2025 Leadership Summit Keynote Speakers

Day 1 Opening Keynote

9:30 am - 10:15 am

Speaker: Sue Gordon

The Honorable Susan M. “Sue” Gordon is a renowned leader in national security, intelligence, and technology, with a career spanning over three decades at the highest levels of government. As the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (2017–2019), she advised the President on intelligence matters and provided operational leadership of the agencies and organizations of the Intelligence Community (IC). Today, as President of GordonVentures, LLC, she advises global leaders and organizations on risk, strategy, and innovation, with a focus on national security, space, cyber, AI, and quantum technologies.

Ms. Gordon serves as an independent director on the boards of CACI International, BlackSky, SecurityScorecard, and BCore; is Vice Chairman of the MITRE Corporation; and advises several leading technology companies. She is a university fellow, the President of the Pallas Foundation, an advisor to the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and contributes to national security as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Gordon joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1980 and served for 29 years, rising to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support. Her career was defined by transformative leadership and groundbreaking initiatives, including the creation of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. She drove intelligence integration across the IC and as Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (2015–2017), where she modernized operations, championed agile decision-making, and expanded geospatial intelligence into the commercial domain. Her numerous awards for creative executive leadership include the Distinguished Intelligence and Distinguished Career Intelligence medals, Presidential Rank awards, and the Oliver Baker, Lundahl-Finnie, and William Webster leadership awards. Ms. Gordon is celebrated for mentoring future leaders and advancing public-private partnerships to meet global challenges.

A Duke University graduate and three-time captain of the Women’s Basketball team, Ms. Gordon embodies resilience and leadership. She cherishes the memory of her late husband Jim Gordon, also a Duke graduate, is a devoted mother to two grown children, and a loving grandmother to four grandchildren.

Moderator: Tom Temin

Tom Temin has 46 years of journalism experience.

For the past three decades, he has worked in the federal government market. For the past 16 years Tom has hosted the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, weekday mornings on Federal News Network 1500 AM. The show covers federal information technology, management, oversight, legislation and professional concerns of the federal workforce. Guests regularly include federal executives, members of Congress, think tank experts and attorneys specializing in federal acquisition, cybersecurity and federal labor issues. Podcasts of Federal Drive broadcast interviews garner some 50,000 downloads per month.

Tom also writes a weekly column for Federal News Network covering a range of IT and management topics.

Each year, Tom organizes and stages a Motorcycle Ride for Charity under FNN’s auspices. It makes contributions to the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), Friends of Patients at the NIH, and the U.S. War Dogs Association.

Earlier, Tom was the editor-in-chief of Government Computer News for 15 years, then the most-read and highest revenue business-to-business publication in the market. It won several Jesse H Neal awards from the American Business Media (ABM) editorial program.

After the Washington Post Company acquired GCN, Tom became executive vice president, editorial, at the newly formed PostNewsweek Tech Media Group. There he oversaw the content of GCN, Washington Technology – also a Jesse H Neal award winner – and several other properties.

Throughout his career, Tom has been a speaker and moderator at events staged by groups such as AFCEA, the Association for Federal IRM (AFFIRM) and ACTIAC. He also has made regular, paid appearances for sales and executive groups of federal contractors.

Before coming to the Washington, D.C., area, Tom spent 17 years with Cahners Publishing Company, editing magazines in the industrial supply, electronics and systems integration industries. He also worked in weekly and daily newspapers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Tom has a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He completed the Stanford Professional Publishing Program. As an employee of Federal News Network, he’s also a member of the SAG-AFTRA union.

In his private life, Tom is devoted to his wife of 40 years, two grown children and four grandchildren; playing the piano; and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Day 2 Opening Keynote

9:15 am - 10:00 am

Speaker: Soraya Correa

In March 2024, National Industries for the Blind appointed Soraya Correa as its new president and chief executive officer. She leads the efforts of the dedicated professionals within NIB and across nearly 100 nonprofit agencies to create employment opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Ms. Correa’s professional experience includes more than 40 years of federal government service as a career contracting and acquisitions professional and information technology specialist. She held key leadership roles at several agencies, including the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As a founding member of DHS, she ascended to the ranks of Senior Executive Service, created two heads of contracting activity organizations, and managed major operational and information technology programs.

In January 2011, Ms. Correa was appointed as the DHS chief procurement officer and senior procurement executive. In this role, she successfully transformed the acquisition community into an innovative, mission-driven, and customer-focused organization driving collaboration with industry, academia, and other federal agencies to improve mission outcomes. Ms. Correa is best known for the creation of various initiatives, including the Procurement Innovation Lab, Reverse Industry Days, and Strategic Industry Conversations with techniques to enhance creativity and learning and foster teamwork and cooperation. Today, several agencies have implemented similar initiatives.

After retiring from federal service in July 2021, Ms. Correa became an independent consultant providing strategic advice and support to industry associations and companies supporting the federal government. In 2023, the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) appointed Ms. Correa as the executive director of the Contract Management Institute (CMI). She established the CMI as the research arm of the NCMA to advance the contract management profession and related acquisition communities through research to elevate engagement, standards, and professional development.

Ms. Correa is the recipient of a number of distinguished awards and recognitions from the federal government, private industry, and industry associations. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a Procurement Round Table director, and she serves as an Advisory Board member of several organizations, including the NCMA and the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC).

Moderator: Valerie Smith Boyd

Valerie Smith Boyd leads the Partnership’s efforts to support successful transition planning by presidential candidates and their teams. She has had a long public service career, having served in the past three administrations in both career and political roles. Valerie was part of the small team that stood up Department of Homeland Security headquarters in 2002. She supported President Bush’s transfer of homeland security knowledge during the 2008 transition and assisted President Obama’s team with their 2009 integration of the Homeland Security Council and National Security Council staffs. During her time at the NSC, she organized the interagency policy process and managed briefing and decision materials for the President and the Cabinet. Most recently, Valerie returned to DHS, where she oversaw policy development for homeland security partnerships around the world. Between public service, she has worked in corporate social responsibility. She has degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Valerie has worked with too many outstanding public servants to choose a favorite and believes that leaders from across government must work together to solve problems in service to the American people.

Day 3 Opening Keynote

9:00 am - 9:45 am

Speaker: Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s a highly acclaimed writer, known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas—from science to literature to stories from her own life—with levity and clarity.

She has an affinity for new tools and platforms, and she has cultivated a vast, passionate audience who actively engages with her and her work across many channels. With millions of copies of her New York Times bestselling books sold, more than 220 million downloads of her Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, an enthusiastic following on her newsletters and social media, helpful and beautifully designed products, and the award-winning Happier app, she engages her audience wherever they want to be. She is an experienced and sought-after speaker and makes regular appearances across the media landscape.

As the founder of The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin has helped create an ecosystem of imaginative products and tools to help people become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” she explains, “so there’s no ‘right’ way or ‘best’ way. We have to choose the way that work for us.”

She’s been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work reported on in a medical journal, been written up in the New Yorker, and been an answer on Jeopardy!

After starting her career in law, she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.

Moderator: Christine Porath

Christine Porath is a professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on how to help people and communities thrive.

Her speaking and consulting clients include Google, United Nations, Microsoft, World Bank, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, National Institute of Health, Cleveland Clinic, Southwest, MD Anderson, Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, and Department of Justice.

Christine is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. She has taught in various Executive programs at Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California (USC). Porath is author of Mastering Community, and Mastering Civility and co-author of The Cost of Bad Behavior.

Before getting her Ph.D., she worked for International Management Group (IMG), a leading sports management and marketing firm. Porath received her Ph.D. from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics from College of the Holy Cross where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the women’s basketball and soccer teams.

Day 3 Closing Keynote

2:00 pm - 2:45 pm

Speaker: Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink is the author of several bestselling nonfiction books on a range of topics – from human motivation to the science of timing to a graphic novel career guide. His books include the New York Times bestsellers The Power of Regret, A Whole New Mind, and When -- as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His deeply researched works have been translated into 46 languages and have sold more than five million copies around the world. Before venturing out on his own, he worked in government and politics — including serving from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He received a B.A. from Northwestern and J.D. from Yale Law School.

Moderator: Lauren Anstey

Lauren leads the Public Service Leadership Institute, collaborates across teams to ensure public service leadership is a guiding model throughout the organization’s work, and serves on the Management Team. Through her experience at Goldman Sachs and Skadden Arps and her studies at Williams College and Harvard Law School, Lauren brings a broad range of experience across fields. Her passion for bridging strategy and implementation – and belief that good leadership is at the center of creating positive change – has been the thread throughout her career. Lauren has a deep appreciation for leadership education and training, having taught a course on leadership at Williams College. Her favorite public servant is Abraham Lincoln, whose profound words and actions continue to inspire her to serve and strengthen our democracy.