Federal AI Forum

Jake is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Science and Technology Foundations. In this role Jake serves as the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (USW(R&E)) on matters related to S&T, developmental prototyping, and experimentation, acting as a crucial link between fundamental scientific discovery and its strategic application in defense. Jake served as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN RD&A). In this role Jake was responsible for implementation of Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as rapid acquisition in the Department of Navy and the Marine Corps. Jake previously served as Director of Advanced Capabilities for the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) Program. He was responsible for developing and integrating critical new technologies in conjunction with the US Army and DARPA into the CPS platform with an annual budget of over $60M. Jake served as a Program Manager at the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Unmanned Systems transitioning critical technology to the warfighter and Program Lead for Team Submarine Project Turing rapidly introducing AI into the undersea domain with a total budget of $140M. Jake served as the Assistant Program Manager (APM) for Submarine Combat Future Development and the Payload Control System (PCS) in NAVSEA PEO Submarine with an annual budget of over $30M. His portfolio as APM included all Payload control and integration including unmanned vehicles, missiles and torpedoes for the BYG-1 Combat Control System and the Common Weapon Launchers (CWL). In his future development portfolio Jake was the Program Manager for the Submarine Launched Unmanned Aerial System (SLUAS) providing command and control as well as a Virtual Twin Combat System for the US and Australian Submarine Force.

Jake served as the SEA05 System Design Manager (SDM), Technical Warrant Holder and Chief Engineer for a SCO program in the Unmanned Maritime Systems Program, PMS 406 Program Office. Jake has extensive Naval Engineering experience from with the Remote Minehunting System (RMS) as the lead software engineer and extensive submarine development and engineering experience with the BYG-1 Submarine Combat Control System.

Jake’s first job with the Department of the Navy was a CO-OP at Lockheed Martin Moorestown during his undergraduate study at Drexel University in Philadelphia spending three years working Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense in charge of test development and simulations of the combat system capability. Upon graduating Jake joined the Federal Service at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division Hydrodynamics group spending 4 years as the In Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the Seawolf Class Submarine Ship Control System and Data Distribution System.

Jake first came to the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in 2011 serving as the lead software engineer for the RMS and AN/AQS-20A sonar system. From 2012 to 2014 he served as lead engineer of the Submarine Weapon Control System and head of the Open Architecture initiative for the BYG-1 Submarine Combat Control System.

Jake has received several NAVSEA awards including a NAVSEA Innovation Award over his career for innovation and excellence in engineering. Jake was recognized as Engineer of the Year (2020) by ASNE and has been published by the Naval Submarine League on Combat Systems of the Future. He has a Bachelor’s of Science (BS) in Computer Engineering from Drexel University, a Master’s of Science (MS) in Systems Engineering from The George Washington University, a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland and is completing a Masters of Arts (MA) in Strategic Studies at the Naval War College.

Carter Farmer is an accomplished technology executive with over 15 years of experience leading enterprise IT transformation in both public and private sectors. He most recently served as Director of IT Systems and Solutions at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where he led major cybersecurity initiatives, modernized the organization’s identity and access management architecture, and oversaw strategic cloud infrastructure projects. Prior to USIP, he held a key IT leadership role at Amtrak, where he contributed to critical improvements in operational technology and service reliability for one of the nation’s largest transportation networks.

Carter began his career in the private sector, holding strategic roles at Telarix, a global telecommunications software company, and DISYS, a professional services and technology solutions firm. In these roles, he advised enterprise clients on system modernization, data security, and IT service delivery. Carter holds a B.S. in Information Systems Management, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Radford University and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Information Technology.

As CIO for the Environmental Protection Agency, Carter brings a pragmatic and mission-focused approach to technology leadership, prioritizing modernization, data integrity, and operational excellence to support the EPA’s statutory and strategic goals.

Birgit Smeltzer serves as the Director of the Office of IT Products within the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC), in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. Birgit serves as a core member of the OneGov IT Strategy team.

The Federal Acquisition Service provides buying platforms and acquisition services to federal, state and local governments for a broad range of items, from office supplies to motor vehicles, to information technology and telecommunications products and services. ITC provides access to a wide range of commercial and custom IT products, services and solutions.

In this role, Birgit is responsible for a portfolio of contracts and programs that offer government agencies a diverse set of IT software, cloud, hardware, and service solutions valued at $9 billion annually. Some of these offerings include Multiple Award Schedule Special Item Numbers for IT Software, IT Hardware, and Cloud Computing and Cloud-Related IT Professional Services; Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS); 2nd Generation IT (2GIT) Blanket Purchase Agreements; and Government-wide Strategic Solutions (GSS) Desktop and Laptop Program.

Since joining GSA in 2016, Birgit has served in other impactful roles as well. As a Management and Program Analyst that led the Category Mission Support Division, she was responsible for providing mission support to all of the IT Subcategories within ITC, streamlining processes, and ensuring common communication across the portfolios, as well as overseeing the development and management of an online training tool available governmentwide.

As a Program Manager in the IT Security subcategory, she led various projects that aimed to promote and highlight ITC’s IT Security Solutions, such as Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services and Continuous Diagnostics & Mitigation Tools, for both agencies and industry. During this time, she was responsible for aligning FAS IT products and services with federal security standards and mandates. She served as IT Security Subcategory liaison for both customer agencies and vendors, helped agencies find the right cybersecurity solutions, and provided guidance to vendors interested in selling their cybersecurity solutions through the GSA Multiple Award Schedule.

Birgit graduated from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Geoffrey Sage serves as the Director of the Enterprise Service and Analysis Division (ESAD) within the NASA Office of Procurement. In this role, he provides senior executive leadership and oversight for a division crucial to the Office of Procurement’s operational excellence. He directs ESAD’s core functions, including managing the enterprise E-Business systems and driving digital transformation initiatives through the E-Business Systems Office (EBSO), fostering pricing expertise and ensuring fair and reasonable pricing via the Enterprise Pricing Office (EPO), and maintaining accountability and compliance through the Procurement Management Review (PMR) Office. Additionally, Mr. Sage oversees ESAD’s pivotal support for special acquisition initiatives directed by the Chief Acquisition Officer and Deputy Chief Acquisition Officer.

Prior to serving as the ESAD Director, Mr. Sage served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Procurement, Agency Procurement Ombudsman, and Competition Advocate. In this role, he shared the responsibility of providing senior executive leadership and oversight of NASA’s procurement functions, coordinating, reviewing, evaluating, and ensuring the timeliness and effectiveness of the full spectrum of NASA procurement activities to the acquisition workforce.

Beginning his NASA career in 2003, Mr. Sage joined as a member of the NASA Contracting Intern Program at Kennedy Space Center and Langley Research Center. He then served at the operational field level at Goddard Space Flight Center. There he supported a wide range of major space systems and associated commodities from construction to space communications and satellite development programs and projects.

Since then, he has gone on to serve as the NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (NFS) Manager and Performance Management Lead for the NASA Office of Procurement. In his role as the NFS Manager, Mr. Sage served as the agency’s principal point of contact for agency procurement policy and guidance as promulgated in the NFS and related policy and guidance resources. He oversaw and managed the process for creating, maintaining, and ensuring the quality of the NFS and its related documents in addition to developing, maintaining, and implementing agency-wide procurement guidance, procedures, and regulations. As Performance Management Lead, Mr. Sage directed the strategic oversight of the Office of Procurement E-Business systems and tools, which included enterprise-wide E-Business systems, data, and the development and maintenance of metrics and goals.

Nick Marinos serves as the Managing Director of the Information Technology & Cybersecurity team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Nick leads a team of over 200 IT and cybersecurity professionals who examine the federal government and make recommendations on how it can improve IT management practices; ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of IT acquisitions and operations; adopt IT management best practices; protect individual privacy and sensitive data; strengthen cybersecurity and protect information systems; and develop and execute a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy.

GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the “congressional watchdog,” GAO examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with objective, reliable information to help the government save money and work more efficiently.

Nick joined GAO in 2002. Over the course of his career, Nick has testified over a dozen times as an expert witness before congressional committees and has led his team’s major reviews of:

• Efforts by the executive branch to implement the National Cyber Strategy
• Cybersecurity risk management practices at major federal agencies
• Data protection practices at the Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Federal Student Aid office, and key financial regulatory agencies
• Cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, including within K-12 schools, the financial services sector, the nation’s electricity grid, and oil and gas pipeline sectors, among others

Please visit www.gao.gov to learn more about the work GAO performs across a vast array of topic areas in support of Congress.

Nick earned an MBA in information systems and technology and a bachelor’s degree in business information technology, both from Virginia Tech. Nick is a certified information privacy professional.

Victoria Yan Pillitteri is the Cybersecurity Lead at NIST.

Mallory Sword Glenn leads Product Marketing for Okta for AI Agents, building go-to-market strategy for a solution that helps enterprises see, manage, and govern agent identities. She’s shaping how the market approaches AI agent security, a space with no established playbook. Working directly with customers, she’s defining positioning, messaging, and sales strategy as organizations move from experimenting with agents to deploying them at scale. Previously at Adobe and HPE, she built GTM, pricing, and deal strategy for emerging product categories across sales, marketing, and strategy teams.

Mr. Frutchey is the Chief Technology Officer at Clear Fracture. He has over 25 years of experience in National Security with a focus on emerging technologies for machine learning, course of action automation, distributed processing, and interactive analytics. Among his accomplishments is leading the team that created the command and control AI for the Navy’s first operational drone fleet. Prior to Clear Fracture, Brian was the U.S. DOD Chief Digital and AI Office’s Technical Lead for Europe, CTO of BigBear.ai, and held key roles at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S. European Command. He also served as Director of Endeca Technology’s Public Sector and was an Army Signal Corps officer.

Willie Hicks is the Global Field CTO for the Government & Public Sector at Dynatrace.

Sidney Epner is a product leader with deep experience in cloud cost optimization and FinOps, spanning product management, technical account management, and customer success roles across the cloud ecosystem.

As Product Manager for Workload Optimization at IBM, Sidney owns the roadmap for rightsizing capabilities across multi-cloud and AI workloads, translating customer discovery and data-driven analysis into prioritized product investments that drive measurable outcomes for enterprise customers.

Prior to IBM, Sidney founded the Cloud Optimization Research team at CloudZero and spent several years at CloudHealth by Broadcom, first as a Staff Customer Success Architect and later as a Product Manager focused on aligning roadmap and strategy between Broadcom and Arrow Electronics following Arrow’s acquisition of exclusive CloudHealth distribution rights.

Sidney holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Rochester.

Rafael Ferreira da Silva is a Distinguished Research Scientist and interim Section Head for Data and AI Systems in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he leads research and development across AI, agentic workflows, and advanced computing systems. He provides strategic leadership for 45+ researchers and has secured more than $65M in funded awards spanning autonomous laboratories, scientific workflows, and AI-driven analytics. He is a co-PI in DOE’s Genesis Mission, building self-improving AI models for science and energy missions, and serves as PI for a DOE-funded effort applying embodied AI and automation to transform laboratory environments. His work sits at the intersection of distributed systems and trustworthy, mission-ready AI, with particular focus on agentic workflows, provenance, and autonomous science. He is the founder and executive director of the Workflows Community Initiative, a co-founder of the Autonomous Science Network, and a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM.