​Ying Chan
Chairman of the Board

As a C-Level executive in the public and private sectors Ying offers invaluable insights and knowledge to the CFT membership for Strategy development, relationship alignment and policy development.  Ying served as Chief of IT Operations (CITO) and Deputy Director for IT at the City of Austin. Ying also served as the CITO at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) as well as the CIO for the Texas Department of Assistive Rehabilitative Services (DARS) and the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS).  Prior to Public Service Ying enjoyed a highly successful career in the private sector as an IT executive at Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor, Maxim Integrated and Fairchild Semiconductor.
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Deborah Giles
Founder & Executive Director

Deborah Giles is responsible for aligning key governmental relationships and shaping policy on behalf of the members of CFT. Deborah brings to CFT more than 20 years of first-hand experience working with government entities. She has a long record of accomplishments in both the public and private sectors and has built an extensive network of working relationships.
A government relations consultant for many years, Deborah has successfully consulted for many Fortune 500 corporations. She also worked in the U.S. Congress for the Committee on Banking and Financial Services. She served as a Chief of Staff for several members in the Texas Legislature, as well as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Inspector General for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

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Executive Advisors

Tanya Acevedo

Tanya Acevedo serves as Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Capital Metro in Austin, TX.
Before joining CapMetro, Acevedo held various leadership positions in public-sector technology, including as VP and CIO of Miami Dade College, CTO for Houston Airport System, CIO for Travis County, Texas, and IT program manager for Orange County, Calif.

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Rosa Akhtarkhavari

Rosa Akhtarkhavari has worked for the City of Orlando for over 25 years, and currently serves as the Chief Information Officer.

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Amanda Crawford

Amanda Crawford is the Executive Director of Department of Information Resources (DIR) and serves as the CIO for the State of Texas. She is responsible for the overall leadership, direction, and daily operations of DIR including protecting the state's data and critical technology infrastructure, managing a multi-billion dollar cooperative contracts program, and providing strategic technology leadership, solutions, and innovation to all levels of Texas government.​
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LeeBrian Gaskins

LeeBrian E. Gaskins is the University of Houston-Clear Lake VP of Information Technology. Dr. Gaskins leads and manages all aspects of campus technology including the development and implementation of new technologies. He served in a similar capacity as associate VP for IT/CIO at Texas A&M International University (TAMU) in Laredo for 15 years.

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Dan Kern

Dan Kern is the Chief Security Officer for Monterey County, California, where he has worked for over 15 years. Kern has an extensive background as an Ethical Hacker, Intrusion Analyst and Incident Responder, and specializes in translating technology and communicating business risk at the C-level. 

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Sam Segran

Sam Segran is the CIO and Vice President for IT at Texas Tech University. He has been active in the field for over 30 years.

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Anh Selissen

Anh Selissen serves as chief information officer (CIO) and the director of the Information Technology Division for Texas Transportation Department, overseeing customer relationship management, information security, infrastructure and operations, applications support, data governance, service integration and governance, transportation program support, strategic direction, and the personnel and vendor activities of the Information Technology Division.​

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Pat Snow

Pat Snow was appointed Interim CIO for the State of South Dakota in March 2018. As the CIO, he also serves as Commissioner for the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT). 

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Jim Weaver

Jim is the Secretary and State CIO for North Carolina.  He is the former Director and State CIO for Washington Technology Solutions. He has over 32 years of experience in the IT industry, most notably as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Chief Technology Officer.

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