsibility for NOAA's vast amount of data has greater implications for the public good. The CIO discusses the importance of the cloud and other efforts, including high-performance computing.

Nagesh Rao, a self-appointed "Geek in Residence" at the Small Business Administration, discusses the importance of taking risks on small companies toward driving technological innovation and change. He brings in his experiences in and out of the private sector and government, which also includes a career at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to highlight modernization efforts and the importance of keeping up with a constantly changing technological landscape and evolving workforce.

Jen Sovada, a 25-year career U.S. Air Force airman, discusses her work to recruit and retain talent in the service amid a changing technological landscape and mission needs.

Angela Colter talks how new technology is not always in focus in modernizing government systems, and that taking into account the process and user needs should be any organization's foundation. The head of the General Service Administration's 18F office discusses her strategic vision for IT services and recruitment over the next year.

Stacey Dixon brings a mechanical engineering background to IARPA and discusses the positives and negatives to new technology in research programs.

Dr. Neil Evans, an active clinician to veterans, discusses how he became involved in efforts with improving services to veterans by increasing access to care using digital health technologies

VA's Charles Worthington joined us to discuss his experience standing up the U.S. Digital Service team, various fellowships and his time at Harvard earning his degree in social studies. Worthington is currently working to modernize the VA's digital products and recently spearheaded the relaunch of the VA.gov website.

This episode features Sezin Palmer, mission area executive for National Health for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. Palmer uses her education in engineering to revolutionize health, so that one day people won't have to go to a medical facility to know what's going on in their bodies. Her first role at APL was a program area manager for submarine warfare, where she worked on keeping Navy submarine crews safe before women were even allowed to join them.

This episode features Steve Blank, entrepreneur, founder of the Lean Startup movement and original Silicon Valley-er. Blank founded eight companies and authored two books about executing startup business models. Although he retired in 1999, he hasn't stopped spreading his knowledge and experiences by teaching entrepreneurship courses at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley and beyond —courses that have even been adopted by government. And despite claiming he would have been chosen "lease likely to succeed" in high school, Blank's life has taken him from repairing fighter planes in Thailand during Vietnam to true Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

This episode features Nick Psaki, Pure Storage's U.S. Public Sector CTO. Pure Storage is a technology company helping the government build a better world with data, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Psaki is helping lead these efforts. He joined us to talk about how he went from working with the Army's top intelligence leaders to helping lead Pure Storage's efforts. Psaki also breaks down the different opportunities and potential for the government to capture with the advances in AI.

This episode features Justin Herman, lead of the Emerging Citizen Technology program office for GSA's Technology Transformation Services. Herman talks about his transition from public affairs officer in the Air Force to social technologist, his passion for GSA's emerging tech missions, and how the arrival of the internet at his high school in a small town in New Hampshire led him to developing the school's first website and ultimately predicting the rise of social technologies. Plus, hear about Herman's recent 3,500 kilometer tuk-tuk race in India that he started and finished solo.

Oct 25, 2018 | This episode features Marcy Jacobs, Executive Director of the Digital Service team at Veterans Affairs, and recent recipient of a Service to America Medal for Management Excellence for her and her team's work connecting vets to the benefits they deserve. Jacobs talks about her background in fine arts and psychology, her 15-year career in web design and how USDS actually came to her. After a two-hour coffee meeting and a breakfast at the White House with former U.S. CTO Todd Park, Jacobs is leading a team at VA changing the veteran digital experience.

Oct 16, 2018 | This episode features Meagan Metzger, the Founder and CEO of tech-accelerator Dcode. With dual degrees in marketing and engineering, she founded Dcode, at the intersection of tech and government. And of all the tech-based challenges between industry and the public sector, she chose to tackle one of the biggest barriers: procurement. But starting a business wasn't easy, and Metzger had her share of worried nights by the fire - literally. Hear how she got Dcode off the ground, her side passions and Dcode's next tech focus: space.

Oct 11, 2018 | This seventh episode features Stephanie Neill, Executive Director of USDS at Homeland Security. Neill spent much of her younger years abroad, as her father was a U.S. Ambassador for the small West African country of Benin. She held an inherent interest for culture, international relations and global business, but found her way into the tech space while still in college. In fact, Neill got her start in product management and user design building Facebook app pages. But after a hiccup in foreign service plans, graduating into the recession and spending time at a range of industry companies, her passion for public service landed her at USDS, where she has been for two-and-a-half years.

Oct 1, 2018 | This sixth episode features Haiyan Song, Senior Vice President of Security Markets at Splunk. Song was named in the top 50 most powerful women in tech in 2016 and 2017, but her childhood dream was actually to be an astronaut. After growing up in China and attending one of the top engineering universities, which at the time was 10 percent woman, she landed into computer science not because she knew what it was about, but because her dad encouraged her to. She followed his advice, came to the U.S. after college in the late 1980s, fell into the database security world, and loved it. Hear more about Song's journey to security, and what Splunk actually means.

Sept 25, 2018 |This fifth episode features Shannon Sartin, executive director of the U.S. Digital Service at the Department of Health and Human Services. Sartin comes from a family of public service, but unsure of her career path, obtained a degree in Italian from the University of Arizona. She got her start in tech with Bunjie, the video game company behind Halo, but eventually made her way to D.C. via a cross-country drive with her daughter, dog and horse. She applied to a job with USDS, listing her skill as "making sh*t happen." Hear more about how she's making healthcare better with technology, and what she thinks is driving the future of USDS.

Sept 17, 2018 | This fourth episode features Ashley Mahan, the General Services Administration's first evangelist for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. She came to GSA in 2015 to stand up her role and help agencies understand FedRAMP — but she doesn't have an educational background in IT. Rather, she majored in business and minored in real estate, which led her to a consulting company in Washington, D.C. serving federal agencies as a junior information assurance analyst — or what we call today, cybersecurity. Hear how that led her to a master's degree in IT, and more about her unique experiences one of the faces of FedRAMP.

Sept 12, 2018 | This third episode features Peter Newell, managing director at BMNT, a Silicon Valley company focused on solving national security challenges. He spent nearly 30 years in the military and when time came to transition out of the service, he knew what he didn't want to do next: work for somebody else. So he uprooted his life to the West Coast, fought through a start-fail process and lived without a paycheck for a year, risking it all to launch his own company — and new passion.

Sept 5, 2018 | Molly Cain, Director of the Office of Venture & Innovation at Homeland Security, speaks with Camille and Amanda about her drive for innovation, how she fosters and encourages tech adoption and how an entrepreneurship culture is changing government.

Aug 29, 2018 | This inaugural GovCast episode features Jose Arrieta, who runs acquisition at the Health and Human Services Department. His career didn't start in government but on the basketball court. That professional path took a dramatic turn on Sept. 11, 2001, when his coach came into the gym where Arrieta was practicing, saying two planes had hit the World Trade Center.