Our organization’s new mission of inspiring innovation for the greater good, and our new strategic focus on technology, pointed to the fact that it was time to refresh our brand identity with a new name and visual image that is more aligned with our current work and our vision for the future. We’re thrilled that as of January 1, 2021 GTS Educational Events is now Fusion Learning Partners!
Formerly known as GTS Educational Events, we are now Fusion Learning Partners!
Co-convener Stratis Health is proud to provide continuing medical education credit for physicians and advanced practice professionals for the MN HIMSS and Minnesota e-Health Initiative Conference, through their CME accreditation by the Minnesota Medical Association.
Physician Continuing Medical Education (CME) AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) through the joint sponsorship of Stratis Health and the MN HIMSS and Minnesota e-Health Initiative Conference. Stratis Health is accredited by the MMA to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Stratis Health designates this activity for 7 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
CME certificates will be emailed after completion of these steps:
Speaker and Planning Committee Disclosure: To comply with MMA Standards for Commercial Support, Stratis Health requires presenters to disclose the existence of any significant financial interest or other relationships with companies whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the presentation. Each presenter will submit a signed disclosure form prior to the conference. No presenter or planning committee member involved with the MN HIMSS and Minnesota e-Health Initiative Conference will have a financial relationship that could be perceived as a real or apparent conflict of interest in the context of their presentation; nor will any speaker discuss research or unlabeled uses of commercial products.
Continuing Education and Contact Hours for Nurses
The University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Office of Practice, Partnerships and Professional Development, is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. The MN HIMSS and Minnesota e-Health Initiative Conference is designed to meet the Minnesota Board of Nursing requirements for continuing education. It is the responsibility of the individual nurse to determine if the course fulfills that requirement.
Continuing Education Credits and Contact Hours for Other Health Professionals
The MN HIMSS and Minnesota e-Health Initiative Conference may meet continuing education requirements for your focus. Attendees will receive a certificate of attendance following completion of a post-conference online evaluation survey. It is the responsibility of the individual to determine if the course fulfills that requirement.
Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D., is a private consultant and researcher who has directed and evaluated numerous school-wide intervention and reform efforts. Amanda is founder of Spring Math (www.springmath.com), a web-based comprehensive mathematics RtI system covering numeracy to algebra, which is widely used in the U.S. and has shown strong gains in math achievement. Her work has been featured on “Education News Parents Can Use” on PBS and The Learning Channel.
Dr. VanDerHeyden has held faculty positions at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and University of California at Santa Barbara. She is President of Education Research & Consulting, Inc. in Fairhope. Dr. VanDerHeyden serves as scientific advisor to TIES and the Center on Innovations in Learning. She has served as a guest or standing panel member for NIH, IES at the U.S. Department of Education and on numerous boards including the RTI Advisory Board for the National Center for Learning Disabilities and SEDL, one of 10 regional laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Education since merged with the American Institutes for Research). Dr. VanDerHeyden has published more than 100 scholarly articles and chapters, 7 books, and has given keynote addresses to state school psychology associations and state departments of education in 32 states and Singapore. She is co- author of the Evidence-Based Mathematics Innovation Configuration for the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality at Vanderbilt University and now the Collaboration for Effective Education Development, Accountability, and Reform at University of Florida. Her most recent book (Kovaleski, VanDerHeyden, & Shapiro—The RTI Approach to Evaluating Learning Disabilities) was featured at a forum for policymakers hosted by the National Center for Learning Disabilities as a best-practice guide for identifying and serving children with Learning Disabilities in October of 2013 in New York, NY. She actively conducts research focused on improving learning outcomes for students and her scholarly work has been recognized in the form of article of the year awards in 2007 from Journal of School Psychology and 2016 from Journal of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, the Lightner Witmer Early Career Contributions Award from Division 16 (School Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, and her 2012 induction into the 150-member Society for the Study of School Psychology. Amanda believes that most academic failure is preventable and that all children can learn when provided with the right instruction.
Ruth Lynfield is State Epidemiologist and Medical Director at Minnesota Dept of Health. She joined MDH as a medical epidemiologist in 1997. She has investigated and responded to outbreaks, developed surveillance systems, and conducted public health research, evaluation and planning. She has served on a number of federal advisory committees including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the FDA Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and chairs the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors for the Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases. She is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota.
Elissa Hansen, President & CEC at Northspan
Elissa Hansen invests her time creatively advancing others’ capabilities. Recently, she has facilitated strategic planning processes for numerous public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the Upper Midwest. She also spearheaded the creation of the Minnesota Opportunity Collaborative and has worked to expand and enhance Northspan’s programs. She leads Northspan with over 20 years of experience in business and economic development across Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Karl Schuettler, Research Director & Consultant at Northspan
Karl Schuettler manages the Northland Connection program, provides support services to local communities, and researches and analyzes economic trends. In the past year, Karl’s work has included numerous economic analyses, reports on business visit programs, and staffing support for several regional partnerships. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota.
Terri Thao
Terri Thao is passionate about building power with community. She is currently a program director at Nexus Community Partners, a non-profit community building intermediary where she runs the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI). Terri has spent most of her professional career in the fields of community economic development, community building, leadership development, and philanthropy. She also teaches classes on leadership and advocacy at Metropolitan State University. She serves on the boards of the F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Minnesota Housing and Voices for Racial Justice. She obtained her Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees from the University of Minnesota. She lives with her family on the East Side of St. Paul and loves to read in her spare time.
Dannielle Lewis
Dannielle Lewis is a senior manager in the tax practice, focused on serving clients in the construction and real estate industry. She leads Wipfli’s team of Qualified Opportunity Zone specialists and is a frequent speaker on this topic. She also advises clients on complex tax transactions involving partnership interest exchanges or business sales. Dannielle stays up to date on the ever-changing tax laws and recognizes opportunities for new and potential clients to help save and structure their funds. She leverages her proactive planning and advising to ensure clients reach their goals and are successful.
Jacob seeks to strengthen communities’ resilience by promoting the use of data and careful analysis. At Wilder, he generates and curates content for the Minnesota Compass website and manages a portfolio of related research projects. He brings experience in research, geospatial analysis, writing, and outreach from previous positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, among others.
He holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in English from James Madison University in Virginia.
Outside of work, he enjoys bicycling around the Twin Cities and getting lost in the woods as he forages for mushrooms. In his opinion, a perfect day would somehow combine the two.
Kathlene Campbell is the Dean of Education at the University of St. Thomas where she oversees the departments of educational leadership, special education, and teacher education as well as the charter school authorizing unit. Dr. Campbell’s multifaceted experience as a classroom teacher, community college and state college professor, state college interim dean, university instructor and supervisor, and non-profit consultant have shaped all of her strategic and scholarly pursuits. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and M.Ed. in Early Childhood Intervention and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Texas at Austin.
Michael Baran, PhD is a Senior Partner and Digital Solutions Lead at inQUEST Consulting. He has been working with organizations for almost 20 years, helping support their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. By training, he has a doctorate in cultural anthropology and cognitive psychology, studying questions like: how do we all develop unconscious biases? And what are the subtle ways that cultures include some people and exclude others?
Michael has taught courses at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He has lead projects aiming to reduce racial disparities in education, health, housing, and criminal justice at the FrameWorks Institute and at the American Institutes of Research.
He is also the coauthor of the recently launched book Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions, cited in Forbes as one of the “11 Books To Read If You Want To Be A More Inclusive Leader.”
Andy Zimney is a Principal Advisor and Team Performance Coach at Employe Strategies, Inc.—a boutique firm in Minneapolis that partners with leaders to create highly effective work cultures. He has two decades of experience in the conference room as an organizational executive and on the stage as a profession improviser. Andy has lead learning seminars and coached teams from a wide variety of industries across the country to help them adapt to change and support more innovative cultures. Andy spends the rest of his time with his wife and 3 fantastic children in St. Paul, MN.
Jessica O. Matthews is the Founder & CEO of Uncharted Power, an award-winning, full-service power and data infrastructure company. The Company’s proprietary suite of technologies enables it to build, own and operate decentralized power infrastructure for communities with various applications for edge colocation, power, and sensing. Developing technologies in energy generation, transmission and storage, the Company also has mastered harnessing kinetic energy, enabling it to engineer consumer products for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and various international governments. The Company was founded by Jessica when she was only 22 years old.
Jessica was invited by President Barack Obama to the White House to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012. In 2016, she raised the second-largest Series A ever raised by a black female founder in history and was selected to ring the NASDAQ opening ceremony bell, representing all Forbes 30 Under 30 alumna.
Jessica’s research and career centers around the intersection of disruptive technology, renewable energy, human behavior, and the psychology of self-actualization. A dual citizen of Nigeria & the U.S., Jessica has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is listed on over 10 patents and patents pending—including her first invention of the SOCCKET, an energy generating soccer ball, at the age of 19. Her list of accolades includes Fortune’s Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs, Forbes 30 under 30 list, Inc Magazine 30 under 30, and Harvard University Scientist of the Year.
Susan Brower is the Minnesota State Demographer and directs the MN State Demographic Center. Susan became the State Demographer in February 2012. In that capacity, she travels the state talking with Minnesotans about the new social and economic realities that are brought about by recent demographic shifts. Susan’s work applies an understanding of demographic trends to changes in a range of areas including the state’s economy and workforce, education, health, immigration and rural population changes.
Susan joined the State Demographic Center after working as a researcher on the Minnesota Compass project at Wilder Research in St. Paul. Prior to that, she worked at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan.
Susan earned her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan, specializing in demography and family sociology. She also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
For media or other inquiries, please contact Susan at susan.brower@state.mn.us (preferred) or 651-201-2472. Download a high resolution photo of Susan. Note: If you would like Susan to present at an event, please email her with your request.
Kori Land, Attorney at LeVander, Gillen & Miller, P.A.
Korine Land is a shareholder at LeVander, Gillen & Miller, located in South St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the City Attorney for the cities of West St. Paul, Stillwater, Cottage Grove, Randolph and Hampton. Ms. Land is the Chair of her Firm’s Municipal Practice Group, a past president of the Minnesota City Attorneys’ Association and a frequent speaker for the League of Minnesota Cities on various municipal matters. She graduated from Augustana University and Mitchell-Hamline College of Law.
Molly Just, Senior Planner at WSB
Molly has nearly 20 years of experience in local and regional government, as well as in the private sector. While her experience includes long-range planning and current planning, Molly finds planning nirvana when helping to solve problems. She finds that the answers are often hiding in plain sight – in the zoning ordinance or comprehensive plan. Molly’s planning career started in the Washington, DC area, then moved to Maine, and finally to Minnesota in 2015; attracted by the evident quality of life. Molly lives in Minneapolis with her husband, son, and pets. In her free time, Molly is always trying to carve out time to walk the lakes with her dog or strengthen her yoga practice.
Erin Perdu, Director of Community Planning & Economic Development at WSB
Erin Perdu, AICP, is the Community Planning and Economic Development Director for WSB in Minneapolis. She has been a practicing planner for over 20 years, working primarily in the upper-Midwest and Texas. Her career spans both the public and private sectors, including a 12-year stint at the helm of the consulting firm she founded, ENP & Associates. Erin’s passions include long-range planning, community engagement, and bringing national best practices to communities of all sizes. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University (Earth Systems) and Master of Science (Natural Resources) and Master of Urban Planning degrees from the University of Michigan.
Mike Couri, Attorney at Couri & Ruppe, P.L.L.P.
Michael C. Couri is a partner with Couri & Ruppe. Mr. Couri received his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Illinois State University in 1985. He then received his Certified Public Accountant certificate and Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1988. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1988 and the Minnesota Bar in 1991. Mr. Couri has been continuously engaged in the practice of Municipal Law in Minnesota since 1991. He has been the City Attorney for the City of Albertville since 1992, the City of St. Augusta since 2000, and the City of Rockford since 2002. He has also represented a number of Townships since his entry into the practice of Municipal Law in 1991. Mr. Couri has attended City and Township sponsored continuing legal education seminars annually since 1991 and has periodically spoken on Municipal issues before City and Township organizations.
Phil Carlson, Associate at Stantec
Phil Carlson has practiced as a planning consultant in the region for more than forty years, assisting dozens of cities with comprehensive plans, neighborhood studies, urban design guidelines, zoning codes, and planning advice. He has designed residential, commercial, industrial, and mixed use developments, and wrote one of the first form-based codes in Minnesota. He has taught planning and zoning to city staff and leaders for over thirty years and is frequently called as an expert witness in land use and zoning cases.
Megan Dayton is a Senior Demographer at Minnesota’s State Demographic Center. Since 2012, she has been responsible for preparing demographic projections for the State of Minnesota, 13 Economic Development Regions, and 87 counties. Serving in this role, Megan is Minnesota’s state representative to the Federal-State Cooperative Program for Population Projections (FSCPP) with the U.S. Census Bureau. Megan’s work involves the creation of school district estimates upon request for intercensal levy cycle funding and providing data analysis for state agencies, councils, and legislators.
Megan’s research interests include improving upon existing data modeling techniques used for state and sub-state areas, as well as social stratification and more general demographic trends related to fertility, mortality, and migration patterns. Megan has hands-on knowledge of social and economic realities brought about by recent demographic shifts. Her work engages an attentive approach to relating current demographic trends with the resulting likelihoods.
Megan holds a master’s degree in applied demography from the Center for Demography and Population Health at the Florida State University.
Contact Megan at megan.dayton@state.mn.us (preferred) or 651-201-2461. Download a high resolution photo of Megan. Note: If you would like Megan to present at an event, please email her with your request.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou is a nationally recognized physician, advocate, advisor and author. She earned her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and enjoyed practicing internal medicine in Northern California. However, wanting to have a broader impact on the healthcare system, she shifted her focus to the managed care industry. Between 1995 and 2007, she was a senior executive and Chief Medical Officer of UnitedHealthcare where she dismantled many of the company’s legacy policies in order to minimize the bureaucratic burdens imposed on patients and physicians.
Since 2008, Archelle has served as a senior advisor for a diverse group of companies serving health needs in industries ranging from education to analytics and financial services to mining. She worked with former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich at his Center for Health Transformation, a non-partisan think tank focused on advancing patient-centric sustainable healthcare policies. In 2009, she was the medical correspondent for the Blue Zones international expedition to Ikaria, Greece, where she explored lifestyle factors underlying the island’s longevity with National Geographic researcher and best-selling author, Dan Buettner.
Archelle is an executive in residence at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management where she teaches anatomy and physiology to MBA students, to help future industry leaders appreciate the medical complexities of the human body. She serves as a member of the board of directors for Nashville-based Tivity Health (NASDAQ:TVTY).
She is passionate about using the power of media to educate consumers. Since 2007, she has been an on-air medical expert in Minneapolis-St. Paul, covering more than 900 different topics, from research, technology and clinical care to health insurance and healthcare policy. Currently, she has a weekly news segment and presents regular health specials on KSTP-TV, the ABC affiliate in the Twin Cities. Her appearances on national news programs include Fox Business News, CNN, Good Morning America, and Katie’s Take with Katie Couric.
In February 2017, Archelle’s book, Healthcare Choices: 5 Steps to Getting the Medical Care You Want and Need, was published by Rowman & Littlefield. Based on her 20+ years of experience in patient care, managed care, media, and business, Archelle wrote Healthcare Choices to share the CARES model, an approach she developed to teach consumers how to make smart healthcare decisions that balance the best medical options with individual preferences.
Archelle and her family live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
COVID-19 and the Transforming Learning Summit
The Transforming Learning Summit is proceeding with safety as a top priority. Our planning committee closely follows the CDC guidelines, local and state public health authorities and US State Department/Federal Government rules related to the COVID-19 virus. We recognize the situation is fluid and changing daily. We’ve instituted the following policy that only applies to COVID-19 related cancellations:
» 100% of attendee and sponsor/exhibitor registration fees will be refunded if a company has instituted travel restrictions for its employees that is effective during the dates of the Summit, and an attendee or sponsor/exhibitor cannot attend the event. Cancellation must be communicated by email to gts@fusionlp.org accompanied by the company proof of policy. Refunds will not be issued for cancellations before July 15, 2020.
» 100% of registration fees will be refunded if cancellation of the event is mandated by local health authorities
GTS Educational Events is actively exploring Digital Conferencing tools and the potential benefits that sponsors and exhibitors would receive, in the event that the in-person event is canceled. We will ensure sponsors and exhibitors receive comparable or even enhanced benefits associated with a captive digital audience. We welcome your ideas and input.
COVID-19 and the Government IT Symposium
The Government IT Symposium is proceeding with safety as a top priority. Our planning closely follows the CDC guidelines, local and state public health authorities and US State Department/Federal Government rules related to the COVID-19 virus. We recognize the situation is fluid and changing daily. We’ve instituted the following policy that only applies to COVID-19 related cancellations:
» 100% of attendee and sponsor/exhibitor registration fees will be refunded if a company has instituted travel restrictions for its employees that is effective during the dates of the Conference, and an attendee or sponsor/exhibitor cannot attend the event. Cancellation must be communicated by email to gts@fusionlp.org after November 16, 2020, accompanied by the company proof of policy. Refunds will not be issued for cancellations before November 16, 2020.
» 100% of registration fees will be refunded if cancellation of the event is mandated by local health authorities
GTS Educational Events is actively exploring Digital Conferencing tools and the potential benefits that sponsors and exhibitors would receive, in the event that the in-person event is canceled. We will ensure sponsors and exhibitors receive comparable or even enhanced benefits associated with a captive digital audience. We welcome your ideas and input.
Christopher Ross is currently the Chief Information Officer of Mayo Clinic. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Clinical Interoperability business for Surescripts. He has 28 years of diverse experience in healthcare, information technology and government. He serves on the Health and Human Services Health IT Standards Committee, the Markle Foundation Connecting for Health Steering Committee, and previously served on the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative and the CDC’s National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee. Before Surescripts, Cris most recently was Executive Vice President for Product and Information Services and Chief Information Officer for CVS/MinuteClinic, the pioneer and leader in retail-based healthcare. Cris holds a BS degree in Economics from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the Walk-In Counseling Center and Central Presbyterian Church.
Mandy Froehlich passionately encourages educators to create innovative change in their classrooms. A former Director of Innovation and Technology, technology integrator, and teacher, she has experience at many levels of the organizational structure. Her interest lies in reinvigorating and re-engaging teachers back into their profession, as well as what’s needed to support teachers in their pursuit of innovative and divergent thinking and teaching. She consults internationally with school districts and post-secondary institutions in the effective use of technology to support great teaching, mental health support for educators, and how to create organizational change. Her first book, The Fire Within: Lessons from defeat that have ignited a passion for learning, discusses mental health awareness for teachers. Her second book, Divergent EDU, is based on an organizational structure she developed to support teachers in innovative and divergent thinking. Her third book, based on educator engagement and mental health called Reignite the Flames, will be released in spring 2020.
Seen on The Ellen Show and NBC Nightly News, educator, speaker, and author Michael Bonner has taken to more than 100 education conference, school district meeting and leadership development stages across the U.S. & Canada to share his “lessons learned” from teaching in a Title I school with children that experience high levels of trauma and adverse situations. His candid, enthusiastic seminars challenge listeners to create diverse, inclusive education plans “where students can see themselves within the lessons and assessments” as a means to increase student success rates. He empowers his audiences to build genuine relationships with their students because “you can’t demand a withdrawal from someone you have never invested in.”
Administrators and educators alike leave Mr. Bonner’s presence ready to make an impact that affects eternity. Mr. Bonner is consistently seen as a visionary leader who strives to create a positive mindset among all of his students. His students come to class each day with diverse backgrounds, strengths, needs, and challenges. Therefore, he identifies strategies to ensure their growth socially, emotionally, academically, and psychologically. Due to his educational approach, students leave more hopeful, challenged, inspired, and forever a part of Bonnerville.
Today, Mr. Bonner lives in Atlanta, Ga. where he is beginning a new educational journey as a fourth and sixth grade English teacher at the famed Ron Clark Academy. You can learn more about Michael Bonner at michaellbonner.com and follow him on Instagram at @michaelbonner_.
Darin Richardson is the Claims Manager of the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT), working in this capacity since January 2014. Darin currently oversees both the property casualty and the workers’ compensation claims staff at the LMCIT. Prior to becoming the Claims Manager, Darin spent twenty-three years as a property casualty claims professional dedicated to the LMCIT while working for Berkley Risk Administrators and GAB.
B. J. is the Risk and Homeland Security Manager for Dakota County. B.J. is responsible for the oversite of several programs at the County including: health and safety, insurance and claims, continuity of operations planning, emergency management and implementation of enterprise risk management. Dakota County began actively pursuing cyber insurance coverage in 2018. The County has leveraged its relationship with AIG insurance to help develop a comprehensive framework to mitigate, respond and recover from cyber security events.
Ryan Donovan has been in the insurance industry for 15+ years as a commercial P&C, Group Health, and Life insurance producer. In his current role, Ryan serves as the Manager of the Insurance and Risk Management department for Sourcewell.
Annie is a broker in Aon’s Professional Risk Solutions Team located in Chicago, and has been with Aon since 2012. She works with organizations across all industries and sizes in assessing Errors & Omissions, Network Security and Privacy, and Media Risks.
Sean Sweeney is Senior Director & Chief Security Advisor, Americas, in Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Solutions Group. In this role, he is primarily responsible for aligning and mobilizing his team of Cybersecurity Advisors and Architects across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America to deliver thought leadership and deep customer engagement. He is also responsible for regularly engaging with the security industry through public speaking, standards development, and advanced research, as well as providing strategic direction on products and services, and advising customer CxOs on security and compliance issues.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Sean served as a Chief Information Security Officer of the University of Pittsburgh, principal and co-founder of a Pittsburgh-based eDiscovery startup, Chief Information Officer for a national law firm based in Pittsburgh, and Litigation Support Applications Manager for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
A frequent author and speaker on security and compliance, Sean is also a steadfast champion of cybersecurity workforce development. Originally from Northern Virginia, and an avid boater; Sean has resided in Pittsburgh, PA for the last 13 years.
John Israel currently manages the State of Minnesota’s Security Operations Center (SOC) and Enterprise Forensics teams overseeing the state’s efforts to improve cybersecurity monitoring, incident detection, and incident investigations. This role includes building and maintaining key cyber resources related to security monitoring and cybersecurity analysis for Minnesota government – including direct roles partnering with the Minnesota Secretary of State, Minnesota Fusion Center, and Minnesota county IT teams.
Robert Biestman is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber Mission Center Sector Outreach Lead. His role is to build customer relationships with critical infrastructure cyber leaders with the goal of securing the nation’s critical infrastructure by furthering DHS’ understanding of cyber activity targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and delivering valuable intelligence back to sectors so they can better defend against cyber threats facing the Homeland. Mr. Biestman provides cyber leaders a direct contact into the intelligence community and facilitates information sharing, joint analysis partnerships, and in-depth cyber threat briefings.
Prior to his role as Sector Outreach Lead, he worked as a financial sector technical cyber threat analyst for the DHS Cyber Mission Center, and in addition has worked as a homeland security legislative advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Biestman graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Business Economics and received his Master’s Degree in Cyber Leadership from National Defense University’s College of Information and Cyberspace.
David Maeda is the Director of Elections for the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. David’s team interfaces directly with election officials in every Minnesota county.
Terry is a Senior Engineer with Collier IT where he works to ensure clients are successful with database, big data, and cloud initiatives. Terry has 30 years of software development and implementation experience as a developer, architect, support, and sales team member. He brings extensive experience in enterprise software design, development, consulting, training, and sales with both government and commercial clients. Prior to joining Collier IT, Terry was a Solution Architect at Cloudera and a Principal Systems Engineer at Oracle.
Scott is a Director of Product Management for GraalVM at Oracle. He has over 25 years experience in the industry as a developer and product manager. Scott joined Oracle in 2003 as a developer and was one of the architects of SecureFiles in the Oracle Database. In 2011, Scott joined the Oracle Solaris Kernel team as an engineering manager and took over product management for Oracle Solaris in 2013. Scott has been working with the GraalVM team for the last 2+ years.
Brian is the Chief Technology Officer at Collier IT. He has over 36 years in the Information Technology field starting in the US Navy in 1981. Although proficient in many technologies his passion has been in the Operating Environment, Engineered Systems, Data Center grade servers, Big Data/Hadoop, and storage, and now Cloud Computing and the associated MSP aspects. He has been teaching for Sun Microsystems / Oracle since 2000. Brian actively writes a blog and provides formal presentations on various Oracle and related technology topics. @Snatchbrain Brian presents at a number of technology gatherings and is currently focused in Cloud connectivity, Docker in the Cloud, Hadoop, and Data Analytics in the Cloud. Brian is an Oracle Ace Director for Engineered Systems / Solaris and was recently awarded the 2018 Oracle Excellence Award: Leadership in Infrastructure Transformation.
Jason Moldan is a Solutions Architect with Amazon Web Services where he works to ensure customers are successful on their cloud journey. Jason has over 20 years if IT experience and prior to joining Amazon, he was the Technical Architect for the University of St. Thomas where he developed and led the universities cloud initiative.
Tarek Tomes serves as the Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) and the State of Minnesota’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), leading state efforts to provide the best possible IT solutions and customer service to the people of Minnesota and our business partners.
As a recognized industry leader, Tomes brings over 25 years of experience in managing technology innovation across diverse industries, both in national, international, and public and private sector operations. Throughout his career, he has facilitated data-driven decision making, implemented many critical enterprise projects, and improved workforce diversity and inclusion.
Before becoming Commissioner, Tomes served as the Chief Innovation Officer and former Chief Information Officer at the City of St. Paul, where he was responsible for managing ongoing process improvements, supporting human-centered design, and increasing the overall effectiveness of city services and resources. While in St. Paul, Tomes facilitated a digital transformation at the city level, pioneering the use of mobile applications to improve resident opportunities. This work allowed the city to leverage deep data insights while promoting and supporting equitable service delivery. During his time as St. Paul’s Chief Information Officer, Tomes oversaw the launch of St. Paul’s Open Information Portal, which serves to promote and encourage innovative uses of data and transparency in government services.
Tomes’ prior work experience also includes six years as an Assistant Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services, where he created several nation-leading Information Technology sourcing agreements for 33,000+ user utility services statewide – including the first cloud-based public sector statewide service offering in the nation. While Tomes was serving in this role, Minnesota became the first state in the country to manage all Information Technology through service level agreements, a model that was recognized with a national award. Before joining state service, Tomes spent 13 years working for British Telecom.
Tomes received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and attended Graduate School for Business Management at Boston University.
Jacob seeks to improve community vitality by promoting the use of data and community indicators to better understand trends in different quality-of-life measures. At Wilder, he generates and curates content for the Minnesota Compass website and manages a portfolio of related research projects. He brings experience in research, geospatial analysis, writing, and outreach from previous positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, among others.
He holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in English from James Madison University in Virginia.
Outside of work, he enjoys bicycling around the Twin Cities and getting lost in the woods as he forages for mushrooms. In his opinion, a perfect day would somehow combine the two.
Jacob is also a contributor to the Minnesota Compass blog:
Ellen serves as a research scientist for Minnesota Compass where she tracks indicators for the project which provides community-level trends for Minnesota residents. Ellen analyzes community-level data trends by working collaboratively with Minnesota organizations to identify data indicators that are relevant to their everyday work.
Before joining Wilder Research, Ellen worked for the University of Iowa’s Center for Evaluation and Assessment and University of Minnesota’s Office of Community Engagement for Health conducting research and evaluation related to education, health, and social services. She has worked with community-based organizations, state and local government, and higher education institutions for the past 15 years to develop indicators that support informed decision-making.
Ellen holds dual master’s degrees in public health and public policy from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in English from Grinnell College.
Ellen enjoys cooking for her family, visiting the mountains in her native home of Montana, and reading a good book.
Joseph Pugh is an Operations and Development Systems Supervisor with MNIT partnering with Minnesota Department of Health. He has over 25 years of IT experience in development and his career includes mainframe, client server, fat client servlets and now “the cloud”. His perspective and experience aligns with a significant number of development and operational government staff that will be tasked with this important transition.
Joseph has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics from Miami University in Oxford Ohio.
Corey Blommel has 20 years of IT experience that stretches across several fields. Currently, Corey is a security instructor at Anoka Ramsey Community College, and manages the Cybersecurity, Computer Networking and Computer Science academic programs. Corey is also a community faculty member at Metropolitan State University, and an instructor at the MNCyber Cyber Range.
Corey holds a Bachelors degree in IT management from Concordia University and Masters degrees in MIS from Metropolitan State University. When not teaching, Corey continues to work as an IT consultant.
Stephanie is a Technology of Participation (ToP®) Certified Facilitator and Mentor Trainer. She has a baccalaureate degree in Psychology and Social Work from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma Washington and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Hamline University in St. Paul Minnesota.
Kristy Dalton is the CEO of Government Social Media LLC and executive director of the Government Social Media Organization. She has been called on as an industry influencer and her unique background includes serving as a delegate at a NATO social media summit in Sarajevo, advising government agencies on digital strategy and delivering keynotes on social media and tech innovation all across the United States. Kristy has authored several social media courses for the LinkedIn Learning platform and pens a regular social media column in Government Technology Magazine. She founded the nation’s first social media conference for U.S. city, county and state agencies, the Government Social Media Conference.
Chris Dancy is touted as “the Most Connected Man on Earth,” and the world is watching those connections carefully. For 25 years, Dancy has served in leadership within the technology and healthcare industries, specializing in the intersection of the two. Chris entered the public dialog concerning digital health as the media started to focus on wearable technology. He earned his moniker by utilizing up to 700 sensors, devices, applications, and services to track, analyze, and optimize his life–from his calorie intake to his spiritual well-being. This quantification enables him to see the connections of otherwise invisible data, resulting in dramatic upgrades to his health, productivity, and quality of life.
A noted keynote speaker and executive workshop retreat facilitator, Chris guides organizations and audiences on a journey–a disruptive, breathtaking journey–into the future of computing, when behavior becomes the ultimate interface. As a author his digital wellness journey will transform how we look at the technology of our lives.
Prior to its acquisition by ConvergeOne, Craig worked for AOS for 10 years as a Design Architect and Systems Consultant in Omaha, NE. As a Design Architect, Craig meets with clients to understand the business needs for technology (such as SD-WAN, Security, etc), create topology designs, PowerPoint proposals, and Statements of Work for professional services teams to implement the solution. He supports multiple accounts throughout Nebraska, Iowa, and the Dakotas and covers technology solutions including Route/Switch, Security, Wireless, Data Center, and Unified Communications.
Ryan Cloutier is a seasoned IT Security professional with over 15 years of experience and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional CISSP® he has held a variety of IT roles during his career including multiple architect and security roles, Ryan has worked on cloud security, Dev-Ops / Sec-Ops methodology, policy, process, audit and compliance, network and application security architecture for several fortune 500’s in the health care, financial, and agriculture sectors and has been working with K-12 and SLED for the last 2 years.
Learn about what the Minnesota e-Health HIE Task Force has accomplished in the past year. The HIE Task Force, a twelve member group appointed by the Commissioner of Health in 2018, has provided input and expertise on moving to a connected networks approach in Minnesota.
By the end of 2019, it is expected that large health systems and providers participating with a health information organization (HIO) will be able to exchange care summary documents using the national eHealth Exchange network. The HIE Task Force recommended this important step and developed an implementation plan for this which is being rolled out now.
The task force also provided input for governance, authority and financing to help achieve foundational, robust and optimal HIE across the state. A facilitated panel of task force and advisory committee members will provide comments on the task force work and audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions as well.
