Unveiling the Catalysts of Innovation: Incentives for Innovation Adoption in DoD

Lolita Horne co-leads DAU's Innovate to Win initiative which inspires and empowers the workforce to deepen their innovation skills and improve innovation readiness to address global opportunities, vulnerabilities, and threats. Over the last 20 years, Mrs. Horne has worked across industry, nonprofits, and now government where she is a proven Learning Systems Program Manager, dedicated DEI&A Counsel member, and innovation leader driving transformation, modernization, diversity, and excellence within government initiatives.  

Mrs. Horne is a PMP and holds a master’s in information technology from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Justin Fanelli is the Acting CTO for the Dept of Navy and the Technical Director of PEO Digital. As CTO, he is chartered to measurably improve technology-driven mission outcomes within the Dept of Navy. As TD, the PEO is chartered to expedite the performant, secure transformation of enterprise IT infrastructure within the Dept of Navy’s acquisition apparatus. He currently serves as an Advisor for Advanced Research Project Agency – Health (ARPA-H). Recent roles for Mr. Fanelli have included, Chief Data Architect for Defense Health, Technical Director for Navy Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education (MPTE), Executive Lead for Navy's Digital Transformation in 5G and DevSecOps.  With Dept of Navy roles, Mr Fanelli’s team has recently been recognized for transforming modern service delivery including multi-billion dollars in cost avoidance and leapahead impacts with the Etter Award. Within Defense Healthcare, Mr. Fanelli’s teams delivered the first one-stop data enterprise for revolutionized healthcare and research outcomes. Previously within DOD, Mr. Fanelli has served as a Service Chiefs Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Principal Engineer for Navy Enterprise Business Systems and Chief Systems Engineer for Command and Control (C2). 

Alexis Bonnell is the Chief Information Officer and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory, the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. She is responsible to develop and execute the AFRL Information Technology strategy, leading the strategic development of highly advanced next generation technologies and platforms for AFRL. Her focus includes catalyzing the discovery, development, and integration of warfighting technologies for air, space, and cyberspace forces via digital capabilities, IT infrastructure and technological innovation across the lab’s operations and culture.  She was one of the first employees of the Internet Trade Association, contributing to the early development and growth of the digital landscape. She has served in challenging environments, including warzones with the United Nations to support over $1B of critical DOD operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other operational theaters. She has contributed to dual-use technology and innovation culture across the DOD Innovation community including: AFWERX, AFRL, Kessel Run, NavalX, Marine Innovation Unit, Army Futures Command, DIU, Army Software Factory, DARPA and more. Prior to her current position, she was the Emerging Technology Evangelist at Google, driving the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, cyber security/zero trust, API First, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and others to drive efficiency and innovation within government organizations, including tackling digital transformation in defense, healthcare, education, COVID response, natural disasters, supply chain, system/process modernization, hybrid workforce and more.

Dr. Marina Theodotou serves as the Executive Director of the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) at the United States Department of Defense. As Executive Director, Dr. Theodotou serves as a principal advisor on Innovation to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In this capacity, she is responsible for exercising direction, planning, management, and coordination of the Defense Innovation Board. As such, she provides direction on critical Defense Innovation Board issues and special programs of interest to the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. As the Designated
Federal Officer Dr. Theodotou is also responsible for ensuring that the Defense Innovation Board operations are conducted according to all applicable laws and regulations.

Prior to this role, Dr. Theodotou served as organizational change expert at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) where she led cross functional teams to design, develop, and deliver innovative initiatives to empower and inspire the workforce to out-think and out-innovate the adversary including TEDxDAU, now DAU’s flagship, annual learning evening reaching over 6,000 registrants; DAU Web Events reaching over 90,000 workforce members, and Innovate to Win which enables the workforce to own their innovation journeys though self-assessment, a personal innovation readiness report, and a personalized, curated, learning pathway.