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For nearly 30 years, Jim Loter has provided IT strategic leadership in higher education, libraries, and local government sectors. Jim has served as the Interim Chief Technology Officer for the City of Seattle, the Director of Information Technology for The Seattle Public Library, and Associate Vice Provost for the Office of Information Management at the University of Washington. Jim has led programs, coached leaders, advised policymakers and elected officials in areas such as digital equity and inclusion, telecommunications policy and regulation, enterprise data governance, data privacy, artificial intelligence, and smart city and civic technology. He is also an experienced university instructor and presenter in the subjects of IT governance, policy, ethics, and public sector management.

Michael has more than three decades of experience in public-sector cybersecurity, technology leadership, and digital risk governance. He served as the founding Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Fairfax County Government, Virginia, from 2002 to 2025, where he led the development of a resilient cybersecurity program that supported essential government operations and public trust for more than 1.3 million residents and 13,000 employees.

Dale has over 40 years of in-depth Technology technical and leadership experience, whose career initially spanned across 30 years with the State of California, including 10 years of CIO executive roles at CA Employment Development Department (EDD) and CalPERS, the nation’s largest pension fund. Since departing from government in 2013, Dale has spent another 12 years in management consulting, focused on the government CIO, primarily around IT Strategy & Architecture, IT Services Transformation and Legacy Systems Reengineering disciplines, among others. While delivering executive management consulting projects at KPMG, VIP (Visionary Integration Professionals) and Performance Technology Partners, across many states and counties, Dale’s specialty was typically positioning government CIO’s for increased IT investment, including major new IT project funding and significant increases in IT staffing levels. Though the power of IT Financial Management and Transparency, Dale’s methodology served as a major new bridge between the Business and Technology organizations, often providing technology services insights to the business executives for the first time.

Leveling Up: A look at state modernization agendas.

These companies empowered education institutions with platforms that personalize learning, enhance digital safety, and support student growth.

These technology providers co-created scalable, secure solutions with public agencies—powering smarter payments, case management, and digital government services.

These agencies led bold cloud modernization efforts — overhauling legacy systems, enhancing transparency, and empowering staff with real-time data and intelligent automation.

These institutions are reimagining student engagement, advising, analytics, and administration by using cloud technologies to unify data, streamline processes, and improve learner outcomes at scale.

These K-12 institutions are pioneering cloud-based solutions that enhance student success, strengthen cybersecurity, streamline operations, and deliver data-driven insights — setting new standards for digital transformation in primary and secondary education.

The CDG/CDE AWS Champions Awards honor AWS customers who are setting new standards for innovation in the public sector.

Ray is Chief Information Officer at the New England College of Optometry. With 40+ years of leadership and information technology experience – the last 18 within higher education, including 6 years at UMass Boston and 7 years at Bridgewater State University as CIO and 5 years at UMass Chan Medical School. Ray, together with his teams, has enriched student learning, increased efficiencies and enhanced communications while reducing costs, improving service delivery and strengthening regional partnerships.

Shannon is a Senior Fellow at the U.C. Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and principal at Civic Wisdom. She previously served as Senior Advisor to the Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she led the development of the FY25–28 Data Strategy and co-founded the White House U.S. Tech Policy Network of federal, state, and local data leaders.

Julia Gilban-Cohen is a staff writer for the Center for Digital Education. Prior to joining the e.Republic team, she spent six years teaching special education in New York City public schools. Julia also continues to freelance as a reporter and social video producer. She is currently based in Los Angeles, California.