Speaker Bios

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

  John Estill - State Of Michigan (DTMB/MDCR) Digital Information Accessibility Coordinator  
John Estill, the State of Michigan’s Digital Information Accessibility Coordinator (DIAC). The DIAC is responsible for promoting digital accessibility training and awareness across all state departments and agencies, participating in related workgroups, providing guidance to agencies, and supporting ADACs. He is also involved in procurement contracts when required.
He has worked in government for 14 years on the Michigan.gov team. The past 9 years with a high focus on accessibility. He is lucky in that he has two managers, reporting to both DTMB & MDCR.
Married, three kids, two dogs, lives in Lansing, volunteers in Scouting, promotes the arts. Sits on the board of directors for the Lansing Parks Foundation and the Michigan Sportsman Against Hunger. Loves to travel and making new friends.

 

  Robert Homan - State Of Michigan (EGLE) Departmental Analyst
Robert Homan is a Departmental Analyst for EGLE’s (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s) Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division. He is a subject matter expert in Microsoft Power BI and GIS. He has a Masters of Geography with a focus on GISciences from Western Michigan University and obtained a BS in Zoology from Michigan State University. He lives in Okemos, Michigan, with his many cats.

  Scot Ellsworth - Microsoft Senior Account Technology Strategist
Scot Ellsworth is a Sr. Account Technology Strategist on the Michigan Account, supporting State of Michigan and City of Detroit.  Scot has over 35 years in the IT Industry with diverse industry and technology experience.  Scot spent over 8 years with the State of Michigan as the Chief Enterprise Architect directing many R&D activities as well as application, solution, and infrastructure architecture through the Enterprise Architecture Program.  Scot has been with Microsoft for 2 years.  He has prior IT leadership and technologist roles with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Meijer, EDS, General Motors, and ABN-AMRO.

  Shawn Edie - Crystal Mountain Director of Information Technology
Shawn Edie is currently the Director of Information Technology for Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville, Michigan. He is responsible for the day-to-day technology needs of the company and leads a team of five IT professionals. Prior to Crystal Mountain, Shawn worked with a local Managed Service Provider located in Traverse City.  His career also consists of store management experience, as he worked for Walmart for 13 years. He says his philosophy for customer service and employee interaction was instilled in him after having lunch with Sam Walton.  When Shawn isn’t working with technology you can find him spending time in the Garden or spending time with his wife and two labs.

  Valerie Harrison - Pure Storage Principle Technologist
Valerie Harrison works as the Principal Technologist for Pure Storage in Detroit.  She has over 25 years IT experience as a former VP of IT Ops.  Former EMC, Dell, and Google.  Hold certifications with Netware, Cisco, Google, and Pure.  For fun, she is a gamer, and fancies herself as a mediocre ukulele player!

  Christina Kim - Check Point Security Engineer Manager
Christina Kim is the Security Engineering Manager at Check Point Software, where she leads efforts for Central SLED (State, Local, and Education) accounts. With over 15 years in IT channel operations and nearly a decade specializing in cybersecurity, Christina has a wealth of experience in the field. Based in the Chicago area, she is known for her expertise in AI-driven and cloud-based threat prevention, extending beyond traditional network firewalls to encompass network, cloud, and workspace protection. Passionate about cybersecurity education, Christina also engages as a guest lecturer and helps develop cybersecurity solutions tailored for State, Local, and Education sectors.

  Daniel Heidt - People Driven Technologies VP Hybrid Cloud
Daniel Morgan Heidt is a long-time technology fanatic with a passion for customer & employee satisfaction. There is an argument that he has always been in the technology industry as he followed computing infrastructure trends from a very young age. A passion for problem-solving and collaborating with others led to helping companies with network, network security, and Y2K remediations in the late 90's; then things got interesting. Daniel spent a significant part of his career unraveling technical debt and securing mission-critical infrastructure with Higher Education and Local Government including Airports and Utilities. Daniel has a fierce desire to bring enterprise experience to all customers. Taking the time to discover the customer’s technical details, ROI, and desired business outcomes is where the journey begins. Daniel is focused on the people and sharing strategies for creating a successful Hybrid Cloud journey. Join him for a smart conversation and make a friend.

  Brian Pillar - State Of Michigan (DTMB) General Manager of IT
Brian Pillar is a General Manager of IT for the State of Michigan, Department of Technology, Management and Budget with his teams providing support for the IT portfolios for the Michigan Department of Corrections, the Michigan State Police, and the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.  
Brian is an alumnus of Michigan State University and began his professional career working for one of the university’s IT departments where he drove a major network operating system modernization project.  He then pursued opportunities at a small, but global, software development company where he led the IT Operations teams in their journey to the public cloud.  In 2018, Brian joined the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, accepting his present role in 2021.  Since joining the State of Michigan, Brian has been passionate about driving portfolio modernization towards cloud-friendly platforms and services while enabling reinvestment of IT budget savings into additional business system enhancements.

  Prathyusha Potula - State Of Michigan (DTMB) Departmental Analyst
Prathyusha Potula serves as a Departmental Analyst at the Client Service Center(CSC) for the State of Michigan (SOM) for over six years. The CSC serves as a primary point of contact for approximately 50,000 State of Michigan employees when they experience issues with computers and technology.
Prathyusha grew up in India and has earned her Master's degree In Pharmaceutical Sciences from SRM University. Before moving to the United States in 2013, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry performing Quality Assurance and Product Research and Development focusing on the life cycle of medication. Prathyusha joined the Client Service Center in December 2016 as a Performance Analyst with the Quality Assurance team. With her prior Quality Assurance experience and analytical thinking, she has worked on various tasks from Performance metrics for End User Support to Process Improvement Initiatives within the CSC. Along with her partner Tricia Enberg, she has led the HDI Support Center Recertifications over the past three years. 
In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband and 5-year-old son Ivaan. She enjoys cooking/baking, dancing, singing, and traveling which has taken a back seat since becoming a mom.

 Tricia Enberg - State Of Michigan (DTMB) Departmental Analyst
Tricia Enberg serves as a Departmental Analyst with the Client Service Center (CSC) for the State of Michigan. The CSC serves as a primary point of contact for approximately 50,000 State of Michigan (SOM) employees when they experience issues with computers and technology.
Originally from Walled Lake, MI, Tricia is a proud graduate of Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resources Management. Go Lakers!  Her career began in the retail banking industry as an Assistant Branch Manager with Flagstar Bank and JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. She came to the Client Service as a General Office Assistant contractor in 2014 to perform VPN account services with the CSC Service Desk. In 2015, she was hired as a SOM employee and has performed in a variety of roles as the Training Assistant to the Human Resources Onboarding and Offboarding analyst (2017-current). Along with her partner Prathyusha Potula, she has led the HDI Support Center Recertifications over the past three years. Tricia is heavily involved in Process Improvement and Strategic Initiatives within DTMB. 
In her free time, Tricia enjoys world traveling with her husband. She has visited over 16 countries and “can’t stop won’t stop”. She also enjoys spoiling her Bernese Mountain Dog named Griffin and spending time with her large extended family & friends.