IMAGINE 2022 Conference: For education, state, and local government leaders

Kim Majerus leads US state and local government and education at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Her organization includes EdTech and GovTech independent software vendors (ISVs), solution and vertical strategy leaders who focus on health and human services, justice and public safety, transportation, and the Internet of Things (IoT) for state and local government.

Prior to joining AWS, Kim spent 16 years at Cisco Systems, most recently as vice president of Cisco Public Sector for the US state, local, and education market. Prior to moving to public sector, Kim held positions in engineering, service provider sales, partner channels, global channels, and as general manager for Ireland.

Kim dedicates much of her time to mentoring young women and promoting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) education in her local community. She has received many honors, including State Scoop’s 2021 Top 50 Industry Leader award, State Top 50 Women in Technology, YWCA Silicon Valley leaders, and Top 50 Business Leaders in Ireland.

Denny Heck was elected Washington State’s 17th Lieutenant Governor in November 2020. He had previously been elected to serve five terms in the State House of Representatives and was selected by his colleagues to be House Majority Leader. Additionally, Lieutenant Governor Heck grew several small businesses in Washington state, co-founded TVW, the nation’s preeminent statewide public affairs network, and served as the first United States Representative from Washington’s 10th Congressional District.

As Lieutenant Governor, he is the President of the Washington State Senate and serves as chair of both the Senate Rules Committee and the Legislative committee on Economic Development and International Relations. In addition, Lieutenant Governor Heck serves as acting-Governor whenever Governor Inslee is out of the state, and runs his own small agency whose key issues include economic development, housing, and international relations. Lieutenant Governor Heck currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Export Import Bank of the United States and is a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Sarah Toms is the cofounder and executive director of Wharton Interactive, an initiative at the Wharton School to radically transform and democratize education. She is a serious games expert and demonstrates thought leadership in the education technology field fuel by a passion to find and develop innovative ways to make every learning environment active, engaging, more meaningful, and learner centric.

Sarah and her team have built the award winning Alternate Reality Courseware platform, as well as the most innovative catalog of games-based courses on the planet. She has spent more than twenty years as a leader in the technology sphere, and was an entrepreneur for over a decade, founding companies that built global CRM, product development, productivity management, and financial systems. In addition, Sarah is coauthor of The Customer Centricity Playbook, the Digital Book Awards 2019 Best Business Book.

Jeff Selingo has written about higher education for more than two decades and is a New York Times bestselling author of three books. His latest book, Who Gets In & Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, was published in September 2020 and was named among the 100 Notable Books of the year by the New York Times. A regular contributor to The Atlantic, Jeff is a special advisor for innovation and professor of practice at Arizona State University. He also co-hosts the podcast, FutureU. He lives in Washington, DC with his family.

Mike Hofherr leads the worldwide public sector education business development and strategy team at Amazon Web Services (AWS). His team works with K12, academic medical centers (AMCs), research, and higher education organizations and institutions.

As the former vice president and chief information officer (CIO) at The Ohio State University, Mike led three departments: the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), the Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE), and Enterprise Security (ES). His responsibilities included all forms of the university's distance education and eLearning efforts, including online degree offerings, credit courses, non-credit certificates, and hybrid offerings.

In addition to these projects, Hofherr served as vice chair of Ohio State’s COVID-19 response transition task force, responsible for the transition to online learning in spring 2020 and the safe and healthy return to campus for students in fall 2020.