Connecting Tampa’s  
Data Community

Lisa is a global C-suite executive and experienced Corporate Board Director with 30+ years of leadership in emerging technologies, cyber security, strategy, advanced analytics, policy, corporate governance, P&L management, R&D, workforce upskilling, and cultural transformation. Her passion is in igniting insight, breaking barriers, and shaping new pathways in culture, technology, and value creation through operationalizing capabilities on a global scale.

Mr. Jim Smith, former Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command, managed support for global operations and has over 30 years of government acquisition experience. Committed to strengthening the industrial base and technology sector for national defense, he served as an infantry officer before transitioning to Army acquisition, where he led the development, procurement, and fielding of state-of-the-art technologies. After 27 years as an Army officer, he served 10 more years as a Senior Executive in Special Operations Command.

With over 10 years of experience, Pradnya is a visionary business analytics leader with an entrepreneurial mindset. Known for designing robust analytics strategies, Pradnya has successfully crafted innovative analytics strategies and led large-scale data initiatives. Her expertise spans across strategic data analytics, and customer-centric product enhancements, resulting in a tenfold increase in the value of data products.

Antra, with over 18 years of IT experience, is an Associate Director of Software Development at Verizon, focusing on big data platforms for Network Assurance and RAN Engineering. She specializes in technology innovation, cloud strategies, and scalable solutions. Antra holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and teaches cloud technologies at Hillsborough Community College. She chairs the Florida West Coast Computer Society, partners with TMForum to set telecom industry standards, and has published her research on cloud technologies in IEEE Open Access Journal. A passionate STEM advocate, Antra evaluates Computer Science programs globally as an ABET Program Evaluator.

Rocia Vitalle is the CEO of Improving Aviation, a company delivering AI-driven solutions for wildfire management and UAS management operations. With over 15 years of experience in aerospace and civil engineering, Rocio leads the development of WindTL and SkyTL, two cutting-edge platforms that integrate real-time data and AI to address critical challenges for the Department of Defense and emergency responders.

PhD Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, USF Director, Advancing Machine and Human Reasoning Lab

John Licato is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at USF, Director of the USF Advancing Machine and Human Reasoning (AMHR) Lab, and founder of startup Actualization AI. He designed and teaches the natural language processing course (the field that created ChatGPT) at USF, and his lab’s mission is to not only make AI smarter, but to use those advances to make people reason better as well. His research expertise lies in AI, NLP, human reasoning, cognitive modeling, and legal/regulatory reasoning.

Daniella Diaz is the VP of Revenue and Marketing at Lumina AI, where she helps advance Random Contrast Learning (RCL), a novel algorithm that makes AI modeling faster, more accurate, and accessible on CPU hardware. She also co-founded High Tech Connect, Tampa Bay’s largest tech network with over 3,000 professionals, driving growth and collaboration in the local tech community.

Jared Lander is Chief Data Scientist of Lander Analytics, the Organizer of the New York Open Statistical Programming Meetup and the New York R and Government & Public Sector R Conferences, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, and a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University. Jared oversees the long-term direction of the company and researches the best strategy, models and algorithms for modern data needs. He specializes in data management, multilevel models, machine learning, generalized linear models, visualization and statistical computing.

Alex Merced is a senior technical evangelist at Dremio with experience as a developer and instructor. His professional journey includes roles at GenEd Systems, Crossfield Digital, CampusGuard, and General Assembly. He co-authored "Apache Iceberg: The Definitive Guide" published by O'Reilly and has spoken at notable events such as Data Day Texas and Data Council. Alex is passionate about technology, sharing his expertise through blogs, videos, podcasts like Datanation and Web Dev 101, and contributions to the JavaScript and Python communities with libraries like SencilloDB and CoquitoJS.

Timothy Toohill is the co-founder and CTO at Certus Core. With over 20 years of experience in software engineering, he has delivered innovative solutions in data science and data engineering for both government and commercial clients. He also has a keen interest in exploring how data-driven strategies and algorithms can optimize financial markets. Timothy holds degrees in computer science and oversees the development of Certus Core’s semantic knowledge graph platform.

Joe Blankenship is a co-founder and Chief Data Officer at Certus Core. With experience in electronic engineering, geospatial data science, and financial economics, he oversees Certus Core's data operations and ontology engineering efforts for their sKG platform. Joe is an avid community organizer and open source contributor, leading the Tampa Bay Data Engineering and Python groups and founding several other tech organizations in Florida and Kentucky.

Casey Johnson is the VP of Business Development at Certus Core. He is a 20 year veteran of the Navy, with experience across Special Operations and Navy intelligence, linguistics and cryptology. He has led sales and client success teams across a multitude of startups, in various stages, to include Palantir, Dataminr & Govini. He served as Digital Services Expert at Defense Digital Service (DDS), directly supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) where he assisted and led programs in the technical transformation of the Department of Defense.