Speakers

Dr. Judd Choate is the state elections director for Colorado. Prior to joining the Colorado Department of State, Judd practiced election law at the Denver firm of Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass. He also served as a law clerk for Colorado Supreme Court Justice Alex J. Martinez and as a summer clerk for Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

For several years prior to law school, Judd was a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska, where he taught courses on campaigns and elections. Judd is the author of a book and several peer-reviewed articles on political behavior. He is in line to be the 2017 president of the National Association of State Election Directors.

He has a J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School and both a Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from Purdue University. In a previous life, Judd was a scout for the Kansas City Royals.

Geoff Hale leads the Election Security Initiative at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Hale has been a key part of CISA’s election security mission since it began in 2016. Over the past five years, he helped to create the largest national election security exercise—Tabletop The Vote, establish the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, deliver tailored guidance to more than 6,000 election jurisdictions, and dispel election disinformation through the #WaronPineapple and CISA’s #RumorControl. Hale is a graduate of the University of Virginia, earned his master’s degree in systems engineering from George Washington University, and is a Certified Information Security Manager.

Lawrence Norden is the director of the Election Reform Program, where he leads the Brennan Center’s work in a variety of areas, including its effort to bring balance to campaign funding and break down barriers that keep Americans from participating in politics, ensure that U.S. election infrastructure is secure and accessible to every voter, and protect elections from disinformation and foreign interference. His work has been featured in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He has testified before Congress and several state legislatures on numerous occasions. In 2009, Norden served as chair of the Ohio secretary of state's bipartisan Election Summit and Conference, authoring a report to the State of Ohio on improving that state’s election laws. The report was endorsed by the bipartisan Ohio Association of Election Officials and the Columbus Dispatch, which praised the report for “following an independent path.” Also that year, he received the Usability Professional Association's Usability In Civic Life Award for his “pioneering work to improve elections.” Norden is the lead author of the book The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World (Academy Chicago Press, 2006) and with his Brennan Center colleague Ian Vandewalker, a contributor to Defending Democracies: Combatting Foreign Interference in a Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2021). He is a member of the Election Assistance Commission’s Board of Advisors, where he currently serves as vice chair of the Election Security Committee. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and NYU School of Law.

Chris Usserman is a Director of Security Architecture and subject matter expert with Infoblox. Chris brings over 30 years’ experience in the U.S. intelligence community, and applies that experience by helping clients understand and incorporate cyber business intelligence to mature client cyber security programs. Chris’ focus is on the U.S. Government, and extends that public/private partnership to enhance the security posture of multiple sectors and communities of interest. Chris has been invited to speak on the subject of DNS and cyber security at global conferences. Prior to Infoblox, Chris was Senior Director, Applied Intelligence as well as Director, Government Programs at iSIGHT Partners (FireEye) for over three years. Chris was also a Lead Research Scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories and served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force. 

Tim Brown serves as Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President, Security for SolarWinds, overseeing internal IT security, product security, and security strategy. As a former Dell Fellow and CTO, Tim deeply understands the challenges and aspirations of the person responsible for driving digital innovation and change. Tim has over 20 years of experience developing and implementing security technology. Nationally, his trusted advisor status has taken him from meeting with members of Congress and the Senate to the Situation Room in the White House. He is a member of the advisory board for Clemson University and holds 18 issued patents on security-related topics.

Alisha Powell Gillis is the senior editor at Route Fifty where she is responsible for programming live and online events content, moderating panel discussions, soliciting, editing and writing analytical pieces and overseeing the annual Navigator Awards program. Before joining Route Fifty, Alisha was the director for community impact at the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) where she worked to connect urban public libraries to critical issues in state and local government and led event programming. Prior to ULC, Alisha served the nation's governors for nearly a decade at the National Governors Association where she specialized in homeland security, emergency management and cybersecurity issues. Alisha holds a master's degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University.

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