Speakers

Anna L. Ehrhardt is a recognized cybersecurity leader with nearly 20 years of experience minimizing risk postures for numerous government customers, including the Defense Health Agency (DHA) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others. She focuses on finding ways to work with system owners to meet all compliance requirements while ensuring minimal impact on daily operations.

Her accomplishments include successfully planning and development initiatives to install key performance and risk indicators to ensure compliance and benchmarks across programs to a threshold rate <1%.  Additionally, she served as Project Manager in charge of a $40 million interim security cooperation management and information system contractor team, where she managed a high-side system roll-out around the world.

Anna is an acknowledged leader within the Leidos Cyber Accelerator.  With a focus on full-spectrum cyber operations and cybersecurity, the Accelerator’s goals are to enhance technically differentiated enterprise solutions to customers at speed and scale. Established in 2021, recent focus areas included digital modernization, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), and software.

Anna earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance and Real Estate, from the College of Charleston.  She later pursued mobile application development at the Iron Yard accelerator program, along with continually seeking emerging technology certifications, to include Blockchain, after becoming a Certified Blockchain Expert in 2017.

Steve Kapinos is ManTech’s Vice President and Cognitive Cyber Technology Focus Area Lead  responsible for new innovations and capabilities that turn cybersecurity-relevant data into  insights that support mission operators. 

Mr. Kapinos’ more than 10-year tenure at ManTech spans working with customers in support  of cyber missions as well as overseeing people and budgets. While contributing to capability  development for customer missions, he has led efforts that protect ManTech customers’  information and systems.  

Mr. Kapinos has managed a team of researchers, developers and engineers in the pursuit of  novel cyber capabilities to overcome significant customer challenges. Additionally, he advises  ManTech’s executive leadership team on cyber policy issues. 

Prior to joining ManTech, Mr. Kapinos delivered information security services, both internally and  externally as a consultant, to communications, financial and energy sector clients.  

He holds both a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Project  Management Professional (PMP) certification. 

Mr. Kapinos earned an MBA from the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of  William and Mary. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice - Economic Crime  Investigation from Utica College of Syracuse University.  

Bio will be posted shortly.

Tim Meyers is the Vice President of Federal Cybersecurity at Maximus, a leading provider of government services worldwide headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, and responsible for managing the company’s cybersecurity practice across its federal clients. Tim has spent the last 15+ years in technical management and cybersecurity working under various roles: Infantryman - US Army to Cybersecurity Leadership at IBM and Accenture Federal. He was the 5th individual in the state of Oklahoma to become certified as a forensic examiner with EnCase-Guidance as well as helped train the 8th individual in the state of Oklahoma to become certified with Encase. Tim has been inducted into Google’s Hall of Fame for discovering several critical vulnerabilities relating to Google products and services. His hobbies are all things cybersecurity and spending time with his family. Born in Shawnee, OK, Tim attended Oklahoma State University where he received his bachelor’s degree (double major) in IT Enterprise Management and Information Assurance and Forensics.

Tim Schaad is the Vice President of Innovation Engineering in ManTech’s Innovation  and Capabilities Office. He leads the development of ManTech’s strategic innovation  initiatives and the ACRE® cyber range environment. He brings a broad technical  and business background to his role, including instructional systems design, security  engineering, cyber engineering, systems integration and implementation, cross domain  solutions, and web development. Mr. Schaad was one of the first ManTech employees to  earn the company’s prestigious Technical Elite status. 

Mr. Schaad has more than 20 years of technical and leadership experience, which has led  to numerous business successes for the company. These include the design of ManTech’s  original Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, and design of the U.S.  Marine Corps Cyber Range (MCCR) and the Cyber Training and Evaluation Platform (CTEP)  within the DoD Cyber Security Range (CSR), which conducts nearly 200 cyber testing,  training and exercise events each year. In 2017, he launched the company’s flagship  ACRE® cyber range to deliver military-grade cyber range capabilities to federal civilian  and commercial markets. He has spoken at commercial, government and military cyber  conferences on best practices and current trends in cybersecurity and cyber training. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Schaad served as a Security Engineer for eXMeritus Software Federal  Systems and as a Senior Analyst for Gannett Newspapers. 

1105 Media honored Mr. Schaad with a 2018 Government Industry Innovator award for his  work with ManTech’s Cyber Range. In his spare time, he volunteers with the Chantilly Youth  Association’s Recreational Soccer League. 

He holds an MBA from Ashford University and a Bachelor of Arts in English language and  literature from The College of William and Mary. 

Bio will be posted shortly

Brian Mazanec is a Director in GAO’s Defense Capabilities and Management team. He oversees work on intelligence community management and operations, personnel vetting/security clearances, artificial intelligence, space policy and operations, and other strategic and emerging warfare issues.

Brian joined GAO in July 2009. Prior to his current position, Brian worked as an Acting Director in GAO’s International Affairs and Trade team. He led work on intelligence and counterintelligence, counterterrorism, building foreign partner capacity, cybersecurity, and foreign military financing and sales.

Brian earned a doctorate degree in international security from George Mason University. Brian earned a master’s degree in defense and strategic studies from Missouri State University. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Richmond.

Bio will be posted shortly

Jason Blessing is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on cybersecurity, military cyber forces, military technological transformation and force structure, US cyber defense policy including civilian-military dynamics in cyberspace, and cyber defense agreements. He also studies NATO, and broader strategic challenges to transatlantic relations.

Previously, Dr. Blessing was a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) postdoctoral fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, a consulting fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a US Institute of Peace–Minerva Peace and Security Scholar. He has also worked as a graduate teaching assistant at Syracuse University and a research assistant at the University’s Qualitative Data Repository. Outside academia, Dr. Blessing worked in the financial sector as a fraud operations analyst and financial services representative.

Dr. Blessing is the author of “The Global Spread of Cyber Forces, 2000-2018” (NATO CCDCOE Publications, 2021) and “The Diffusion of Cyber Forces: Military Innovation and the Dynamic Implementation of Cyber Force Structures” (Syracuse University, 2020).

Dr. Blessing has a PhD in political science (international relations and public policy) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, an MA in political science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a BA in government from the College of William & Mary.

Lauren C. Williams is senior editor for Defense One. She previously covered defense technology and cybersecurity for FCW and Defense Systems. Before then, Williams has reported on several issues, including internet culture, national security, health care, politics and crime for various publications. She has a master's in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park and a bachelor's in dietetics from the University of Delaware.

Aaron Boyd is an award-winning journalist currently serving as senior editor for technology and events at Nextgov. He primarily covers federal government IT contracting and cybersecurity issues affecting both civilian and defense agencies. As a lifelong nerd and policy wonk, he feels right at home covering the intersection of technology and policy in the nation's capital.