Speakers

Niki Maslin comes from a long career in the Navy, leaving as a Lieutenant Commander, where she was able to hone her technical and leadership skills as both an operator and technologist. She also spent time in the private sector as a senior developer, AI, and cyber security expert, before coming back to the public sector. She was at FEMA leading teams in developing policy, data, systems, AI, and research and development before coming to the EPA. In addition to her office director duties, she serves as the Chief AI Officer and Chief Technology Officer for the Agency.

Zach Whitman is the Chief Data Scientist and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) at the General Services Administration (GSA), where he supports the Data Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) team, and leads cloud migration, data architecture modernization, change management, data and analytics, data management, technology procurement, and strategy formation modernization efforts at external federal agencies.

As GSA’s inaugural Chief AI Officer, Zach is responsible for maintaining awareness of GSA’s artificial intelligence activities, establishing processes to measure and evaluate AI performance, establish and chair AI oversight governing bodies, lead the development of GSA’s AI inventory and other reporting, among many other responsibilities. He played a pivotal role in standing up GSA’s AI Directive.

Zach has over a decade of experience in research and data analysis and has released several research publications. Before joining GSA, Zach served as the Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Census Bureau for over seven years. During his tenure, he worked to make data as accessible as possible and to build trust in data analytics across the US.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology from Colgate University and a Doctorate in Hazard and Disaster Management from the University of Canterbury.