Speakers

Austin Herrling is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the Army Software Factory under Army Futures Command. He is a captain in the Army, and serves in the Army’s Operations Research and Systems Analysis functional area. His military background includes a tour as the Chief Innovation Officer for 3rd BCT, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and his academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Science in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As the CDO for the Army Software Factory, Austin works with product teams to develop, instrument, visualize, and communicate product metrics. As a brand new organization within Army Futures Command, he is helping the Army Software Factory spearhead its role as a contributing customer of Army data and provide direct feedback to the Army Data Board about how the Army Software Factory consumes and generates Army data at scale.

Ms. Carlene C. Ileto is the Deputy Chief Data Officer (DCDO) for the Department of Homeland Security. Before becoming the DCDO, she served as the acting CDO, building the department and managing all things data. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Infrastructure Services Office within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), where she was directly responsible for data center optimization and consolidation efforts, network services, and data center and cloud migration initiatives. While working as the Infrastructure Services Executive Director, Ms. Ileto was also detailed to the Acting Deputy CIO to perform optimization of Information Technology (IT) acquisitions, evaluating IT spend and efficiencies and conducting statistical and data analysis.

Before joining the Infrastructure Office, Ms. Ileto led the Products and Services Delivery Management Office, providing agency-wide support for products including Enterprise License Agreements, Mobility, and Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation implementation across all DHS Components.

Ms. Ileto joined the Senior Executive Service in 2006. She previously served as the Executive Director for the OCIO Enterprise Business Management Office, supervising portfolio and program management, IT policy, and Program Life Cycle methodologies including Agile. She oversaw the planning, acquisition, execution, and governance of $6.8 billion in IT investments across the DHS IT portfolio. Her responsibilities included developing long-range plans and managing DHS relationships with the Office of Management and Budget, the General Accounting Office, and DHS Components. She successfully built policies and procedures to implement the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act within DHS by developing the Implementation Plan and Common Baseline Self-Assessment Plan.

Prior to joining DHS, Ms. Ileto served as Director of Enterprise Voice Networks at the IRS, where she led the deployment of telecommunications technologies in Modernization and Information Technology Services. As Executive Director of the Internal Management Domain Directorate, she managed over 430 employees, delivering the IRS integrated financial management system and modernizing collections compliance systems to ensure accurate collections from businesses and citizens.

Ms. Ileto began her 40-year career as a systems engineer working on the Surface Launched Cruise Missile project for BAE Systems and was an expert IBM engineering consultant for 12 years. She is a native of Virginia and holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics with a minor in computer science.

Dr. Damian Kostiuk works with USCIS, Office of Performance and Quality in the Office of Chief Data Officer.  Dr. Kostiuk is the Division Chief for Data Analytics overseeing Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence Branches.  In his prior capacity, Damian was the Data Science Lead within Office of Information Technology - Identity, Records, and National Security Delivery Division (IRNSDD) where he investigated and promoted advances in machine learning and data quality. Damian assumed his current role with a proven track record in leading development as Product Owner for the Verification (E-Verify and SAVE) modernization project for Logic and Analytics where he originated the Person Centric Service.  Damian’s portfolio involves cutting edge practices and technologies, to include machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, graph data applications, forecasting, and big data ecosystems. 

Sanjay Koyani has over 20 years of experience in leading transformation and modernization efforts in government. Currently, he serves as the Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. His responsibilities include outlining the Department’s technological vision, implementing emerging technology and data strategies, and ensuring technological resources align with the DOL mission and agency business needs.

One of Mr. Koyani’s key projects for the Department is establishing a robust data management and analytics IT strategy. Data is one of the key strategic assets used by the organization to enable more informed decision-making and the creation of evidence-based policies. It also assists the organization with improving program performance. He is focused on building upon a strong foundation to further collaborate with agency leadership and accelerate a culture of data sharing and advanced analytics.

Prior to the Department of Labor, Mr. Koyani served as the Executive Director for Innovation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human services (HHS) in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. He oversaw enterprise-level innovation programs, enterprise data strategy, and public-private partnerships including kidney and Lyme Accelerators. He also led significant programs in regulatory communications and digital strategy, budget and congressional oversight, and establishing operations and innovative systems for new offices.  

He has a Masters of Public Health from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Biology from Purdue University. In his free time he enjoys hiking with his son and daughter, and spending time with his family.

Will LaForest is Field CTO Americas and Public Sector for Confluent. In his current position, Mr. LaForest works with customers across a broad spectrum industries and government enabling them to realize the benefits of a data in motion architecture with event streaming. He is passionate about data technology innovation and has spent 26 years helping customers wrangle data at massive scale. His technical career spans diverse areas from software engineering, NoSQL, data science, cloud computing, machine learning, and building statistical visualization software but began with code slinging at DARPA as a teenager.  Mr. LaForest holds degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Virginia.

Selected to the Senior Executive Service in 2005, Dr. Markowitz assumed his present position as the United States Army’s Chief Data Officer and Analytics Officer in October 2020.

Dr. Markowitz’s previous assignment was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, May 2016-October 2020. His principal duties included responsibility for Army Programs, Force Development, Business Mission Area Data, Army Studies Management, and the Center for Army Analysis. In this capacity, he served as the principal advisor to the G-8 with responsibility for providing professional advice to the G-8 on key issues to include formulating plans and programs, acquiring resources, developing communication networks, executing operations, and evaluating results.

Dr. Markowitz also served as the United States Army’s Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, June 2012-April 2016. His principal duties included operations and strategic planning functions of the Department of the Army; formulating and executing Army-wide operational policy; and providing strategic direction on Army strategy and plans, force management, current operations, and administration /resources/business transformation.

Dr. Markowitz also served as Director, Capabilities Integration, Prioritization, and Analysis with the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7. His principal duties were to validate, prioritize, analyze and integrate requirements to provide the current and future Army timely and decisive war fighting capabilities in order to achieve the National Military Strategy. Additionally, he served as the Technical Director of the Center for Army Analysis (CAA) with oversight responsibility for all CAA support to Headquarters, Department of the Army associated with the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the analytic agenda, and the analysis of Irregular, Disruptive and
Catastrophic challenges. He was also responsible for ensuring the quality of analysis performed by CAA’s reach-back support to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Dr. Markowitz’s previous positions prior to joining the Headquarters, Department of the Army staff included positions with U.S. Department of State Political-Military Bureau's Office of Weapons Proliferation, the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Center at Natick Massachusetts, the Sloan School of Management at MIT, the faculty of George Washington University, the Logistics Management Institute, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he served as Director of the Simulation and Analysis Center in the Office of the Director, Program Analysis and Evaluation.

Dr. David M. Markowitz is a native of Massachusetts, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University with AB and AM degrees in mathematics, and holds a Doctorate of Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bob Osborn is CTO, Global Government Sector for ServiceNow. Bob is an accomplished senior executive who has held many high level IT leadership positions, including Director of Logistics IT for the U.S. Army G4, Deputy J6/CIO for U.S. Transportation Command, Deputy CIO at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and CIO of the National Nuclear Security Administration. 

He has led major IT and organizational transformations throughout his career and is a thought leader recognized across the public sector market.  

As a user of ServiceNow, Bob led ITIL based Enterprise Service Management standardization within the Department of Energy.  Bob also served as a United States Marine Corps officer for 27 years.

Thomas Santucci is Director of the Data Center & Cloud Optimization Initiative PMO at the General Services Administration (GSA). In this role, he oversees the PMO’s managing partner responsibilities for the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), helps implement the federal Cloud Smart strategy, and serves as Co-Chair of the Cloud & Infrastructure Community of Practice, which has over 1,000 members from across the federal IT workforce.   

Prior to joining GSA in 2019, Mr. Santucci managed the Data Center Transformation Initiative (DCTI) for the Department of Justice (DOJ). At DOJ, he created the enterprise strategy for the Department to achieve its DCOI objectives and accomplish its cloud adoption goals, as well as provided the overall enterprise vision and policies for DOJ’s future computing environment. Using the methodologies he developed and implemented to meet the intent of these programs, DCTI ultimately exceeded the targets established for the Department, which led to DOJ being recognized as employing best practices by GAO.

Keith Sink is a Strategic Client Architect with MuleSoft.  Keith has 30+ years experience in helping customers successfully deploy complex business/mission solutions within the public and private sector.  Keith has served in leadership roles within every phase of the application lifecycle.  During the last 7 years, Keith has supported MuleSoft customers across US & Canadian federal agencies and DoD, as well as, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare and life sciences, commercial retail, in addition to, state and local government agencies.

Chris Tran is currently a Senior Sales Engineer at Snowflake. Previously, Chris worked at Qlik as the founding Solutions Architect and Partner Enablement Manager for the federal team in the Washington, DC area. Over the last 20 years, Chris has educated thousands of users in the U.S. government, including the intelligence community, department of defense, law enforcement, and civilian agencies. He has a deep background in business intelligence, search engines, and big data analytics working for such companies as Endeca/Oracle, Qlik, and Northrop Grumman. Chris has a BS Computer Engineering degree from Virginia Tech University and an MBA from the George Washington University.

In February 2021, Courtney A. Winship became the Deputy Chief Data Officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In her capacity, Ms. Winship oversees teams implementing enterprise-wide data management and analytics programs focused on standards, quality, governance, business intelligence, and advanced analytics. She aims to create a data-driven culture through collaborative partnerships, increased data literacy and strategic data management using innovation technology solutions.

Ms. Winship started her USCIS career as an Overseas Adjudication Specialist in the London, UK
Field Office in 2007. Since that time, she has held a number of leadership positions at USCIS
headquarters in community relations, intergovernmental affairs, and digital services focused on
customer experience and digital transformation. Over the years, she has become a strong advocate for implementing technology and knowledge management strategies to make employee and customer engagement simpler and more productive.

Prior to USCIS, Courtney worked in social enterprise consulting and education helping to build
and scale mission-driven organizations. She received her undergraduate degree with high honors from Tufts University and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics.