James Ryan is the deputy disaster manager at Small Business Administration and was named in 2009 as a top federal IT professional by Federal Computer Week magazine. In his current position, Ryan has helped develop Disaster Electronic Loan Application, an online loan application that allows people affected by a disaster to securely apply for loans. The program streamlines disaster loan applications by collecting data accurately, efficiently and electronically.

Ryan’s career at SBA began in 1991 when he was hired as a loan officer at the SBA’s Niagara Falls disaster area office. He later served as deputy director for field operations for the same office.

Ryan has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Buffalo, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Bonaventure University.

Elizabeth McGrath is the Department of Defense assistant deputy chief management officer and the department’s performance improvement officer. Her responsibilities entail leading efforts to better synchronize, integrate and coordinate DoD business operations, as well as advise the secretary and deputy secretary of defense on issues relating to management and the improvement of business operations.

Prior to her current position, McGrath served as principal deputy under secretary of defense for business transformation, and before that role, she was deputy director for Systems Integration, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).

Before joining DFAS, McGrath held various program-management roles, which culminated in Program Executive Office (PEO) level oversight responsibility.  She also served as the business and acquisition manager on an international program with the United Kingdom and held other financial, acquisition and program-management positions within the U.S. Department of the Navy.

McGrath has a bachelor’s degree in economics from George Mason University and she is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI). She is certified Acquisition Level III in Program Management, Financial Management and Logistics, and a member of the DoD Acquisition Professional Community.

As senator, Tom Carper has been involved in numerous committees, ranging from Senate finance to homeland security. Currently, Carper serves as chairman of seven different committees: the Senate Nuclear Caucus; the Senate Recycling Caucus; the Senate Finance Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety; and the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security.

After graduating from Ohio State University in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Carper spent five years as a naval-flight officer in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and later as a P-3 aircraft mission commander. He continued to serve in the Naval Reserve until retiring from military service in 1991.

In 1976, Carper was elected as Delaware’s state treasurer, and in 1982, he was chosen to represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives. After five terms as a congressman, Carper became the governor of Delaware in 1993 and served two terms as such. During his sophomore term as governor, Carper served as vice chairman, then as chairman of the National Governors’ Association. He also served as member of Amtrak’s board of directors from 1994 to 1998.

Carper became Delaware’s junior senator Jan. 3, 2001. When Sen. Joe Biden stepped down to become vice president in January 2009, Carper became Delaware’s senior senator. Carper was also named deputy whip in 2004, a role he still holds.

Byron Adams is the legal counsel for the Department of the Navy’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. His responsibilities include reviewing and providing legal approval for documents relating to IT acquisitions. Adams has also been involved with developing a proposal to consolidate IT resources in Guam for the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

Bev Godwin is the General Services Administration’s director of new media and citizen engagement. Before landing at GSA in 2001, Godwin was director of online resources and interagency development for new media at the White House. Prior to that, she was deputy director at the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (1993 to 2000) where she was placed in an interagency group that sought to build a state and local government information portal on the Web.

From 1982 to 1993, Godwin was branch chief for the Office of Budget at the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to that employment, Godwin worked as a research associate at a few consulting firms.

Godwin earned her undergraduate degree from Barnard College in 1977 and a postgraduate degree from University of Michigan in 1982.

Since 1987, Andy Schoenbach has served as chief of the Budget Systems Branch at the Office of Management and Budget. He is responsible for OMB’s MAX central budget systems that support the formulation and publication of the president’s budget, as well as for data collection, tracking and decision-support activities.

In addition, Schoenbach is the policy lead for the Budget Formulation and Execution E-Gov Line of Business initiative that is enhancing the effectiveness of federal budgeting under the programs of the Budget Officers Advisory Council.

Previously, Schoenbach held senior-management positions with the New York State Department of Health in support of state-wide public health information, provider regulation, healthcare-financing regulation, and service delivery (by Debra ). He also served as senior budget analyst for the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Schoenbach holds a bachelor’s degree with concentrations in physics, mathematics, and economics from the New York University College of Arts and Sciences, and a master’s degree in policy sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Appointed by President Barack Obama, Karen G. Mills is the 23rd administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Her responsibilities include helping small-business owners and entrepreneurs secure financing, technical assistance, training and federal contracts.

Mills has been an active hands-on investor and successful manager of small businesses since 1983. She has also been an advocate for small-business policy that encourages innovation, economic development and job creation.

Before her position at SBA, Mills was president of MMP Group, where she invested in and took a leading role in companies involved in the consumer products, food, distribution, textile and industrial components sectors. Prior to MMP Group, she was co-founder and managing director of Solera Capital.

Mills spent most of her career working with small manufacturing firms, including producers of hardwood flooring, refrigerator motors and plastic injection molding. Her background also includes consulting domestically as well as internationally for the management-consulting firm McKinsey and Co. and product management for General Foods.

In 2007, Maine Gov. John Baldacci appointed Mills as chair of the state’s Council on Competitiveness and the Economy. In addition, Mills served on the Governor’s Council for the Redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Mills also wrote a Brookings Institution paper on the federal role in regional economic development clusters–geographic concentrations of interconnected businesses that share knowledge and resources to spur innovation, economic growth and higher wage employment.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been vice chairman of the Harvard Overseers. Mills earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from Harvard Business School.

Paul Christy serves as chief technology officer for the U.S. Small Business Administration, a position in which he manages the infrastructure and technology operations for SBA’s 200+ U.S. locations. Christy leads SBA’s initiatives in data-center consolidation and service-oriented architecture, as well as collaborative computing.

Before his current position, Christy was deputy chief information officer at Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration.

Ferriero is the 10th Archivest of the United States, where he oversees the National Archives and Records Administration, a position he has held since November 2009.  Prior to his current role, Ferriero had worked with the New York Public Libraries (NYPL) since 2004.   During his time as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the NYPL, he developed and streamlined a service integrating 87 libraries and four research libraries.  Following a stint in the Navy during the Vietnam War, Ferriero worked at the humanities library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 31 years, before moving on to a senior position at Duke University.  While at Duke, he oversaw the exapansion and renovation of the university’s library.  Ferriero holds English literature degrees from Northeastern University and a master’s degree the Simmons College of Library and Information Science in Boston.

Fort is project lead for the Office of Management and Budgets MAX federal program, where she uses collaboration and IT to bolster the ability of 17,000 government employees to safely exchange information.  In the past, she worked for the National Science Foundation’s budget office, compiling analyses summarizing NSF’s performance and budget and financial data for NSF senior management, the National Science Board, and other advisory committees.