Katrina McFarland serves as assistant secretary for acquisition at the Defense Department, where she advises the defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics on acquisition-related matters.

She was previously the president of Defense Acquisition University, where she oversaw the development and expansion of acquisition curriculum for defense acquisition workforce.

McFarland helped DAU to address the changing requirements for defense acquisition under the Better Buying Power program and the new National Defense Authorization Act guidance.

She served as director for acquisition at the Missile Defense Agency since 2006, with responsibility in developing process activities and program policy for executing ballistic missile defense system research and setting the baseline execution review.

McFarland started her career with the public sector as a general engineer at Headquarters Marine Corps in 1986 before she moved to the Canadian Department of National Defense in Ottawa in 1990 as procurement head of electronics.

She returned to the Marine Corps in 1992 as head of acquisition for USMC aviation and ground command and control, radars/sensors, air defense, combat ID and cooperative engagement capability initiatives.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) serves on the armed services, budget, foreign relations and aging committees and is a ranking member of the armed services readiness subcommittee.

Kaine first entered public service in 1994 as a city council member and then mayor of Richmond before he became a lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2002 and Virginia’s 70th governor in 2006.

A U.S. senator since 2012, Kaine has helped active duty service members transition into civilian employment with the passage of the Troop Talent Act of 2013 as his first legislation.

He also serves as honorary chairman of the U.S.-Spain Council.

Kaine motioned to change the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and proposed to revise authorization for the U.S. military’s operations in response to the Islamic State group.

As member of the budget committee, he helped Congress pass a two-year budget agreement in 2013 to compensate the impacts of sequestration on the commonwealth.

A supporter of initiatives to mitigate the impact of climate change on Virginia, Kaine co-hosted a conference in 2014 to convene policymakers, experts and regional stakeholders with the goal of addressing the effect of climate change to Hampton Roads.

He studied at the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School.

Richard Ledgett is National Security Agency’s deputy director and senior civilian lead, with responsibility in directing studies, operations and policy as acting chief operating officer.

Ledgett held operational, management and technical leadership roles at the NSA since he started his career with the agency in 1988.

As a former director of the NSA/CSS threat operations center, he oversaw the agency’s cryptologic efforts meant to counter cyber threats.

He previously held various roles in both the collection and cyber mission areas in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence between 2010 and 2012.

Ledgett also advised the director of national intelligence on cyber affairs, led development efforts of the Unified Intelligence Strategy for Cyber and coordinated cyber programs across the intelligence community.

He also held the positions of deputy director for analysis and production, deputy director for data acquisition, chief of NSA/CSS Pacific and instructor and course developer at the National Cryptologic School.

Ledgett holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a graduate degree in strategic intelligence.

John Giacalone has served as executive assistant director for the national security branch at FBI since September 2014.

In this capacity, the 24-year bureau veteran is responsible for executing programs against terrorist activity, espionage and weapons of mass destruction.

He started his FBI career as a special agent in the New York field office in 1991 and was later assigned to the Philadelphia field office, where he helped establish and direct the organization’s field intelligence group.

In 2005, Giacalone became the bureau’s deputy on-scene commander in Iraq and coordinated with U.S. intelligence and military personnel in that role.

He also participated in the Attorney General Guidelines Task Force before he was selected to serve as chief of the domestic terrorism strategic operations section within the counterterrorism division at FBI headquarters in 2010.

He returned to New York in 2011 to serve as the counterterrorism division’s special agent in charge and then served as a deputy assistant director role in CTD until he was promoted to assistant director of the unit in January 2014.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in management and finance from Adelphi University and a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.

Richard McKinney was appointed chief information officer of the Transportation Department in May 2013 following years of work in the private sector and in local and state government.

He is formerly a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Government, a government technology adviser for Microsoft‘s state and local government division and CIO of the Nashville and Davidson County consolidated government in Tennessee.

He led Nashville’s information technology services department to bring the city into the top 10 of CDG’s annual survey of digital cities from 2003 to 2009.

McKinney has also held other leadership roles within the Tennessee state government.

He earned his bachelor’s degree and public administration master’s degree from Tennessee State University.

Miranda  Ballentine serves as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force, with responsibility in the oversight, formulation, review and execution of plans, policies, programs and budgets for installations, energy, environment, safety and occupational health.

She was previously the director of sustainability for global renewable energy and sustainable facilities at Walmart Stores Inc., where she helped to develop and execute global strategies to reduce operating expenses in various facilities worldwide.

Ballentine was vice president for investor analysis and chief operating officer at David Gardiner & Associates before she joined Walmart.

She also chaired the World Economic Forum’s global growth action alliance’s renewable energy working group; the Sustainability Consortium’s external relations committee; NetImpact Corporate Advisory Council and the George Washington University’s institute for sustainability research, education and policy advisory board.

Ballentine holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in business administration from George Washington University.

Dr. Michaela Iorga is the senior security technical lead for cloud computing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s computer security division.

She also serves as co-chair of the agency’s Cloud Computing Forensic Science Working Group and Cloud Computing Security Working Group.

Dr. Iorga works with government, academic and industrial organizations to develop cybersecurity guidelines and standards as well as to promote innovation and competition.

She has also held consulting roles in both public and private sectors and holds experience in information security and assurance, risk assessment, cloud and mobile ad hoc networks, identity and credential management, security architecture development and cyberspace privacy protection.

Her current research work focuses on cloud computing security, privacy and forensic issues.

Marcel Lettre serves as the principal deputy undersecretary for intelligence at the Defense Department, where he advises the defense secretary and Undersecretary Michael Vickers on intelligence affairs.

Lettre is also the program executive for the military intelligence program and represents the DoD on intelligence and sensitive operations to the CIA, other intelligence community components and the National Security Council.

He also holds the function as director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

He served as a special assistant to former Defense Secretaries Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta and Bob Gates from 2011 to 2013, after his role as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs between 2009 and 2011.

Lettre was previously the senior defense and intelligence adviser and then as senior national security adviser to the U.S. Senate majority leader, with responsibility in shaping national security legislation and intelligence policy initiatives, supporting passage of annual defense and intelligence authorization bills and handling confirmation of senior defense and intelligence officials.

He also served as a professional staff member on the U.S. House of Representatives permanent select committee on intelligence from 2002 and 2005.

Lettre was previously an analyst for a global management consulting firm and held research roles at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Nuclear Nonproliferation Project, the Harvard-Stanford Preventive Defense Project chaired by William Perry and Ashton Carter.

He also served as analyst for a congressional commission that examines the organization and efficacy of the U.S. government regarding intelligence and programs to counter weapons of mass destruction.

Lettre holds a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

Janet Vogel serves as director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ office of technology solutions, where she oversees the enterprise information technology services and software infrastructure.

Vogel also manages the enterprise technology programs for Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health program, insurance exchange programs and eHealth.

She joined CMS in 2002 as the development, implementation and management lead for the healthcare integrated general ledger accounting system, CMS’ financial transactions management program.

Vogel held IT and computer-related roles at the U.S. Treasury, Federal Aviation Administration and the Agency for International Development prior to joining CMS.

She holds a B.S. in Business Administration, and an M.A. in Political Science from Colorado State University, with additional Information Technology course work at Cornell University and the American University

John Burnham is the deputy assistant secretary for threat reduction and arms control at the Defense Department, where he also serves as principal adviser to the assistant secretary for acquisition oversight, implementation and compliance.

Burnham most recently served as commander of the Joint Interagency Task Force in the national capital region.

He also recently retired from the U.S. Navy as a captain after 28 years of service.

Burnham began his career with the Navy as a surface warfare officer onboard the USS Marvin Shields in San Diego and later moved into naval special warfare with his first assignment to Seal team TWO in 1992.

He was a platoon and task unit commander, a squadron commander at naval special warfare development group, an advance force operations element commander and a task force commander at the Navy Seal, among other roles within the service.

Burnham earned his master’s degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary.