Justin Wade is the new chair of ACT-IAC Voyagers’ 2027 Professional Development Program and CTO of the Interior Business Center at the U.S. Department of the Interior. We talk about why this is a critical moment to develop agile leaders amid rapid technology shifts and increased pressure for efficiency. Wade shares his lifelong path in IT, from learning programming in first grade, studying computer science at CU Denver, early leadership as a Unix system administrator, entrepreneurial work with venture capital-backed startups, and then federal roles including Associate CIO for the Office of the Secretary, highlighting lessons in resilience, balancing technical depth with business strategy, and leading through uncertainty.

Agile Product Discovery Course | ACT-IAC

Summary - A Hole in One with ACT-IAC

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.
Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)

In case you missed it, this is ACT-IAC’s Emerging Tech and Innovation conference keynote remarks from NASA Johnson Space Center CIO Dr. Troy LeBlanc. He outlines how 65 years of human spaceflight have produced an explosion of imagery and mission data, from priceless Apollo film archives to near real-time ISS downlinks and millions of photos per expedition. He explains the need to organize, secure, and rapidly process data for confident, safe decisions, while preserving public trust as AI makes altered images harder to detect. LeBlanc describes NASA’s approach to image provenance through policy and C2PA standards, plus AI to accelerate cataloging, metadata tagging, and near real-time downlink analysis to flag issues or restrictions.

Agile Product Discovery Course | ACT-IAC

Summary - A Hole in One with ACT-IAC

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.
Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)

A fireside chat from ACT-IAC’s Emerging Tech and Innovation Conference with Seval Oz, senior advisor (and nominee for assistant secretary) in USDOT’s Office of Research and Technology, and Amy McKenna of SAIC. Oz describes how DOT migrated to Google-based workspace IT and uses large language models to cut RFI analysis from six weeks to 24–48 hours. She explains the “Interstate 2.0” corridors initiative, where 23 states are forming adjoining-state teams to enable data interoperability across major routes (including I-10 and I-35) and prioritize a first use case of work zones and lane closures, convening states, industry, and academia.

Agile Product Discovery Course | ACT-IAC

Summary - A Hole in One with ACT-IAC

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.
Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)