Barbara M. LoPresti – Keynote

Chief, Decennial Information Technology Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Ms. LoPresti was appointed Chief, Decennial Information Technology Division in March 2020. She oversees the Decennial automation activities for geographic, 2030 Census and the American Community Survey processing systems.

Ms. LoPresti started her career with the Census Bureau in the Boston Regional Office as a Survey Supervisor managing field data collection efforts. Subsequently, she transferred to Field Division, Headquarters where she worked in Information Technology positions of increasing responsibility in various divisions. From 1998 to 2015, she served as the Chief, Technologies Management Office. In that role, she provided innovative and practical solutions for mission critical data collection applications and systems for the Field Directorate. She pioneered the first deployment of a handheld computers and associated data collection software for the Non-Response Follow Up data collection operation in the 2004 and 2006 Census Tests.

From 2016 to 2020, she served as the Government Program Manager for the 2020 Census Technical Integrator (TI) Contract. In that role, she led a team of contract administrators, technical monitors and subject matter experts to provide the first hybrid cloud and mobility implementation used to support critical data collection, processing and field automation for the 248 Area Census Offices, 6 Regional Census Centers, Island Areas and over 400,000 Census enumerators. She oversaw the successful delivery of a System of Systems technical integration solution that was scalable, secure and met the business objectives of the 2020 Census.

Ms. LoPresti’s current initiatives are focused on transforming the Decennial Directorates applications and systems to support a multi-cloud, data centric computing environment. These transformation initiatives involve a series of modernization efforts to combine advance data science with traditional survey methods to diversify our data products and place data at the center of our approach.

Ms. LoPresti received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Concentration in Management Information Systems from the State University of New York at Albany. She also received a Master’s Certificate in Information Technology Project Management and a Master’s Certificate in Federal Program Management from George Washington University.

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Alexis Bonnell

Chief Information Officer and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate

Air Force Research Laboratory

Alexis Bonnell is the Chief Information Officer and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory, the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. She is responsible to develop and execute the AFRL Information Technology strategy, leading the strategic development of highly advanced next generation technologies and platforms for AFRL. Her focus includes catalyzing the discovery, development, and integration of warfighting technologies for air, space, and cyberspace forces via digital capabilities, IT infrastructure and technological innovation across the lab’s operations and culture.

She was one of the first employees of the Internet Trade Association, contributing to the early development and growth of the digital landscape. She has served in challenging environments, including warzones with the United Nations to support over $1B of critical DOD operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other operational theaters. She has contributed to dual-use technology and innovation culture across the DOD Innovation community including: AFWERX, AFRL, Kessel Run, NavalX, Marine Innovation Unit, Army Futures Command, DIU, Army Software Factory, DARPA and more. Prior to her current position, she was the Emerging Technology Evangelist at Google, driving the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, cyber security/zero trust, API First, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and others to drive efficiency and innovation within government organizations, including tackling digital transformation in defense, healthcare, education, COVID response, natural disasters, supply chain, system/process modernization, hybrid workforce and more.

Bonnell co-founded the Global Development Lab, the premier innovation lab of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), leveraging Global Allied Nation partnerships in Science, Technology, and Innovation, reviewing over 25,000 game changing innovations and technologies, funding 1,200 of them. She served as USAID’s Chief Innovation Officer, receiving the first 10/10 for innovation in the Results for America Rankings. She was named in the Fed 100 in 2020. She also assisted with major platform and technology transitions, drove hybrid work adoption, countering malign nation initiatives and global cyber security programming.
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Jeffrey Shen

President

Red Team Consulting

Jeffrey Shen, President of Red Team Consulting, brings over 25 years of proven leadership and expertise in federal contracting, corporate strategy, and business development. Since joining the company in 2006, Mr. Shen has been responsible for overseeing the company’s corporate growth strategy while providing federal contracting expertise to hundreds of government contracting firms every year. His career in management and consulting includes working with U.S. corporations, federal integrators, and U.S. government agencies in the areas of strategic growth, capture management, and acquisition planning.

Prior to Red Team Consulting, Mr. Shen delivered business strategy and technology solutions to the U.S. Federal Government and Fortune 500 companies worldwide on contracts totaling over $50 billion. He previously acted as Vice President of Sales for a small business where he increased company revenue by nearly 300% within two years and drove the recognized revenues of the company to $250M over a three-year period.

Mr. Shen earned his bachelor’s degree from George Mason University and currently sits on the George Mason University Honors College Advisory Board. He is also on the Greater Washington Advisory Board for Truist Bank. Mr. Shen regularly works with senior government executives and acquisition officials and has been a featured speaker at various summits and conferences in the past on topics such as Acquisition Strategy, Proposal and Capture Management, and Business Growth.

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Joanne Woytek

Program Director

NASA SEWP Program

Ms. Joanne Woytek is the Program Director for the NASA SEWP Program. Ms. Woytek manages the strategic direction, planning and day-to-day operations of SEWP – the premier Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) providing Federal Agencies access to the latest in Information, Communication and Audio-Visual Technology solutions. Ms. Woytek is a 45+ year veteran at NASA. From SEWP’s inception, over thirty years ago, through to the present, Ms. Woytek continues to be the key figure in the continuing evolution of the program.

Ms. Woytek is an ACT/IAC Fellow and Board member, an active member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), AFCEA and Elected Customer Member Representative for The Open Group Governing Board. A few of the many NASA awards Ms. Woytek has received include the NASA Acquisition Improvement Award, NASA Customer Service Excellence Award, NASA Group Achievement Award, and the NASA Government Industry Cooperation Award. Ms. Woytek also received the 2016 and 2020 Federal 100 Award, the Coalition for Government Procurement’s Lifetime Acquisition Excellence Award (2014), and the MAGIC Acquisition Excellence Award (2013).

Prior to SEWP, Ms. Woytek supported NASA’s scientific missions focused on systems administration, database management, and user application programming.

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La Monte Yarborough

Acting Deputy Chief Information Officer
Chief Information Security Officer and Executive Director, Office of Information Security

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

La Monte R. Yarborough was appointed Acting Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 4, 2023.

La Monte also maintains his role as Chief Information Security Officer and Executive Director, Office of Information Security where he fosters an enterprise-wide secure and trusted environment in support of HHSs commitment to better health and well-being of the American people. La Monte became Acting CISO on January 18, 2022, and then CISO on July 17, 2022.

From January 2020 to January 2022, La Monte served as CISO for HHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) where he spearheaded a multidisciplinary cybersecurity team comprised of IT professionals, auditors, evaluators, investigators and attorneys focused on combatting cybersecurity threats within HHS and the healthcare industry. Within this period, La Monte also served as the Acting CIO and eventually the Director for the Operations and Management Division, where his focus was to bring secure & high-performance computing platforms to every user in OIG.

Prior to joining HHS, La Monte worked in various cybersecurity leadership roles including CISO of Headquarters, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He was involved in standing up DHS’ information security organization from the ground up, including managing IT security contracts totaling over $300M.

Prior to his work at DHS, La Monte served as a consultant and spent over 20 years in the U.S. Army specializing in IT and cybersecurity.

A member of the Senior Executive Service of the Federal Government, La Monte holds a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts with a focus in Management from Excelsior College, a Master of Science in Cybersecurity from Webster University, and a Master of Science in Information Assurance from Strayer University. La Monte also holds a masters certificate in IT Project Management from The George Washington University, is a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), and a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute.

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