Next-Gen Government: Powering Digital Public Services with AI, Automation & Experience-First Design

Matthew J. McCarville

CIO, State of Nebraska

Margaret Brisbane

CIO, Miami-Dade County

Eugene Mejia

Chief AI Strategy and Digital Transformation, Gilbert Arizona

Heather Whitlock

Director of Customer Strategy & Success (Regulated Industries)

Heather Whitlock is a director at Adobe, responsible for customer strategy and success within Digital Media across key industries including public sector, financial services, and healthcare. She focuses on empowering customers to unlock value and thrive within their organization by harnessing Adobe's technologies including emerging solutions like Adobe Express, Firefly, and Acrobat AI. Heather specializes in driving value through strategic engagement, working closely with customers to align their vision and business objectives with innovative solutions. Prior to joining Adobe, Heather spent more than two decades as a senior executive in management, technology, and operations consulting leading complex business transformation, human capital, systems integration, and application services programs across global teams. She is a passionate people ambassador with a desire to solve problems, strengthen communities, and help public sector serve the mission.

Brian Chidester

Head of Global Strategy and Innovation, Adobe Public Sector

Brian Chidester is the Head of Global Strategy & Innovation for Public Sector at Adobe and the host of the award-winning podcast “The Government Huddle” from GovExec. Mr. Chidester was a 2025 award recipient for the FORUM IT100 Award which honors individuals for driving innovation and advancement in the Federal government space. He also held global public sector leadership roles with OpenText, Arrow ECS and S&P Global. Mr. Chidester holds a B.S. in Communications Studies from Liberty University, is a Board Member for the University of South Florida – Muma College of Business, an advisor to the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance at the World Economic Forum, and a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

Ashley Fitzsimmons

Senior Practice Lead, Adobe Public Sector

Ashley Fitzsimmons is a Senior Practice Lead for the Adobe Public Sector team, specialized in State & Local Government. Ashley has spent the past nine years focused solely on the digital maturity and transformation of State and Local government agencies. Experienced in the Adobe Digital Experience solutions, moving customers from paper to digital, personalizing citizen journeys, content creation and workflows, Ashley works with agencies across the northeast to align on objectives and goals and set the vision for the future of technology in government.

Sean McSpaden — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Sean McSpaden is an executive level information technology professional with over 30 years of experience in the private, non-profit, and public sectors. His background includes the start-up and management of several small businesses and he has served on the Board of Directors or in Executive Director positions for several 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. Sean’s public service experience includes progressively responsible positions as an IT analyst, and in statewide coordination, management and leadership positions within the Executive and Legislative branches of Oregon state government. From June 2008 to September 2013, served as the state of Oregon’s Deputy State Chief Information Officer.

Zach Patton

Editorial Director of Content Studio, e.Republic

Zach Patton is editorial director of the Content Studio at e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company.