Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, State & Local Government
Dell
Technology and Innovation in Government? If we've learned anything in the past year, it's how important government is in a crisis.
Hear Ann Dunkin who has dedicated the last decade to helping make government better, faster and cheaper through innovative technology. Former Chief Information Office for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the County of Santa Clara, Ann is now the Chief Technology Officer for Dell Technology’s state and local government businesses. In her presentation she will tell stories from her experiences and discus how technologists are working to make government better.
Ann Dunkin is a Chief Technology Officer and Strategist focused on state and local government at Dell. Prior to joining Dell, Ms. Dunkin was the Chief Information Officer for the County of Santa Clara. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara is the 15th largest county in the United States. Prior to joining Santa Clara County, Ms. Dunkin served in the Obama Administration as the Chief Information Officer of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Prior her time in Washington D.C., she was the Chief Technology Officer for the Palo Alto Unified School District. Ms. Dunkin joined the School District after a long career at Hewlett Packard in a variety of leadership roles focused on Engineering, Research & Development, IT, Manufacturing Engineering, Software Quality and Operations.
Ms. Dunkin is a published author and frequent speaker on the topics of technology modernization, digital services and organizational transformation. Throughout her career she has served on a wide range of professional boards and committees. Most recently she served as an editor of the International Journal of Advances in Software. In 2009, she served as the General Chair of the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC). She currently serves on the WSC Board of Directors, the Agile Government Leaders (AGL) Board of Directors and the Georgia Tech President’s Advisory Board.
Ms. Dunkin was named one of ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 Technology Leaders for 2016. She was also a recipient of a FedScoop 50 Federal Leadership Award in 2015, the FedScoop GoldenGov Federal Executive of the Year Award in 2016 and a LocalScoop GoldenGov County Executive of the Year Award in 2019. She was named one of DC’s Top 50 Women in Technology for 2015 and 2016 and to StateScoop's Top 50 Women in Technology list for 2017. In 2018 she was inducted into Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni.
Ms. Dunkin holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, both from The Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a licensed professional engineer in the states of California and Washington.
Rotarians and guests were greeted by the sounds of “Besame Mucho,” and President Fernando Zazueta provided some background on the song, which translates to “Kiss Me A Lot.” It was written in 1940 by Consuelo Velazquez when she was in her early 20s and had never been kissed.
With that, we started the 5,287th meeting with a hearty “happy birthday” to Steve Jewell. Coincidentally, Jewell joined Rotary on Nov. 13, 2019, the same day his son was born.
Next, we had a three-part update on the upcoming Fiesta de Gala Rotaria. Mauricio Cordova provided the main details on the May 5 event at History Park, which is being planned as a “hybrid” drive-thru event (though we’re holding out hope for some outdoor mingling). Helen Lambert dropped some trivia on three Latin dances, the Salsa, the Cha Cha Cha and the Rumba. And Nanci Williams talked about the auction component and that we’ll be hearing from the committee soon about contributing to the auction.
Jennifer Simmons provided information on a new membership recruiting tool that includes plenty of information about the club and would be helpful for anyone looking to share information with potential new members.
Carl Salas gave a short presentation on the Climate Change Survey, though he hopes to share
more information at a future meeting. Interestingly, 62 percent of the 128 respondents drive electric cars or hybrids. We’re also big on solar systems and are maintaining some 1,500 trees. “We’re already probably one of the greenest Rotary Clubs maybe in the world,” Carl said, with a warning that we can’t rest on our laurels.
Thu Do, president of the nonprofit VN Help, shared photos from a clean water project in Vietnam that our club partnered with her organization on.
Gay Crawford presented this month’s “Fine Opportunity” with Ed Correia, who rang the bell to celebrate the 21st anniversary of his company Sagacent Technologies.
-- He believes we should elect our president by popular vote and not through the Electoral College. Since the nation’s founding, he noted, hundreds of constitutional amendments have been offered to remove the Electoral College, but all failed.
-- The historical foundation of the Electoral College was not to balance small states and larger ones but was actually to not create a disadvantage for slave states in the South. “That in and of itself should be reason enough to abolish it,” Fisher said.
-- The winner-take-all method used by almost all states serves to disenfranchise the losing candidate’s voters. A national popular vote would make every vote count.
-- Because amending the Constitution is so difficult, Fisher believes the more likely route to getting around the Electoral College will be the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would have states agree to pledge their Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide, even if that candidate did not win the popular vote in that state.
Fisher agreed to field more questions online after the meeting, and President Fernando signed us off with his traditional, “Hasta la vista, Rotarians!”
Click here to watch this week's broadcast.
Submitted by Sal Pizarro, Rotary Meeting Summaries Committee
Friday, March 12, 2021
9:00am – 12:30pm
Virtual Conference
On Friday, March 12, 2021, the Lucas College of Business will host the 4th Annual Women in Leadership League Conference. This conference brings together top Silicon Valley leaders, alumni, and students from all disciplines. The day is a mix of a panel discussion and breakout group discussions, providing participants with inspirational experiences as well as practical advice and strategies from successful leaders. Hear about career and life journeys and personal perspectives on leadership. There will be many opportunities to ask questions and for informal conversations.
The Day will Include:
- 9:00am – 10:00am: Panel of influential Silicon Valley leaders.
Moderator: Mary Papazian, Ph.D, President, SJSU
Tony Colon, SVP, Customer & Partner Experience Engineering
Lecia Roundtree, Vice President HR & Organizational Development, PremierOne Credit Union
Manjula Talreja, Chief Customer Officer, PagerDuty
- 10:30am and 11:30am: Group Discussions with Industry Mentors from top Silicon Valley companies.
REGISTER HERE
For questions please contact: womeninleadership@sjsu.edu
.jpg)
