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I’m the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer and Co-founder at Excella, a mid-sized technology services firm based in Arlington, VA. Since I turned to the dark side by going into management, I live vicariously through other engineers and have fond memories of spending my time in code and command lines rather than Outlook and Excel. I’m active in the technology community and as an advisor to IT Revolution. I have a passion for how technology can be used to help organizations win with their mission and people find joy in their work.

I discovered programming writing BASIC on a Commodore 64, and I've been chasing that same spark ever since — now 20+ years deep, across IT consulting, custom software and web development, and cloud architecture. I've led teams in both the public and private sectors across a variety of industries, and what I really enjoy is solving problems and helping teams deliver quality software more often. These days I spend most of my time at the intersection of developer enablement and applied AI, and I've been volunteering with the DC DevOps community since 2019. I tend to equate developing software to martial arts and my favorite software book is the Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee.

Deanna started her career as an embedded programmer in the telecommunications industry, and was a significant contributor to Northern California having no internet for 2 days back in the late 90s. She now helps sponsors transition to Agile and DevOps and spends her days screaming “it’s the people, not the tools!” Deanna co-created the DevSecOps Capability Model (DCaM) and has helped write DevOps specifications for NIST. Deanna has two loves in her life - her dogs Grimbal and Curzon, which is why she’s always covered in fur.

I am a Principal Software Engineer at The MITRE Corporation in McLean, Virginia where I do full stack development as part of the Transportation Innovation Center. My interests focus around mobile technology in aviation operations and modernization operations with cloud technology. Passionate about DevOps and process automation.

It's been an interesting ride! Kara spent a decade working on Avionics and ESM systems at LM Federal Systems-Owego. Then kids came and she decided to take 15 year hiatus. During this time, she performed a lot of volunteer work with the PTA, Girl Scouts, and other organizations. Returning to work in July 2018, she has been employed with The MITRE Corporation for 8 years with a specialization in Agile/DevSecOps transformations.

I’m a Principal Software Engineer and tech lead with twenty years of experience building and modernizing complex systems in the transportation, defense, and homeland security domains. I’m passionate about DevOps, GitOps, and finding ways to streamline software delivery through automation.

I'm a people-first technology leader and product executive specializing in digital transformation, product strategy, cloud-native innovation and Responsible AI governance. For over two decades, I've led high-performing product and engineering teams in creating award-winning digital experiences for the world’s most recognized brands.