🎙️ Episodes

Recorded at the inaugural WRITA spring conference, this episode brings together Scott Conn (CIO, City of Mesa and WRITA chair), Mary Wynne (CEO, Fusion Learning Partners/PTI), and returning guest Chris Stewart (CRO, Freeit Data Solutions, former City of Austin CIO). They unpack how WRITA was built as an all-hands regional alternative to CIO-only clubs, and how leaders are handling local government IT budget cuts — through tools-first strategy, real partnerships over transactional vendors, transparent communication, and continued investment in professional development.

Summary
Broward County has 31 cities, 67+ lines of business, and 14 IT managers that CIO Domenic DiLullo has to keep in sync - while a property tax measure heading to the ballot could reshape his entire budget.

Glenn Mack just took over as CTO of the North Carolina courts: 100 counties, 105 courthouses, from Murphy to Manteo. He walked in from 17 years in public safety and found the AI policy was… non-existent.

And Jon Minshew spent 30 years in North Carolina state government - CIO for the gov...

#238: 40 CIOs. 40 Different Missions. How LA County's CIO Holds IT Together — with Info-Tech Research Group
Summary
Los Angeles County is the largest county in the U.S. serving over 10 million people across 40+ different departments.

They just passed a $46 billion budget. And their CIO, Peter Loo, has to coordinate with 40 other CIOs to get anything done.

That’s not a technology problem. That’s one of the hardest leadership and governance challenges in all of public sector — and Peter has been...

#237: University of Pittsburgh & Dell Technologies: Can AI Wearables Predict a Heart Attack Before It Strikes?
What if your wearable could do more than track steps - and actually help detect cardiovascular risk before symptoms appear?

Heart disease is the deadliest disease on the planet. In the U.S. alone it killed close to 300,000 - more than cancer. And it’s a quiet killer: by the time you feel a symptom, the damage is usually already done.

Pengfei Zhou, Assistant Professor at the University...

#236: How Nevada Recovered from a Statewide Cyber Attack in 28 Days (And What Every CIO & CISO Should Do Before It Happens to Them)
Summary
Nevada woke up to a ransomware attack that took 60+ state agencies offline. No ransom paid. Full recovery in 28 days.

State CIO Timothy Galluzi and Info-Tech's Mark Hellbusch break down the largest ransomware attack in Nevada state history - how the network came back in 48 hours, how they kept citizen trust through radical transparency, and what every state...

Episode Summary
In this episode, Mark Roman and Carlos Thomas from Info-Tech break down the enrollment cliff, AI disruption, and cultural skepticism hitting Higher Ed - and why the CIO is the one best positioned to lead through it.

Featuring
Mark Roman is Managing Partner for the Education Business at Info-Tech Research Group - supporting universities, colleges, and K-12 institutions around the world, and a self-described electric guitar player (results may vary).

Carlos Thomas is an IT Execut...

Episode Summary
What do you do when you can't stop the thing you're trying to fix?

Three returning guests sit down for one of the most honest conversations about public sector modernization we've had on the show.

From the latest on SF's 911 cloud migration, to what it means to modernize Harry Reid International Airport in real time while simultaneously designing the technology architecture for a second commercial airport 20 miles south, to Seguin's workforce transformation from one staff membe...

Episode Summary
Boston's CIO thinks "modernization" is what you say when you've stopped investing. Clark County thinks AI should handle your entire move to a new city. Dell thinks you can't do any of it without clean data. Three takes. One conversation about what government services actually look like when they work.

Featuring
Santi Garces is Chief Information Officer at the City of Boston - leading a team that spans user researchers, designers, economists, and policy analysts, and currently bu...

Episode Summary
In this Info-Tech LIVE New Orleans episode, Tom Zehren, CEO of Info-Tech Research Group, and John Burris, CIO of Southeastern Louisiana University, break down why AI efficiency is a growth mindset - not a cost-cutting exercise - and what the CIO role actually becomes when Agentic AI is the next IT super trend.

Featuring
Tom Zehren is CEO at Info-Tech Research Group - a global research and advisory firm now operating across North America, Europe, and APAC.

John Burris is CIO at ...

Episode Summary
In this episode, Adam Mikeal, CISO at Texas A&M University, and Tim Paikoff from Axonius break down how consolidating fragmented security data into a single view changed the way A&M tracks assets, validates policy, and tells cybersecurity's ROI story to leadership — and why AI's data access model is now keeping CISOs up at night.

Featuring
Adam Mikeal is Chief Information Security Officer at Texas A&M University - responsible for securing the university's full asset environment,...

In this episode, Craig Woolley from LSU, Lizbeth Johnson from NC A&T, and Ron Ringgold from SentinelOne break down how a student-powered SOC model is scaling across 32+ institutions - and why the hardest part of cybersecurity leadership isn't the technology, it's the people.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, Dr. Vanessa Kenon from UTSA, Tonya Bennett from the University of Pennsylvania, and Tim Boltz from Carahsoft break down how universities are building student workforce pipelines, navigating AI’s legal wild west, and cutting through procurement complexity - all before the pace of change outstrips them.

In this episode, Dave Weil from Ithaca College and Mark Richards from Omnissa explore how a small liberal arts IT team built an AI tool that freed up 150 at-risk student meetings - and why human-to-human connection has to stay at the center of any real AI strategy.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, Josh Bright from UC Santa Barbara, Dwane Sterling from Virginia Tech, and JJ Mahon from Cisco ThousandEyes break down what it means to lead IT before the problems find you - from building a collaborative leadership team to monitoring the student experience before the first ticket ever lands.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, Lester Godsey from Arizona State University, Dan Kent from Cloudflare, and Matthew Leger from IDC break down why most institutions are still in the AI Wild West - and what it actually takes to govern, secure, and scale AI across a campus before agentic systems make the problem exponentially harder.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, Ed Clark from CSU, William Huang from UT System, and Chuck Romero from Palo Alto break down what it actually takes to close the AI divide across 460,000 students — and why browser security is now the front line.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, leaders from UCLA, Vanderbilt, and Ericsson break down the 5G vs WiFi campus debate and what it means for the future of higher education networking.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, leaders from Maricopa Community Colleges, Dell, and NVIDIA break down what's actually broken in higher ed workforce pipelines — and what AI workforce development can do to fix it.

In this EDUCAUSE episode, Kyle Bowen from Arizona State University, Joe Sabado from UC Santa Barbara, and Doug Thompson from Tanium make the case that efficiency was never supposed to be the finish line — and break down what responsible AI adoption actually looks like when it connects to the mission.

#221: Lisa Kent, Melissa Kraft, Derek Williams - 2026 World Cup, Fusion Teams, AI Wins, Leading Well
Featuring
Lisa Kent is the CIO & Director, City of Houston leading IT for America’s fourth-largest city as she prepares for the World Cup, consolidates Houston Police Department IT, and navigates the delicate balance between innovation and risk.

Melissa Kraft is the CIO, City of Frisco managing IT for one of America’s fastest-growing cities (30% population growth) while experimenting with AI dep...

#220: From Admin to Youngest CIO — How Curiosity & Collaboration Built Two Public-Sector Leaders
Featuring:
Erica Early, Chief Information Officer, Washington State Office of the State Treasurer

Lisa Faison, Chief Information Officer, City of Goodyear, Arizona

Episode Highlights:
What if the fastest route to becoming a CIO wasn’t a degree or a title — but saying yes to the “one more project” everyone else avoided?

In this episode, two women reveal how curiosity and collaboration turned overti...

#219: How Seguin IT Built a 27-Award Culture — And What Port Houston & Flower Mound Teach About Leadership
Featuring:
Shane McDaniel, CIO, City of Seguin & 2025 TAGITM President

James O’Brien, Information Security Officer, Port Houston (& 2026 TAGITM President)

Jose Mendez, IT Director, Town of Flower Mound

Ted Gruenloh, CEO, Nomic Networks

Episode Highlights:
What happens when local IT leaders transform city government through servant leadership, authentic vendor partnerships, and homegrown...

#218: How 3 State CIOs Cut Through AI Hype to Save Millions with Bill Kehoe, Tim Galluzi, Alan Fuller
Featuring
Bill Kehoe, Chief Information Officer and WaTech Agency Director, State of Washington

Tim Galluzi, Chief Information Officer, State of Nevada

Alan Fuller, Chief Information Officer, State of Utah

Episode Highlights
What if the future of government IT isn’t about the biggest budget—but the courage to ship fast, fail forward, and use AI that actually works?

Three state CIOs share how...

#217: Supercharging Cyber Resiliency — How Texas Cities Achieve Enterprise-Level Security [2025 TAGITM]
Episode Highlights
What if cybersecurity in government isn’t about buying the newest tools — but trusted relationships, shared intelligence, and grassroots innovation?

In this episode, four Texas public sector leaders share how local governments are building enterprise-level resilience without enterprise budgets. From 27 innovation awards in the City of Seguin (and counting — Shane scored #27...