In this episode of The Buzz with ACT-IAC, we are in conversation with Ratima Kataria, VP of Health and IT Strategy at ICF. We talk about her career journey from satellite communications and semiconductors into federal health, including serving on the government side during COVID-19, and how high-stakes environments shaped her leadership values. Kataria explains ICF’s work helping federal agencies modernize at the intersection of enterprise modernization, data strategy, and responsible AI adoption amid fragmented data, legacy platforms, and demand for AI-enabled services. She describes a “think big, start small” approach focused on mission-aligned tech strategy, data governance and interoperability, platform consolidation, and scaling trusted AI use cases.

Become a Member | 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 this episode we feature ACT-IAC’s Acquisition and Innovation Forum's keynote fireside chat with Ann Marie Johnson and OMB/OFPP’s Mathew Blum on the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) to restore common sense, put mission first, and shift from compliance to empowered business judgment. Blum explains the executive order’s call for a simpler, clearer FAR structured for speed and describes streamlining the FAR to statutory roots, including deviations that reduced the FAR by about 25%. They discuss change management, learning resources, and mission measures of success, speed, reduced cost, and competition, including small business participation, and how AI could improve information access, accelerate tasks, lower costs, and help buyers find existing contract vehicles.

Become a Member | 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 this episode we feature ACT-IAC’s Acquisition and Innovation Forum's
Lunch & Keynote Fireside Chat between Geoff Edwards and NASA Financial Systems Office Director Chi Okonkwo, who shares her career path from consulting to OPM modernization and then NASA. Okonkwo explains how NASA finance and acquisitions are modernizing legacy systems together, shifting the CFO role from retrospective reporting toward real-time analytics and performance insights, and pursuing responsible AI for future financial, budgeting, and risk needs, including fraud, waste, and abuse detection. She reflects on major NASA transformations, including the post-shuttle workforce realignment, commercialization partnerships, and implementing SAP with sustained clean audit opinions. Okonkwo emphasizes iterative modernization, governance, resilience, and leadership transparency, and advises prioritizing relationships and collaboration, including through ACT-IAC programs.

Become a Member | 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)

At an ACT-IAC panel on moving from fragmented to frictionless, unified customer experiences, SSA’s Michelle Liu explains SSA’s Service Index, a framework and catalog mapping services across online, phone/IVR, and in-person channels to customer journeys, data, and processes to identify dead ends, gaps, and priorities. She illustrates friction with an SSI address-change journey that fails online and in IVR, forcing repeat intent/authentication and eventual field-office completion, and shows how the index supports channel parity, policy review (e.g., questioning unnecessary in-person SSI return-to-U.S. requirements), call routing, content alignment, and LLM-based call categorization (e.g., why customers call for tasks available online).

Become a Member | 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)

Health Innovation Summit ICYMI episode, features a panel on Rural Health Transformation, moderated by Avery Muse, following a DocuSign/Microsoft “Medicare Connect” demo showing verified digital ID, secure record access, consent signing, appointments, claims status, and transportation support. Panelists from HHS, CMS, cybersecurity, and DocuSign discuss rural challenges: 20% of the U.S. is rural, staffing can be 60% or less, 180+ rural hospital closures since 2010, and one-third of rural patients drive 25+ miles for care, with rural areas leading in chronic disease. They explain the $50B CMS-managed program, state applications and allocations, CMS oversight via a PMO, spending guardrails across 11 categories, and clawback authority.

Become a Member | 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)

The episode features historian and leadership educator Jared Peatman discussing his book A Hell of a Regiment, a 10+ year research project on the 20th Maine and its pivotal role at Gettysburg as a story of ordinary civilians rapidly becoming an effective unit under national stakes. Peatman explains his lifelong interest in Civil War history, why the 20th Maine’s rank-and-file stories matter, and how training under West Point–trained Adelbert Ames, motivation to build a reputation back home, and trust enabled performance. He highlights Joshua Chamberlain’s transferable skills, communication, empathy, and lifelong learning, along with his handling of the Second Maine mutineers, persuading most to reengage and providing crucial manpower at Gettysburg. The conversation covers Little Round Top’s tactical significance, the bayonet charge decision under time pressure, and the veterans’ postwar hardships, memory-making, and commemoration. Peatman also promotes a June 3rd ACT-IAC “Small Bites” event tied to the book release.

A Hell of a Regiment: To Gettysburg and Beyond with the Twentieth Maine | ACT-IAC

Become a Member | 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)

ACT-IAC’s 2026 Health Innovation Summit featured a panel on mission-critical AI decision-making across CMS, FDA, and NCI. Panelists described AI’s growing day-to-day role, including secure NIH-wide tools, productivity gains (reported time savings), and reducing administrative friction like performance reviews, emphasizing impact occurs when AI is embedded in workflows with “human in the lead.” The session closed with vendor guidance: show products via video, be future-focused, lead with data-sharing and tool strengths, and bring a “total package.”

Become a Member | 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)

Proud to have Gary Washington on today's show. He is a former Air Force member, longtime federal IT leader, and former USDA CIO (eight years), now Chief Strategy Officer at ACT-IAC. Washington recounts his career across agencies including Treasury, HHS, FDA, OMB, and USDA, and explains how military discipline shaped his emphasis on documented plans, accountability, and trust. He discusses common resistance to change in large organizations, USDA’s shift from decentralization toward centralization, and implementing the White House-driven IT Modernization Centers of Excellence through inclusive, business-driven governance, performance measurement, workforce education, RPA training, and results such as deactivating 37 data centers and consolidating networks and end-user support.

Become a Member | 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)