MeriTalking

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to gather spending information faster so leaders can compare investments across divisions and identify shared needs. In this episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Nicole Burdette speaks with HHS Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources Gus Chiarello and Aurigo Software Technologies CTO Kevin Koenig about planning and funding long-term capital infrastructure projects. They explore how agencies can connect financial and project data, coordinate funding sources, improve forecasts, and adjust investment plans as priorities change.

In this podcast, John Sapp, Chainguard’s field chief information security officer, will explore what the changing open source security landscape means for teams designing and delivering federal systems. The discussion will examine how AI is affecting software risk, why open source security is a now a required architectural consideration, and how integrators can balance security, developer productivity, compliance, and mission speed as they make decisions for the next generation of federal programs.

What would it take to cut the wait for a business license in half? In this episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Caroline Boyd speaks with Clark County CIO Bob Leek, Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams, Dell Technologies mission executive Matt Fraser, and NVIDIA senior business manager for state and local government Michael Sherwood about connecting AI investments to better public services. They explore how communities can share data responsibly, address energy and infrastructure demands, and prepare employees to use AI, while giving residents a voice in the process.

In this episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Gail Emery sits down with Katherine Hennessey of Everpure to examine how agencies can strengthen cyber resilience as data continues to expand across legacy infrastructure, cloud platforms, hybrid environments, and edge locations. They discuss how better data management can help agencies reduce operational risk, recover faster, keep critical services running during disruption, and support future priorities, including AI.

As AI becomes part of federal workflows, applications, and mission systems, agencies need a security operating model that can adjust as quickly as the technology and its uses evolve. Models change, data connections expand, and agents may perform thousands of actions in the time it takes a person to complete one. Agencies therefore need to complement formal authorization with continuous evidence and live enforcement. In this podcast, Anish Patel, head of federal at Cloudflare, will discuss how agencies can progress from point-in-time approvals toward continuous, risk-informed AI security. The discussion will explore how agencies can adjust oversight as AI systems, permissions, and risks change, and how security, technology, data, and mission teams can support the new security operating model together. Patel will also discuss how consistent visibility and policy enforcement can help agencies accelerate appropriate uses of AI while strengthening accountability and resilience.

Federal agencies are working to turn growing volumes of data into trusted insights that can inform decisions and advance mission outcomes. In this episode of MeriTalking, Gail Emery sits down with Patrick McGarry, federal chief data officer at ServiceNow, and Paula Osborn, deputy chief data and AI officer at the U.S. Department of State, to discuss how agencies can connect data strategy to execution. They explore how agencies can build trusted data foundations, embed governance into workflows, address organizational barriers, and put data where it can better inform mission decisions.

The next phase of zero trust modernization requires agencies to think beyond a single network, environment, or use case. Enterprise users, cloud applications, tactical operations, IoT devices, OT systems, and physical security infrastructure are all part of the mission fabric, and all require secure, resilient connectivity. In this episode of MeriTalking, Gail Emery sits down with Rodney Butcher, account manager at ThunderCat Technology, and John McDonald, vice president for federal sales at Versa Networks, to explore how agencies can extend zero trust and modern network security across enterprise, tactical, and operational environments.

In this episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Gail Emery sits down with Antonella O’Brien, Consultant, CSG Federal Systems Integrators and Channel, Dell Technologies, to discuss what it really takes to enable AI at the desktop in federal environments where agencies are working to boost productivity, speed decisions, and turn AI pilots into repeatable mission outcomes. The conversation explores the workforce use cases that are best suited for on-device AI, how agencies can build trust through security and governance, and what a practical path from pilot to scale can look like.

The biggest threat to state and local governments isn’t one budget gap, it’s compounding uncertainty: shifting funding rules, rising compliance demands, and disruptions that trigger spending now and reimbursement later. In this episode of MeriTalking, Gail Emery sits down with Melissa Moore, chief financial officer of Buncombe County, North Carolina, and James Harris, senior manager at Workday, to unpack what fiscal resilience looks like in practice.

MeriTalk’s Gail Emery speaks with Suril Desai, vice president of engineering at Acalvio, and Ralph Kahn, general manager for federal at Acalvio, about how cyber deception helps agencies detect adversaries earlier. They discuss how deception produces high-fidelity alerts, reduces security operations center alert fatigue, and strengthens zero trust by improving visibility into attacker activity.