Deborah Diaz is Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst ADV, a Principle Consultant with Deep Water Point and a member of 3 prominent industry Board of Directors and several nonprofit Boards. Previously, she was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO).
Diaz was the senior level technology and innovation advisor providing visionary leadership to transform management of information technology capabilities and shared infrastructure services to support and enable NASA’s mission. She was responsible for revitalizing the planning, development, and operations of the IT infrastructure program created to consolidate the $4.3 billion of Agency's IT and big data services. She led the development and implementation of NASA’s cloud and technology infusion pilots and provided expert guidance on new technology investments, applications, and innovative solutions in areas such as microservices, API development, and data/visual analytics.
As an experienced technology executive, she is recognized as a top agent of change who has provided innovative business solutions and developed strong partnerships between industry and government. Diaz’s strong collaborative leadership in NASA’s Open Government Initiative, garnered a number 1 “Best in Government” vote for NASA for the last three years. She created high profile open venues such as International Space Apps Challenge, Women in Data, and Worldwide Coding Bootcamps. She instituted NASA’s Data Science Initiative, authored the first comprehensive data management strategy for NASA and used agile development and new data microservices to streamline the EVA Spacesuit Program, Doc–InABox Program, and built a strong technology community across NASA.
Prior to NASA, as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Science and Technology, she developed and implemented $1 billion of high profile, Groundbreaking scientific programs and IT infrastructure. As she served to provide new and effective ways to fight the war on terrorism, she also served as the senior advisor on IT interoperability, biometrics, geospatial, and wireless technologies. As U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s DCIO, she helped transform USPTO electronic commerce and managed complex IT initiatives to modernize business process and data exchange systems. During Diaz tenure as Deputy Associate Administrator of Citizen Services at GSA, she created the government 39;s first electronic government wide citizen portal and shepherded many public private partnerships from concept to delivery. She has provided executive leadership to the Presidents Management Council and was the pioneer creating many of the first eGovernment initiatives such as USA.gov (FirstGov) and USA Services. Diaz also helped blaze a trail to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where she used her background in international business to help forge private sector development, as an international consultant & with the Dept. of State and USAID.
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