Overview

October 28

Is your government agency grappling with overwhelming customer inquiries, high call volumes, limited resources, and rising fraud? The solution might be easier than you think! Learn how the right digital tool can be the catalyst to streamline your agency's operations, prevent fraud, and restore public trust. Discover how the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) slashed call volume, saved over 9,300 staff hours, and delivered seamless 24/7 digital access—proving that smart digital solutions can transform government efficiency. Join us for this can’t miss webinar hosted by Government Technology and ID.me on October 28, 2024, at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Speeding Up Service Delivery: Learn how to streamline services, eliminate wait times and improve customer satisfaction.
Fighting Fraud: See how secure identity verification can block fraudsters and boost public confidence.
Cross-Functional Solutions: Discover how digital innovation can unlock staff efficiency, reduce burnout, and maximize your limited resources.

Speakers

Demetrios “Mitch” Melis

Commissioner, Virginia Employment Commission (VEC)

Applying agility and innovation to government, Mitch is a dynamic public sector executive leader with a strong record of driving transformations at private sector speed resulting in significant operational and customer experience improvements. His understanding of the necessity for the public sector to merge IT and business strategy has resulted in dramatic organizational advancements in digital transformations by leveraging proven change and project management approaches. Mitch was appointed as Commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) on October 1, 2023, by Governor Glenn Youngkin to further advance the Governor's initiative for a responsive, efficient and customer-focused unemployment insurance system. Since being named Commissioner, the VEC has increased online initial claims filing by 114%, reduced contact center call volumes by 54%, and improved nationwide U.S. Department of Labor state rankings from 53rd to 20th for first pay and 53rd to 15th in nonmonetary determination. Before being tapped to lead the VEC, Melis served as the Director of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) where he had previously worked in various roles for over 12 years. During his nearly two-year tenure there he led the transformation of occupational licensing in Virginia spearheading the Governor’s Universal License Recognition legislation allowing for licensed out-of-state workers to more quickly get to work in their field without repeating training or examinations. Additionally, under his leadership DPOR began the effort to fully digitize the license application process navigating the VITA RFP process in half the typical 18-month time, reduced the time to issue a license by 88%, eliminated the backlog of hearings, and overhauled the agency’s hiring process reducing the time to hire by nearly 70% percent. Prior to his appointment as Director of DPOR, he served as the Director of Regulatory Compliance for the Virginia State Bar, an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia. He is Vice-Chair of the Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics Executive Data Board and serves as the Labor Secretariat representative on VITA’s Information Technology Advisory Council. Melis holds a Master of Public Administration, a post-baccalaureate certificate in Criminal Justice, and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University. Additionally, he holds a graduate certificate in IT Administration and Management from Drexel University and is certified in Agile Leadership for Organizations through the Scrum Alliance.

Jeremy Haynes

Sales Director, ID.me

Jeremy Haynes is a Sales Director on ID.me’s Public Sector SLED team. He has been with ID.me for 5 years and successfully implemented federated identity deployments at over 25 State and Federal Government Agencies. Prior to joining ID.me in 2019, Jeremy served as a digital identity subject matter expert helping clients navigate the identity policy landscape. In his career, Jeremy has supported the development and made contributions to a number of flagship digital identity publications including NIST SP 800-63-3 Digital Identity Guidelines - Implementation Guidance and international standards (ISO / IEC) for identity proofing and authentication. He holds a B.S. in Business Information Technology from Virginia Tech and an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security Fundamentals certification.

Barry Condrey — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Barry has worked in the IT field for over 37 years holding a wide range of technology leadership positions in the public and private sectors and was most recently the CIO for Chesterfield County, Virginia where he pursues initiatives based on digital transformation, open government, and citizen centricity. Under his leadership Chesterfield County Va was four times recognized as the #1 digital county in the USA. Barry holds a masters degree in public leadership with a minor in economics from Virginia State University and a bachelors degree in computer science from DeVry University. He has been adjunct faculty for Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently adjunct faculty for the Public Technology Institute in the certified government CIO program. Barry has been an active NACo contributor, a gubernatorial appointee to the Virginia elections security standards workgroup and a two-time president of the Virginia Local Government IT Executives (VALGITE) organization. He is a certified government CIO (CGCIO), a certified information security manager (CISM) and a national top 25 Doer, Dreamer & Driver. He likes to teach, research technology, write code and blog about technology leadership from his home in Moseley, Virginia.

Webinar

Streamlining Services and Safeguarding Trust: How the Right Digital Tool Can Drive Government Success