Innovate Huntsville

Grady Booch is Chief Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM Research where he leads IBM’s research and development for embodied cognition. Having originated the term and the practice of object-oriented design, he is best known for his work in advancing the fields of software engineering and software architecture. A co-author of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), a founding member of the Agile Alliance, and a founding member of the Hillside Group, Grady has published six books and several hundred technical articles, including an ongoing column for IEEE Software. For over a decade, Grady was a trustee for the Computer History Museum. He is an IBM Fellow, an ACM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, has been awarded the Lovelace Medal and has given the Turing Lecture for the BCS, and was recently named an IEEE Computer Pioneer. He is currently developing a major trans-media documentary for public broadcast on the intersection of computing and the human experience.

Jonathan Entwistle is IBM’s US Federal Expert Labs Chief Technology Officer. Jonathan has been working with clients across the US Government for 15 years and holds a degree in Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning from Northwestern University. He currently resides in the Washington DC area with his wife and two boys.

Terry Halvorsen serves as general manager for IBM’s Federal Market organization. Before joining IBM, Halvorsen spent over three decades with the federal government in senior and influential roles including as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Defense (DOD) and CIO for the Navy. Before joining IBM in October 2020, Halvorsen was CIO and executive vice president for IT and mobile for Samsung Electronics.

In addition to his civilian government career, Halvorsen also served as an Army intelligence officer during Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq.

Halvorsen’s work in the government has been recognized twice with a Federal Computer Week Federal 100 award, in 2010 as the senior civilian at the Naval Network Warfare Command on its Cyber Asset Reduction and Security initiative, and in 2016 as DOD CIO on cloud computing and the Joint Regional Security Stacks. He has also received both the Meritorious and the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award for Civilian Executive Service.

Halvorsen holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Widener University and a master’s degree in educational technology from the University of West Florida. He is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow and an Excellence in Government Leadership Fellow.

Amy Kluber is editor-in-chief of GovCIO Media & Research. Previously she managed two aviation publications at B2B media company Access Intelligence. She was nominated for The Innovation in Aerospace Journalism & Publishing Award for launching and hosting an aviation podcast. Prior to that she wrote news scripts and produced videos for the network Newsy. Follow Amy on Twitter: @amykluber

She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Having traveled around the world since an early age, she grew up a U.S. Army brat born in Vicenza, Italy, and spent most of her youth living in Seoul, South Korea.

In her free time, you may find her at Disney World.

Melissa Long Dolson is the Vice President of World Wide Sales Leader for IBM’s AIOps, Integration and Platform businesses and is the Senior State Executive for the State of Missouri. IBM’s Automation clients range from the largest of the Fortune 500, to many government agencies, state and local entities along with small and mid-sized companies all of which have a desire to leverage AI and Automation to improve their business outcomes and application performance. Melissa has been working in IT Automation and Operations for more than twenty years and enthusiastically works with many of our clients directly to help shape IBM’s product decisions. Additionally, in her free time, Melissa enjoys mentoring both technical and non-technical IBMers to drive career opportunities for them and help them create long-term career vision. Melissa previously worked within the Federal and Public Market at IBM, managing the Automation business. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Economics. Melissa has enjoyed being a guest Lecturer on a number of topics including Strategic Planning and AI & Automation at Purdue University. On the personal front, Melissa has been married 23 years and has 3 children.

Miranda Oden is the Technical Deputy, Life Cycle Engineering for Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC) Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration (S3I) Directorate where she is responsible for Life Cycle Software and Systems Integration, Modeling and Simulation, and the Prototype Integration Facility (PIF).

Prior to her current assignment, Ms. Oden served as Associate Director for the PIF, an element of the CCDC AvMC. Ms. Oden has served as the PIF Branch chief responsible for UH-60, CH-47 and Other Government Agency (OGA) projects. Ms. Oden has also served as the Acting Associate Director for Engineering Directorate Production and Sustainment, Product Lead for Manufacturing, Product Assurance and Configuration Management (CM) for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Sea Based X-Band Radar (SBX) and as a Product Engineer for the STINGER Missile System. Throughout her federal career, she has provided program management, system engineering, production, CM, quality engineering and acquisition leadership to multiple Army and Department of Defense programs.

Ms. Oden received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University and a Master’s of Science in Business Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Brent Yonk is an Assistant Section Chief for the FBI Counterterrorism Division’s Technology and Data Innovation Section. In this role, he oversees the development of novel technology solutions supporting international and domestic terrorism investigations and other critical incidents around the world. During his time in this role, Brent held a central role in the relocation of FBI personnel from the National Capitol Region to the new state-of-the-art FBI campus on Redstone Arsenal.

Prior to his current role, Brent served as the FBI’s In-Q-Tel Interface Center Director leading the Bureau’s commercial scouting, testing and evaluation of emerging technologies. He also served as the Program Manager for Enterprise IT Infrastructure Modernization leading to the investment of over $250M in upgrades and improvements across the FBI’s IT footprint. Brent also serves as an FBI Adjunct Faculty member instructing and facilitating courses in leadership and project management.

Prior to joining the FBI, he spent nearly 10 years working in the private sector with several Fortune 500 companies in the areas of organizational change management and workforce development.