2009 Government Web Managers Conference
April 28–29, 2009
Marvin Conference Center,
George Washington University
SPEAKER BIOS
Jeremy Ames, joined EPA's Indoor Environments program in 2004 as a Presidential Management Fellow. As a member of the Radon Team, Jeremy's current responsibilities include developing strategies for the Radon Leaders Saving Lives campaign (RadonLeaders.org) with EPA's state and industry partners, for which he received the EPA bronze medal. In 2008 Jeremy created the Test, Fix, Save a Life video contest, the first of its kind in the federal government, which led to the creation of over 30 video Public Service Announcements on the dangers of radon. Before joining EPA, he was a policy associate with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Jeremy has a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Robert Baker is the Section 508 Coordinator for the Social Security Administration, an agency with a strong commitment to accessible electronic government services. Under Robert's leadership, SSA has authored and implemented a best practices framework that puts the power to design and develop accessible outcomes in the hands of agency developers and web designers, and builds consistency in Section 508 implementation.
Robert was recently a member of the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC), a collaborative effort between the public and private sector which resulted in technical advisory report recommending changes to the Section 508 technology accessibility standards and Section 255 telecommunications standards. Robert is currently serving on a committee of the US Access Board which is drafting an update to the Section 508 and 255 standards as part of formal rule making process. Robert has been a PMI certified project manager since 2003.
Jason Djang served on the New Media video teams for both Obama for America and the Obama–Biden Transition Project as an editor and producer. Prior to joining the campaign, he worked in documentary film and television in New York City and Los Angeles. Versed in all aspects of the production world, his experience includes commercials, broadcast series, and short films.
Mike Doney is the Technology Infusion Program Director for NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), Western Region Headquarters, in Salt Lake City. A civil servant for 24 years, he began his federal career as a Geophysicist with the DoD Naval Oceanographic Office, and has been with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 1990. Within NOAA Mike has served with the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services' Geophysical Data Center, the Global Systems Division of the Earth System Research Laboratory, and currently the Scientific Services Division at NWS Western Region.
Mike is part of an NWS team developing an experimental Mobile Alert System utilizing Web 2.0 concepts. The goal of this project is to enable the NWS to better meet it's mission of the protection of life and property by providing community decision makers with critical weather information anytime, anywhere. User driven, interactive mobile data communications will become a powerful tool for improving decision support for NWS partners.
Martha Dorris is the Deputy Associate Administrator in the U.S. General Services Administration's, Office of Citizen Services and Communications. Martha has served more than 26 years as an information technology professional within both government and private industry. In her current position, Martha is charged with creating the integrated delivery of information to citizens, businesses and government. Information can easily be accessed from the federal government in English and Spanish via email and the web at USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, and other consumer websites, telephone at 1–800–Fed Info or through the Pueblo publications center. In addition, Martha manages the Presidential e–gov initiative USA Services under which these services are provided to the public and is responsible for providing leadership to other federal agencies in improving customer service to the public.
In FY 2007, USA Services touched over 222 million citizens through its various delivery channels, trained over 3,100 web managers in web standards, issued task orders for contact center services during several major crises, and established a five–nation meeting of national Chief Information Officers. In addition, Martha is responsible for coordinating best practices and information across governmental boundaries—federal, state, local, and international in the transformation of service delivery to citizens. USA Services and its components have received numerous awards, including USA.gov being named as one of the top 25 sites that you can't live without.
Prior to her current position, Martha built GSA's Intergovernmental Solutions Division into a vital organization that focuses on facilitating collaboration and engagement on issues of relevance for improving citizen services in all arms of government. Martha's career included over nine years of governmentwide oversight of agency's acquisition and management of information technology programs, including conducting reviews of federal agencies and providing approvals of major information technology expenditures. In addition, during her tenure in the private sector, she provided acquisition support to federal agencies.
Martha has been active in the IT community for decades. She was a Fed 100 award winner in 2004, 2006, and 2008 and has been active with the International Council for Information Technology in Government Administration (ICA) for over 10 years. She is currently serving as the President of the American Council for Technology (ACT).
Erin Edgerton, M.A., is a Senior Social Media Strategist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM). In coordination with the HHS Center for Social Media, Erin develops integrated communication campaigns that leverage emerging technology, builds strategic collaborations for comprehensive social media outreach, and works with regional and national partners to develop new opportunities for reaching diverse populations. Prior to joining the CDC, Erin worked as a marketing and PR specialist in both the Washington, DC, and Boston medical communities. She earned her Masters of Arts degree in Health Communication from the Emerson College/Tufts School of Medicine joint program and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Public Relations from the University of Maryland's School of Communication.
Bev Godwin serves as Director of the USA.gov and Government Web Best Practices Division at the Office of Citizen Services and Communications, U.S. General Services Administration. She is responsible for the content, look and feel, and day–to–day operations for USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov, and for working across federal agencies on issues related to improving all government websites.
Prior to joining the USA.gov team in December 2000, Bev served as Deputy Director at the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR). Joining NPR when it first began in 1993, Bev worked there for eight years on issues ranging from managing and budgeting for results, improving intergovernmental service delivery, waivers and local flexibility, the U.S. State and Local Gateway, family and community issues, and electronic government.
Bev joined the federal government in 1982 at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There she managed analyses of budgets, policy, legislation, regulations and staffing for the $40 billion social services and income maintenance programs for children, families, and senior citizens. Bev also previously worked as a lobbyist and consultant for state governments. Bev received a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan; and a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University.
Jeff Jarvis is a new–media columnist for The Guardian in London. He is associate professor and head of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. He is a partner at Daylife.com and writes on his blog Buzzmachine.com. His book, What Would Google Do?, was released by Collins in January 2009.
Jarvis was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, TV critic for TV Guide and People magazines, president and creative director of Advance Internet, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner, and a reporter and editor on the Chicago Tribune.
Denise Kennedy, Formerly with Department of Labor
Vivek Kundra formerly served in Mayor Fenty's cabinet as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia, responsible for technology operations and strategy for 86 agencies. He has been recognized among the top 25 CTO's in the country and as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year for his pioneering work to drive transparency, engage citizens and lower the cost of government operations. Kundra is also recognized for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security and IT portfolio management. Before Kundra came to the District, Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed him Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history. Kundra's diverse record also includes technology and public policy experience in private industry and academia. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership and holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland.
Carmen Marco, as the Chief Web Officer, oversees almost 300 websites and another 200 applications at the Federal Aviation Administration. These public and employee websites receive over five million visits a month.
Working as an application developer, designer, usability analyst and finally, Web Manager, Carmen has been an integral part of the significant growth of the FAA Web presence since 2004.
He has spearheaded the evolution of FAA.gov from an incompatible mixture of websites and content into a user–centric destination. Carmen's leadership continues to mold FAA.gov to deliver a high–quality customer experience through the institutionalization of usability and user–centered design.
As a Certified Usability Analyst, Carmen's approach is centered on optimizing the user experience. He manages a diverse team of usability experts, content specialists, web analytics analysts, designers and developers, all of whom are focused on continuously improving the user experience. The FAA Web Team employs a data driven decision making methodology that provides the foundation for user-centered design.
Prior to joining the FAA, Carmen designed websites and applications for the GSA, Bureau of Census, and the Federal Housing Finance Board. Carmen earned his B.S. in journalism from Radford University, with a concentration in Multimedia Communications.
Mary M. Michaels, M.B.A., CUA is a Project Director for Human Factors International (HFI) with 9 years of experience in the usability field, and over 20 years in the IT industry. She has expertise in Web & intranet user interface design, plus knowledge of Section 508 accessibility. Her industry consulting work includes e–commerce, publishing, financial services, IT, non–profits, education, and government, most recently with the FAA.
Mary has always been interested in making it easier for people to use technology. At HFI, she teaches two core courses – User–Centered Analysis & Conceptual Design, as well as The Science and Art of Effective Web & Application Design. In addition, she has written several HFI UI Design Newsletters. Mary has an MBA and is a Certified Usability Analyst who was honored as CUA of the Month for July, 2005. Currently, she also serves as treasurer of the New York City Chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association.
Janice R. Nall, Director of the Division of eHealth Marketing at the National Center for Health Marketing, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is responsible for leading CDC's communication technology efforts. Janice manages www.cdc.gov and CDC's other e–health and new media initiatives.
Formerly Manager of the Usability Solutions Group at the General Services Administration, Janice was responsible for increasing the usability of U.S. Government websites and other communication technologies by providing policy, guidance, tools, resources, and training to federal Web developers and communicators. Janice led the development of a cross–agency usability program that included the Usability University program (now known as Web Manager University) and the U–Group E-newsletter. While at GSA, Janice was honored as one of Federal Computer Week's Federal 100 – the top executives from government, industry, and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community in 2002.
Prior to working with GSA, Janice served as Chief of the Communication Technologies Branch for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the National Institutes of Health. She was responsible for usability, accessibility, emerging technologies, graphic design, and other user interface issues for NCI's communication technology products and services. During her eight years at NCI, Janice led the development of several new usability initiatives including the Usability.gov website, the Research–Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines, the Communication Technologies Research Center (CTRC), and the Usability Seminar Series and Training Program.
Craig Newmark was born December 6, 1952, in Morristown, New Jersey. He is an Internet entrepreneur best known as the founder and an active customer service rep of the San Francisco based group of community websites known as craigslist (craigslist.org).
Newmark developed an e-mail list as a way to share information with his friends in San Francisco. He launched craigslist as a subscriber–based community in the later part of 1995, with the first community site for San Francisco as craigslist.org. As of March 2009, craigslist has grown to more than 570 city community sites in over 50 countries and is experiencing more than 20 billion page views per month. There are more than 50 million unique community members worldwide.
Craigslist is a platform where people can help one another with basic needs, like housing and jobs. The site has a culture of trust, based on shared values like "treat people like you want to be treated." Craigslist's philosophy is to let the on–line community participants play an active role in policing the information that is shared on the list, and to make classifieds and personal ads free to its community members.
Newmark attended Morristown High School. Upon graduation, he attended college at Case Western Reserve University where he originally wanted to be a physicist. He later determined that the future was in computers—actually just wanted a job someday—and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1975. Newmark continued his education at Case Western, receiving his Masters of Science in Computer Science in 1977.His thesis was entitled "Fundamental Models of Computer Systems and Their Relationship to Information Security."
In 1976, Newmark started his business career with IBM and spent nearly 17 years with Big Blue until moving on to working in programming for companies such as IBM, Sun Micro Systems and various consulting firms. In those days he was fluent in Java, Perl, MySQL, and HTML.
Newmark is a vocal advocate of net neutrality—principle of fairness, of a level playing field on the Internet, and no more special privileges for the already privileged. Newmark is also a vocal champion of citizen journalism and participatory democracy and is involved with groups that advocate using the Internet to build online communities of global citizens to help solve social issues worldwide. Newmark supports and advises presidential candidate Barack Obama's team on technology issues.
With his modest demeanor and subtle humor, he has become a popular speaker at conferences throughout the world.
Newmark resides in San Francisco's Cole Valley. Between bird watching and testing out new technology, he remains a critical part of Craigslist's customer service, mostly dealing with spammers and scammers. He is an avid fan of science fiction and obscure BBC television series. He playfully surmises that "he needs to get out more."
Newmark continues to share his thoughts via his blog cnewmark.com and is active in sharing his "Tweets" on twitter.com/craignewmark. Also Craig continues to share his support for personal democracy and President Obama on his Facebook page under "Craig Newmark."
Leslie O'Flahavan is a co–founder and partner in E–WRITE. With E–WRITE, she has helped thousands of people learn to write well for online readers. She has delivered customized writing courses for customer service agents, help desk staff, web content contributors, marketers, executives, demographers, county government employees, activists, federal employees, and teachers!
Leslie helps agencies publish usable web content written by a broad range of contributors and develop web writing style guides to govern content writing. This year, E–WRITE has developed an Editorial Style Guide for the Energy Information Administration and an online web writing course for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Leslie is a frequent presenter at web content conferences and has been an Internet Best In Class award judge for three years. She is the co–author of Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.
Macon Phillips is the Director of New Media for the White House. During the election, Macon served as Director of New Media for the Presidential Transition Team, developing Change.gov and overseeing the transition's overall online communications. Prior to that, he served as the Deputy Director of New Media for Obama for America, managing the day to day operations of the campaign's online program. Before the campaign, Macon led Blue State Digital's strategy practice, working with clients like the Democratic National Committee and Senator Ted Kennedy. A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Phillips is a graduate of Duke University and lives with his fiancée in Washington, DC.
Micah L. Sifry is co–founder and editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, a website and annual conference that covers the ways technology is changing politics, and TechPresident.com, an award–winning group blog on how American politicians are using the web and how the web is using them. In addition to curating the annual Personal Democracy Forum conference, he consults on how political organizations, campaigns, non-profits and media entities can adapt to and thrive in a networked world. In that capacity, he has been a senior technology adviser to the Sunlight Foundation since its founding in 2006.
He is the co–editor of Rebooting America, an anthology of writing on how the Internet and new technology can be used to reinvent American democracy (available online for free download, co–author of Is That a Politician in Your Pocket? Washington on $2 Million a Day (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), author of Spoiling for a Fight: Third–Party Politics in America (Routledge, 2002) and co–editor of The Iraq War Reader (Touchstone, 2003) and The Gulf War Reader (Times Books, 1991). His personal blog is at micah.sifry.com.
Katie Jacobs Stanton joins the New Media team as Director of Citizen Participation. Prior to this role, Stanton was at Google where she was a Principal in the New Business Development team responsible for OpenSocial, Google Moderator, and various election–related initiatives. Also at Google, Stanton managed several real–time vertical products including Google Finance, Google News, and Blog Search. Stanton joined Google from Yahoo! where she helped build the investing program on Yahoo! Finance as well as lead Yahoo Finance's growth internationally. Prior to Yahoo!, Stanton worked for Chase as an Associate in the Corporate Emerging Markets group. Her professional experience also includes a Fellowship at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a volunteer position in Kenya, and a teaching role in Japan. Stanton has an MA in International Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in Political Science from Rhodes College.
Jed Sundwall is the director of social media marketing for Captura Group. At Captura Group, he has developed social media outreach strategies for USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, PayPal, and Century21.
Prior to joining Captura Group, Jed worked at Eventful.com where he developed and managed social media outreach initiatives for Barack Obama for President, John Edwards for President, Mike Huckabee for President, and Ron Paul for President. His work at Eventful.com yielded coverage in CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Politico, Wired.com, Slate.com, and the Associated Press.
He is also a researcher and consultant for NetSquared, an organization that helps non profit organizations use social media tools to enhance their operations. At NetSquared, he works with executives from Creative Commons, Flickr, Mozilla Foundation, and Wikipedia to identify and codify social media best practices.
Jed holds B.A. degrees in Spanish and English from the University of Utah and a Master's of International Relations from the University of California, San Diego.
Jeremy Swan started the NIH Biological Visualization Interest Group and has run a wiki (http://science.nichd.nih.gov) for two years as a web manager and graphic and animation project coordinator for the Division of Intramural Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Jeremy draws from his experiences serving in the US Army, and Maryland National Guard, in addition to support of institutional biology labs at Howard Community College, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, while pursuing a BA in Biomedical Art followed by a two year fellowship at the NIH supporting the use of new technologies, and providing graphic and web support to intramural labs (http://bioviz.nichd.nih.gov).
Lee Vann was recognized in 2005 by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) as a pioneer and a leading force in the Hispanic online marketing industry. His career highlights include launching the Hispanic division of a publicly–traded Internet advertising company and founding Captura Group, a leading interactive services firm.
Lee leads Captura Group's research, strategy, and marketing teams to concept, plan, and execute integrated online marketing programs that address the client's critical business issues while delivering a valuable user experience and generating quantifiable results. At Captura Group, Lee has led initiatives for companies such as USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, Allstate Insurance Company, PayPal, GobiernoUSA.gov, Century 21, Ford Motor Company, and many others.
Prior to founding Captura Group, Lee launched L90 Latino, the Hispanic division of the publicly–traded Internet advertising company L90. As the VP of L90 Latino, Lee developed and implemented US Hispanic online marketing initiatives for companies such as Nike, McDonalds, Disney, AT&T Wireless, Verizon, Epson, and Mitsubishi.
Lee holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California Berkeley and a M.B.A. from the University of Southern California with a concentration E–Commerce.
Lisa Welchman is the founding partner of WelchmanPierpoint. She has pioneered the field of Web Operations Management by distinguishing Web strategy, governance, execution and measurement as it pertains to large Web sites, and creating innovative, practical solutions for clients.
Lisa wields a sharp ability to define and distinguish the over–arching principles of designing and maintaining large Content Management System–driven Web sites and is a recognized thought leader in the area of information governance.
Lisa leads consulting engagements with a combination of high–level strategic vision, clear understanding of the challenges of senior executives, and real–world problem solving. Lisa is a sought after speaker for Web management conferences and symposiums for her insightful analysis of the complex problems faced by large–scale Web sites. Her past clients include The World Bank, The US Food and Drug Administration, USA.gov, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Clorox, Wells Fargo, Firstgov, the Social Security Administration, World Savings Bank and Seattle Times Interactive, among others.
Lisa has been working with large Web properties since 1996. Prior to her work with Web content management, Lisa was a ratings analyst and coordinating producer for King World Productions. Lisa holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina and was a Philosophy Fellow at Columbia University.
Sandy Wieprecht is the Section 508 testing and training lead at the Social Security Administration. In her current role, Sandy works closely with development teams to ensure that accessibility and Section 508 compliance are considered in the planning, design, development, testing, and implementation phases. Prior to this position, Sandy worked for several years as an IT developer and team leader in the agency's Office of Systems.
Lovisa Williams, is the Senior Technology Advisor at the Department of State to Public Diplomacy mission. Ms. Williams provides technical and project management expertise to Program Officers interested in implementing social media into their programs. Ms. Williams provides support for over 260 world wide embassies and consulates in addition to supporting the two Public Diplomacy bureaus – International Information Programs (IIP) and Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Bureaus. In addition to providing hands on expertise with emerging technologies, Ms. Williams advises the Public Diplomacy community and Department at large on the use of social media and the policies surrounding their use.
Ms. Williams is spearheading the initiative to develop a social media use policy for the Department of State. She works diligently at building partnerships throughout the Department of State covering issues such as privacy, security, information assurance, records management, and human resources to name a few. Prior to working on the social media use policy, Ms. Williams drafted the social media guidance for the Department. This guidance has been posted for the past year.
Ms. Williams is a member of the Federal Web Managers Council's Sub Council, for which she writes an internal blog, on Social Media as one of two representatives for the Department of State. Ms.Williams also served on the planning committee for the Government 2.0 Camp.
Ms.Williams is an active participant in the community advocating for Government's use of social media. Ms.Williams is a member of the Social Media Club DC, Government 2.0 Club and GovLoop. She is also a resident of Second Life.
