Women Tech Leaders Summit

Megan Baird serves as the Deputy Administrator in the Office of Apprenticeship (OA) at the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training administration (ETA). She has responsibility for oversight and activities related to OA’s industry engagement, strategic partnerships, and investment activities. This includes providing leadership for over $1 billion in investments as well as OA’s engagement with industry, workforce, equity, labor, and education leaders across the private and public sectors to promote, establish, diversify, and expand the use of registered apprenticeship and ensure access to all.

Prior to this role, she was the Program Manager for H-1B grant programs in ETA’s Office of Workforce Investments. She is a proud graduate of Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in Government.

Ms. Carper joins the Department of Energy from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) where she most recently served as the Deputy CIO for Customer Relationship & Performance Management. 

Ms. Carper is an established strategic technology and financial change agent with the continuous success of exceeding organizational operational goals. She has extensive experience in managing teams of supervisors and staff in state-of-the-art technology solutions, performing tests of internal controls effectiveness, and implementing process improvements. 

Kathleen is a leader focused on large scale responsible technology transformation for our client’s most critical and sensitive mission areas. She is leading the development and expansion of Maximus’ AI and Advanced Analytics portfolio within Federal Technology Consulting Services. An expert in AI, data science, strategy, and change management, Kathleen has more than 20 years of experience working with clients across the Federal Government.

She focuses on the convergence of mission and AI with a special emphasis on the human elements of adoption. This includes working with organizations on responsibly thinking about data as an asset, the evolution of the technical architecture to eliminate continual redesign, the evolution of human roles to allow more time for critical thinking and building ethical AI controls and measures into the fabric of an organization.

Prior to joining Maximus, she served as a Director at Booz Allen Hamilton leading highly technical cross-functional teams through transformation. She established and scaled Booz Allen’s AI strategy and training capabilities, that center on empowering organizations to grow their ability to harness analytics for data-driven decision making. She was a founding member of the team that developed Booz Allen’s award-winning Data Science 5K Challenge program, which focused on upskilling the firm’s data science workforce to help clients use data in new ways. Booz Allen’s artificial intelligence (AI) practice. Kathleen led the development of the firm’s AI governance and risk management procedures and operating practices as a part of the development of Booz Allen’s Responsible AI efforts.

Kathleen has an M.S. in intelligence analysis from Mercyhurst College and a B.S. in business administration from Georgetown University. She holds a Change Management Advanced Practitioner certification from Georgetown and a Psychology of Leadership graduate certificate from Cornell University.

Caitlin Gandhi is the Director and Co-Founder of the U.S. Digital Corps, a two-year federal fellowship program for early career technologists to enter government service. Through the U.S. Digital Corps, she works to improve access and delivery of high impact services to the American people. The Digital Corps was launched in August 2021 by the General Services Administration in partnership with the White House, CISA, and OPM. Caitlin has a history of public service including as first a high school mathematics teacher and later as Vice President of Talent Strategy and People Analytics at Teach For America.

Nicole Shiley Gilbride began her federal career as an intern with the Department of State in Political-Military Affairs and has spent over a decade supporting various federal departments, including the Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). She is passionate about recruiting and retaining millennials and Gen Z in the federal workforce and has presented and advised on these topics at the national level.

Nicole serves VA in the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) as the Chief Strategy Officer driving OIT’s Digital Transformation efforts. She specializes in strategic communications, outreach coordination, business operations, strategy execution, change management, and stakeholder engagement. She recently served as the Veterans Health Administration-OIT liaison and scrum master for VA OIT’s COVID-19 response activities in 2020 and for the MISSION Act and Decision Support Tool go-live activities in 2019.

Nicole thrives in a demanding work environment and enjoys tackling new challenges. She leverages stakeholder input, collaborates with industry partners, and serves as a catalyst for change and continuous improvement throughout her organization. She is also a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and led the team that pioneered an automated solution at VA to enable all employees to share their pronouns across information technology systems.

Nicole is based in Lexington, Kentucky, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and International Politics from George Mason University and an Executive Master of Business Administration in Strategic Leadership from the University of Tennessee. In her personal time, Nicole enjoys traveling, tasting, and experiencing various cultures throughout the world. She loves a good book, playing board games, and spending time creating floral designs with flowers she grows in her field.

Maggie Hallbach is the Senior Vice President of Public Sector at Verizon, leading the team of professionals dedicated to partnering with Verizon’s federal, state, local, education and public safety customers to deliver innovative technology solutions and services. This includes Verizon Frontline, the advanced network and technology built for first responders.

Maggie has held a number of executive roles during her more than two decades at Verizon. Most recently she served as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Sales for the Public Sector where she led the business development function focused on developing, designing and capturing strategic opportunities in the Public Sector.

She has also served as Vice President of the state, local and education markets for Verizon. In this role, she and her team were responsible for developing solutions to address the increasingly complex requirements of state and local governments and education clients. Additionally, Maggie has held a variety of roles focused on delivering customer experience enhancements and increasing shareholder value. She headed Verizon’s Lean Six Sigma efforts to drive ongoing business transformation and process improvement across Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

Maggie earned a Master of Business Administration in marketing and finance from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Brown University. She is also on the boards of directors at the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and the United Service Organizations (USO). Maggie is committed to inclusion of youth and adults with special needs, dedicating time to TOP Soccer, Best Buddies International and supporting the Arc of Northern Virginia.

Dr. Kristen Honey is the Chief Data Scientist and a Senior Advisor. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Dr. Honey pivoted back to her data roots. She advised the White House National Security Council (NSC) and the HHS Chief Information Officer (CIO) on big-data sharing, governance, analysis, and predictive analytics with AI/ML (HHS Protect Vision with DataRobot). In collaboration with the CIO, Dr. Honey established the Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO) and co-founded the Data Governance Board to implement the OPEN Government Data Act (open data) elements of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act. This work with OCDO is helping to unify 11 HHS Operating Divisions (e.g. CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA) with 80,000+ government employees, geographically dispersed workforces, diverse missions and work cultures, and separate incompatible IT systems into a single, data-driven HHS. As the Chief Data Scientist and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), Dr. Honey leads the $30M COVID-19 Diagnostics Data Platform project.

Dr. Honey earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in the Environment and Resources, School of Earth Sciences, while simultaneously earning a Ph.D. minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University. She previously worked in the Obama Administration from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Kristen Honey worked for the U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as a Policy Advisor. She would then advise the Federal Chief Information Officer as a Senior Policy Analyst. In June 2018, Dr. Honey transitioned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Immediate Office of the Secretary, to tackle complex challenges by harnessing the power of open science, open data, open source, citizen science, crowdsourcing, prizes, challenges, and innovative public-private partnerships for public health.

Karen S. Howard is the Director of the Office of Online Services for the IRS (Internal Revenue Services).

Ms. Howard joined the IRS in August of 2020 with over 35 years of private sector retail, manufacturing and financial services consumer direct operations and marketing leadership experience.

In her public service role with the IRS, she and her team are charged with translating the taxpayer community’s voice and behavior, and internal stakeholder requirements, into an empowered user experience that enables easy access to tax-related information and simplified ways to fulfill tax obligations with digital tools and services.

Karen has a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Carolina University and several industry certifications in various project management methodologies and master data management.

Vanessa has been with IBM for 17 years. She started her career with IBM in New York driving technology modernization and transformation at the New York Police Department. She was the Chief of Staff to IBM SVP of Sales, the Lead Partner for IBM’s Consulting business in New York, and then ran IBM’s business with New York State as Managing Director. She moved to IBM’s Federal market in 2023 and was named the General Manager for IBM’s Federal technology business in 2024. Vanessa remains connected to New York as IBM’s Senior State Executive for New York State. What Vanessa loves the most about her career at IBM is building trusted relationships with Government clients and helping to drive transformation with the use of hybrid cloud and AI technology.

Vanessa was born in New Zealand and lived in Australia and France before moving to the US in 2000. She currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.

Ms. Lynn Otis is the Deputy Director for the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Crime Center Cyber Forensics Laboratory, a DoD Center of Excellence for digital and multimedia forensics per DoD Directive. She oversees forensic lab activities involving digital imaging and extraction, damaged media repair, forensic analysis supporting criminal and counterintelligence investigations, and intrusions supporting the DoD and the Defense Industrial Base.Ms. Otis began service with the Air Force in 2021.

Prior to this, she worked for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for more than 20 years, most recently as a Division Chief in the Cyber Directorate, managing, teaching, and advocating for digital literacy to NCIS personnel across the world. She served three years as the NCIS Digital Forensic Program Manager, overseeing all Digital Forensic activities for NCIS investigations and operations worldwide.

In addition, Ms. Otis was a Digital Forensic Examiner with NCIS, supporting Director Special Interest and National Security Investigations in the Office of Special Projects over six years, supporting both the NCIS Washington Field Office and the NCIS Norfolk Field Office as an expert in Digital Forensics for six additional years. Before joining NCIS, Ms. Otis worked for the Census Bureau, Suitland, Maryland; Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Ceiba, Puerto Rico; the Naval Air Facility (NAF), Andrews AFB; and the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. While serving at NAF Andrews AFB, Ms. Otis earned the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civil Service Award for her outstanding achievement and contributions.

Ms. Otis is a recognized expert in the field of Digital Forensics and has led large-scale international investigations in both criminal and civil cases. She has testified as an expert witness in numerous federal jurisdictions and military courtrooms. She also served as an adjunct contract trainer for BlackBag Technologies, traveling across the United States teaching digital forensic technologies, tools, and techniques focusing on Macintosh and iPhone Operating Systems.

Christine Pacheco is a highly accomplished professional, and currently serves as the Director of Federal Civilian Sales at Equinix. In this role, she leads a team of sales professionals focused on driving digital transformation at federal civilian agencies, including Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. Christine is also a co-Leader for Women in Technology Sales and an active member of the Equinix WomenConnect organization, demonstrating her commitment to empowering and supporting women in the industry.

Prior to her current position, Christine held the role of Director Client Executive at AT&T, where she led the financial vertical sales team within the public sector division. She successfully managed a $150M book of business, which included the Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, and various financial independent agencies. Throughout her tenure at AT&T, Christine served in leadership roles, including leading the Contract Modifications team and serving as Chief of Staff supporting the President of AT&T Government Solutions and National Business. She also contributed to sales execution and transformation sales enablement and tooling for public sector, and served as Chief of Staff for the Vice President of Global Public Sector Civilian.

With a diverse background, Christine has also excelled in sales operations management, specializing in mass mobility deployments and providing asset management analysis and care management. Additionally, she served as an Individual Responsibility User (IRU) Account Manager, where she successfully project managed the largest IRU module in the segment, with a revenue quota of $1.046B. Christine’s experience extends to State & Local Government sales, B2B Sales, and Service Excellence.

Beyond her professional achievements, Christine is a dedicated advocate of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. She actively participated in AT&T’s Employee Resource Groups, including HACEMOS, LEAGUE, Women of Business, and Women of AT&T (WOA), where she served as Vice President of the Northern Virginia Chapter from 2008 to 2014, leading the WOA Mentoring Program. She has also volunteered her time to help repair homes in Puerto Rico through HACEMOS.

Christine currently resides in Alexandria, VA, with her husband, two active children, and their rescue pup, Sonny. She values the importance of work-life balance and finds joy in spending time with her family.

Dr. Jennifer Roberts is the director of the Resilient Systems Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Roberts joined ARPA-H in February 2023 from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she was the assistant director of Health Technologies. She has a broad background in both engineering and computer science and has overseen research programs and strategy development on topics such as cyber security, healthcare data interoperability, artificial intelligence for synthetic biology, and information integrity.

Before joining the White House, Roberts worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as deputy director of the Information Innovation Office. During this time, she received the prestigious Superior Public Service Medal for her contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and cyber security. Roberts has a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, which she attended as both a National Science Foundation and Hertz Foundation Fellow.

Deborah Stephens is the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). She is the principal advisor to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), manages day-to-day OCIO operations, ensures value delivery across four product lines, and leads over 600 federal employees in their IT modernization efforts, guiding continual improvements to transform IT for maximum stakeholder value.

Ms. Stephens has served the USPTO for over 25 years in multiple key leadership roles. Prior to the OCIO, she was the Associate Commissioner for the Office of Patent Information Management, providing strategic direction and leading the improvement of information systems for patent applications. She has acted as Associate Commissioner for Patents and worked in the Office of the Under Secretary and Director of the USPTO.

A visionary leader, she is passionate about technology and driving change as the OCIO builds and delivers IT products and services for the mission with improved speed, efficiency and reliability. As DCIO, she has led an IT transformation and a strategic pivot to a new way of working and product-driven approach to scale enterprise value delivery and foster innovation for the mission. She is a transformative servant leader that understands that to deliver any change it has to happen one employee at a time. With this in mind, Ms. Stephens leads with empathy, and values her opportunity to work with each faithful public servant in OCIO to deliver innovative solutions for continuous mission support.

She earned a BA degree from George Mason University and a Master’s in Human Resource Management from George Washington University. She has served as a national voice for women in technology and is a featured speaker at conferences nationwide. In 2023, she received the highly regarded Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership from the School of Public Affairs at American University. Ms. Stephens has volunteered her time for 18 years for the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Stephanie Walker is the Assistant Section Chief covering cyber crime, private sector engagement, and critical infrastructure intelligence matters for the Cyber Division at the FBI.

Prior to her current role, she served as the Unit Chief covering strategic intelligence production for cyber criminal threats where she drove the production of strategic intelligence to a variety of audiences to advance the understanding and deterrence of criminal cyber threats to US interests and critical infrastructure in furtherance of the FBI’s Cyber Strategy. Before her selection as Unit Chief, she worked as a first line supervisor and Intelligence Analyst covering counterterrorism and cyber matters at the FBI from 2008-2017.

Kathryn (Kate) Wetherby joined CMS in 2016 and is the Deputy Director for the Marketplace Innovation and Technology Group (MITG) in the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO). Kate has spent her federal career within the Department of Health and Human Services with a specialization in health information technology and a focus on cloud native solutions, AI-infused data analytics and the development and operations of highly scalable public facing systems. Prior to her tenure at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) she held positions at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) where she spearheaded the implementation of HITECH, interoperability and standards development, and Privacy and Consent standards.

Before transitioning to the federal government, Kate’s professional focus centered on startups and small businesses within the healthcare sector where she crafted and executed strategic initiatives aimed at driving growth and innovation and was instrumental in leading multifaceted product development overseeing the conception, design, and launch of solutions tailored to meet evolving market demands. Kate acts as a catalyst for change, playing a pivotal role in transforming corporate cultures. Drawing on her expertise in organizational psychology and leadership, she has implemented initiatives to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity.