Event Chairs

The series is chaired by top executives from our sponsor organizations. Below you’ll find brief biographies about each them.

Joe Ferrara
Associate Dean, Georgetown Public Policy Institute

Joe Ferrara is Associate Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI) and also directs GPPI's Master of Policy Management program. In 2006 he received GPPI's Leslie Whittington Award for Outstanding Faculty Member.

Joe has been at Georgetown since 2002. Before Georgetown, Joe was an independent management consultant with a number of private and public sector clients. Joe also served for 16 years with the U.S. federal government in staff and executive positions with the House of Representatives, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Defense. He was a career member of the Senior Executive Service and received numerous awards for his government service, including the Secretary of Defense Medal for Civilian Service (three times), the Vice President's "Hammer" Award for Reinventing Government (twice), and the Office of Personnel Management's Award for Excellence.

Joe entered federal service through the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship program. Before coming to Washington, Joe worked at the local government level in South Carolina. Joe has published in a variety of scholarly and practitioner-oriented journals, including American Politics Quarterly, National Security Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Joe has also been awarded public management research grants from the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

Lisa Mascolo
Managing Director – Accenture U.S. Federal Health & Public Service

As the managing director for Accenture’s U.S. Federal Health & Public Service business, Lisa has overall responsibility for Accenture’s work with the U.S. Federal government, including Civilian, Defense and the Intelligence sectors.

Prior to being appointed to her current role in September 2009, Ms. Mascolo was the U.S. country managing director for Accenture. In this role, she was responsible for our U.S. business, coordinating Accenture's activities in Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing in the United States. Prior to her role as country managing director, Ms. Mascolo served as the group chief executive of Accenture's Public Service operating group, with overall responsibility for Accenture's services to governments and other public service organizations in the defense, education, public health, human services, immigration, justice and public safety, revenue and postal sectors.

Ms. Mascolo has more than 27 years of experience with a broad range of governments and other public service organizations. Previous roles include managing director of Accenture's USA Government operating unit, with responsibility for Accenture's Federal and State & Local business. Before holding that position, Ms. Mascolo was managing partner of Accenture's U.S. Federal Government business, with responsibility for Accenture's business with U.S. Federal, civilian and defense agencies and the United States Postal Service.

In 2005 Ms. Mascolo was named one of the 25 most influential women in Washington in the Washington Business Journal's 2005 &ldlquo;Women Who Mean Business” issue. She currently serves as the President of the board of directors of the Accenture Foundation, serves on the oversight council of Accenture Development Partnerships, and is a member of the Points of Light Institute’s Corporate Service Board. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.