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Keeping IT Brief
Keeping IT Brief is FORUM’s fast, focused podcast delivering essential insights on government technology, federal modernization, and the evolving GovCon landscape. Each short episode features conversations with industry leaders, government executives, and innovators who are driving mission success through new strategies, emerging technologies, and forward-thinking approaches to public sector IT.
Designed for busy federal and industry professionals, Keeping IT Brief gets straight to what matters—key trends, practical takeaways, and expert perspectives on cybersecurity, digital transformation, AI adoption, cloud advancements, and the policies shaping federal technology priorities. Instead of long discussions, the podcast provides concise, high-value briefings that help listeners stay informed and ready for what’s next.
Whether you support federal programs, lead technology initiatives, work in business development, or simply want to keep pace with the rapid changes across government IT, Keeping IT Brief delivers the insights you need in a format that fits your schedule. Guests include senior government officials, CIOs, CTOs, acquisition experts, solution architects, and strategic voices from across the public and private sectors.
About the Host:
Mary Ann Brown hosts Keeping IT Brief and brings extensive experience in connecting government and industry across technology, policy, and mission-driven initiatives. As Senior Director of Operations at FORUM, she supports collaboration through strategic events, leadership programs, and platforms that elevate critical conversations in the federal space.
Stay informed in minutes. Subscribe to Keeping IT Brief for timely insights that help you understand federal IT trends and anticipate opportunities across the government technology community.
Keeping IT Brief
Understanding IT Modernization Initiatives with Rita Breen
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) announced the latest round of CX investments, and as part of the current funding round, the VA has been awarded $7.4 million to help streamline veterans’ access to health care, disability benefits, and education by digitizing forms.
Today, we speak with Rita Breen of NGS on how IT modernization initiatives such as the digitization of government forms can drastically improve CX and EX at federal health agencies. However, to ensure such initiatives are successful and deliver maximum value for users, it’s imperative to utilize human-centered design (HCD) principles.
Rita Breen, Agile and Human-Centered Design Practices Director at National Government Services, an Elevance Health Company
In her current position as the Agile and Human Centered Design Practices Director at National Government Services, Rita’s primary goal is to solve mission-critical challenges for federal health customers. She has nearly two decades of project management (PM) experience and has been a part of the National Government Services team since 2018. Rita supports the technical project management and human-centered design teams that drive a customer-centered approach to federal health solutions. She and her team focus on solving major pain points while bolstering quality and improving customer experiences. Rita is truly passionate about identifying the key needs of citizens, setting actionable metrics and striving to meet them with empathy and understanding.
National Government Services
For more than 50 years, National Government Services has been empowering federal healthcare agencies to improve lives and communities and deliver care to millions of Americans through outcome-driven innovation. The company helps bridge the technology gap to make IT an enabler of healthcare, not an obstacle to operations. Its core business areas include digital health, providing federal IT solutions and services for healthcare, and business process solutions. This includes its role as a Medicare contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Keeping IT Brief with Mary Ann Brown features quick, insightful conversations with government and industry leaders on federal IT, cybersecurity, AI, and emerging technologies shaping the future of government operations.
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