GovCast: Doing More with Less is Muscle Memory for IRS, Former Deputy CIO Says
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
Release Date: 07/22/2025
AI GovCast: GSA’s USAi Platform Accelerates AI Adoption Across Government
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
The General Services Administration launched USAi.gov to provide a secure generative AI evaluation suite that enables federal agencies to experiment with and adopt AI more quickly and at no cost. Designed to support the White House’s AI Action Plan, USAi puts tools like chat-based AI, code generation and document summarization directly into the hands of government users. Zach Whitman, the agency’s chief AI officer and chief data scientist, explained how USAi is helping agencies modernize operations, boost workforce efficiency and strengthen mission delivery. He also discussed how the...
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HealthCast: HHS Data Plan Ushers in New Era of Collaborative Health Innovation
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is transforming how health data is shared and used, emphasizing transparency. Chief Data Officer Kristen Honey is spearheading an “open by default” strategy that moves away from top-down, siloed data management to a more collaborative model. HHS is pushing decision-making to local, state and regional experts on the front lines of public health. Inspired by rapid response strategies used during the COVID-19 pandemic, the updated plan takes a modular, flexible format housed on open platforms like GitHub. This allows external partners to...
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CyberCast: Federal Leaders Explore Geothermal Storage to Boost Data Center Resilience
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
The White House released a new executive order in July — —calling on government to develop AI-ready data centers, streamline federal permitting and encourage private investment in critical infrastructure. Federal agencies are focusing on system resilience to withstand rising environmental and cybersecurity threats as data centers continue to grow. A joint report from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab reveals that electricity usage by data centers tripled over the past decade and could double or triple again by 2028 — potentially consuming up to 12% of...
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GovCast: Inside FedRAMP 20x: GSA’s Pete Waterman Talks Speed, Safety, Automation
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
FedRAMP 20x is redefining how federal cloud services get authorized —making them faster, smarter and more secure. Earlier this year GSA released the 20x pilot in an effort to increase the efficiency of authorizations and enhance security. Pete Waterman, FedRAMP director at the General Services Administration, unpacks how the program is streamlining approvals, enhancing continuous monitoring and leveraging automation to detect and resolve security risks in real time. Waterman explains how FedRAMP 20x is helping agencies and providers build services that make sense from the start, leading to...
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GovCast: VA’s Platform One Offers Sandbox to Software
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
The second Trump administration has spent 2025 accelerating its software modernization initiatives through the creation of agencies like the U.S. DOGE Service and other entities designed to digitize and modernize the American government. Modeling after DOD enterprise software container platforms, the Department of Veterans Affairs stood up its own Platform One application in 2021 to drive software modernization within the agency. Matthew Fuqua, technical lead at VA’s Platform One, told GovCIO Media & Research Platform One is a sandbox environment where software developers can safely...
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CyberCast: Bolstering Cybersecurity Posture is a Team Effort, GAO Says
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
Cybersecurity is a critical component of organizational health no matter the federal agency. Yet, federal leaders across government are struggling to change culture, improve workflows and promote good cyber hygiene to prepare for the threats of tomorrow. The Government Accountability Office’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity division assists Congress with assessing and improving the government’s critical IT investments and develops best practices that are used across the government to guide decision-making. The division’s Director Jennifer Franks breaks down where agencies fall...
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GovCast: NRL Harnesses AI to Track Global Maritime Activity, Identify Threats
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
Monitoring the world’s oceans and waterways is no simple task. 70% of the world is made up of water, and with millions of data points around the globe to sift through, human analysts cannot do the job alone. NRL’s Alan Hope joins us to discuss how the agency is leveraging relationships with federal agencies and services like National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy to track the positions of millions of shipping vessels around the globe. Hope says that the NRL tracks over 400 million unclassified data points around the world daily, and his team is using AI tools to...
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AI GovCast: How NASA’s AI Plan Boosts Government Efficiency
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
NASA Chief Data Officer and Chief AI Officer David Salvagnini joined GovCIO Media & Research live from the Federal IT Efficiency Summit in Tysons, Virginia, to share insights into his dual role leading AI and data initiatives at the agency, including the development of NASA’s AI strategy and how it's being integrated with responsible data governance. He also highlighted exciting AI projects currently underway around space exploration and mission support, discussed how he envisions NASA furthering operational efficiency and shared how he’s balancing risk and transparency with...
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GovCast: Doing More with Less is Muscle Memory for IRS, Former Deputy CIO Says
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
Darnita Trower, former deputy CIO for Operations at the Internal Revenue Service, discusses her tenure at the agency and the resilience the workforce has shown through budget cuts, administration changes and difficult tax seasons. She said the agency is built to weather storms and is on a continuing modernization path. Trower is an accomplished executive and digital transformation leader with over 20 years of public and private sector experience. During her tenure at the IRS, she managed a $290 million Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) digitalization portfolio, the launch of Secure Access Digital...
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GovCast: Inside DOD’s Push to Grow the Cyber Workforce Through Academia
GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
In her first interview since becoming Principal Director of the Defense Department’s Cyber Academic Engagement Office (CAEO), Diba Hadi reflects on her role and vision for the office since stepping into the position in 2024 during the 2025 HammerCON conference in Laurel, Maryland. Hadi shares insights into her day-to-day responsibilities and highlights efforts to strengthen the integration of universities into the Centers of Academic Excellence community. Her goal: to develop cyber talent aligned with the Defense Department’s evolving workforce needs. She explores how improved data...
info_outlineDarnita Trower, former deputy CIO for Operations at the Internal Revenue Service, discusses her tenure at the agency and the resilience the workforce has shown through budget cuts, administration changes and difficult tax seasons. She said the agency is built to weather storms and is on a continuing modernization path.
Trower is an accomplished executive and digital transformation leader with over 20 years of public and private sector experience. During her tenure at the IRS, she managed a $290 million Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) digitalization portfolio, the launch of Secure Access Digital Identity (SADI) and drove legacy modernization.
Now that she’s departed government, she joins GovCIO Media & Research to discuss her experience, the legacy she’s left behind and how she pushed the IRS to modernize itself, while facing budget and staff shortages and solving big problems.