A diverse workforce helps foster innovation across the technology landscape in government, leaders said at the summit. Agencies are using fellowships, apprenticeships and other avenues to bring a more well-rounded and equitable workforce to public service.

“I deeply believe that you can’t be what you can’t see. That’s why it’s so important for us to also bring in folks that look like us and reach out and bring them along with us so that we continue to make sure that when we look left and look right, we see others that are walking the same path that we’re walking,” said Caitlin Gandhi, director and co-founder of the U.S. Digital Corps.

Acting Deputy Director of Management and Operations in the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology Sue Lin said that her office is hitting the goals laid out in the first iteration of the Public Health Data Strategy. Since releasing the second iteration, the office is working on new goals for data interoperability, reporting and sharing across the health care ecosystem.

“We want to be open to hearing the ideas from the field that we can then take back to think about our work in a different way,” Lin said. “[As a leader] you have to be able to move the operations, move the workforce, and then the resources have to also support the effort.”

The rush to adopt AI has agencies creating guidelines for the technology in mission delivery. Defining these guidelines is key, said Maximus Vice President of AI/Machine Learning Kathleen Featheringham.

“Almost every organization has some sort of AI guiding principles: trustworthiness, transparency — all of those are great. But when the rubber hits the road is where you’re going to take that and put it into action,” she said. “You can say, ‘Yes, I agree. It should be transparent.’ But what does that really mean?”

Agencies need to understand the technology’s capabilities and its shortcomings before going forward, others noted.

“What is [AI] not doing? Because everybody talks about what is AI doing,” said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Section Chief Stephanie Walker. “It’s so important to have a conversation, especially sometimes on the law enforcement side, about what it doesn’t do.”

Directors from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said that getting started in government STEM jobs can be daunting because of barriers that their agencies are trying to ameliorate. Getting more women into these jobs will benefit both the agencies and the individuals — a foot in the door can open new opportunities.

“The types of jobs at DARPA or ARPA-H are door openers where you have the opportunity to see what’s happening across a whole field, dip into any company in the country or internationally and see what is at the cutting edge,” said Jennifer Roberts, director at ARPA-H’s Resilient Systems Office. “I think that helping folks see what is that long-term career trajectory so that folks can see that this is a stepping stone to many great things is incredibly important.”

Women tech leaders said that connection with others is important for moving up in government tech careers — whether it’s coaching, learning or finding a mentor. Nicole Gilbride, chief strategy officer in the Department of Veteran Affairs’ Office of Information and Technology, said shifting from the role of captain to coach can be difficult, but is important.

“I had to learn to coach the people on my team so that they can fix for themselves, and they can troubleshoot for themselves. It’s the hardest lesson in leadership I’ve had to learn, and it is something I still have not yet figured out. I think it’s a lifelong skill set that I’ll be developing,” said Gilbride. “Balancing when should I be in team captain mode and when do I need to be the coach. Not stepping in and not suiting up because coaches don’t suit up, they coach from the sidelines.”