2026 Homeland Security Summit | Potomac Officers Club
RegisterWHAT
The Department of Homeland Security is facing an increasingly complex threat environment, where nation-state-backed threat actors utilize emerging technologies to disrupt peace. To strengthen national security, the Trump administration has prioritized record investments in homeland defense, providing DHS and its components with the resources needed to counter evolving digital and physical threats.
At the 2026 Homeland Security Summit, decision-makers from across DHS and innovators from industry will take the stage to discuss how the government can leverage data and advanced technologies to safeguard the nation’s borders and critical infrastructure.
Panels will analyze key DHS initiatives, including utilizing AI for investigative intelligence, deploying edge capabilities for border defense, building federated data fabrics for advanced analytics and adopting counter-UAS to defeat weaponized drone use. The summit will also cover the role of public-private partnerships to strengthen security ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
Keynote Speakers
Sonny Bhagowalia
Chief Information Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information and Technology
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Paul Courtney (Pending Approval)
Chief Procurement Officer
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Sean M. Curran
Director
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
Troy Edgar
Deputy Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Admiral Kevin E. Lunday
Commandant
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Bobby Thompson
Acting Associate Director for Threat Hunting
U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Speakers
Yusuf Abdul-Salaam
CEO
Xpect Solutions
Dave Abel
CEO
Protora
Jay Alalasundaram
Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC), Software Applications and Services (SAS)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Samantha Anderson
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy, Office of Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Jeremy Blaney
SVP of Customer Success
Exiger
CAPT Chad R. Brick
Inaugural Chief, CG-RAPTOR
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Chris Casey
Research & Development Director
T-Mobile
Nikki Collier
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Information Resources Management and Chief Information Officer
U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)
Anthony C. Crane
Executive Director, C-UAS Defense Capability Group
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Dr. John Dargan
Executive Director, Requirements, Engineering and Acquisition, Science and Technology Directorate
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Baibhav "BoBo" Devkota
Executive Director, Border Enforcement and Management Systems Directorate
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Devin Dickerson
Principal Technologist
MongoDB
Casey Durst
Executive Assistant Commissioner, Operations Support
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Terry Emmert
SVP, Strategy
Xcelerate Solutions
Karen Evans
Director, DHS Waste, Fraud and Abuse Task Force
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Shawn Fallah
Chief - Supervisory Criminal Investigator
Homeland Security Investigations
Kurt Farber
Program Management, Sr. Director
SAIC
April Fordyce
Senior Director
Slalom
David Getman
Senior Director, Product Management
Corelight
Erik Grant
Vice President, Mission Acceleration Team, Electronic Warfare Line of Business
CACI
Daryle Hernandez
Director, Interagency Security Committee
U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Clarence Hinton
Chief Strategy & Corporate Development Officer
Everfox
Russ Hott
Assistant Director, ERO - Public Safety Partnership Division
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
David J. Kaufman
Vice President and Director, Safety and Security
CNA
Tim Kocher
Deputy Assistant Secretary for CIRR, Critical Infrastructure
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Bob Kolasky
SVP, Critical Infrastructure
Exiger
Chris Kraft
CIO
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
Cathy Lanier
SVP, Chief Security Officer
NFL
Kris Levin-Snow
AVP, DHS
AT&T
Christopher Ling
CEO
Ericsson Federal
Adam Luke
Principal Deputy Under Secretary, Office of Intelligence and Analysis
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Anita Lynn
Principal, Homeland Security Sector
ITC Federal
Sunil Madhugiri
Chief Technology Officer
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Eric McLoughlin
Assistant Director for Cyber and Operational Technology
Homeland Security Investigations
Richard Miller
Chief Growth Officer
Nokia Federal Solutions
Phil Miller
Senior Vice President
Procentrix
Kristen Nero
National Security Group Lead
Databricks
Charles O'Brien
Senior Vice President, Civil Solutions
SOSi
Opeyemi Oshinnaiye
Chief Technologist
ITC Federal
Gary Owen
Associate Administrator
Drug Enforcement Administration
Christine Palmer
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Citizen Security and Public Services Sector
Peraton
Corey A. Price
President | Former Executive Associate Director, ICE - Enforcement and Removal Operations
Buckeye Solutions, LLC
Mary Rupert
C-UAS Technical Manager
LMI
Diane Sabatino
Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner, OFO, CBP
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Nael Samha (Pending Approval)
Executive Director, Targeting and Analysis Systems Program Directorate
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Johnnie Sharp
Technical Executive Director
MANTECH
Ruynard Singleton
Executive Director, PMO Directorate
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Kern Smith
VP of Global Presales
Zimperium
Christen Smith
Chief Revenue Officer and President, Homeland Security & Civilian Sector
LMI
Randy Soper
Senior Director, Federal Data & AI Lead
Slalom
Scott St. Pierre
Assistant Commandant and Program Executive Officer for C5I (CG-C5I) and Chief Information Officer
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Adam Stahl
Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Administrator
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Molly Strausbaugh
Senior Director, Scientific Integrity, CAS
CAS
Rob Thorne
Deputy Chief Information Officer
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Jerry Tipton
Executive Director, Integrated Security Technologies and Programs
SAIC
Arun Vemury
Program Manager, People Screening, Science and Technology Directorate
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Lisa Walbert
CIO
Drug Enforcement Administration
Steven Willoughby
Executive Director, PEO UAS/C-UAS
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Dr. Lauren Wind
Deputy CTO
U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
David Wiseman
Director of Business Development
Blackberry
Michelle Zebrowski
Chief Data Officer
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Agenda
| 7:00am | 8:00am | Networking Reception |
| 8:00am | 8:10am | Welcome & Opening Remarks |
| 8:10am | 8:40am | Opening Keynote: Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar & Christen Smith (Introducer) |
| 8:40am | 9:05am | Morning Keynote: Adm. Kevin Lunday & Anita Lynn (Introducer) |
| 9:05am | 9:30am | Morning Keynote: Bobby Thompson & April Fordyce (Introducer) |
| 9:30am | 10:00am | Networking Break |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel A: Safeguarding the Homeland: Coordination for Counter-UAS Operations- Mary Rupert (Moderator), Christopher Ling (Panelist), Cathy Lanier (Panelist), Tony Crane (Panelist), Steven Willoughby (Panelist) |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel B: Connecting the Dots: AI, Entity Resolution/Link Analysis, and the Future of Investigative Intelligence - Opeyemi Oshinnaiye (Moderator), Baibhav "BoBo" Devkota (Panelist), Devin Dickerson (Panelist), Chris Kraft (Panelist), Shawn Fallah (Panelist) |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel C: One Mission, Many Components: Building a Federated DHS Data and Identity Fabric- Randy Soper (Moderator), Kristen Nero (Panelist), David Getman (Panelist), Adam Luke (Panelist), Dr. Lauren Wind (Panelist),Michelle Zebrowski (Panelist) |
| 11:00am | 11:10am | Break |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel A: Modernizing the Homeland Security Mission: Edge Capabilities for the Border and National Events- Kris Levin-Snow (Moderator), Ruynard Singleton (Panelist), Richard Miller (Panelists), Scott St. Pierre (Panelist) |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel B: Mission Ready: Building Trust Through Technology Validation- Jerry Tipton (Moderator), Capt. Chad R. Brick (Panelist), Jay Alalasundaram (Panelist), Kern Smith (Panelist), Dr. John Dargan (Panelist), Arun Vemury (Panelist) |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel C: Mission Ready: The Next Generation of Homeland Security Operations- Phil Miller (Moderator),Molly Strausbaugh (Panelist), Rob Thorne (Panelist), Eric McLoughlin (Panelist), Sunil Madhugiri (Panelist) |
| 12:00pm | 1:30pm | Networking Lunch |
| 12:25pm | 1:15pm | Lunch Panel: Code and Drones: DHS's Parallel Fights to Build Cyber Talent and Field Unmanned Systems- Dave Abel (Moderator), Yusuf Abdul-Salaam (Panelist), Erik Grant (Panelist), David Wiseman (Panelist), Clarence Hinton (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel A: Our Soil, Our Rules: Public-Private Collaboration on Security in Lead-Up to LA28- Chris Casey (Moderator), Johnnie Sharp (Panelist), Tim Kocher (Panelist), Jeremy Blaney (Panelist), Diane Sabatino (Panelist), Adam Stahl (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel B: Protecting the Homeland from Complex Security Threats- Charles O'Brien (Moderator), Corey A. Price (Panelist), Russell Hott (Panelist), Gary Owen (Panelist), Casey Durst (Panelist), Nael Samha (Pending Approval), Terry Emmert (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel C: Mission Confidence-Building Trust in Homeland Security Technologies- Bob Kolasky (Moderator), Christine Palmer (Panelist), David J. Kaufman (Panelist), Daryle Hernandez (Panelist), Lisa Walbert (Panelist), Karen Evans (Panelist), Dr.Nikki Collier (Panelist) |
| 2:30pm | 2:50pm | Networking Break |
| 2:50pm | 3:15pm | Afternoon Keynote: Director Sean Curran & Phil Miller (Introducer) |
| 3:15pm | 3:40pm | Mid-Afternoon Keynote: Paul Courtney (Pending Approval) |
| 3:40pm | 4:05pm | Closing Keynote: Sonny Bhagowalia & Kurt Farber (Introducer) |
| 4:05pm | 4:15pm | Closing Remarks |
