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Deborah Giles
Founder & CEO

Deborah Giles is responsible for aligning key governmental relationships and shaping policy on behalf of the members of CFT. Deborah brings to CFT more than 20 years of first-hand experience working with government entities. She has a long record of accomplishments in both the public and private sectors and has built an extensive network of working relationships.
A government relations consultant for many years, Deborah has successfully consulted for many Fortune 500 corporations. She also worked in the U.S. Congress for the Committee on Banking and Financial Services. She served as a Chief of Staff for several members in the Texas Legislature, as well as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Inspector General for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

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Executive Advisors

Amanda Crawford

Amanda Crawford is the Executive Director of Department of Information Resources (DIR) and serves as the CIO for the State of Texas. She is responsible for the overall leadership, direction, and daily operations of DIR including protecting the state's data and critical technology infrastructure, managing a multi-billion dollar cooperative contracts program, and providing strategic technology leadership, solutions, and innovation to all levels of Texas government.​
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LeeBrian Gaskins

LeeBrian E. Gaskins is the University of Houston-Clear Lake VP of Information Technology. Dr. Gaskins leads and manages all aspects of campus technology including the development and implementation of new technologies. He served in a similar capacity as associate VP for IT/CIO at Texas A&M International University (TAMU) in Laredo for 15 years.

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Tanya Acevedo

Tanya Acevedo serves as Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Capital Metro in Austin, TX.
Before joining CapMetro, Acevedo held various leadership positions in public-sector technology, including as VP and CIO of Miami Dade College, CTO for Houston Airport System, CIO for Travis County, Texas, and IT program manager for Orange County, Calif.
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Anh Selissen

Anh Selissen serves as chief information officer (CIO) and the director of the Information Technology Division for Texas Transportation Department, overseeing customer relationship management, information security, infrastructure and operations, applications support, data governance, service integration and governance, transportation program support, strategic direction, and the personnel and vendor activities of the Information Technology Division.

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​Jim Weaver

 Jim is the Secretary and State CIO for North Carolina.  He is the former Director and State CIO for Washington Technology Solutions. He has over 32 years of experience in the IT industry, most notably as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Chief Technology Officer.

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Dan Kern

Dan Kern is the Chief Security Officer for Monterey County, California, where he has worked for over 15 years. Kern has an extensive background as an Ethical Hacker, Intrusion Analyst and Incident Responder, and specializes in translating technology and communicating business risk at the C-level. 

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Timothy Galluzi

Timothy Galluzi is administrator of the Enterprise Information Technology Services Division (EITS) and State Chief Information Officer. Timothy earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration in IT Management from Western Governors University. Timothy is a proud Marine Corps veteran.

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Shawnzia Thomas

Ms. Thomas has dedicated over 15 years to integrating technology across various sectors of state government to enhance services for Georgians. She currently serves as State CIO and GTA Executive Director. 

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Kerrica Laake

Kerrica Laake is the chief information officer (CIO) for the City of Austin in Texas. Before joining the city as its CIO, Laake served as its deputy CIO from 2021 until 2023.  Laake was previously the IT director at Austin Energy.

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