Speakers

Zoe Chance is a writer, teacher, researcher, and climate philanthropist. She’s obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence and her bestselling book is called Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. It is being published in 28 languages. Zoe earned her doctorate from Harvard and now teaches the most popular course at Yale School of Management (Mastering Influence and Persuasion). Her research is published in top academic journals and covered in global media outlets. She speaks on television and around the world, and her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy. Before joining academia, Zoe managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand, helped out with political campaigns, and worked in less glamorous influence jobs like door-to-door sales and telemarketing. She lives with her family in New Haven, CT.

Caitlin has supported executive leaders at the local, state, and federal level throughout her career in communications. She has led large teams during disaster response and recovery operations for both Stafford Act and PPD-44 events.

She has extensive experience drafting agency messaging on behalf of principals, including Cabinet level officials.

Caitlin has served as a spokesperson for various public and private sector organizations throughout her career, to include the largest police union in Texas.

Caitlin has been recognized by Secretary Mayorkas of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and by Texas Governor Greg Abbott for her leadership during various high profile disasters.

In 2016, Caitlin received her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Mass Communication/Media Studies from Texas State University.

Tabitha Clark is the Senior Communication Administrator for the City of Perry located in central Georgia. She is accredited in public relations (APR) by the Universal Accreditation Board where she was trained and evaluated in the strategic planning process and best practices in the public relations field.
Her communication experience includes law enforcement, K-12 public education, and local government. After spending over a decade working in communications, Tabitha knows how to engage target audiences through creative storytelling and communicating messages in a fun and unique way. She is passionate about supporting government communicators and promoting communications as an essential professional resource in all levels of government.

Leslie Gervasio is a senior public engagement specialist for Michael Baker International, specializing in public engagement and strategic communication management for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and county and municipal clients.
Overall, Leslie has more than 20 years of state and local government experience, most recently serving for almost a decade as the director of public affairs for the PA State Association of Boroughs. In that role, she also served as the managing editor of the Borough News magazine and the managing producer for Inside PA Boroughs.
Her experience includes serving as a deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison to former Governor Ed Rendell, where she led statewide community outreach efforts. She also served as press secretary for the PA Department of Community and Economic Development; as a project manager in the PA House of Representatives; and as a Main Street Manager for the City of Allentown. Upon graduation from college, she was a newspaper reporter in western PA, which is when she discovered her passion for government reporting.
Gervasio earned a Bachelor of Science in communication and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She also studied Spanish at the University of San Jose, Costa Rica. She earned a Certificate in Association Management from the American Society of Association Executives in 2014. Locally, Leslie is the programming chair for the Pennsylvania Public Relations Society. She is an advocate for animal welfare initiatives.

With over 13 years of experience, I continue to refine and advance my skills in an area where technology and creativity collide. My primary focus as a digital strategist and marketing professional has led and supported teams to strategically position their brands to meet their business goals and make an impact in the marketplace.

My previous clients range from startups and small businesses to nationally known non-profits, associations, and technology firms. With years of experience working in sync and across public relations teams, advertising executives, and marketers, positions me to view all work from a broad lens, considering the multi-faceted needs of each client.

In my free time, I enjoy volunteering to support passion projects focused on mental health awareness, LGBTQ+ issues, and human rights.

Erin Hawley is currently serving as the Vice President for Federal at Instabase, helping federal organizations drive transformation by unlocking unstructured data with deep learning in the Instabase automation platform.

Ms. Hawley is highly skilled in developing an encompassing business strategy to facilitate scalable growth of start-ups launching into the public sector. Prior to Instabase, Ms. Hawley led the sales and marketing strategy for technology leaders including DataRobot, Cloudera, and Composite Software (Cisco acquired) and has been a top performer in each of those organizations as they propelled their market growth and execution into the public arena.

Jennifer Kerber is Director of Public Policy for Grant Thornton, LLP and serves as Director of Marketing & Government Affairs for Grant Thornton Public Sector where she leads policy efforts for the state and local market. She has over 20 years of experience working with federal and state governments on technology issues, having served at both levels of government. Her expertise spans topics such as information technology, identity management, cybersecurity, government innovation, and acquisition issues. She recently led Grant Thornton’s response to the CARES Act and the American Recovery Plan.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Ms. Kerber served in the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, where she led improvement of a government identity management and cybersecurity shared service, now called Login.gov. She is widely regarded as an expert in the vast spectrum of policy issues surrounding identity management.

Previously Ms. Kerber served as Executive Director of the Government Transformation Initiative (GTI), a coalition of businesses, think tanks, academic institutions and non-profits dedicated to transforming government to operate more economical, efficient, and effective. Jennifer also served nearly a decade as a government affairs professional representing the technology industry before Congress and the Administration while working at TechAmerica. An expert in technology policy, Ms. Kerber led groundbreaking research on technology and innovation issues examining topics such as cloud computing, privacy, security, identity management, procurement policy and workforce.

Ms. Kerber was recognized by Federal Computer Week as a Fed100 Award Winner for 2011, which recognizes “government and industry leaders who have played pivotal roles in the federal government IT community.”

Early in her career, Ms. Kerber spent several years in the federal marketing and lobbying practice of the Jefferson Consulting Group in Washington DC. She began her career working in the Texas State Senate.

Ms. Kerber earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science with a minor in Journalism from Texas A&M University in College Station and graduate work at the University of Texas-Arlington. She is a member of the Public Affairs Council Board of Directors and Chair’s the ITI Texas Innovation Acquisition Committee. She volunteers as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused children and helps rescue dogs with Heart of Texas Lab Rescue! She serves as a Founder and Board Member of the JMKL Melanoma Foundation.

Julie Murphy brings particular strength in helping enterprise technology organizations improve their acceptance in the public sector, including Amazon Web Services, SAP NS2, Dell, Hitachi Data Systems, Brocade, and a variety of venture-backed and emerging companies.

Julie is a regular convener of industry conversation within cybersecurity, cloud computing, network management, Internet of Things, and Big Data. She sits on the Board of Women in Technology, and speaks regularly at conferences and academic gatherings, including PR News, DC PR Summit, Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit, IABC, George Mason University, and Catholic University. She dedicates significant time to a number of DC-area charities, include National Multiple Sclerosis Society and March of Dimes.

Julie is a proud graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. In fact, she's the fourth generation in her family to graduate from that college — apparently they bleed Orange.

Alex Stevens has over ten years of marketing and startup experience across both private and public sectors. Prior to joining RIVA Solutions, Alex served as the Head of Marketing at The Clearing. An entrepreneur at heart, Alex co-founded Digital District in 2013, a 501(c)6 organization aimed at fostering innovation and education in the digital sphere. Alex has a Master of Business Administration from George Washington University and a dual Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Business from Boston University. She hopes to one day pursue a doctorate and spend her golden years as an adjunct professor teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs and creative thinkers. In her free time Alex is an avid CrossFitter and Powerlifter. She enjoys cooking, tending to her growing collection of house plants, and taking long walks with her rescue pitbull, Zooey.

Born into media, Jeffrey Wolinsky grew up in a family-owned and operated full-service advertising agency where marketing and advertising were part of the menu at the dinner table. For the past 20 years he has worked with hundreds of local and national companies on creative media concepts and execution. Jeffrey currently is a director of federal and national sales for WTOP and Federal News Network. WTOP is the number-one revenue-producing radio station in the country and has evolved from a radio station into a digital news organization that currently provides outreach to its massive radio, digital, and social audiences. In addition, it offers external digital services to its clients so that WTOP can provide marketing services beyond its proprietary audience, helping clients target any audience through digital marketing. Jeffrey has delivered 3 main stage original speeches at GAIN, the premier event for Government Marketers from the Government Marketing University and has been featured on numerous podcasts as well as part of many panel discussions. He’s a certified facilitator of the creative problem-solving process and a five-time finalist and 2013 winner of the National Sales Manager of the Year Award presented by Radio Ink, a leading trade publication. A graduate of University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Jeffrey coaches youth sports and cheers on Maryland basketball; he brings his three sons to as many of their games as possible.

Lou Anne Brossman is CEO and founder of Government Marketing University. Her passion for “bringing clarity to the clutter in government marketing” drove her to found GMarkU. Lou Anne has over 35 years of public sector government marketing leadership experience gained while working for some of the leading companies in the market (Juniper Networks, immixGroup, EMC). She is a customer-centric, solution-oriented marketer. She has in-depth knowledge of product and services branding, communications and strategic planning and is committed to increasing client’s competitiveness, market share and profitability.

She is a sought-out speaker on Government Marketing Best Practices and is well recognized and respected for her ability to drive Thought Leadership campaigns on relevant federal, state and local government policies and mandates. Lou Anne has served on numerous boards including immixGroup and Trezza Media and was a founding member of the Women’s Center Executive Council. Lou Anne was honored with the Heroines in Technology award presented by Women in Technology and she was the recipient of the ACT IAC Dedication to Making a Difference award. In 2017 Lou Anne was a finalist for “2017 Women Business Owner of the Year” in the National Association of Women Business Owners and was named a “2017 Trending 40 Federal Entrepreneurs and Innovators.

Stephanie Geiger has 15 years of experience in U.S. Public Sector marketing with various leadership roles at Professional Services firms, Value-Added Resellers, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Most recently she held the role of Senior Vice President of the Virtual Marketing Division at Sage Communications. There she directed the strategy, planning, and implementation of integrated public sector marketing campaigns for technology companies and government contractors.

In 2015 Geiger helped to co-found Government Marketing University, filling the need for a marketplace of knowledge to support professionals responsible for marketing and selling into the U.S. Public Sector. Her passion is for helping to enable others in expanding their knowledge and gain in-depth insight into this unique marketplace. As Executive Vice President, she leads the company’s business operations, setting the annual strategic plan to ensure the mission of “For the People. By the People” remains at the forefront of all that Government Marketing University brings to this amazing community.

She is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA), James Madison University Alumni, die hard CAPS fan and lover of travel and great food.

Aaron Heffron has over 20 years of experience in research and analysis in various industries and sectors, including federal government, trade associations, technology, television and radio, and telecommunications. Prior to joining Market Connections, Aaron worked with The NPD Group, Inc. connecting NPD’s syndicated consumer data with federal, state and local government agencies. He founded some of the first public/private partnerships with the U.S. Department of Commerce to improve economic indicators and data gathering practices. Prior to NPD, he was Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Research for Harris Interactive where he facilitated a multi-continent strategic planning process for the US Department of State, ran product trials for the Open Mobile Video Coalition and facilitated focus groups with first Americans in Alaska and South Dakota.

Aaron’s professional history is rooted in both the public sector and the technology and telecommunications industries, including past positions with Market Connections, Inc.; the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), a trade association that represented the interests of America’s 357 public television stations; and Independent Sector (IS), a coalition of 700 national nonprofit organizations, foundations and corporate giving programs.

He has his master degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a BA in leadership studies and economics from the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology and joined the publication in 1996 as a staff writer. He's a graduate of Bridgewater College and earned a masters degree from American University. When he isn't writing about government contractors, he's thinking of cooking large pieces of meat over a fire and dreaming of ways to embarrass his two sons.